{"id":33274,"date":"2018-01-23T10:47:12","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T15:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=33274"},"modified":"2018-01-22T10:49:28","modified_gmt":"2018-01-22T15:49:28","slug":"next-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2018\/01\/23\/next-steps\/","title":{"rendered":"Next Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"picture
Photographer: Diana Tyszko, U of T Digital Media Bank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nSo, you\u2019ve made it to university. Now what? Many of us, especially soon-to-be graduates, are always asked that one question that may or may not induce a quarter-life crisis: \u201cWhat are your plans after graduation?\u201d This comes in many forms. \u201cWhat are you planning to do with that degree?\u201d, \u201cAre you considering graduate school?\u201d, \u201cWhere do you want to work?\u201d\r\n\r\nBeing a fourth-year student, I grew tired of these questions pretty quickly because let\u2019s face it, none of us really know what\u2019s going to happen next. None of us really want to think about how our chosen interests are going to fund the rest of our lives and families\u2019. What we can know however, is what steps<\/em> to take next. We can know enough to be comfortable and confident in answering these unavoidable questions. We can know our goals, aspirations, and plans. If you\u2019re looking to get a head start at your career, then here\u2019s a few highlights from the Next Steps Conference last weekend.\r\n\r\nWe may think, plan, work, and apply to a number of places but if you\u2019re anything like me, when it comes to talking to professionals or any level of public speaking really, my anxiety levels are always high. Even though my architecture studio courses have given me ample presentational experience, I\u2019m still terrible with delivering my point as effectively as I want to. That\u2019s one of the reasons the conference started off with an improv session. \u00a0It all takes practice and experience I guess. You have to be comfortable and confident in yourself and what it is you want to talk about. In my case, it is usually the design project you spent all-nighters on all-nighters to pull off that needs to be known inside out in order to explain any questions that may be brought up. For interviews, CVs, and networking opportunities, that design project is you. Start this as early as possible too. We each experienced different lives so make yourself stand out.\r\n\r\nThe next item was accepting that success is not a straight line. Most of us probably know this by now but it\u2019s always reassuring to hear other successful people talk about where they started off. In most cases, your undergraduate degree should not stop you from exploring other disciples and careers. I personally find that that is one of the bigger misconceptions about university. Studying architecture? So, you\u2019ll be an architect? <\/em>\u00a0Well no. Kanye West, Tinker Hatfield, Samuel L. Jackson, and Courtney Cox are a few people who also studied architecture but look what they\u2019re doing. The advice here is to yes, pursue your passions, but also look beyond your undergraduate degree.\r\n\r\nAnother point presented was that thinking like an entrepreneur doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you\u2019re going to suddenly be a successful businessman\/woman. It can mean being successful in your own field by simply applying some of the principals of it. U of T actually offers short and useful workshops on this that you can check out in this calendar<\/a>. I highly recommend getting familiar with the jargon of the business world.\r\n\r\nChange is inevitable. One of my major fears is paying off these debts I\u2019m accumulating. Something that\u2019s helped is applying to everything<\/em>. Scholarships, grants, jobs \u2013 even if you feel like you don\u2019t qualify as much, it is always worth a shot. Especially with the growing number of precarious work (temporary or part-time jobs), you need to be prepared and accepting of fluctuating circumstances, even within a company you may be working for. Often times, where you can come in is by finding opportunities by filling the gap, finding a need for missing information, research, services, or products. And why even stay rooted in Toronto, or even Canada? Go out there and explore your options. A little research can help you figure out what country you may like to work in (or go back to) and how to get there. That\u2019s one of the great things about a U of T degree. It\u2019s recognized globally. This also makes our alumni network that much richer.\r\n\r\nLastly, even though I can\u2019t wait for that walk on stage at Convocation Hall, I need to remember that U of T will still be here after I\u2019m long gone into \u201cthe real world\u201d, that it will be a part of who I have shaped into - and that I can utilise this connection for a lifetime.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\n
\nSo, you\u2019ve made it to university. Now what? Many of us, especially soon-to-be graduates, are always asked that one question that may or may not induce a quarter-life crisis: \u201cWhat are your plans after graduation?\u201d This comes in many forms.…\n<\/div>
Continue reading “Next Steps”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
Continue reading “Next Steps”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":330,"featured_media":33276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7206,59,66,67,12683,68,77],"tags":[1905,2224,329,552,603,7256,12522,25507,6156,25510],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/330"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33274"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33296,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33274\/revisions\/33296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}