Jen has had a long history at Camosun, starting out as a student and moving through several roles before landing as a Co-op and Internship Coordinator (in the Applied Learning, Co-op and Career department) for the School of Business students. “It’s probably been 28 years since I came to Camosun as a business administration diploma student. I enrolled in the Co-op option because, while I had a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Victoria (UVic), I struggled to gain career related experience. But I observed several friends start their careers through Co-op and I wanted to gain some practical skills. At first, I considered human resources, but ultimately, I ended up specializing in general management and information systems.”
During the program, Jen landed two Co-op work terms- back-to-back work terms, to run a summer wage subsidy program for post-secondary students, then her dream job: a position reporting to the director of the Co-op department as Camosun had won the RFP to administer this provincial program for the Southern Island region. “That director was an amazing mentor who helped guide me through to where I wanted to take my career.
I wanted to stay at Camosun in Co-op, but they did not have a career center at the time. Then the Counseling and Co-op departments decided to build it in the Co-op department because they had the employer connections.” The timing was perfect for Jen. “I was just finishing my business diploma, had been working in the Co-op roles, and had a degree, so when they posted an opportunity to be part of creating the new Student and Alumni Employment Services, I was hired. The team was just me and one other person, but it eventually grew as we started to gain momentum.”
Over the course of her career working in the Co-op and Career department, Jen worked as an Employment Facilitator for a number of portfolios, which included Arts and Science Co-op for eight years, moved over to Business and Sport for a short time, then landed in Technologies where she stayed for about five years. “Then another director encouraged me to go get my master’s degree. I enrolled in the Simon Fraser University (SFU) Master of Education program and spent every second Saturday and Friday in a classroom with a cohort of 18 people, most of them from Camosun which was an awesome experience. Then, after being at the college for almost 20 years while I was enrolled in the master’s program, an opportunity for a faculty position over in the Continuing Education and Contract Training (CECT) department came up. I applied and was successful, and that’s what started my career as a faculty member here at the college.”
Jen worked in CECT for three years. “I was managing and creating programs, hiring instructors, meeting with people who want to develop new courses – it was a vast role. And since I was working on my master’s, I was able to lean into that as I worked on curriculum development.” Then, in March 2020, COVID hit, and ultimately the department was shut down. It was hard for Jen, but she said she was also in a strange way grateful because she could reevaluate what she really wanted to do. “While I was waiting in the layoff process, I was approached by classmates from my SFU Masters program who worked at Camosun Innovates, and they recommended me to the Director – who was looking for a research and grant writer. I successfully applied for the temporary position and dived deep into research and proposal writing for various government grants which was another wonderful experience.”
Eventually Jen ended up full circle back in a Co-op coordinator position in Applied Learning, Co-operative Education and Career Services. “When I started, I walked around the hallway talking to some of my past instructors who I also knew as colleagues, so it was a nice transition.” In addition, Jen feels she can relate to the students in the School of Business, having been one herself. “I know what it’s like to not know what your future holds but to believe that if you work hard and build the necessary tools to effectively job search, you will achieve your career goals, so it’s a rewarding job for me.”
One of the nice things Jen has been able to do over the past 28 years is work with people from across the college. “I have always been interdisciplinary, studying psychology and science then jumping to business. I’ve never been afraid to explore, investigate, and connect with other programs, which was important as an employment facilitator because you’re networking with employers representing a array of industries. And while I was not a subject matter expert in every student’s program, I had to understand those programs in order to help students with their resumes, sometimes by talking to the instructors themselves about their courses.”
Today Jen continues to work with and encourage students. “In my current role as Co-op and Internship Coordinator, I teach the Career Development course, and act as a program coordinator through my liaison with the School of Business. I am involved in the school curriculum meetings when they are considering new programs and deciding whether to include some form of applied learning, and I hire our Co-op field instructors from the School. I also run information sessions for prospective students and do presentations in classes, mostly for first-year courses. So, the job is half teaching and half managing.
I asked if Jen could tell me a bit more about the Career Development (CDEV) course. “CDEV is a prerequisite for the Co-op program. It’s a seven-week course, designed to prepare students readiness to target their job search and applications towards their industry of interest. We discuss how to network with the industry and bring in employers and alumni for our students to practice their networking skills on. All this leads to a mock interview clinic, where students participate in a one-on-one mock interview with a guest employer, and they finish the course with an effective tool kit for career search that’s hopefully elevated their confidence.”
I asked Jen what employers student engage with in her CDEV courses. “Since Accounting is one area we work with, we have many CPA firms come in, but also people who work within government or other organizations. We have people who represent companies looking for marketing students, for example, the Malahat Skywalk. And we have human resource professionals as well.” But Jen explained that alumni from the various programs are one of the biggest groups of employers coming in. “After each session, we ask the guests to share their final thoughts and advice with the students, and the alumni from our Co-op program share how beneficial it was to do Co-op. In addition, we’ve had many international students come through the program who are now Canadians who have become successful in their own careers and come back to mentor the next group of students some of whom may be nervous, being international themselves.”
I wondered what Jen likes most about teaching. “When I was in high-school, I was the one helping my friends figure out what kind of job they should apply for – I just love helping people find their career.” And Jen also loves reading resumes. “When I read a resume, I am getting to know someone. I read up to 32 in every CDEV section, sometimes teaching four sections a term, which is a lot of resumes. But what keeps me going is that every single one of those resumes is a person who I want to be successful in whatever it is they pursue.” And over time, Jen has become more comfortable with teaching. “When I started, the idea of teaching was scary, but one of my mentors told me how she mentally prepared herself to stand in front of an audience. In addition, the Instructional Skills Workshop helped me gain confidence in my teaching, which has also come with practice, age and wisdom.”
I asked Jen if there were some specific memories from her years at Camosun she would like to share. “What’s become clear to me is that the department that the Applied Learning, Cooperative Education, Career Services areas resonate with me the most. I feel very fortunate to have found a career I’m passionate about. I’m also thankful to have had the opportunity to work in so many different areas at the college – I don’t feel shy walking into a big college event because I always meet someone I’ve worked with before. And, of course, I love seeing where our students land after they graduate watching some of them come back to our classrooms to inspire current students. Every year we also select a Co-op student of the year and get to know these students a bit more because we work with them on the award application.”
I wondered, after all her years and roles at Camosun, what kind of advice Jen had for both faculty and students coming to the college. “For faculty, be open to connecting with people. It’s easy to become siloed, so take advantage of opportunities to engage with others from across the college, like taking the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW). For students, be inquisitive and try not to give up when things seem really hard. I feel for our current students because they are overloaded with multiple classes, working fulltime, then as part of Co-op they are taking CDEV, and applying to positions as well, so I just try to encourage them to keep the momentum going because once they land a job, some of this will ease up.”
As we came to the end of our time together, Jen had some final words for me. “When I was considering careers years ago, I was originally wanting to be a high school career counselor, but then I landed at the college, and I’m so grateful for this because students coming to the college choose to be here.