Such personal websites are essentially beefed-up resumés including links to online published works, Twitter accounts, and so on—anything that might show off your skills, good qualities and winning personality. They make your online presence very quickly available to any potential employers, so you’d better have been nice and not naughty (employers are like Santa when it comes to social media).

While I don’t see as many online faux pas as I used to (mainly because I unfollow any faux pas makers due to fear of future association), there are still a number of people out there who just can’t seem to handle the idea that social media are a public space, no matter how high you set your privacy settings.

To drive the point home, I recently discovered a new show on MTV Canada called “Creeps.” Hopeful contestants add a panel of MTV “creepers” as friends on Facebook and then have their profile creeped. If your online shenanigans are outrageous enough, you are then invited to be grilled by the panel, who will decide whether or not you get to move on to the next round. The prize? A reality TV show, of course.

While everyone wants an MTV show, I don’t think it’s really worth airing your digital laundry (it stinks the most), so here are a few tips on social media that will keep you off “Creeps” and potentially land you some new followers on whatever platforms you bounce off of.

1. Avoid Conflict: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube: they all allow us to express our opinions pretty much unfiltered, so there will always be friction and squabbles. While it might seem ridiculous and inconsequential to fight on social media (“because it’s all just fun and games”), public conflicts make everyone around you uncomfortable and usually embarrassed for you. If you find that a follower is “defending your honor,” it might be a good idea to get them to stop.
2. Post Pictures of Food: If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I will occasionally talk about what I am eating. A lot of people’s doubts about Twitter comes from the fact that they “don’t want to hear what [I] had from breakfast,” and there is some truth in that. Because it is a social platform, it’s always a good idea to make your tweets social. Ask questions like “Can grilled cheese be made with frozen bread?” or include a TwitPic when said grilled cheese fails miserably. Note that this rule can generally apply to everything you tweet about.
3. A Little Humour Goes A Long Way: Literally. See rule #2, add a dash of funny and you might find people retweeting you around the world.
4. The Golden Rule of Social Media: Add your grandmother, your aunts, your uncles, etc. on Facebook. Let them know about your Twitter (they probably won’t care, but whatever). Or at least, pretend as if you have… Create a social media panopticon for yourself. You shouldn’t have to censor what you put online, but if you think your poor grandmother might pass out from some of your posts, then you might then think twice about posting them. Which is a good thing.

I’m sure a lot of this is quite apparent to all of you who read these blogs, but maybe I just helped you avoid signing up for “Creeps.” That, or you’re on your way to your own MTV reality show! Congratulations either way.

My tweets won’t even get me a reality show on my own YouTube channel, but if you want you can follow me here!

Fraser Tripp

It is curious, then, that one particular group of new Canadians is facing hurdles unlike nearly any other. In a flooded job market, with rampant high unemployment and sagging economic output, nobody is asking how young immigrants are faring. We know that young people are by far the most affected segment of the workforce when it comes to unemployment, and that many immigrants have trouble finding jobs. Combine those factors, and you create a dire situation for an increasingly large group. When it comes to employment, young immigrants may be the most challenged group in Canada.

It’s important to differentiate between two different kinds of “young immigrant.” First, there are those who were born elsewhere and recently came to Canada either on their own or with their families. These young people came with the hope of a good education and plentiful work. Secondly, there are people that were born here, but whose parents came from abroad within the last two or three decades. Those parents have often struggled through years of tough circumstances and low-paying jobs in the hopes their children would have better futures here than if they remained in their home countries. However, with the state of the job market today, both groups are now facing deep problems.

The Globe and Mail published an interesting infographic article recently. Entitled “Debt-ridden and Unemployed,” the piece highlights the plight of a young Iranian woman who, despite being multilingual and well-educated, is facing grim employment prospects. She, like many other young graduates, has opted to return to school in the hopes of a better set of job opportunities down the road. As a young immigrant, her precarious situation must be especially alarming: where is the land of jobs and opportunity she presumably came here expecting? Even if she does find a job, will it pay well enough to offset her massive student debt?

There is a particularly interesting situation arising among the large Indian and Chinese population groups that have recent arrived to Canada. Although they’ve come in large numbers over the past few decades, we are starting to see a reversal in their trajectory: many of the young, the brightest and most talented graduates, are leaving the economic limbo of North America behind and returning to booming industry sectors and high-paying jobs in their native lands. This is something we, and other Western economies, can’t afford.

Canada is being affected by a demographic phenomenon that is common among the majority of Western nations: a national “Greying.” Essentially, after experiencing massive population booms after WWII, Western nations are now seeing those so-called “Boomers” enter retirement and old age in a massive cohort. This population shift away from the workforce and into, essentially, dependency is already causing economic strain—and it’s only going to increase.

The perceived solution to this decline, perhaps more here in Canada than anywhere else in the world, has been immigration. Attracting large numbers of people from around the world (mostly Asia in recent years) has been seen as a way to offset the demographic shift in workforce power and to stabilize economies before they suffer. The problem is that the same economic problems we seek to avoid with native-born persons leaving the workforce are causing immigrants to either stop coming, or worse, leave after arriving. Once again, it is mostly young people that are leading this exodus back to growing, emerging economies like China and India.

So what can we do? Well, we must start by ensuring that skilled immigrants are targeted for immigration and have job security when they arrive. There has been a large push among all levels of government in this regard. Secondly, those who do arrive here must be able to work in their desired fields. Too many doctors and engineers from other countries are here cleaning hotels or driving taxis. There must be simple and easily accessible ways to have their skills verified or upgraded to meet Canadian standards.

Finally, a stronger drive to create new positions for young graduates is the key to solving this escalating problem. If young immigrants (and young Canadians in general) don’t start seeing more favorable prospects here, they will continue to leave in large numbers. In short, we need a plan and we need it now. We just can’t afford to sit on our hands any longer.

I can often pick up on certain unrealistic expectations that students have in their early post-secondary years, partly because I shared the same perspective when I was in school. These expectations vary in a bunch of ways, but the common thread seems to be a misinformed view of what things will be like upon graduation. In my own work, this is usually expressed as a belief that by the time students complete their degree (and simply by virtue of the fact that they have completed it), they will be totally prepared to enter into a specific career.

As I mentioned, I studied sciences in my early years at university. There was no specific goal in mind—I was just under the impression that it was “better” to get a science degree than an arts degree, because a sciences major was harder to get into. I had no idea what that degree would lead to, but figured it didn’t matter yet, because my senior coursework would pretty much be the same stuff I’d be doing in a work environment (ha!).

I later discovered that I didn’t really care enough about what I was studying to justify the work I was doing. As much as linear algebra, Newtonian relativity and electron probabilities are interesting (well okay, linear algebra’s not really interesting at all), I learned that I wasn’t willing to make the sacrifices necessary to succeed if I continued to take those kinds of courses. For others, the sacrifice is totally worth it—my fiancée’s grapple with nursing school comes to mind, because she has a clear goal of becoming a registered nurse (and a great one, I should add).

While I still had no idea what things would look like at the end of my degree, I had an important decision to make after my first year. Would I stick it out in sciences, hoping that something I cared about was around the next academic corner, or would I switch to an area (psychology) I had really only just discovered, but was already totally interested in?

While it would be easy for me to look back and say that I made the better choice in going on to major in psychology and graduate with an arts degree, what I’ve come to realize is that it wasn’t the actual choice of one path or the other that was important. I believe that I could have studied other things and been fine—who knows, maybe I’d be even happier doing something completely different? But that’s not the point.

