Yorkville University’s Career Services team recently launched a brand-new job board aimed at connecting students with work opportunities in their fields of study.
“Despite the chaotic world we’re living in, full of uncertainty and changes day-by-day, hour-by-hour, there are still lots of jobs out there,” said Linda Folster, Yorkville’s Director of Career Services.
“And people are getting jobs – great jobs.”
The new job board, which first went live in November, hosts numerous opportunities sourced by Folster’s team of Career Advisors from their many networks.
“Sometimes they come from people we know, and sometimes it’s employers who choose Yorkville as a place to do a targeted posting of their position, because they know we have a program that mirrors what their opportunity is all about,” Folster explained.
While the job board is still fairly new, Folster said it’s growing it all the time – which is why she urges all Yorkville job seekers to visit the site often in order to be among the first to access new job opportunities as they go live.
The job board is housed on Yorkville’s Career Services Portal, which itself features a plethora of resources and tools to help students explore their career options, search for a job, and/or manage their careers.
Launched in August 2021, the portal project was a large undertaking that involved the creation of core content centred around career exploration, resume and cover letter writing, interview skills, managing your online presence, and building professional relationships, among others.
“There are also corresponding resources students can use to read at a deeper level, and tools they can use to actually apply that learning to their own particular situation,” Folster said of the portal, which she played an instrumental role in bringing to life.
Exploring Career Options
Under the Exploring Career Options heading, for instance, Yorkville’s Career Services team has curated a range of resources for students on topics such as:
- Understanding and Exploring the Labour Market
- Exploring Options Using the Career Wheel
- Informational Interviews
- Connecting with Employers
- Careers in Your Field
“As students near graduation, many start to get nervous because they don’t know what job they want to target after graduation,” Folster explained.
“Using a combination of the Career Portal and a guided session with a Career Advisor, we can help them to learn how to explore the labour market, so that they can see the wide range of entry-level opportunities possible in their field of study.”
Finding a Job
Yorkville’s Career Portal also offers a “combination of amazing resources and tools” for students both preparing to enter the job market and those actively seeking work within it.
For those Preparing for Work, there are tip sheets outlining best practices for resumes and cover letters, employer expectations, common interview questions, behavioural interview questions, types of interviews, references, online job searches, and thank-you emails.
For students who have progressed beyond the prep stages and are now engaged in actively Finding Work, the Career Services portal offers insight into online application systems, online job searches, connecting with employers, employment scams, informational interviews, and social media.
“We have recorded webinars for all of these topics on the career portal: from resumes, to networking, to interviews and job searching during COVID-19,” Folster said.
“We also help students understand things they should be aware of in terms of online job searching – and why it’s actually not a very effective way to find work.”
Managing Your Career
Yorkville’s Career Services portal also offers resources for those students who may already be settled into a steady career they’d like to see themselves advance in.
Under the Managing Your Career banner, students will find information on plateauing, lifelong learning, career engagement, and career management.
Webinars
In addition to the extensive list of recorded webinars housed on the Career Services portal, Folster’s team of Career Advisors is also planning to host a series of three live webinars this Winter Term:
Career Services Presents: Managing Your Online Job Search
Click HERE to watch
Career Services Presents: Mentorship
Date: Wednesday, March 9
Time: 1 p.m. (EST)
Career Services Presents: Writing a Resume When You Lack Experience
Date: Wednesday, April 27
Time: 1 p.m. (EST)
Click HERE to register
“Career planning is a set of skills that are life skills, and every job seeker needs to take responsibility to learn and implement them. Our role at Career Services is to coach you in that process – to guide you so that you can learn how to do that yourself,” Folster said.
“We offer a tremendous amount of support to teach students the things they need to know. And when students get serious about this and they follow the advice that we provide and use the tools available to them, it works! It absolutely, 100 per cent works!”
If you need support with your career planning and job search, feel free to reach out to Career Services at [email protected]
