I’ve always felt a strong connection to Langara. I feel a strong sense of belonging and I enjoy working with all the great students, faculty, and staff here. During my studies, I was also a member of the women’s basketball team, so I didn’t have much extra time to work or volunteer on top of studying and practice.
At the time, I was thinking about physiotherapy or occupational therapy (OT) as future career options, so my strategy was to connect with people who were in the same or similar fields and volunteer during the off-season to gain relevant experience. I spent a lot of time speaking to our team athletic therapist and my physiotherapist about what their day-to-day work looked like and the education they did. They had great advice on what courses I should take and connected me to relevant volunteer opportunities.
Define networking as making connections and building relationships. Denise Busayong, alum
In the summertime, I volunteered with Providence Health Care to work with the physiotherapist and OT on-site. The experience I got through volunteering helped me learn that I did not want to pursue physiotherapy or OT.
One of the best lessons I learned, was to define networking as making connections and building relationships rather than just meeting lots of people. The people I network with are ones that I have some common interests with, and I value these relationships because of the advice and mentorship I receive, as well as the relevant opportunities that I learn. After graduating from UBC, I took a targeted approach with my job applications and only applied to jobs that were relevant to community, sport, and recreation. I had also reached out to people in my network to see if they knew of any opportunities that I may be interested in. A majority of the jobs I got were actually from people in my network, so don't be afraid to tap into your network!