This document outlines the agenda and expectations for COMM 202 Career Fundamentals tutorial with Grace Jin. It includes an introduction to the TA, course expectations around professionalism and assignments. Students are asked to create a skills matrix identifying their strengths and failures through STAR stories. They will develop drafts for an in-class activity and are given action items including signing up for office hours and booking career coaching. The TA provides her contact details and encourages students to reach out with any questions.

1. COMM 202
Career Fundamentals
T28 & T29
with Grace Jin
Jan 10, 2018

2. ADMIN
www.tinyurl.com/202tinder
We need your emails to send you reminders!
Please go to this link and fill out the
information (60 seconds)
Please bring your name cards to tutorial, this is how I
will be tracking your attendance and participation!

3. AGENDA
1. Attendance
2. Intro to your TA
3. Course expectations
4. Skills Matrix
5. Activity
6. Action items

4. I. WHO AM I?

5. Extracurricular
involvements &
Professional work
experience
ON THE SURFACE

6. Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4
SCMP
Program
COMM 202

7. BELOW THE SURFACE
Personality type
Interests
Failures

8. PERSONALITY ASSESSMENTS
Myers Briggs
ESTJExtroverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging
• “Good order is the foundation of all things”
• Values honesty, dedication, and dignity
• Stick to principles
• Willing to dive into the most challenging projects
• May find it hard to relax and can be stubborn
• Excellent organizers & enjoys creating order
StrengthsQuest
Activator
Discipline
Relator
Significance
Focus
• I enjoy order, structure, and routine
• I can easily put thoughts into actions
• I like working with others to achieve goals
• I will always follow through and meet deadlines

9. OTHER INTERESTS

10. MY FAILURES
Failure is the start of your comeback story.
After my first year, I applied to more
than 10 different summer internships
and was rejected by all of them…
I just had my McKinsey interview last
Friday and did not get the offer…

11. MY FAILURES
Failure is the start of your comeback story.
After my first year, I applied to more
than 10 different summer internships
and was rejected by all of them…
I just had my McKinsey interview last
Friday and did not get the offer…
I landed my Summer internship at
Sandstorm after my third year
without a formal interview because I
had developed strong relationships
and maximized my opportunities.
It doesn’t stop here! I’m working to
apply the feedback given to me to
reapply in September again.

12. II. COURSE EXPECTATIONS

13. …a safe place to practice
Treat this course like….

14. PROFESSIONALISM MATTERS
Contributing and sparking in-class
discussions
• Using proper in-class/email etiquette
• Being punctual and prepared for each
class
• Not using technology during class
(unless needed)
• NOT plagiarizing
What this looks like in class:
10% of
your grade

15. …BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN’T BE YOURSELF
In fact, you should!
• It makes you more relatable and
likeable
• It helps you build trust and form
relationships
• You’ll be happier and most satisfied in
your professional pursuit

16. WEEKLY TUTORIAL ASSIGNMENTS
For most tutorials, you will have to prepare one assignment, such
as…
• StrengthsQuest reflection (today!)
• Skills Matrix draft/presentation
• LinkedIn Profile
• Job Posting Research
• Resume & Cover Letter draft
Each assignment is worth ~2% for a total of 10% in the course
Assignments will be collected in the first 5 minutes of class.
All assignments handed in late will receive a grade of zero!

17. III. PUTTING TOGETHER YOUR SKILLS
MATRIX

18. WHAT YOU NEED TO DO For the Skills Matrix assignment, you will need to
produce two sets of deliverables:
1. 6 positive STAR stories
2. 2 failure stories
*Rubric can be found on the COMM 202 blog: Assignments > Skills Matrix > Marking Rubric (bottom of page)

19. Skills Matrix (positive STAR & failure stories)
Week 6 – 8: Cover Letter
Week 6 – 8: Resume
Week 10 – 12: Interview
The Skills Matrix will help
you to clearly articulate your
experiences and strengths to
employers during the
application and interview
process.
It will act as the foundation
for the rest of your
professional toolkit.
Professional
toolkit
WHY IS THE SKILLS MATRIX IMPORTANT?

20. A positive STAR story is a structured
example of a time when you
exhibited a personal strength or skill.
WHAT ARE POSITIVE STAR STORIES?