The point is, I starting asking myself questions. I reflected on what I was doing and whether it was what I wanted to continue doing. I allowed myself to be influenced by my experiences, and took stock of those influences and how they changed the landscape of my burgeoning academic life. The process took a few weeks, if not months—it’s not as if I sat down one day and said to myself, “It’s time to reflect.” That might have been helpful, but what worked for me was to allow these thoughts to emerge over time. Eventually, I came to a very easy conclusion after realizing that I had been scared to change my path, to take a risk. It seems silly, because in hindsight it wasn’t a risk at all, but change has a funny way of distorting people’s thinking sometimes.

So, to answer the question posed in the title of this article: reflect. Though it’s been a long first year, it probably went by really fast and you experienced a lot. So how did all those experiences change you, and what does that mean for you going forward?

David Lindskoog

David is a Career Advisor at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, BC.

Read David’s blog at SFU Career Services: Dave’s Diary

Follow David on twitter: @lindenforest

I stumbled upon this discovery during my trip to England to visit my aunt and uncle—a 10-day trip exploring London, the surrounding countryside and my roots on my father’s side in Cornwall.

Having never been on a flight longer than an hour or so, I had never experienced jet lag. With the five-hour time difference, it took a little while to adjust after crossing the pond. Fortunately, being a university student I’m used to erratic sleep patterns and didn’t find it too shocking to bounce back.

Pretty soon I was functioning five hours into the future of my life back in Ottawa. Along with days full of sightseeing, shopping, eating four-star meals (drenched in custard—the British love custard) and traveling along one-lane roads that could freak out anyone (because a game of chicken ensues whenever you encounter another car), I was forming a habit of getting up at a reasonable hour. The horror.

What may be the ultimate key to my success in turning myself into a permanent morning person may be the fact that my flight home was in the afternoon. Flying out of Heathrow at 3:15 and then arriving in Ottawa at 5:50 meant that I had regained the five hours while still maintaining my new habit of living in the future.

OK, so maybe this is extremely wishful thinking and definitely not possible for everyone to do, but maybe one day I will find myself getting up earlier than 11 a.m. most of the time. It takes approximately 21 days for the average person to form a habit, and while I haven’t been successful at using my motivational hypnosis tracks for that long yet (and now I sound ridiculous), I think I might be able to get this sleep thing to work.

I think the real key in how I’ve felt like I’ve accomplished more the past few days is the fact that, on days I am not working, I’ve been doing my best to fill my days with activities other than my old summer pastimes of television and sleep.

The unfortunate thing is that while I want to be the most efficient 20-year-old possible this summer, I also have to take into account that I am in fact 20 and it is summer vacation. Parties will happen and I’ll probably revert back to sleeping until noon, but I guess that’s not such a big deal if I’ve survived up until this point.

One last thing: it’s good to be back.

Twitter is very quiet at 9 in the morning. Please come join me by following me here!

Fraser Tripp

The entire ordeal has raised a number of deep and troubling questions. Are these students legitimate protesters with real grievances, or out of touch, spoiled young people with no idea how good they have it? Do universities manage their finances wisely, or squander their funding and then lay the burden on the backs of students who can barely make ends meet? In the end, can either side really claim victory?

There are a lot of arguments for each side of the debate, and they’ve popped up frequently in the media. On one hand, people in this country (especially in Quebec) are incredibly fortunate when it comes to accessible higher education. Canada has some of the lowest tuition rates in the industrialized world (although some other nations offer completely free post-secondary education). Even if the tuition increase had gone through as the government originally intended, Quebec would still have the lowest tuition rates in Canada. As it stands, lowering incidental and/or ancillary fees by matching amounts, leaving no net increase, will offset the hike in tuition.

Now, contrast the situation to that of students in the United States. Although a Canadian student can expect to pay anywhere from $2,000 to $7000 or more for a year of postsecondary tuition, American undergraduates routinely pay in the tens of thousands of dollars per year. Far more than its northern neighbour, higher education in the United States is simply inaccessible to a large portion of the population. Considering the chronic disaster state of the U.S. government’s finances, it wouldn’t be surprising if the fees rose even higher. In light of this, and factoring in the deplorable moments of violence during the strike, it has been easy to lose sympathy with Quebec’s students. But the reasons and the anger that fuelled these protests run deep—and countless young Canadians can no doubt relate.

We grew up under the promise of secure, plentiful work as long as we were patient, studied and worked hard. It wouldn’t be easy and it wouldn’t be cheap, but the fountain of wealth and success that waited would more than make up for the struggle. Unlike much of the developing world, the democratic ideals of the West assured us that education and prosperity were always in our grasp; our society was set up to ensure this social contract would be fulfilled.

Yet, it’s turned out quite different for us. We are a generation entering a workforce that is strained to the seams and likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future. We’re living in an age of government cutbacks, older generations living (and thus working) longer, and ever-growing competition for fewer available jobs.

We’re forced to resort to unpaid internships or minimum wage jobs taken on just to pay down crippling debt loads. The anger expressed by Quebec’s striking students comes from that sense of being overeducated, underappreciated, and headed into a future of dim prospects. For a government, run by people who were able to take advantage of cheap tuition, now try to deny that advantage to others in the name of austerity feels like a slap in the face. Put bluntly, it feels like that social contract, that promise, has been broken.

In the end, the desires of the students and the government seem to have been resolved into an amicable if cool satisfaction for both sides—but the questions remain. Do the students take their circumstances, their relatively easy access to higher education, for granted? Some do, absolutely. The violent element of the protests has been rightly condemned—as usual, a tiny faction of the group has tarnished a much larger, peaceful movement. That being said, for all intents and purposes, the message at the heart of the protests rings true. Education should be accessible and affordable for all, not a privilege of the wealthy few. And it’s simply unfair for a government to try to make up for the financial mistakes of yesterday on the backs of today’s generation. All things said and done, I’m with the strikers.

Philip Cutter

I could write a whole post about public transit frustrations. Delays. Breakdowns. Track violations. Buses so full they don’t bother to stop. Buses that come way earlier or later than scheduled. Buses that don’t come at all. People shouting into their cellphones. Strangers starting conversations with you. People taking the aisle seat on a packed bus and putting their bags on the window seat. People not offering seats to the elderly, disabled or obviously pregnant. People refusing to remove giant backpacks. And, perhaps worst of all, anonymous flatulence.

Public transit: simultaneously a lifesaver and a giant, never-ending, smelly headache.

How can something normally so helpful become such a nightmare when the slightest thing goes wrong? I don’t know about you, but out here in Vancouver, we have a pretty good—albeit fragile—system of public transit. While the system is far from perfect, it’s actually pretty easy to get around most parts of the Lower Mainland without a car.

So, transit works pretty well, except for, well… when it doesn’t. I’ve been let down enough by transit to be able to reliably predict my thought process and emotional response.

Stage 1: Anger at the world. How could this happen to me? To ME! Don’t they know how important it is that I get to work on time? This always happens to me! Why, world… why do you hate me so?

Stage 2: Anger at myself. I should have known things would be screwed up. Why didn’t I go to bed earlier, so I could get up earlier, so I could leave the house on time? Why didn’t I check to see if there were any delays as soon as I got up? If I’d taken that other route, I’d be halfway there by now, not standing at this stop like an idiot. Stupid self!

Stage 3: False hope. Okay—finally moving! Maybe I can get there on time after all! Maybe this train will go extra fast to make up for lost time! I can make it there in 15 minutes, right?

