Mira Saraf

When I was elected as vice-president of communications for the McGill International Student Network (MISN), I was told that my role would be akin to a part-time job. In reality, my role was so much more.

The behaviours employers expect of you will vary from company to company, but here are a few things to think about when you’re interacting with others at the workplace.

We would go through the textbook chapter by chapter, breaking down concepts to simper and simpler levels, and compiling notes for him to study from. Yet week after week he bombed quizzes, coming back more and more frustrated.

“Employers tend to really like international experience, particularly if you can frame it as beneficial to a specific position,” says David Common, a CBC correspondent who went on exchange to Sweden during university.

Think about past successes, examine your core values, look at past and potential contributions, identify your future goals, and combine all four of these elements into your personal mission statement. Although you won’t share anything but your career goals with a potential employer, the rest of the mission statement is a tool for you personally.

This question is not a chance to confess your sins or deep personal truths, but an opportunity to share what is as an “area of development.” So, how do you put a positive spin on a negative quality and impress the interviewer?

One of the toughest things as a recent graduate or someone who’s still in school is that you have a smaller pool of examples to choose from. Use examples from past internships, classes, activities, team involvements, community service and work experience.

I started to realize I could not bear the thought of spending the rest of my life staring at an Excel screen and crunching numbers for a living. My mind was crowded with numbers and allocation strategies, so there was no room left for creativity.

Interpersonal discord can dilute the quality of your work life, distract you from primary objectives, and hinder your development within an organization. Even if your boss or peers behave inappropriately, it’s never productive to respond unprofessionally – as satisfying as it might feel in the short run.