Students

When you first start a co-op term, there will be a lot to learn. A new organization, new coworkers, and brand-new tasks mean that you’ll spend your first month or so getting oriented and comfortable with your role.

But as time goes on through your work term, you’ll start to find opportunities to really prove your worth to your coworkers, supervisors, and organization. The benefits of taking advantage of these opportunities are huge—in co-op, it could mean the difference between being hired permanently after your work term, or not.

So how do you go above and beyond at work, and prove that you’re a super valuable member of your team? Here are some strategies to do just that.

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You’ve written a killer resume, crafted a successful cover letter, and applied to a great job. Your hard work has paid off, and the employer has called you to set up a job interview.

The job interview is your first real opportunity to meet with HR or hiring managers at the organization you want to work for. It’s the first time you get to really talk with them and share your achievements, and their first chance to assess your experience and personality for the job. A lot is riding on an interview—so it’s really easy to get nervous about them.

But being nervous during an interview isn’t necessarily a good thing. Being nervous can mean having shaky hands, stumbling over your words, or being unable to think clearly. It can make your interview much more difficult. Luckily, there are tons of ways of dealing with nervousness, so you can walk into the interview room calm, composed, and confident. Here are some ways to combat interview nervousness.

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Look, we get it—writing resumes is hard. You’re putting together a document that lists your work history and experiences in the hopes that it will be good enough to land you a new job. Often, you’re doing so without having any relevant experience to the job you’re applying to, which adds a whole new level of stress and confusion.

And then there are the job descriptions. A list of the places you’ve worked and the tasks you did while you were there. As students, this often means describing retail, service industry, or food service jobs. How can you possibly make those job descriptions relevant?

Luckily, we have great news for you: there is an easy way of writing job descriptions. There’s even a formula. And today, we’re going to share it with you.

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The portfolio is a key part of your job hunt toolkit. It’s a way of showing employers what kind of work you do and the accomplishments you’ve made. We’ve written a guide to building your first portfolio here. The main takeaways from that article? Think about your audience, think about the work you want to be doing, and make it look good.

But a portfolio is not a static item, and like all your job search materials, you should update it regularly. How do you bring your portfolio up-to-date and make it extra shiny for employers? Read on!

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In the past decade or so, the landscape of a job search has changed dramatically. We’ve gone from traditional door-to-door job searches to internet searches; real-life boards with jobs printed out and posted to digital job boards with hundreds of jobs listed. And while the internet has helped the job seeker in so many ways—hello, LinkedIn—it’s also created a challenge: in the digital world, how do you stand out from all the other applicants out there?

One way of doing so is to go back to basics. There’s nothing wrong with electronic job boards, but it is really hard to stand out to employers when you use them. Knowing how to job search without using a job board is a useful skill, and so today we’re going to talk about three alternatives to use in your job search.

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