21. • Activator
• Individualization
• Competition
• Restorative
• Woo
Strengths Quest themes Skills
• Initiative, leadership, efficiency
• Empathy, perceptiveness, thoughtfulness
• Passion, determination, work ethic
• Problem solving, critical thinking,
• Persuasion, influence, communication
Step #1: Translating your skills into strengths

22. Situation
• Context
• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Where?
Task
• The objective,
issue or
obstacle you
had to over
come.
• Why is this
story
significant?
Action
• The “how”
• What did you
consider/ do to
overcome the
situation
• What skills
were applied
• Your vs. team
actions
Result
• What was the
result of your
actions/
decisions?
• How are they
relevant to the
skill/job?
• Needs to be
employer
centric
Link
• The Lesson
• How will I use
this in the
future?
Skill demonstrated: Initiative
Fill out the 5 areas for each of your skills
Step #2: Communicating your skills with “STAR”
statements

23. Situation
•Canadian Tire
summer internship
•Brand Marketing
department,
specifically
Innovation
•Tested for Life in
Canada consumer
program (Tested,
for short)
Task
•Tested program was a
convoluted process
that involved 27 steps
with several internal
and external
stakeholders, I saw an
opportunity to help
speed up the process
•Never been done
before, my manager
was on the fence
about implementing a
project management
tool
Action
•I asked my manager to
give me the green light
on initiating this project
Evaluated the current
process, lag time
between different
communication
channels from various
stakeholders
Shortlisted potential
project management
tools by creating a
criteria that was suitable
for my team
Reached out to Trello
Sales Team and they
walked me through
several demos
I presented this solution
to my senior manager
Result
•Trello was
implemented in my
team, and I helped
other team
members
•The Tested team is
now using Trello as
an interim tool
solution as they
build a tool from
scratch
•Other marketing
teams began using
Trello as well
Link
•Be observant in
the work place,
especially as a
newcomer
•Looking for fresh
solutions can
propel team
productivity
Skill demonstrated: Initiative
Fill out the 5 areas for each of your skills
Step #2: Communicating your skills with “STAR”
statements (example)

24. What is a failure story?
A failure story is an example of a time
when something went wrong and the
lessons you learned and steps you took
to correct the issue.
These types of questions are very likely
to come up in interviews – and ones
that you definitely need to prepare
ahead of time for!
What is a failure story?

25. Situation
• Context
• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Where?
Misstep
• What did I
do wrong?
• How am I
accountabl
e for the
mistakes
made?
Failure
• What
happened
as a result
of my
actions?
Lesson
• What did I
learn
through
this
failure?
Action Steps
• How did I
overcome
OR what
will I do
now?
How to create a failure story

26. How to create a failure story
Situation
• Entered the
National
Consulting
Case
Competition
with a team
3 others
• This was the
first case
competition
for most of
us
Misstep
• Before
presenting, I
started to
psych myself
out and loss
confidence
in myself,
became very
nervous.
• During the
presentation
, I forgot
what I was
going to say
Failure
• As a result,
our
presentation
did not have
a cohesive
story line
and we did
not make it
into the
finals
Lesson
• I learned
two things:
1) believe in
yourself is
extremely
important,
and 2) we
are all
human and
it’s OK to
mess up
Action Steps
• I was resilient
and didn’t let
this
experience
deter me
from entering
into other
case
competitions
• I practiced
with other
smaller-scaled
competitions
and re-
entered the
following year
How to create a failure story (example)

27. What a good failure story will demonstrate
Resilience Authenticity Ability to Learn
✓ ✓ ✓
What a good failure story will demonstrate

28. RSVP for office
hours on
COOL
1. Tuesday, Jan 23rd
12:30 – 2pm
2. Tuesday, Jan 30th
4 - 5:30pm
3. Thursday, Feb 1st
12:30 – 2pm
Locations have not been
confirmed, but will be
somewhere in Henry Angus

29. IV. ACTIVITY

30. What a good failure story will demonstrate
Take out your notebook/piece of paper and answer these
following questions…
1. What is a career path that you have always wanted to pursue, but feel
intimidated or discouraged from actually pursuing it?
In other words – if money wasn’t an issue, what would you be doing?
2. What does success mean to you?
3. I want you to visualize a typical work day that is 5 years from now. Describe your
surroundings, who you’re talking to, and what kind of state are you in? Do not write
your job title or the company name.

31. What a good failure story will demonstrateACTION ITEMS
1. One on one signups (optional) with me: www.tinyurl.com/202dates
2. Skills Matrix drafts due in tutorial on the week of Jan 22nd at the start of class: 2
positive and 1 failure stories (you will be presenting this in small groups)
3. Final Skills Matrix copy due before 11:59PM on Jan 31st on Turnitin: 6 positive
and 2 failure stories
4. Pay course fee @ HA 443
5. Book your BCC coaching appointment!
6. Next week is lecture!

32. What a good failure story will demonstrateHow to get in touch with me
Email: comm202.10@sauder.ubc.ca
1-on-1: sign ups available here for timeslots (email
me if you can’t make these times:
www.tinyurl.com/202dates)
Tutorials: feel free to approach me before or after
Office hours: available throughout the term as
assignments come up
Call me
maybe?

33. Any Questions?