Proposal Writing 101: The Art of the \”Ask\”
May 8, 2018What’s New
May 8, 2018University Wisdom
Vanessa McCallum
Zermatt Press, 2007
ISBN: 13: 978 0 9775080
As a university career advisor, I highly anticipated reading this book to see how the author would outline the services and resources available to students in their preparation for life beyond the campus grounds. This book provides students with motivational tips and advice on how to survive campus life in an easy-to-read, simplistic style. The author talks about social influences and indicators to measure success, and how to find the balance between them. These influences include everyday school life, financial income and dependency, family dynamics, health concerns, and overall freedom. She also shares her own life-lessons which gives the book a sense of realism. Unfortunately, many services offered within a university were not mentioned (i.e. counselling, tutorial, career advising).
Even without the action plan format I as a reader was hoping for, the average student will appreciate the key summary notes included in each section. In addition, the book does provide several inspiring quotes and helpful hints that students may have never considered. For instance, the author talks about the essence of effective learning; how important it is to attend a class lecture and watch the professor deliver the information rather than obtaining the notes at a later date. The resource also includes advice for studying for exams, balancing your finances, choosing a major, and the importance of realizing “you need more than the incentive of money to do well in a career” (pg. 38).
Whereas the book’s intended practical tips on campus survival (ie. time management, budgeting) and career preparation (ie. CV writing, networking) were minimal and buried in the chapters, the book has many life lessons students can extract from in a quick skim-through fashion.
Linda Cicuta is a career advisor at McGill’s Career and Placement Service and has spent over 10 years in the career education and recruiting field. Prior to joining the academic setting, Linda worked in the human resources consulting field, allowing her to bring key knowledge of recruiting practices in the public and private sectors to students. Throughout her career she has always engaged in program development, project management, event planning, outreach to industry, and in providing training sessions.