Algonquin Career Week – Innovation & Connections
Algonquin’s Career Week is underway. I was fortunate enough to be a speaker yesterday along with many others. My 45 min. presentation focused on Developing Your Online Personal Brand. You can find the presentation on Slideshare and I will be presenting it again on Thursday at 2:30pm. I digress…
I had hoped to attend the session The Future of Careers in Science, Technology & Engineering by Louis Lamontagne but I was called into a meeting and could not make it. While I was checking Twitter after my meeting, I found a link from the Algonquin Students Association of a video version of the presentation. I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and was thrilled to see Algonquin being innovative in the use of new tools to share information and promote learning.
As I listened to his insights and words of advice there were many comments that struck a cord with me. At several points in his presentation he noted the importance of ‘distinguishing’ yourself as a candidate for a position. His words of advice included adapt and be flexible, be enthusiastic, ask questions, show interest, and get involved. One of our key messages to our students is about showing initiative.
At the end of his presentation, he stressed the importance of revealing to employers that as a candidate you should be well-rounded. He then suggested getting involved in sports, pick up hobbies and doing volunteer work and overall all to ‘milk this place (the college)’ while you are there. Like Lamontage, we strongly believe that students should be extracting and seeking out experiences during their time at school. In the end, your goal as a candidate is to distinguishing yourself from the crowd and it takes actions and commitment to do that. I definitely connected with Lamontage’s view and hope to meet him in person one day soon.

We’re on the verge of a new academic term which is very exciting for us. Within days we will have another 500+ users on the Winter 2010 version of WhyHire.me. More users, more schools and a lot more changes! A little daunting at times as we have worked into the wee hours but so incredibly exciting as we see our program grow and develop with the help of our users and their institutions.