Stage 4: Cognitive dissonance. Crap. I’m not going to make it. I hate being late. Yet here I am, late. Being late means you don’t care about your job, right? I care about my job, but I’m also late. This feeling sucks—curse you, Leon Festinger!

Stage 5: Resignation/acceptance. Oh well. Happens to everyone, right? There’s nothing I can do about it now. Come to think of it, this doesn’t really happen very often at all—I just vividly remember all the times that it has. So, given that I’m late, what can I do? Turns out I do care about my job, so I’ll stay an extra 10 minutes at the end of the day to make up for it. Take that, cognitive dissonance!

People talk a lot about intentionality, like it has some kind of magical power. They quote pseudo-scientists who use an incredibly narrow view of quantum theory to support “the power of positive thinking” and other such fluff. Intentionality, misunderstood though it may be, is a very simple concept. It’s no more and no less than being purposeful with your frame of mind. Most people are not very inwardly intentional, so small changes here can often have large effects.

Life, like public transit, is full of frustrations. All you have to do is look around, and you’ll find something to shake your head at. Or you can choose to forget about the things you can’t control, look at the world around you objectively, and focus on moving forward. This latter frame of mind is an intentional one. The choice, as the existentialists say, is always yours. It just might take a minute to realize that the choice is there in the first place.

There’s an old Cherokee story that gets to the heart of the issue here, of which I’ll provide the abridged version. A chief tells his grandson a story about two wolves. The wolves, he says, exist inside of everyone. One wolf is evil, darkness, hatred and malice. The other wolf is goodness, light, forgiveness and hope. They are locked in battle, with neither gaining any advantage over the other. When the grandson asks the chief which wolf will win, the chief replies matter-of-factly: “The one you feed.”

So the next time you’re sinking into a fit of public transit (or otherwise) related rage, ask yourself, which wolf am I feeding? What choice am I making here?

David Lindskoog

David is a Career Advisor at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, BC.

Read David’s blog at SFU Career Services: Dave’s Diary

Follow David on twitter: @lindenforest

Although not nearly as prominent in the national news cycle as some would expect, Montreal has been gripped by a series of student demonstrations this week. Quebec has the lowest tuition rates in the nation, a status heavily subsidized by the provincial government. Students in the province pay, on average, between one-quarter and one-third of what students in neighboring Ontario pay for tuition. The cash-strapped provincial government wants to change that, and phase in a 75% increase over five years. The result has been astonishing, at times even violent.

Despite the relative indifference of most Canadians outside Quebec, the strikes are gaining international intention, as they spur on a dialogue that runs deeper than mere tuition hikes; people everywhere are starting to examine the social and economic inequalities that are fuelling countless protests like these in recent years. Everywhere, it seems, except the rest of Canada.

Within Quebec, the public is leaning away from the students’ position, and much of the small subset of the national population that is paying attention seems to be of the same mind: “You don’t pay much as it is, so don’t complain about a bit more.” However, it’s worth proposing that the problem may not be that Quebec students pay less and are outraged at being asked for more, but that other Canadian students pay so much more and never ask why they shouldn’t be paying less.

Rather than being indifferent or outright condemning the students’ motives (the violence is, of course, unacceptable), we should be concerned about why similar motives aren’t a factor in the rest of the country. The argument for high tuition—that inflation means tuition must get more expensive over time, just like a cup of coffee—don’t bear fruit in light of the economic talking points hammered into us by successive governments.

Politicians like to say that students should pay more because the cost of education is rising, yet it is those very same young adults who are to become the educated, tax-paying, voting masses of tomorrow. As the talking heads chatter on about encouraging young workers and growing new jobs, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for young people to acquire the skills—that is, the higher education—to fill those positions that are so desperately needed and will become ever more in demand.

Further, it’s ludicrous to claim that there “just isn’t enough money” when we watch successive governments fritter tax dollars away on overpriced jets or protracted ethical scandals.

It’s incredibly demoralizing to work for four or five years (often much longer) and come out with nothing to show for it beyond massive debt and terrible job prospects. If that sounds dramatic, well, it is. Young people are increasingly desperate—the bills roll in every month, while newspaper headlines outline dim job numbers and prevaricating politicians. Often, it seems like there’s no real solution in sight, let alone a stable, sensible fix to the deeply intertwined problems of expensive education and high unemployment.

In light of the fact that previous generations enjoyed relatively better economic conditions and much more affordable costs, the sense of betrayal can grow ever sharper in view. Quite frankly, it feels exceptionally unfair that merely because of timing and circumstance, students today must struggle financially in ways their predecessors did not.

These protests have deeper roots and are affecting more people than you may think. Just imagine how the young NDP MPs from Quebec are affected; as Stephanie Levitz pointed out in the Canadian Press, these are people who, if not for their surprise parliamentary wins last year, would likely be out among the protesters. They’ve had to toe the party line on the matter and maintain near silence, although they almost certainly have opinions. Like many others, they’re probably finding it hard to reconcile their belief in what the protests demand at their core—accessible higher education—with condemnation of the rising violence.

Nobody is going to win any hearts or minds with violence—that much is obvious. However, the core message here, that higher education should be a right and not a privilege of the wealthy elite, rings deep and strong. Rising public opinion against the protesters risks taking their quite serious issue and diluting it into nothing more than a political pawn in an ever-volatile electoral game. The people of Quebec, and the rest of the country, should be paying heed to what these students are saying. Conversely, we as young, tuition- and tax-paying adults, should be just as concerned. The central injustice sits as heavily on our shoulders as those of our brothers and sisters in Montreal. We, like all Canadians, should be fighting the good fight: accessible, affordable higher education should be a right.

Philip Cutter

An entrepreneur is defined as a person who organizes and/or manages an enterprise or business, often with a strong element of initiative and risk. Young people today, particularly young Canadians, are among the brightest and best-equipped cohorts of future entrepreneurs that have ever existed. Our unique situation, our backgrounds, educations and innovate mindsets, all coalesce to make us a veritable fountain of potential ideas. Here in Canada, we’re lucky to have a wide range of factors contributing to our prospective success, from booming industries to solid economic conditions, all with a wide array of support options and other elements to help get our ideas off the ground.

It’s no secret that Canada’s economic powers are shifting west (particularly toward the resource-rich Alberta), and such surging centres of finance and industry are a prime environment for a creative, young graduate. The fuel and energy industries are driving economic growth, and with them, an entire array of opportunities is growing. Those industries are a hotbed of exciting, new companies, and they all need fresh ideas to help streamline their operations, increase efficiency and access newly discovered resources.

At the same time, the exploitation of natural resources has a vast number of social and environmental implications—areas where imaginative solutions are just as needed. As we work to mitigate the possible problems that arise, there’s massive wealth and success waiting for the people that can create and propose those solutions. Environmental protection and remediation, ecosystem management, the social and media factors of presenting situations to the public: as the economy grows, prosperity in a variety of fields such as these will present itself.

Even the struggling eastern parts of the country boast huge opportunity for potential young entrepreneurs. Ontario, with its large, relatively young and well-educated population, has been hurting for jobs. More than ever, the province needs an influx of innovative and unique ideas to help shift it away from a declining manufacturing-based economy to a more technological, knowledge-based economic model. Technical and administrative skills, strong understanding of technology and science, and the ability to manage people are needed to help new businesses get off the ground, and the young and educated are well positioned to lead this incipient change.

