Mapping the Road Ahead A Look at One Summer Job and the Skills Developed Along the Way
By Stephanie Vicic and Brooke Browning
When it comes to planning your career path, it is tough to know what kind of summer job will give you the skills you need for future success. Even once you have had a summer job experience, it can be a challenge to identify the specific skills you have gained and shown in your work. While some skills may be obvious, others can be harder to identify. This article will help you answer these questions: What are skills? How do you describe them? What is worth adding to your resume?
In this article, we will refer to one summer job that allows university students in British Columbia to acquire a range of skills. They gain first-hand knowledge and develop skills in marketing, and do some hands-on government, community and media relations work. At the same time, they tour beautiful B.C. on an all-expenses-paid road trip!
Each summer since 2006, the BC Used Oil Management Association (BCUOMA) hires two university students as “ambassadors” to travel the province in a branded vehicle and encourage people to recycle used oil materials responsibly. Over a 13-week period, the students visit registered return collection facilities that take back materials from the public, meet with municipal and regional district contacts, take part in media interviews as spokespeople for the program, and attend community events to hand out promotional materials.
The position involves a lot of responsibility, accountability and creativity. The team has some fun while gaining valuable experience in the field of communications. At each stop on their summer road map of experience, the students build valuable and important transferable skills that will help them in their future careers. Here are some of the skills they develop.
Organization, Time Management and Attention to Detail
Throughout the summer, the students must manage monthly budgets, plan their route and schedule for travel, coordinate meetings, deliver weekly reports and meet targets set out by the client. Through this day-to-day management of their responsibilities, they hone their skills in organization, time management and strict attention to detail. Once they master these skills and keep improving them, the students have a better understanding of how to manage a project.
Writing
While school gives many students a solid foundation for writing skills, the work environment helps individuals hone those skills as they write for various audiences and outlets, including business, email, the web, blogs and other media. As ambassadors, the team must write formal, detailed summary reports of their meetings, as well as post regularly to their travel blog in a fun, catchy but informative manner. The job helps them gain valuable skills in understanding their audience and tailoring their written communications to that audience.
Effective Public Speaking
Effective public speaking is a key part of the students’ job. The ambassadors are responsible not only for public speaking in the traditional sense (making a presentation to a captive audience), but also for speaking with the public one-on-one and mastering the art of speaking with the media in an interview situation. Knowing how to deliver key messages, getting the message across in a confident, professional manner, and ensuring that their audience is engaged with what they are saying are skills that will come in handy as they navigate through the working world.
When you are looking for a summer job, try to find one that, like the BCUOMA Ambassador Program, will help you build and hone valuable skills that you will use throughout your career. By developing a range of skills early on, you will open up more career doors for yourself. Although the road ahead may be winding, and some roadblocks will appear now and then, if you have solid skills to offer you will always come across new and exciting opportunities. CO
Stephanie Vicic, a PR Account Manager at Grey Vancouver, oversees the intern co-op program, providing mentorship and helping students with their career progression.
Brooke Browning graduated from the University of Western Ontario in April 2009. She recently began working as an intern with Grey Vancouver. She finds her work to be a fantastic opportunity for acquiring skills and experience.