Professional Development & Etiquette Seminar
Director of Careers & Internships, Virginie Grillet, led First Year and Master 1 students in a crash-course of email etiquette, networking basics, and time management during a seminar over orientation week.
The seminar entitled “Professional Development & Etiquette” began with an icebreaker for the students to learn more about one another. Virginie separated the students into three groups and asked them to discuss and find three things their individual group had in common. Students used a variety of tactics to discover this information including:
- Referencing physical traits such as hair/eye color, clothing, and accessories
- Beginning with “root” questions like birthplace, siblings, and pets.
- Listing “This or That” items such as coffee or tea, and books or films.
- Beginning by simply asking questions or presenting oneself to the group.
This activity served as an introduction to networking, an essential skill in building business relationships, which will prove very helpful for their future internships and jobs.
Virginie then shifted the subject to the importance of writing a professional and concise email, including an appropriate email subject, professional wording and punctuation, providing thorough information for your audience, and salutations and signatures. The groups were presented with four email examples and asked to edit them with a more professional tone, using an email etiquette list as a guide. Their edits were presented aloud and discussed.Â
To close the seminar, students were informed about the variety of ways they can stay up to date with internship opportunities, job boards, and upcoming Career and Internship events by visiting Job Teaser, LinkedIn, Hire New, etc.
The necessity of time management was also mentioned and the below helpful tips were shared by students:
- Make a to-do list, prioritizing items, and carry over any tasks not achieved to the following day.
- Retroactively plan.
- Acknowledge personal strengths and struggles within your own organization; don’t plan to work too early in the morning if you’re more productive in the evening.
- Make attainable goals; allot the appropriate amount of time to complete each task.
- Schedule your personal time, and wisely.
- Use your calendar.
- Prioritize your emails. Read emails only when you have time to digest them and respond. Mark emails as “unread” until you have a moment to respond so they are not forgotten.
All the resources for the above mentioned items, can be viewed HERE.