This blog was is an archived post written by Aliya during her 2nd year in the Environmental Management stream.

 

 

 

In the middle of my second year, I found that I wanted to gain more experience in the environmental field, so I decided what better way to find out more on how to do that than booking a career advising appointment.

From my first year in university, I was told that Joseph Cesario was the Student Resource Assistant, who provides career advising to Environmental Studies students. You might not realize that making this visit is something you want to do in your early years of your degree. He helps with anything from informing student about bursaries, scholarships, volunteer/employment opportunities and even sitting down with you one-on-one to discuss your resume/cover letter. Moreover, there are FES (Faculty of Environmental Studies) official postings that are sent out everyday through e-mail which also inform environmental students of the plethora of opportunities out there where students can gain experience, give back to the community and/or try something new.

After booking an appointment with Joseph, I went in for my meeting. Just a couple doors down from the Work/Study student office (HNES 129), I was so surprised I never met with him before. Welcomed with a smile and hand shake, Joseph Cesario sat down with me one on one to discuss volunteer and career opportunities I wanted to pursue. My intention for the visit was to discuss more volunteering opportunities during the summer months since I wasn’t looking for a job just yet.

Joseph first asked me what kind of volunteering I was interested in. I mentioned various conservation authorities since conservation is what I am mostly interested in and right off the bat, he e-mailed me links to different conservation authority volunteer postings. Afterwards, we talked about the pros and cons about volunteering for conservation authorities and how I can go about applying.

The most important part about applying is having a decent resume and cover letter. That is what I needed help with. Prior to our meeting, I printed out a copy of my resume which Joseph and I went over together. He gave me many pointers, templates and suggestions to make my resume more appealing and presentable. I learned a lot about resume making, like how objective lines are unnecessary and quite pointless when applying for a volunteering position.

Lastly, Joseph wish me the greatest luck with my application and said that we can meet again before I finally submit. Meeting with Joseph was great help to me. It made me much more confident in the stream I want to focus on, and calmed my nerves about getting experience before applying for jobs. I recommend to any Environmental Studies student to visit Joseph whenever they can before applying for any position. He is of great help and is there with you in the process of applying along the way.