CBU Indian Society offers mentorship program to new students

Juwel Jacob, co-founder of the CBU Indian Society, wants to help students new to Cape Breton find part-time employment.

“Basically, it’s help for anything, but it’s a mentorship for when they complain about not having jobs or something like that, we would like to help them and tell them what is the reason.”

Lack of part-time employment has been a source of frustration for many students from India.

“We can help them fix their resumes, help them make a cover letter. Looking at their resume and experience we can tell them where is the right place to apply for jobs.”

Jacob says to not overlook the importance of a well-written cover letter. “Even at CBU if you want to apply for a job, have a proper cover letter. I remember seeing a lot of resumes with no cover letter… Fix a proper cover letter because it shows a lot about you.”

Jacob has been at CBU for the past 3 years. In that time he has held several jobs, and now works at The Pit. “I worked at a few places, like Best Buy. I worked for a company called Slyce which is based out of the U.S. Not a lot of students got jobs there, but I ended up there. It’s basically just being confident about yourself and being ready to go apply anywhere.”

“It’s all about your talents. If you’re ready to learn, work hard, give your 100%, you can get into anywhere.”

“It’s not all about first chances. You won’t get it on your first try. If you keep applying, you’ll end up somewhere, you’ll get a job for sure. That’s the kind of message I want to send…”

You can find the mentorship tab to the left on the Indian Student Society Facebook page

For now, there are two people offering their help: Jacob and CBU grad Amandeep Bhatia, who works with New Dawn in Sydney. They are looking for more people to volunteer their time to mentor others on how to land a job in Cape Breton.

“I don’t want people struggling in Cape Breton because it is a very good place where people are very friendly. They open up homes to all the international students. They have been very nice to us. This is the only way I [can] help them stay here. I want people to stay and not leave because they can’t find a job.”