Graduating with Pride – and a Good Résumé

Convocation is coming! I’ve been at Carleton long enough now that I have known all of our graduating students in History and Theory of Architecture since their first year; it’s an incredibly proud moment for me when I get to see them walk across the stage and get their degrees. And it’s clearly no less exciting for them as they look back on their years here and ahead to their future, and ask themselves, ‘what’s next?’ An e-mail exchange last week with a very recent grad reminded me just how much the answer to that question flows from what students did while they were here.

At this time last year, Stephanie Mah was in the final stages of her HTA degree. A Master’s degree was clearly a possible option (see my last blog on that topic), but she was undecided about that path and so decided to look for work straight out of her B.A. And she has landed in a really enviable position. Here’s what she told me about what she’s doing now:

I’m working as a research analyst at BuzzBuzzHome, a tech start-up company that catalogues all new residential buildings in North America. My day to day work mostly consists of managing our database, going through city development proposals, keeping up to date with architect’s new projects and renderings, and connecting with builders. I’m really enjoying my job. The company has a great office environment and offers lots of growth potential.

Of course, it wasn’t blind luck that gave Steph this opportunity. While she was doing her HTA degree, she took advantage of every opportunity to broaden her experience and her connections. This included doing a Practicum (aka ARTH 3900) with the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (SSAC), which resulted in her having several short pieces published in the national magazine Canada’s History.

She also did a directed reading course in her final year, as well as attending the annual conference of the SSAC, which was held last spring in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. She is in no doubt about the benefits of taking advantage of these extracurricular opportunities (note that she also undertook some volunteer work that paid off handsomely):

Last summer I applied for a job at the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and was initially declined, but after I volunteered to write for their magazine and showed them the “Hidden Heritage” pieces they ended up offering me a paid internship as a research assistant. That put research work experience on my résumé which, I would imagine, helped get me my current job. Even writing a Directed Studies paper and attending the SSAC conference came up in my job interviews, so I think participating in as many opportunities as possible throughout your B.A is really important if you’re going straight into the workforce.

Steph’s experience illustrates something I often tell students: when you graduate and apply for a job, or for grad school, or for whatever’s next, everyone else who applies will also have a degree more or less like yours. What a prospective employer or a grad committee wants to see is what else you have – what’s on your résumé that sets you apart from the crowd. Steph’s combination of volunteerism, independent research, extracurricular activity and a very high profile Practicum outcome are just the ticket. And that’s exactly why we in HTA put so much effort into making these opportunities available to students.