Tips to finding meaningful employment

JENNIFER SPICER

Today’s students are finding it more competitive than ever to find meaningful employment due to Canada’s relatively high unemployment rate. However, the University of Saskatchewan provides students with some useful resources to help you stand out in today’s job market.

It’s that time of the year again. Time to start checking job listings, and polishing up your old résumé, because summer is coming. If you’re looking for meaningful employment like me, you may be finding yourself at a loss.   

According to Statistics Canada, the rate of unemployment has increased to 7.3 per cent in Canada and 5.9 per cent in Saskatchewan as of February 2016.  These statistics are quite demoralizing, especially to students who chose to attend university in hopes of obtaining meaningful employment once they graduate. 

As a student who is planning on graduating in the spring, I know all too well the pressures of finding rewarding employment. Heck, my last few weeks have been spent constantly refreshing the different job search websites I have bookmarked on my phone, in hopes of finding something that interests me.

Though the process of finding positions to apply for is the main battle when searching for employment, the university provides students with many resources that may better arm them in today’s job market. 

One of the greatest opportunities provided to students by the university is the ability to network.  The U of S defines networking as, “the process of establishing contacts for the purpose of gathering information, seeking advice and opening doors to new opportunities.”

You can network any time of the year. Whether it’s at the career fair put on at the beginning of every school year, the different events hosted by each department, or even just in the classes you take throughout the year, each provides the opportunity to make contacts and learn about future career options.    

Another resource is the U of S Student Employment and Career Centre. The Career Centre provides students with free information on career planning and writing cover letters and résumés, as well as tips on creating a professional LinkedIn page.

They also provide the opportunity to meet with a career coach to discuss your options or to stage a mock interview, which offers students great feedback that can help you discover your strengths and areas that are in need of improvement. These resources can help you feel confident when applying for jobs and may make you stand out to certain employers.

When it comes to applying for jobs, students.usask.ca/jobs provides students with a list of websites to choose from. Some of the choices available focus on different areas of interest, such as volunteer positions and international jobs.  Alongside these more specific job sites, the page also lists websites that are well recognized, such as saskjobs.ca and saskatoonjobshop.ca.        

The job market can be tough, but you’ve already taken the first step in helping yourself find meaningful employment. By attending university and working towards a degree, you have made yourself a desirable candidate to most employers. 

Statistics Canada stated that 82 per cent of those with a university degree were employed in 2009. They also mention that almost one in four of those who had a university degree were in the top 10 per cent of income earners in 2010. Both statistics suggest a positive future for university students.    

When perusing the different job search sites, it is clear that a degree will help you in your fight to obtain meaningful employment, but if the opportunity has not yet presented itself, the resources provided to you by the U of S will assist in helping you find something to tide you over until it does. 

The quest to finding meaningful employment is a difficult one, and though you may be armed with a great cover letter, résumé and self-confidence, sometimes the greatest weapon is the hardest to wield — plain old patience.

In defense of the shitty summer job

EMILY KLATT

Staff Writer

Many students are currently searching for a summer job to fill both their time and their wallets. Unfortunately, not everyone ends up with a prestigious job with high pay and a title. Sometimes, you’re stuck just working a shitty, boring job. It just might be the best experience of your life.

For the first time in my life, I’ve found myself in the position of scrambling to find a summer job. In years prior, I’d always reached the end of the school year with either summer employment already secured or no financial reason to need a job. Through a combination of broke student life and unforeseen circumstances, I’m joining the great summer job hunt of 2016 at the ripe old age of 20.

Jobs that I’ve had in the past haven’t exactly been your typical student jobs. I taught private violin lessons in high school. I co-ordinated children’s programs at the public library. I wrote for the Sheaf.

Meanwhile, I’ve never waited tables, scrubbed toilets or dealt with annoying customers at the end of an eight-hour shift. The honest — and kind of shitty — truth is that I always sort of considered those sorts of jobs to be beneath me.

Now that I’m somewhat desperate to find summer employment, I realize how awful that line of thinking was. There’s no such thing a job that’s “beneath you.” All jobs are valuable and useful or else they wouldn’t exist. Also, no person is too good for any kind of job — that would imply that some people are better than others, which we know isn’t true.

There’s nothing wrong with having a “shitty” summer job — if anything, it might be a good experience. This is especially true for those of us that haven’t had that experience yet.

I’ve responded to all kinds of help wanted ads. That includes your standard serving and retail jobs, but there have also been some weirder ones. I’ve applied to be the receptionist at a tattoo parlour. I dropped off a résumé at a store that sells vintage clothes and funny little terrariums. I’ve even contemplated trying my hand at beekeeping.

Although I haven’t found a job yet, it’s been very educational to actually work on my résumé and put myself out there. Every single job interview that I do, I gain skills like communication and self-confidence.

When I eventually — hopefully — do get hired to work somewhere, I’m sure that I’ll learn a lot from that job, shitty or not. Working in the service industry teaches you the value of kindness and the value of hard work. There’s nothing worse than interacting with a rude customer, so I bet you come to appreciate the nice ones that much more.

A boring job can teach you how to make the best of a crappy situation. Sure, working the front desk at a trucking company might be kind of dull, but you’ll get really good at filing. You’ll figure out just how to make the perfect cup of office coffee. Maybe you’ll even meet your best friends.

Any job that’s less than ideal can give university students a lesson in humbleness. We like to think that we know how everything works and that we know exactly what to do, but the opposite of that is actually true. We’re so young. We don’t know anything. Sometimes, you just have to shut up, learn and scrub a damn toilet in order to learn how reality actually exists around you.

So here’s to the “shitty” summer job: may we have them, learn from them and learn to love them.

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Image: Lesia Karalash