The prospect of trying to turn your ideas into reality, let alone profit, can seem daunting, but it’s certainly not impossible. Take a look at the Maclean’s list of young Canadians to watch: all are under 25, successful and leading revolutions in their fields. People like Ted Livingston, Eden Full and Marshall Zhang are spearheading their own private tech firms, exploiting their brilliant minds to innovate in the broad fields of energy science, social media and medicine. Further, there are increasing levels of support from both private and public sources, and the need for young entrepreneurship to sustain a changing economy is increasingly apparent. As Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism Maxime Bernier stated “…entrepreneurs can transform this country”. Private initiatives like the FuEL awards encourage entrepreneurship among Canadians under 30. Now in their second year, the awards see large firms like KPMG investing to encourage young people to put their ideas to practical, tangible uses.

In the end, if you’re intelligent, driven, young and talented, you already have what it takes to succeed. All you need is the determination to see your idea through, the tenacity and flexibility to interact with others to promote yourself, and most of all, a willingness to take a risk. There’s never been a better time for us to take a leap and try and make something ourselves. What are you waiting for?

Philip Cutter

Over the last few decades, as the pace of business accelerated, and the world became more globalized, the way people approached work and productivity began to change. Employers began to demand greater results and heavier workloads from their employees. As people took on ever-larger amounts of work, the need to balance, to juggle all the different tasks effectively, became an essential skill. Employers began to expect this ability and to prize it, and so it became a staple skill of the workplace, something needed to survive and succeed.

Over time, however, the lines have become blurred. Young people, technologically saavy but relatively sheltered from the more basic, pen-and-paper, sometimes monotonous work of their predecessors, began to claim themselves as multitaskers, people who could do everything all at once with little detriment. However, there is a very significant difference between time management—organizing oneself to ensure multiple tasks are completed in a timely manner—and true multitasking.

Actually, multitasking has rapidly grown into a contentious subject. Although there are many arguments for it, a growing body of research suggests that, despite its supposed necessity for success, multitasking doesn’t actually exist. Our brains may just not be wired to do multiple tasks at once. Why is it, then, that every young graduate, new intern or prospective hire flaunts their multitasking ability as a desirable trait?

It is precisely because we have an idea of multitasking in our heads (that is, time management) that doesn’t always pan out in reality. Instead of sitting down and writing our tasks in an agenda or schedule, we enter them in digital calendars and notes, send ourselves emails or reminders on our phones. Our generation has grown up with devices that give us not only unprecedented access to information, but constant connectivity that lures us into rapid distraction. Instead of putting our entire mental acuity into doing a single task well, we believe that trying to do multiple things at once inherently makes us more productive.

Research suggests, however, that the opposite is true. When we try to work on more than one task, there is a greater risk of error and miscalculation. Rather than doing one thing well, we end up doing two things not as well as we could have. Further, this distraction, this constant switching between tasks in the name of “enhanced productivity,” is starting to be seen as a negative trait, one that may impede success in our careers. Although a hiring manager may hear a new hire say “multitasker” and think “Great, I’m taking on someone who knows how to manage their time and be effective,” this “positive trait” can quickly manifest itself as work that appears careless, sloppy or unpolished. Particularly for young people new to the workforce and still trying to build a career foundation, this can lead to high stress, and in turn even worse performance. Yes, your attempts at multitasking may end up hurting your chances of success.

So what can we do? Simple: focus. Learning to focus on tasks is a vague but absolutely non-negotiable skill. It’s not easy: focus is one of those things that takes training and repetition, a bit willpower and a lot of self-correction. If you’ve spent your life attached to a computer, television and/or phone that provide constant, instant stimulation, overcoming your habit of distraction may seem positively insurmountable—but it can be done.

Organize yourself by writing down and preparing your tasks to be tackled sequentially and efficiently, in a way that makes the best use of your time. More importantly, however, disconnect yourself. Whenever you can, remove external stimuli and put yourself wholly into your work. Do you need to check that email, or can it wait? Turn off the phone, or maybe just put it on silent while you complete that big project due in a few hours. You’ll see results almost instantly: tasks get done faster and better, and you’ll feel a greater sense of accomplishment because of the level of detail you were able to put into the job.

Next time you catch yourself feeling frazzled as you try to juggle a million things all on the go… stop. Assess your situation and ask if your attempts at multitasking are really the right way to go. Your biology may not make you a great multitasker, but with some focus, time management and willpower, you can become an effective, organized worker. And your boss will love it.

Philip Cutter

There’s no feeling quite like it. In fact, rejection probably ranks in my top (bottom?) five list of worst emotional experiences to have. The thing is, it’s an incredibly common experience. The very reason that people tend to fear rejection as much as they do is precisely because they’ve usually experienced it before. When it comes to looking for work, that fear can be dangerously demotivating. Without a thick skin, job applicants can have a hard time persevering through a long-term job search.

Just writing the word rejection evokes in me vivid memories of a much more insecure adolescent self. There were so many rejections… the most memorable of which, unsurprisingly, involve my hopelessly ineffectual attempts at teenage romance. The story of my romantic ineptitude begins much earlier than that, however. A brief timeline:

Grade 2: I and a “friend” named Mike happen to have a crush on the same girl—Marie. We confront her and force her to choose whom she would rather marry. She chooses Mike. Woe is me.

Grade 5: The latest crush is on another classmate, this one named Kara. I have a dream that she humiliates me in front of all the cool kids at lunch hour, and never work up the nerve to talk to her.

Junior high school, probably grade 7 or 8: Still never dated or even so much as kissed a member of the opposite gender. But now my peers are starting to do those things, and it suddenly seems really important to get on the dating bandwagon. This time, I actually work up the courage to ask out a girl in my homeroom class. She’s probably as awkward about saying no as I am about asking her in the first place.

Grade 10: In high school now. There’s a girl in my “career and life management” class who seems pretty cool. I spend a few weeks semester thinking about asking her out, during which time she starts going out with somebody else.

University, second year: I work up the courage to ask a girl in one of my big lecture classes if she wants to grab a coffee. She agrees, we meet up after class, and she even gives me her number! Mysteriously, every time I call, she seems to be out of the house. I don’t recall seeing her in that lecture ever again, now that I think about it…

Yeah, rejection hurts big time. There’s not much to do after an experience like any of the above except to sink into depression and write lots of dark emo poetry retreat, lick your wounds and try again, though. The trick is to try to forget how painful rejection truly is. If we forget, we’ll inevitably try again, and most likely be rejected again at some point, but there will almost certainly be some successes in there somewhere too.

The whole rejection thing is a lot like living somewhere with incredibly cold winters, but often beautiful summer weather as well (trust me, I lived in Edmonton for 20 years). People complain about winter every year, but then, in the summertime, they seem to forget just how cold it was. Then winter comes around again and the same people are swearing they’re going to move somewhere warmer one day. The thing is, they never really learn. (There’s also an interesting cold weather pride thing that happens in Edmonton, where you get to make fun of West Coasters when they complain about it being +4 degrees and raining. But that’s another story.)

Stop learning from rejection, because that leads to fear of taking risks, and risks are a necessary part of career growth. I’m happy to say that the story of my romantic life went from being full of rejection to full of happiness, because I never learned that getting my heart trampled on continuously by romantic interests wasn’t worth the pain (and in fact, a year ago today I proposed to my fiancée, Caity). Embrace that same ignorance of rejection in your career. One day, you just might find the one you’ve been looking for all along. The ones that got away were just never meant to be. (But… if you’re reading this, Marie, I still think you made the wrong choice!)

