Seasonal Holiday Jobs!

The holidays are coming up and many of you will be done for the semester or on holiday breaks. Why not make use of your free time and get a job to help pay for any presents you are planning on giving or saving up for when you go back to school? We thought we would list off a few quick tips to help you get started.

Many of the jobs that will be available are going to be retail stores who hire seasonal staff to help with their high volume during the holiday season. If you want to work at your favorite clothing store you need to start looking now because many stores are already hiring!

-Go walk around the closest mall or shopping district to see if they are hiring. Many places will have a “Now Hiring” sign. Make sure you ask a manager for an application form because many stores require you to fill one out in addition to handing in your resume.

–Update your resume and if you don’t have work experience, volunteer work will suffice! If you don’t have a resume make an appointment with one of our Resource Advisors who can help you work on one. Give us (Connections Youth Resource Centre) a call at 604-271-7600 and we will help you!

-If you are going to include an objective on your resume don’t make it a generic one as easy as it may be. Customize it to the position and company you are applying for. Don’t forget to do a spell-check as well as check your contact information. You don’t want to have the wrong phone number on their because they won’t be able to call you for an interview! For more resume tips click here.

–Cover letters are necessary and should be something you always send with your resume. For cover letter tips click here!

-When you go drop off your resume make sure to ask for a manager. It is also best to go at a time where the store is not busy-mornings are really good times to have a chance to speak to a manager. They will probably ask you a few questions so be prepared for a pre-screening mini-interview! Why do you want to work here? What do you know about our store? What do you think customer service is? Those are all questions that could easily be asked!

–Dress appropriately for the interview. One step up from what other people in the position you are applying for is a good indicator. You still want to follow the style of the clothes they sell at the store but you also want to look clean and polished. Having 3 copies of your resume when you go on your interview is also suggested. Why 3? One for you and two just in case you have two interviewers!

-Make sure you let your references know that you are going for an interview and tell them where and what position it is. Don’t forget to thank them regardless of whether you get the job or not. Have the contact information ready for the interview because they are most likely going to ask you for the references there.

Keep in mind these are just a few tips and that every employer is different. The same approach you use for one job may not work for the next! For more job tips or to discuss other issues with job search please see us at Connections Youth Resource Centre! We look forward to hearing from you!

Show your spirit!

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics will be coming to us in less than 100 days! One of the things that I am quite passionate about is volunteering. I myself was recently offered a volunteer position with VANOC in Whistler for the whole month of February! Through volunteering I have been able to share my experiences, hopes and passions with other people while making a difference in my community. I have done lots of different types of volunteer work in the past including community centres, Canadian Cancer Society and at my current place of work: Richmond Youth Service Agency (RYSA).

When I was just volunteering here I helped out with the U-Connect Crew’s U-Write Team to create Clix. It was quite a task starting from scratch and learning as I went along but my team of youth really helped me out and I could see how strongly bonded they became. I also feel like I became a stronger person because they remind me to have fun and remember I’m still young!

Since I was giving a lot of my time to the project, RYSA staff members encouraged me to apply for one of their summer student positions. It was a hard choice but I ended up becoming the Assistant Youth Activities Worker for Summer 2009. I worked on several projects but my main goal was to design and run a successful summer camp which would be affordable. Thus, Backyard Adventures! was born and to me, I succeeded. I also continued to work with the U-Connect Crew but with all of the teams. With the U-Do Crew, one of the most successful fundraising projects was when we decided to have a food booth at the Steveston Salmon Festival where we raised hundreds of dollars for RYSA!

Now, I am finishing up my last semester majoring in Communication and minoring in Publishing at Simon Fraser University. I was also able to take on a part-time position for the fall. I am an Employment Resource Advisor with the Connections Youth Resource Centre here at RYSA where I help out with resumes, cover letters, mock interviews and more. What is my overall point to this short story of my volunteer experiences? Volunteering is good for you! Not only have I met lots of amazing people, learned more about myself and gave back to my community but it has also led to a great employment opportunity. Show your spirit and find a place where you can thrive!

To volunteer at the Richmond Youth Service Agency please click here to be redirected to the website!

Welcome!

On behalf of the Richmond Youth Service Agency and all of our employees, thank you for coming to our brand-new blog. Here you will find a little bit of everything ranging from successful client stories to issues that we are concerned about to posts written by some of our youth volunteers and staff. We hope that you will check up on our blog and share with us stuff that we might find interesting too!