Personal & Professional Development

Now that SFU is reopening, many of you may be excited to kickstart your social life again! We want you to feel confident about how to get involved, make friends and feel fulfilled - in clubs, peer leadership, volunteer, jobs or work.

Co-op can be an exciting, rewarding, and terrifying experience. Sometimes, we wish we could tell things to our past self, get advice from our future self or just reflect on how far we've come. In this blog, Katie writes letters to her past, present, and future selves about her co-op journey and the progress she's made. 

Taylor's seen the highs and lows of working from home and is here to tell you all about what worked and what didn't as he supported Vancouver Coastal Health as a Junior Business Analyst. Read on to learn from his carefully thought-out tips and tricks for making the most of a remote work term.

Curious about what Sustainable Energy Engineering co-op is like? Hear from two Senior SEE students, Danielle Arciaga & Kia Brownridge about their co-op experiences as they near graduation. 

In the process of searching for a Co-op job, you may be thinking “an 8-month co-op seems so long, so a 4-month position is probably the way to go”. Read on for Marilyn's reasons why an 8-month Co-op can be so much more rewarding. 

Former SLC English as Additional Language Peer Bessie W. returns with tips and tricks for writing a professional email. Just in time to help you reach out to your professor or TA to get clarification on those first assignments...

When students enter their first or second Co-op work term, there can be a risk of falling into student mindset traps. These are the habits we pick up as students that are detrimental to our professional performance and development. Read on to learn more about how Bowen learned to avoid student mindset traps after four Co-op semesters working for three different companies.

As a Marketing and Communications Intern at Schneider Electric’s Solar Business, I’ve gotten the opportunity to work with so many professionals around the world. Don’t worry, it’s not as stressful as it sounds. In this blog, I'll talk about some of the things I've learned while working for a multinational Fortune 500 company.

Have you ever wanted to host a Zoom meeting of your own? With a bit of practice, Sinead shows how you can easily learn this versatile tool and pull off virtual meetings and events with confidence.

Searching for Co-op and wondering what it’s like working for SFU? How about working for SFU Health & Counselling (SFU HCS) during the pandemic? Read as Christy recounts her Co-op experience at SFU HCS and how it has helped her enhance well-being while helping other students.

Roop was on her way home from school when a new passenger boarded the bus. Using a creative, short story narrative, she takes us through her internal dialogue and challenges assumptions. Read on to learn where this journey ends up taking Roop.

Throughout this past year, I got to try out a variety of roles working in completely different industries. While all of my positions were marketing-related, each of them tackled a different aspect of digital marketing, challenging me to grow personally and professionally. In this article, I describe my entire Co-op journey and the things I learned along the way. 

Thea translates the knowledge she gained from her Co-op work term as a Student Obesity Medicine Assistant, and with the added contextual challenge of the pandemic, shows how she uses these tips and tricks to improve her personal health. Read on to learn more about her clever advice and see how you can easily incorporate them into your daily life.

Fourth-year Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies student Ghezal Durrani’s story is that of determination, perseverance, and resilience despite the odds typically stacked against those who immigrate to Canada in similar circumstances. Reflecting upon her past as a teenage bride, her experience with education, and her life’s journey (so far), Ghezal’s story is nothing short of inspiring.

Aleeze reflects on a major career decision that led her to switch majors from Businesss to SIAT and how that positively affected her life.

Elene tells all about her experience within the SIAT program and how it helped her develop a sense of community.