David Lindskoog

David is a Career Advisor at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, BC.

Read David’s blog at SFU Career Services: Dave’s Diary

Follow David on twitter: @lindenforest

The fact is that we, as young adults right now, are probably one of the luckiest generations society has ever known. Particularly for those of us here in Canada, the wealth of education and resources available to us at this critical point of life means we are better equipped to tackle today’s economic problems and use them to our advantage. Whether you’re looking to permanently enter the workforce, continue your education, or perhaps use one to help step towards the other, there’s a world of choices available to you.

Let’s start with education. What was once a luxury for upper classes with the money to finance it, is now integral to most careers. It’s no wonder that Canada ranks amongst the best-educated nations in the world—Conference Board of Canada statistics rank us fifth in university completion rates out of 17 of the world’s most developed nations—and has the economic opportunities to show for it. With its rise in stature and importance, access to education has become ever more available to people looking to move up in the world.

Our society is helping foster these choices through education funding and government support, ranging from tax incentives and tuition controls to programs that foster innovation and skills enhancement. Although education is still expensive, and costs are climbing—the recent unrest in Quebec is a particularly glaring example of this problem—the financial support tools available from all levels of government, as well as the private sector, are impressive. Touching on the increasing blur between career and education, many employers now offer incentives and reimbursements for courses that have relevance to business for their employees looking to expand their expertise. The fact remains that for people who are willing to commit themselves to hard, sometimes thankless work, the money is there, through loans, scholarships and reimbursement programs. It’s not always easy, but it’s certainly possible for those who work for it.

The world outside the education sphere is equally favourable to those just starting their careers. Canada has done a great job of fostering the so-called “information and knowledge” sector—wide and varied fields that have become increasingly important as we, like many societies around the world, move into a post-industrial age. If we take a look at the top 100 employers in Canada today, they’re almost entirely based in this information-and-knowledge sector: banks, hospitals, technology companies, government and corporate information centres. While the news is dominated with talk of a declining manufacturing sector, the fantastic rise in job-rich areas like health and biotechnology, finance and information management is mostly flying under the radar.

All these employers have boomed because they have support from society through a steady stream of intelligent, ambitious young workers eager to put their skills to the test. The jobs in this sector, even the ones that are still being created, are the source of so much potential and opportunity for us.

The forces at work in today’s economy are not going to be kinder to us as we move into the future. As life expectancies improve, people are working longer and fewer jobs are opening up at the top ends of certain fields. An aging overall population is going to continue straining government resources and funding for a long time to come. Similarly, rising economies in other parts of the world will lead to increasing competition and selectivity in terms of who gets the best jobs in the best industries. We must be vigilant then and continue working hard—the opportunities are still there, after all. You just have to be willing to work, have the right tools and know where to look.

Philip Cutter

Whether you’re on exchange in Holland (like me) or nearing graduation in Canada, the shiny lure of doing an internship remains the same. It’s a good way to get a secure placement for the summer, buff up your resumé and, if you’re lucky, make a little bit of money along the way.

Of course, internships come in all shapes and sizes—from three weeks to three months, paid to unpaid, useful to entirely redundant. Whichever kind of internship you are hoping to land, there’s probably one for you. A bit of research on a company’s website will often give you a good idea of what to expect when applying. Simple as that—sort of.

Along my own quest for the ideal internship, I have witnessed some classmates land their dream internship, while others return to university with tales of how they wasted a perfectly good summer. The question that always springs to my mind is a big fat “How?” Not “how did the internship go and was it worthwhile?” Instead, I merely wonder how they got the internship in the first place.

In a time of company downsizing, student protests over ever-increasing tuition fees and a competitive job market, what does it take to get an internship position?

From what I can tell, the exact recipe includes a flawless resumé, solid references that will readily confirm your brilliance as a student or employee, and a cover letter that, in food terms, could never be compared to candy floss or cheese—not to mention a little bit of luck on your side.

I recently applied to a highly reputable newspaper for a summer internship for the second time. It was, and still is, my idea of the perfect internship, however elusive that may be. The first year I applied, I knew going in that I had very little chance of getting the position. In other words, I had absolutely nothing to lose. Gearing up for my shot at round two, I took a look over my previous cover letter and realized it was, in fact, both candy floss and cheese.

To prepare for my second attempt, I had spent the year trying to get more experience, to volunteer and make sure my resumé didn’t revolve solely around earning my degree. I immediately hacked away the candy floss and replaced it with my newfound experience, and a more earnest look at why I really wanted the job, with a small dose of personality thrown in for good measure.

Alas, sometimes you may have to wait another year to get the internship or the job that you want. My advice: apply and if you don’t succeed, apply again. In my case, maybe the third time will be the charm.

In the interest of avoiding grandiose phrases like “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take,” I can say there are a few key things I’ve picked up from a myriad of internship successes and rejections.

The first step is to apply. Apply even if you don’t think you can get it. Apply to the biggest companies and to the smallest. Apply a second time if you still want the job. Simple as that.

The second step is to make your application one that will end up on top of the pile. Make sure it clearly shows off all your best qualities and your potential as an intern. Prove yourself along the way so that you can have good references when you need them, and try to avoid over-exaggerated clichés in favour of a personable, honest look at why you deserve the job.

The third step is the easiest one: if all else fails, take a step back, relax, and enjoy the warm weather.

Erin Jackson

This past week, the Canadian government announced in the new federal budget that Old Age Security (OAS) eligibility would be bumped up by two years. Everyone working in the country pays into the OAS system and, upon turning 65, is (was) eligible to receive a certain amount of money to supplement their retirement income. The changes mandated in the budget raise this eligibility age to 67. So while your grandparents and perhaps your parents would be eligible for their benefits at 65, you and I will have to wait an additional two years, even though we will have to work just as hard—or harder. The millennial generation gets the shaft, and the Baby Boomers emerge relatively unscathed. The initial reaction, that this is unfair, is understandable.

Truth be told, however, the changes to OAS aren’t necessarily unwarranted and they’re certainly not surprising. Such changes have become common throughout the developed world; we are all living longer, healthier lives, and the logic goes that we should have to wait longer to collect our pensions because, as a whole, we will be able to work longer. Further, the demographic crunch of a massive number of workers—the Baby Boomers—becoming eligible at the same time will place a huge strain on the system and deplete much of the funding, if changes aren’t made to the system. That is, if we don’t alter OAS now, when it’s our turn to retire there won’t be anything left in the pot.

The trouble is that we are trapped in a problem that isn’t of our own making. Young people entering the modern workforce face one of, if not the most, competitive employment markets Canada has ever known. There are more people looking for fewer jobs, and other options, such as co-op placements, are scarce. To add it all together, if you’re pursuing post-secondary education or entering the workforce in this day and age, you’ve certainly been dealt a poor economic hand in the great card game of life.

The forces working against our generation have really coalesced into a perfect storm. The boomers are living and working longer, so their positions aren’t opening up to the younger generation. Employers are able to pick and choose from a wide range of smart, talented, desperate young graduates because the market is so tight. When layoffs occur, younger workers are generally the first to be culled thanks to seniority systems. Throw in an overall economic downturn that is pressing down on everyone’s budgets, savings and employment prospects, and you have a recipe for a struggling, crowded, cynical generation of young workers.

