How to Get a Job, By Sara(h) Cosby

This week, I was invited to return to Queen's University, my alma mater, and speak to arts and science undergrads about finding a career (or not) once they graduate.

Maybe it was the free pizza and pop or maybe the students were really interested to learn about what they can do with an arts degree, but they packed a classroom - and on the night of the American election no less.

(Let me just say right now that if Sarah Palin had won the election with John McCain, I was seriously contemplating switching my given name for my middle one.)

Here are some of the issues we covered and the advice I gave:

1. What if I have no idea what I want to do after I graduate:Well, what if I don't really know what I want to do when I'm 31? Most people have the wrong idea that everyone knows what they want to do "when they grow up." No, they don't. Sure, some little girls start playing doctor with the little boys next door at the age of three and now they're surgeons, but many of us aren't sure what we want to do for the rest of our lives. It's true that since I was a little girl, I wanted to work at a newspaper, but that doesn't mean I don't also have dreams about working on a TV show, running a small B&B with my hubby in England, or hosting a radio show. I say after you graduate, if you can afford it, take a year and dabble. Teach English in China. Serve in a fancy restaurant. Volunteer in Mexico, building houses for people who are less fortunate. Train for a marathon. You've been in school since kindergarten. Take 12 months for yourself.

2. But if I take a year off, all my friends will have a career and I won't!: Oh, so what. I can tell you from experience, that one or two years aren't going to make or break you. In my group of friends, we all chose different post-university paths. Some of us went straight into the workforce, some of us went to college, some of us took multiple internships, but guess what? In the long run, it didn't matter. It's not a race. Your career (and, more importantly, your life) is about you and your pace.

3. Interview tips? The best advice I ever read is that the second you wake up on the day of your interview, the interview starts. Think about the fact you could cut off your potential boss on the highway driving to the interview, or she could see you putting your hand under your shirt and rubbing it on your armpit so you can smell it to make sure you don't have B. O. You never know who's watching you. Also spend some time in the city in which you're applying for the job. That says you want to learn more about your future home. And in the interview you can say: "As soon as I leave here, I'm actually going to zip over to Sam's Coffee Bar. They have the best lattes. I've only been here for a weekend, and I'm addicted." Also, Google your future employers and learn everything you can about them.

4. Resume tips? I don't ever want you to send me your resume if you're going to tell me you're hardworking. What else are you going to be? A lazy sloth? Tell me who you really are on your resume. If you are applying to be a newspaper entertainment writer, you should tell me you've seen 74 movies at the Screening Room, you have six magazine subscriptions and you're taking a French cooking class. That says more about who you are than telling me you're hardworking, motivated and a fast learner.

5. Final thoughts?Please, I beg of you, learn how to spell your potential employer's name: I've been Sarah Crosby, Sara Crosbie, Sara Crosby and Sara(h) Cosby. (Although, if the world turns on its head and things go horribly wrong in the U. S. in 2012 and a certain somebody becomes a major player on the world stage, you may also call me Elizabeth Crosbie.)

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You give me $50 and I spend $57

I am one of the people on our newspaper's United Way committee. The United Way raises money for numerous different non-profits in our region such as Interval House, which is our shelter for abused women.
To raise money, we've held several different events at The Whig such as a potluck lunch, a putting challenge and a Chilifest. I also did a quiz about people in our building. (I.E. Which person in the newsroom starred in a production at Queen's University that received one out of five stars from the campus paper?) Ah, that would be me. Anyways. I needed a prize to give the winner. Who doesn't love prizes? So, out of the blue, I called Fanatics, a fairly new restaurant in Kingston at the corner of Princess and Barrie streets. It's a sports bar, but nice inside. The booths have their own TVs, there are big screen TVs around the bar and the food is by the legendary Kingston cuisine family, the Days. Clark Days runs Aqua Terra in the Radisson in downtown and makes the best steaks in the city. Also, the restaurant's brunch is a bargoon: Waffles, creme brulee, fish, pasta, roast beef, dessert trays, chicken, bacon, fresh bread, it goes on and on. But that's another story. Anyway. Back to Fanatics. I called Matt Day, who is Clark's son and asked if his restaurant would donate a $10 or $15 gift certificate to be my prize for our United Way quiz.
He said no - no $10 or $15 gift certificate.
Instead, he said he'd give me $50.
This is an important offer. First of all, Fanatics is a fairly new restaurant in a large space in a downtown already inundated with restaurants. To me, it would have been understandable to give me $10. His restaurant is just starting out. Second, he doesn't know me. He really had no reason to help me other than that I said it was in support of the United Way.
So, thank you Matt and Fanatics. Your generosity already paid off.
Tonight, my family and I went to the restaurant and had a chili pizza, two glasses of red wine, bread and spinach and artichoke dip and the kid's pizza - you get unlimited drinks, pizza, pasta, chicken fingers or mini burgers, and an ice cream sundae for $6.99. The thing I love most about this "sports bar" is that they had seven red wines by the glass and we had a delicious shiraz. There are many bars in the city you can get a good red in. And we'll be back. My son loved the TVs. (And the drink menus are attached to hockey pucks, which any hockey-loving toddler will enjoy).
Pay it forward.



And here is the rest of it.

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No longer have a BF

Did you hear?
I fell off the face of the earth.
Well, that's not totally true. I just fell off the blogging world.

It's sorta like this: Tomatoes have always been my favourite food. I eat them on everything: bagels, potatoes, tacos, eggs, cheese. Then, starting in 2007, I just stopped buying them. All of a sudden they were acidic and just not that tasty.

Back in February, when I stopped blogging, it was beginning to feel like a chore. Family and friends were e-mailing and calling to question why I wasn't writing enough. More! they demanded.

So, of course, I gave them less.

Blogging, for awhile, seemed acidic. It was making me tired and irritable and I just didn't feel like doing it.

Today, for some reason, I felt like typing a tad.

So, I'll give you the quickie update and I promise to give you more in the days to come, OK?

1. Ran my first 10-kilometre race last weekend in 1 hour, 53 seconds. Damn those 53 seconds.

2. Went to the Ontario Newspaper Awards last month. I was nominated for best humour writing for my columns that appear in the Kingston Whig-Standard. Lost to a dad from Guelph who penned a piece on his vasectomy. I'm psychic though. I just knew I was going to lose to him. Still, I got a nice runner-up trophy. And I looked pretty. And looking pretty is all that matters. :)

3. Little Man is the cutest baby in the world. Fact.

4. Thought I was going to win the $38 million Lotto 649 last month. Obviously I didn't.

5. No longer have a BF. Shocking but true.

And, I still don't like tomatoes.

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