Would you buy slippers at a Starbucks?

Hi everyone! My name is Ximena and I am a 4th-year student at the University of Toronto. Today, I had the pleasure to attend Illuminate x Sam resiliency workshop. Here are my thoughts highlighting what I learned about. I think that every student struggle when trying to find a job, especially when you are an upper-year student. The anxiety and desperation get you in your graduating year. This is something already experienced or will experience at some point in our lives. This workshop helped me to channel this anxiety. One of the examples that stayed with me was the Starbucks vs Convenience store reference.

Would you buy a pair of slippers at Starbucks? The answer is “no”. Why? Because you know Starbucks by their coffee. You know that they only sell coffee and pastries, people go there for their quality coffee. Instead, you can probably find slippers in a convenience store. This is because you know there are a variety of products in a convenience store. You want to market your brand like that, be specialized in a specific thing. This is something that stayed with me because desperation can make you take any job available. Nonetheless, diversifying too much is not going to make you stand out as a professional.

Another thing that I learned from this workshop was the importance of soft skills as well as investing your time in developing relationships. One thing is true: You do not know when or how you are going to use this relationship. This is important because sometimes business is not only about numbers but rather how comfortable a person is with you as well as the relationship that was built over the years.

This experience will help me in my professional career because focusing on enhancing relationships is a skill that has to be developed over the years. Exposure to this type of content can be applied to multiple markets. Therefore, it will allow me to grow as a person and as a professional.