The generation before us were the lucky ones, “the gilded generation.” They were born during the booming post-war years, growing up and maturing in prosperous and plentiful economies. There were no “unpaid internships,” and you would have been hard-pressed to find an entry-level position that demanded a Master’s degree or Ph.D. Tuition rates were low, and few graduates entered the job markets of the 1970s and 1980s with the crippling debt that is now all too common. The average student entering the job market today has a debt load anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000, and often even higher.

Ultimately, there is little that can be done. The deck has been stacked against us since long before we were born, and we must now bear the brunt of forces that were and are outside our control. As unfair as it seems, the boomers worked hard and deserve their benefits. They never intended to burden us, their children, with the conundrum we’ve inherited. We will pay for their retirements and benefits, just as they supported us, because that is how society works. They paid into the system, just as we must, and will take their due.

In all honesty, as young adults go in the world, Canadians are lucky. We are lucky to have a social security system at all, regardless of how dysfunctional it is becoming. The prosperity that preceded us has made us into the best-educated, most diverse, creative and resourceful cohort of workers Canada has ever known. We are the best and brightest, and the competition among us also forces us to use our minds to succeed. Even with the world of problems that we still must come to terms with, there is a silver lining. Our intelligence and wits, our drive to achieve and the knowledge that a strong work ethic is necessary for survival, will all help us weather the storm. It won’t be easy, but the payback generation will make it through.

Philip Cutter

Last week, I wrote about data collection, emphasizing the process as one of action. The corresponding relationship to career exploration was obvious, as action is the key to forward motion in both domains. With that in mind, let’s talk about what comes next: analysis and discussion of results.

If data collection is all about action, then analysis is about calculation (in either a mathematical or a logical sense) and discussion is about imagination. Once researchers obtain their study’s results, they must apply a strategically chosen method of analysis to those results in order to make them meaningful—otherwise they’re just a bunch of numbers (in quantitative research) or words (in qualitative research). Whether through statistical tests or any variety of qualitative content analysis techniques, data begin to take the shape of meaningful results.

Of course, we don’t run t-tests or ANOVAs after we’ve undergone a similar data collection process in our career exploration efforts. It’s still advisable, however, to reflect on the actions you’ve taken, and how the information you’ve gathered—about you, about the world, about different people and work environments—might be meaningful. Without this reflection, all those actions you’ve taken are only partially beneficial to you. They’re still opening up new opportunities and keeping you engaged, but they’re not helping you to learn, and career exploration—like life itself—is all about continuous learning.

Science doesn’t stand still; it’s always evolving as new research is produced, reviewed and disseminated. We’ll never get to the point where we can say, “Aha! We’ve figured out science. No further research is necessary.” That might seem hyperbolic, but think about how you treat your career development—is it possible that you’re expecting to just “figure it out” one day? If so, I hate to do it, but it’s my responsibility to let you know that’s never going to happen. In my mind, it’s as preposterous an assumption as the one about figuring out science.

Every piece of research changes things, even the ones that discover nothing new. In fact, those are some of the most important studies, because they often help to confirm that a previous finding is indeed reliable. The message I’m hoping to impart today is that every experience changes you, even the ones that don’t tell you anything new about yourself. It’s up to you, however, to analyze the data in order to conclude how you’ve changed.

Once the analysis is done, researchers move on to a discussion of their results. Discussion, in this sense, doesn’t mean hanging out at a coffee shop for a friendly chat. Rather, it is an in-depth examination of the implications of that particular piece of research. It is asking questions about why the results came out the way they did, and what those results mean in the context of already existing research findings. It is coming up with theories in order to explain the results, imagining as many implications of the research as possible, and identifying where more research can to be done. It is where researchers’ imaginations run free, and curiosity is the order of the day.

Isn’t it great to be curious? To imagine what life would be like 5 or 10 years from now, when you’re well on your way down a career path? If you’ve identified a few directions that you’re curious about getting into, now’s the time to write your career exploration’s discussion chapter. Why those careers, and not others? What theories do you have about how those careers might be a good fit for you? What have other people’s paths been who’ve ended up in those careers looked like, and how might yours be similar or different? If you were to go on this path, how might that impact other areas of your life?

Results. Analysis. Discussion. Pretty rad, right?

Miss the last 4 entries in this series? Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

David Lindskoog

David is a Career Advisor at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, BC.

Read David’s blog at SFU Career Services: Dave’s Diary

Follow David on twitter: @lindenforest

Once a marginalized group, young women today are encouraged to work hard and obtain high-status careers in law, medicine or politics, ever reminded that they can do anything men can do and have all the same rights. The benefits of these changes are massive and obvious: disparities in employment opportunities, economic and social status, and earning power for women in developed countries have all increasingly come in line with those traditionally enjoyed by men.

In Canada, the idea that a woman couldn’t become a doctor, an executive or the Prime Minister if she worked for it is ludicrous in this day and age. The problem, however, is that so much is made of the gains made that we are starting to coast, rather than working to continue improving. There is still so much to be done, both at home and abroad, to help working women.

An interesting example of the ongoing deficit was highlighted in a Globe and Mail article this week. Margaret Wente recounted the stories of several accomplished young women in competitive fields who, it seemed, felt the need to hide their accomplishments for social reasons. These lawyers and engineers would conceal their professional status from other people—mostly men—because they felt stigmatized at the prospect of having greater earning power. Indeed, it’s enough to call into question how great the gains have truly been.

Such anecdotal evidence is particularly jarring when you consider the wealth of opportunity available to young women these days. For example, the numbers of women undertaking post-secondary studies is at an all-time high in most parts of the world. Particularly in the developed world, women are taking on increasingly prominent roles in society as well. They are close to outnumbering men in academic fields, and are gaining in number even in highly male-dominated jobs (think trades and sports). For all the progress made throughout the 20^th century in women’s rights, both social and economic, there are still many issues that plague us, most notably in the sphere of work.

Truth be told, it’s still a man’s world in many ways. Men dominate corporate boards and leadership roles, make up the large majority of political representatives, and tend to earn more money than women in equal positions (although this gap is getting increasingly small). One of the problems with companies and industries that are founded on “old boys’ clubs” is that they tend to favour men in their hiring, necessitating a certain level of affirmative action to ensure an appropriate number of female employees at most levels. This sort of active selection is not without controversy, however; as with quotas for employing visible minorities, the notion that a person has an advantage based an inborn trait rather than skill or achievement is contentious.

So, it really comes down to what we are encouraging young women to do. If they’ve worked hard and paid their dues to move up in the world, why should they ever feel the need to hide it to make men feel more comfortable? Really, all people should reject the notion that achievement leads to alienation and encourage women to be proud and open of their accomplishments.

Quite frankly, if women have to hide who they are to gain acceptance, the long struggle for rights seems in vain. There are so many women in the world who can only dream of the rights and opportunities available in countries like Canada. The road has been long for women in the workplace, and there is a still a long way to go. If we’re ever going to get to that true ideal, the equality that women so justly deserve, it all has to start with a shift in mentality—and, as before, women themselves have to lead the charge. They need to continue to work hard, be strong, make no excuses or apologies, and never underestimate their own abilities. If they can keep on that path, soon it will be men who need to worry about catching up.

Philip Cutter

Data collection is a very exciting time for researchers. All the long hours of preparation they put into literature reviews, research proposals, introductory chapters and ethics board applications is finally behind them, and the real action of research can finally begin. They can actually start carrying out their study and recording their observations.

It’s immediately obvious that without the act of data collection, research would never really happen.

