Veronica Yeung Kick Ass, Professional Development

#10yearchallenge

I was talking to a coworker today about all of the recent Facebook/Instagram posts on the #10yearchallenge, and I’ve come to one conclusion: the only people who do it are the ones who haven’t visibly aged (and want the kudos for it). Am I bitter about not being one of those people? Not at all…

Regardless of the intention, I do think the idea of taking a long look back and seeing how far you’ve come can be rewarding. In a lot of posts, I see people talking about difficult situations they were in 10 years ago that seemed impossible to overcome (long-term partner cheating, complicated medical conditions, rock bottom self-esteem). Fast forward to today, those same people can now only remember snippets of those episodes because time has diluted most of the emotional charge associated with those bad times.

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Interviewing, Land the Job

How to interview (much) better with emotional intelligence

8 min read

Over the last 5 years, I’ve had the pleasure of mentoring more than 100 aspiring marketers and students. We work through anything from finding the right job to excelling at the job. But there’s one thing that has consistently puzzled me, that is hard to explain in words. It’s embodied by those who look perfect on paper, but who fall flat when you meet them in-person. Those who seem eager and passionate, but you can’t bear talking to them for more than 5 minutes IRL. Those mentees of mine who do everything right, but still can’t convince someone to hire them. So what’s the issue?

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Land the Job

What to look for in a marketing job posting

6 min read

As the new year approaches, I’m almost certain that many of your new year’s resolutions include mention of “getting a new job” or “move to a new role”. As it turns out, almost half of Canadians are dissatisfied with their jobs, and 55% of workers aged 18 to 34 want to bid adieu to their current gigs. It seems too many companies nowadays still do not understand what it takes to retain talent (or perhaps they just don’t care, in which case STEER CLEAR). This is why it’s critical to apply to new jobs with your eyes wide open!

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Land the Job, Resume/CV Help

Recruiter’s guide to a stand-out résumé: marketing new grad edition

6 min read

No one is born with the ability to write a great résumé. When it comes to one of the most important documents in your life, it’s generally true that effort leads to result. In fact, the résumé that landed me my first “real job” was probably poked and prodded over the course of ~100 hours. You read that right: ONE HUNDRED HOURS.

“Come on, is that really necessary?” you may be wondering.

Keep in mind that 100 hours was over the span of about a year, and as I collected more relevant experiences, I continued to make tweaks and refine. So no, I didn’t lock myself in a room for 4 straight days until my fingertips were raw from turning the pages on my thesaurus.

Now that I screen résumés as a regular part of my job, I wanted to share a crash course on crafting a stellar résumé, from a recruiter’s point of view.

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Kick Ass

4 promo-blocking behaviours that most people think are good

6 min read

It’s a lovely Spring morning, and the aroma of fresh coffee beans envelope me like a cashmere blanket. I’m at a local coffee shop about to meet with a mentee, Nate*, who I haven’t seen in several months. He reached out via LinkedIn a few weeks earlier, as he was in town for a few days and “could really use some career advice”.

After ordering our respective lattes and a bit of catching up on life, our casual chit-chat evolves into a full-on rant about how he’s being passed up for promotions at his job. 

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Land the Job

Why you should care about boring company info sessions

3 min read

While I was doing my undergrad, I remembered it to be like clockwork: every year come Fall, big Fortune 500 names would line up one after another to host information sessions, drawing massive crowds of coffee-wired students. I was the biggest skeptic when it came to the possibility of landing an interview and eventual job at one of these events because it seemed too good to be true.

Now, coming at it from the other side, I can tell you it’s not.

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