Employee Career Advising Program

The Centre for Career Action provides confidential career advising to all employees at the University of Waterloo including contract staff (with contracts exceeding 1 year), regular staff, faculty, and CUPE members.

Sue Fraser                              

I have been a psychotherapist and trainer for over 25 years. I have worked with survivors of trauma, as an Employee Assistance Counsellor working with Employees and their families and as a Counsellor with University of Waterloo’s Counselling Services.

I am an alumni of University of Waterloo with an Honours BSc. in Co-op Biology and an Honours BA in Psychology. I have a Masters of Social Work from Wilfrid Laurier University. For 15 years, I had a full-time private psychotherapy practice and provided custom training to other psychotherapists in a trauma treatment technique across Canada.

My counselling and coaching skills, my degree in Science and my small business background makes me uniquely qualified to help employees to explore their career options and create a path to achieve their goals. I help staff to identify and clearly talk about their skills and strengths. My mission is to provide an exceptional experience to everyone who seeks support for their career growth.  My hope for everyone who comes to see me is that they will leave excited and hopeful about the next steps in their career development. 

As the Employee Career Advisor, I want everyone who is seeking support for their career development to have an exceptional experience in our session and leave feeling excited, hopeful and motivated to take action. I provide way more than just a résumé review. I want to understand the answers to the question of “Why are you considering a career change now?”. In understanding your motivations for a new role, I can better guide you in your career exploration and growth.

At the end of every session, I always ask this question – “Was this session helpful for you today?” My goal is for everyone to say “Yes, this was awesome. I learned a lot.”

I look forward to working with you.

Take care,

Sue

 The Employee Career Advisor can assist you with:

• Planning your future career development
• Decision-making around career changes
• Personality and interest assessments
• Identifying ways to advance at work
• Exploring professional development and further education opportunities
• Résumé, CV, and cover letter critiques
• Interview skills and mock interviews
• Networking strategies
• Career and job search workshops
• Pre-retirement support

Book an Employee appointment here!

Types of appointments:

• C.V. (UW Employees)
• Career Planning (UW Employees)
• Cover Letter (UW Employees) 
• Further Education Exploration (UW Employees) 
• Further Education: Grad School/College Program Planning (UW Employees) 
• Interview: Academic Interview: Job/Volunteer (UW Employees) 
• Résumé (UW Employees) 
• Résumé/Cover Letter (UW Employees) 
• Work Search (UW Employees)

Registration for Spring 2019 opening soon!

Finding the Project Manager in You: Project Management as a Career

May 8 - 12:00 p.m.

Experienced project managers at UW, Connie and Pam, share their stories about project management and reflect on what it is like to be a project manager. Come learn about the rewards and challenges of project management, the myths and misconceptions, and what it takes to be a project manager.

Presented by Pam Fluttert and Connie van Oostveen from IST’s Project Management Office and UWaterloo’s Project and Portfolio Community of Practice.

Assessing Your Skills with SkillScan

May 15 - 12:00 p.m.

Being able to confidently talk about your skills starts with being able to clearly identify all the skills you have and want to use in your career. Prior to this workshop, you will have an opportunity to use the SkillScan assessment to identify your skills. In the workshop, we will discuss how the results of the assessment can be used to improve your résumé and influence your job search.

Résumé Tips

May 28 - 12:00 p.m.

This workshop will include specific suggestions for developing an outstanding résumé.

Interviews: Preparing for Questions

June 12 - 12:00 p.m.

Learn how to improve your performance in a job interview by out-preparing your competition and delivering great responses to the toughest questions.

Talking Careers with Your Kids

June 26 - 12:00 p.m.

It is never too early to begin talking with your kids about careers.  In this workshop, we will discuss suggestions on how to begin these important conversations with your young kids as well as with your teens. You will leave this workshop with practical and fun ideas on how to inspire your kids to explore who they are and what they can become.

Discover Your Career Values

July 10 - 12:00 p.m.

What is most important to you in a career? This workshop will help you explore your work-related values and show how they can be used for ongoing career development.

Career Hub is an online resources for career development and exploration. It is geared towards supporting students. However, it does have sections which are also helpful for employees.

You can log on to the website using your email address or WatIAM user name and your password.

There are six sections on the Career Hub. The most relevant sections for employees are the following:

Decision Making: Includes self-assessments of your values, skills, interests and personality factors and exercises to guide your career exploration

Apply/Interview: Includes tips on preparing an excellent résumé and cover letter and how to effectively prepare for an interview

Find Work: Includes suggestions on work search strategies

Visit CareerHub here.

Thank you so much for these resources and for the session today. It was so incredibly helpful! I am very excited to get working on my resume! – Staff Member

I have to tell you that meeting with you today was refreshing and revitalizing and rejuvenating. Truly. I can’t thank you enough for your advice and thoughtful probing. I haven’t had the best week and was seriously considering cancelling this meeting, as I wasn’t sure I was in the right headspace. But, low and behold, you were exactly what I needed today. Thank you. - Staff Member

I can't thank you enough for your advice and help. It has been one of the most transformational hours of my career. Thank you. I have been revisiting all of my accomplishments having the courage to own them and write them down. - Alumni

I just want to let you know that I got this job. Wohooo!!!! Thanks for all your patience and help! The mock interview helped me a lot! Appreciate it so much! - Staff member

I just wanted to take the time to truly thank you for all of the support you have given me. You’re such a kind and intelligent individual and I’m forever grateful you were always so flexible and there for me when I needed it. I want you to know that you have truly made an impact on me and I have realized that where I go next will be somewhere I want to be and where I am supposed to be. I know you work hard and support a lot of people and you should know that you are truly an incredible selfless individual. Words cannot begin to express my gratitude to you and know that you are awesome - Staff member