There’s one key element in the statement above, and it’s worth repeating for emphasis. So allow me to phrase it in a slightly different way: if researchers never did anything, no research would ever get done. Despite the intense critical thought and careful planning that marks the earlier stages of research, the only way to actually get any sort of results is to get out there and start collecting data.

Data collection means action (even if it’s tedious, repetitive, actually quite boring action)—and when it comes to careers, the best thing we can do is to get some action.

Research relies on action to produce results. A researcher in the humanities might have to get human participants to complete a series of tasks and some questionnaires. An academic in the natural sciences might have to introduce a sample of bacteria to a specific kind of solution. An anthropological field researcher might simply hide out in a bathroom stall observing the behaviour of washroom-goers (good luck getting that one past ethics, though). Whatever the field, whatever the research question, without these actions, there is no data, and therefore no research.

Guess what? The same is true in your career. Nothing results from nothing.

Reading that, it probably seems intuitive. But ask yourself, what are you currently doing to move forward in your career? You might be under the impression that it’s best to know what you’re doing before you do it. The statement “Knowing comes first, doing second” might then sound like a pretty good summary of how life works.

But let’s pause for a minute and go back to thinking about the scientific method. Although scientists are encouraged to develop clearly laid-out plans for their research, it would be wrong to claim that scientists know what they’re doing before they do it. It would be even more wrong to assert that, for scientists, knowing comes before doing. The very nature of the scientific method relies on discovering knowledge as a direct result of doing—not the other way around! Scientists have to show a clear relationship between cause and effect, to the degree that no reasonable doubt that chance produced their results can be claimed. In other words, scientists know nothing until experiments are carried out that demonstrate that knowledge in action.

Furthermore, many hugely important scientific discoveries have been made completely by chance, penicillin being foremost and most obvious among them. So, it’s not about “knowing comes first, doing second.” It’s quite the opposite, actually. “Doing comes first, knowing second” is a much more accurate statement.

So, let’s focus less on what you’re thinking about, and more on what you’re actually going out and doing. You’re not going to learn much of anything new—about yourself or about the world of work—by sitting at home, looking at job postings that all look the same, or trying to write the “perfect” cover letter. You’ll probably get discouraged, maybe depressed, but that’s about it.

What if, instead, you went out and talked to a few people who actually work in the fields you’re curious about?

How much more real life information would you learn?

How much greater are the chances that something unexpected might happen?

You don’t want to be doing research forever. The only way to finish is to go out and get some action. You deserve it.

David Lindskoog

David is a Career Advisor at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, BC.

Read David’s blog at SFU Career Services: Dave’s Diary

Follow David on twitter: @lindenforest

When it comes to careers, the atmosphere and dynamic of where you choose to live is integral to consider. For example, most of us would agree that for young Canadians pursuing high-level business, financial or legal careers, Toronto is the natural choice. As Ontario’s capital and the largest city in Canada, Toronto is the hub of the nation’s business dealings. With the majority of Canada’s corporations headquartered there and a massive population able to support interconnected networks of different business interests, it’s an absolute hotbed of employment activity for Canada (and North America).

Of course, the atmosphere of a bustling metropolis is not for everyone, and personal taste is an extremely important factor to consider. Canada is a vast country, and the variations in culture and lifestyle among provinces and regions can be great—nowhere is this more evident than our cities. For those who want the big city lifestyle but don’t fit well with the fast-paced concrete jungle of Toronto’s Bay Street, cities like Montreal or Vancouver make more sense. as Canada’s political, economic and social fabric shifts, the western parts of the country are becoming increasingly desirable places to live. The unique mix of options and sensibilities, the cultural and linguistic particularities, all contribute to whether or not we are happy with where we live. Considering lifestyle choices, and personal elements like proximity to family or preferred recreation, plays a big part in the suitability of where you live.

Even if you choose to pursue your studies further, the choices are similarly endless. Many people prefer to start their education at smaller, lesser-known schools for a variety of reasons, whether for smaller class sizes, specialized programs, or a more community-oriented atmosphere overall. However, to pursue research and more work-oriented academic pursuits, it becomes imperative to explore larger, better-known (and better funded) institutions—and these are almost always in larger cities.

Think of some of the largest and most respected universities in Canada: University of Toronto, McGill, University of Ottawa and so on. All are located in relatively large urban centres with large, diverse populations. Those institutions have unique opportunities within a few select fields, and varying social networks to complement and facilitate students’ pursuits. Beyond that, there are also the highly respected institutions to consider in countries like the United States and UK, all renowned within certain fields (and extremely well-endowed financially).

Adding to the complexity of these decisions are important components like quality of life and affordability. Although a large city may be appealing, cities are always expensive places to live. For those carrying heavy student or consumer debt, it may be more practical for a time to live and work in a smaller city or town where costs of living are lower. Taking the time to save money means that when the time comes to move, you’re doing so with more financial stability.

As well, you have to consider what sort of future you envision for yourself. Do you want to marry and/or have children? If you have a spouse or partner, do you share the same general ideas of how you want your future together to look, and are their tastes and potential employment opportunities suited to the same location? These are all components of the larger puzzle that goes into deciding where you live.

Before you let the pressure get to you, it’s important to remember that nothing is written in stone. Just as many people decide to radically change career direction, many others move to a new place to gain a fresh start. Sometimes it’s for a different job, a matter of familial or personal obligation, or maybe just a change of pace. Indeed, one of the greatest benefits to come from the increasing mobility of society is the ability to change our minds—we can and should do the things that make us happy.

Regardless of the reason for a move, the expense and technicalities often pale in comparison to the enriching experience such a life change can provide. The opportunity to build and establish new connections with people, maybe learn a new language, or explore academic or professional routes that were either unavailable in other locations or hadn’t been considered: all these and more can make a change of residence exciting deeply fulfilling experience. We live in exciting and challenging times; in the great game of life, the boards we can choose to play on are more varied and interchangeable than ever before.

Philip Cutter

There may well be, but you’re unlikely to read about it in this blog entry. That’s because I’m writing a series of blog posts comparing the process of academic research to various career-related tasks. In part one I wrote about operational definitions and shared my own views on exactly what things like resumes and strengths are. Part two was all about questions—well, one question really: the research question, which motivates and propels a study towards completion, just as it clarifies the process of career exploration.

Today’s installment is all about planning and ethics.

In research, a lot of planning has to take place before any actual research can be done. One thing that research does NOT have in common with a job search is that you don’t have to get clearance from an ethics review board before you go out to look for work (and for that we should all be very, very thankful). Researchers must figure out exactly what they’re planning to do, and how they’re planning to do it, and then submit a detailed proposal outlining this information to a board of reviewers who will determine if the study is ethically sound.

As a result, there’s a lot of work being done that doesn’t necessarily equate to making progress. This is especially true if your research involves human participants, and doubly so if participants will be legal minors or members of any population considered to be “vulnerable” at the time of the study. Researchers have to convince the members of the ethics review board that they won’t be doing any potential harm to their participants, or that any risk of potential harm is outweighed by the study’s potential benefits.

As I mentioned above, there is no board when it comes to exploring careers, and for that we should be grateful. However, the way that most people go about career exploration, it’s as if they’ve been conditioned to believe there’s a panel of faceless overseers watching their every move, waiting for an excuse to pull the plug, so they better plan things out carefully so as not to screw anything up!

