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The Ivey Career Management Podcast shares practical career advice, alumni insights, and expert perspectives to help Ivey students and graduates navigate their careers with confidence.
[Auto-generated transcript. Edits may have been applied for clarity.]
Welcome to the Career Management Podcast, where we bring you stories and strategies from students, special guests and the Career Management team.
Make yourself comfortable and let's get started.
We know that most of our Ivey students sign offers for internships and full time work between the months of January to August.
And that means there's still lots of opportunities heading into spring and the summer.
I asked our undergraduate Career Mentors what advice they'd give or what they actually stopped,
started, and continued doing to make their recruitment journey a success.
Stop worrying about what everyone around you is doing. Everyone's recruiting journey is going to look different.
Just focus on yourself and what you have to offer.
Stop applying to everything. You want to come in with your best energy and make sure to remember quality over quantity.
Stop trying to be the perfect candidate. There's no such thing. Recruiters love authenticity, and that's definitely the way to go.
Start reflecting on your super-powers and super-passions.
Find out what makes you special and unique, and find a way to highlight them as you recruit.
Start applying for things outside of your comfort zone.
Just because you don't meet all of the job qualifications doesn't mean you're not a great candidate.
Start looking at your network beyond recruitment. These people are just like you and they can help you through advice or just being there for you.
Continue to remember recruiting isn't a sprint, but a marathon.
It's best to show up consistently instead of overexerting yourself and pulling all nighters.
Also, continue to be resilient. I know that getting many no's can be really difficult, but it only takes one yes to be employed, so keep going.
Exactly. Continue to put yourself out there. Don't let 1 or 10 rejections stop you.
It's all part of the recruiting process and something is bound to stick. Continue to find what you're truly passionate about.
For you, that may look like consulting profit once per week, reading finance guides once per week,
or even having three coffee chats that week. Work towards your end goal and take it day by day.
Our next topic was what they'd stop, start, or continue doing to network effectively.
Stop approaching networking like you only have one goal in mind.
It's important to approach networking conversations as explorational, and hopefully you can get to know your network at the same time.
Stop writing long winded emails detailing your entire work history.
Conciseness is the strength here. So stop treating networking events as a game of numbers because quick conversation
won't create any meaningful connections. Stop assuming people are too busy or too senior to speak with you.
Most people are open and even excited to share their experience.
Start using club events and job fairs around Ivey as low pressure ways to meet people and start your networking journey.
Start making small talk at the beginning of the chat. You are meeting a stranger, so this will set up the conversation to feel more genuine.
Start focusing on maintaining relationships rather than just focusing on building new connections.
Start researching people before the meeting, setting up questions, and building connections.
Continue reaching out to people who have recently gone through the networking and recruitment processes, such as people in their early career,
such as Ivey alumni,
and your upper-year classmen. Continue asking for support at the end of your coffee chat on who would be the next best person for you to talk to.
For example, if the chats go really well, I would just ask them at the end by saying, "hey,
I'm really interested in X, Y, Z. Who would be the person that you recommend me to reach out to and talk more about that area?
Continue reaching out after networking events to build personal connections.
Continue getting out of my comfort zone and saying yes to meeting new people.
We then pivoted to their advice and lived experience with resumes.
Stopped overloading my resume with every experience I've ever had.
Focus on what's most relevant to the role and what tells the clearest story of your skills and impact.
Stop prioritizing a highlights section or a summary section on your resume,
and showcase what your job experience or voluntary experience that you've had for the position. Started
tailoring my resume to every single role and using actual words used in the job description in my resume.
Also, put an action verb at the beginning of every single resume
bullet point. Started getting feedback on my resume from peers;
I know it can feel very personal, but they can help you improve your resume in the long term.
Continue keeping a list of all the activities that you do on a job or volunteer
experience, so that when it comes to resume writing time, you can easily reference back to them.
Continue treating my resume like a living document. Ask for feedback from mentors and peers.
Update it regularly and focus on results, not just responsibilities.
Our final topic was interviews. Stop over explaining.
Be short, punchy and impactful. Stop saying what you think the interviewer wants to hear.
They really want to hear about your experiences, so don't script it. Stop going off topic in your interviews.
Instead of rambling, be intentional and structured in what you're saying so you don't confuse the interviewers.
Start using tactics to connect with your interviewer that feel authentic to you.
I like to use humour and vulnerability. Also, start viewing interviews as a two-way street.
They are interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them. If there's not a culture fit, that's okay.
Start treating an interview like a conversation. Start preparing for unexpected or complex questions you may be asked during the interview.
You can do this by asking past students who interviewed at the same company that you feel more confident when you go in.
Continue using your Ivey homework as case prep. As you're reading through the case, stop every paragraph and think, what information do I need?
What do I have and how can I use it? This helps prep perfectly for case interviews.
Continue practicing with your friends and give each other feedback. It will make interviews feel much more natural.
Continue creating interview documents with notes to help you prepare for your interviews.
This can include research about the company, the role,
as well as an experiences bank that details your past roles and how it connects to the one you're applying to.
You might have noticed that some tips for one area of recruiting might work well in another.
Use this advice freely and at any stage of your recruitment journey.
Thank you for listening. If you're ready for the next step, check out another episode.
Book a one on one coaching session via 12Twenty, or get connected with a student Career Mentor through your Learn community.
No matter what's next, you've got this. Take good care.