career advice

make a LinkedIn profile before your resume

Why You Should Make a LinkedIn Profile Before Your Resume

Everyone who has applied for a job—or even started the application process—knows that every company asks for your resume. Resumes are important; they have all the information about you and your work experience that a potential employer needs to know. But although resumes are a very important part of applying for jobs and internships, you shouldn’t try to create one without first filling out your LinkedIn profile. Here’s why.Read More »Why You Should Make a LinkedIn Profile Before Your Resume

studying abroad is great for your future career

Why Studying Abroad Is Great for Your Future Career

If I’m being honest, classroom time was one of the least valuable experiences I had while studying abroad.

I know, I know; that’s a terrible thing to say, but it’s true: It’s the experiences that take you outside the classroom that make studying abroad…well, studying abroad. You can take classes anywhere in the world, but it’s going out and exploring new place that you’re in that makes studying abroad such a rewarding experience.

But that also means that the experiences you have outside the classroom while you’re studying abroad are hard to quantify. It’s easy to show how your internship or classes line up with specific skills employers are looking for, such as proofreading, implementing a nutrition plan or entering data into a spreadsheet. Figuring out how to include study abroad on your resume is harder because the skills you develop while studying abroad are soft skills.Read More »Why Studying Abroad Is Great for Your Future Career

include study abroad on your resume

How to Include Study Abroad on Your Resume and Use It in Interviews

Studying abroad is a great way to develop soft skills that employers are looking for in entry-level candidates, such as adaptability, oral communication, and problem-solving. Although you improve these skills by studying and traveling abroad, it’s hard to know exactly how to include them on your resume or how to talk about them in job interviews.

You don’t want to oversell your experience and act like studying abroad was more important than any internships or previous work experience you’ve had. But you also don’t want to underplay the significance of your experience, because studying abroad does make you a more desirable job candidate and a better employee.  Here’s how to include study abroad on your resume and talk about it with potential employers.Read More »How to Include Study Abroad on Your Resume and Use It in Interviews

career advice column

Why I’m Starting a Career Advice Column for My Alma Mater’s Campus Newspaper

Now that I’ve graduated from Concordia and left my two-year run as an editor of its campus newspaper, The Sower, I’m going to end up writing more for it as an alumna than I ever did as a student worker.

I will write a twice-monthly career advice column for Concordia students. It’s an idea I toyed with while I was managing editor of The Sower last year—I wanted to share my strategies and stories of how I built up my resume and prepared to jump headfirst into a career postgraduation. But last year was crazy for me, mostly because I was doing too much to prepare for my career instead of enjoying my last year of college. I didn’t utilize my opportunity to write for The Sower beyond a heartfelt explanation of why The Sower exists and a few Buzzfeed-esque listicles.Read More »Why I’m Starting a Career Advice Column for My Alma Mater’s Campus Newspaper