In order to pass the scrutiny of an ethics review board unscathed, a researcher has to identify all the things that could go wrong in the execution of their research design, and develop plans to either prevent or deal with those contingencies as they come up. It’s actually a good thing for a researcher to be a little bit paranoid in the planning stages, a little bit obsessive about and afraid of the mistakes they could potentially make, so that they can adequately address those concerns in their proposal, allaying any concerns an ethics review board might have.

I think we’re naturally conditioned to behave the same way when it comes to career exploration—the only difference being that this over-emphasis on planning is ultimately hurtful instead of helpful. Fear of making mistakes is a logical consequence of imagining all the things that can go wrong. It’s this fear that prevents people from taking meaningful action. What’s more, putting a lot of time and effort into a plan is only constructive under two conditions, both of which are more likely to be true in research than in career exploration:

1. Your plan doesn’t change. Another way to think of this would be to say that things proceed pretty much as you predicted they would.
2. You eventually stop planning and start taking action.

For a researcher, plans (research designs) rarely change significantly once they are approved. To do so would mean circling back to the planning and approval stage. And it’s easy to see the link between planning and action in research, because researchers can begin the act of collecting data once their plan is approved. This is not the case in career exploration, and it shouldn’t be—plans change frequently, as it’s only in very rare cases that things work out just like you predicted. It’s also quite easy to get lost in career planning without ever really doing anything about it, because there’s no clear-cut directive sequence as there is in research.

No one’s going to give you the green light. You have to be your own ethics board. Unless you want your thesis (your chosen career path) to hang over your head your whole life, you have to kickstart the action process sooner rather than later.

What do you want to do with your life? The only way to find out is to start taking action and collecting relevant data. And that, of course, is a topic for next week.

David Lindskoog

David is a Career Advisor at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, BC.

Read David’s blog at SFU Career Services: Dave’s Diary

Follow David on twitter: @lindenforest

These days, good jobs are hard to come by. Young people are facing a critical labour problem, something that’s been steadily on the rise during the past few years of economic turmoil. Competition is high, and employers have the luxury of choosing the best and brightest. Skills and talent are important, of course; your education and experience are the bedrock qualifications that get your foot in the door. The real challenge is wrestling the door the rest of the way open. Your personality and how you position yourself are huge factors. It’s not enough to wait for things to come to you anymore; you need to know what you want and be willing to say so. As simple as it seems, asserting yourself is a powerful tool on the road to success in both your professional and personal endeavors.

Let’s start with interviews. Your first impression with a prospective employer is absolutely critical to whether or not you get the job. The single greatest thing you can do is come prepared: employers love that you’ve done your homework, and you come off as interested, competent and knowledgeable. Preparing by researching the position you’re applying for, the company or institution, and the sorts of things you’ll be expected to do helps to buffer you against difficult or unexpected questions. In fact, such “surprise” inquiries are usually tests to see exactly how prepared you are.

At the same time, be willing to ask your own pointed or strategic questions. It’s great to engage and ask about where you rank or stack up to other potential candidates. Does the employer have any unique expectations that a similar position elsewhere may not? Do they have any concerns with you or your candidacy, or perhaps they’d like you to clarify any answers you gave previously? Such interrogative questions display your focus and willingness to elicit feedback. A collaborative interaction gives them a clearer idea of the kind of employee you’ll be and whether you’re the best fit for the job.

After you’ve secured the position, assertion and extroversion can be helpful your new role as well. A good example would be when a new or unusual project is put forward. Being willing to step up and volunteer, particularly when the work may be difficult or unglamorous, demonstrates initiative. Being a team player, or stepping forward and showing leadership—both are desired traits.

Perhaps more critically, assertion can put you on the radar of the decision makers. When a promotion or new position opens up, making sure you’re known is the first step to being considered. If you can demonstrate the skills and traits they’re looking for, it will seem like a natural fit. Indeed, when your boss is looking to promote internally, your application should be expected. Of course you are applying for the position—you always take the lead for this kind of thing!

Even in your personal life, being more assertive can lead to some big changes. When you’re tackling problems with friends or family, being direct usually helps a problem move toward resolution. We all value honesty, and as such we should all be willing to be honest and direct. For example, several studies have shown that couples who talk openly about why they feel a certain way about a certain problem, rather than sticking to rigid positions, are happier and actually end up with less conflict. By opening the lines of communication, each partner is more likely to feel satisfied and understand what the other wants and needs. As in workplace situations, clarity and directness lead to a more prosperous dynamic for all.

While it may not come naturally, or be easy at first, over time you can adapt to more assertive behaviours. Once you start stepping up and begin to see the benefits of your behavioral changes, they can build up and become habits. Over time, as more people start to recognize your increased self-confidence, more opportunities will arise. Recognizing what you want, stating your goals, and working hard and proactively towards achieving them becomes second nature—keep it up and before you know it, the old barriers you felt unable to overcome will crumble down. In terms of self-improvement, great things can come if you’re willing to become the new, assertive you.

Philip Cutter

Okay, so if I had thought this whole thing through a little more carefully, I probably would have written about the research question before I wrote about operational definitions, but it was only after last week’s post that I decided to try to make a series out of this idea. The order should be reversed: a solid research question is the absolute first thing that researchers need in order to get their study off the ground, with defining variables being the next step. (I do hope you’ll forgive me.)

There’s nothing complicated about a research question; it simply sets out that which the research will investigate. It is the question that the study hopes to answer, or at least to contribute to an eventual answer. The question can be broad and aimed toward exploration—most likely lending itself toward qualitative research—just as it can be narrow and geared at explanation, in which case a quantitative design is more likely warranted.

The important thing is that the nature of the question—exactly what is being asked, and how it’s being asked—fundamentally affects whatever answers you might uncover. As we’re about to find out, the same is true in the realm of career exploration. For example, let’s say you wanted to do research on student stress around midterm season. You could formulate a question like, “What are the contributing factors to student stress during midterms at Canadian post-secondary institutions?” Or, you could ask something like, “To what extent does stress affect performance on midterms among Canadian post-secondary students?” Finally, you could also ask something like, “How do university students experience stress during exam periods?”

Both the process and the results of the above three studies will vary greatly, even though they’re all studying the same phenomenon: student stress during midterms.

So, here’s the question this article is hoping to answer: what does this mean for your career exploration and job search?

It’s simple, really. Just as researchers need a question to get them started on designing and implementing their study, anyone interested in career development needs a question to inspire the thoughts and actions they take toward their exploration efforts. Here are a few questions that students have shared with me:

How do I get out of retail?

How do I find something I like?

What direction to go in?

How do I believe in myself?

What options are out there that use my degree?

What are some other things that I would be good at?

Who am I?

What do I want to do?

Where can I go from here with my BA?

….And the ever-popular:

What am I going to do with my life?

Believe it or not, these questions are all associated with slightly different thoughts and actions. Even the difference between using the words how and what is significant. As you can probably tell from looking at some of the above questions, some are more goal-motivated than others, some are more exploratory, and some are more action-oriented.

Knowing what you’re looking for makes it that much easier to recognize when you come across it. Asking the right question(s) provides you with the structure you need to figure out what you’re looking for.

In a similar way, asking appropriate questions in your job search allows you to work on things like resumes, cover letters and interviews more effectively. If nothing else, give some thought to “How do I fit with this organization?” and “What contributions can I make in this position?”

Before you jump in looking for answers, know what your question is.

David Lindskoog

David is a Career Advisor at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, BC.

Read David’s blog at SFU Career Services: Dave’s Diary

Follow David on twitter: @lindenforest