Career Conversations - Surrey Hospitals Foundation

Co-op

Aug 9

Career Conversations - Surrey Hospitals Foundation with Kyanna Sarmiento

Navigating the search for your first full-time job that matches your major & interests can be an overwhelming journey. Whether you are a freshman, transfer student or a soon-to-be-alum, we all go through a stage during our undergraduate years where we aimlessly stare at the laptop screens, not knowing where to start. Not to mention that one resume.docx that’s been piled up on top of million tabs, waiting to be revisited when the pressure to get a job finally kicks in. It’s a dreadful experience, and we all deserve someone to ask questions, seek help from, and get support—so let’s talk about it.

Career Conversations, a blog series newly launched by CMNSU, aims to provide co-op experience of Communication students and alumni in diverse sectors. Through conversation-based interviews, we aim to capture insights and tips that will help you to get your foot in the door in the various professional fields.

“You won’t learn unless you overcome the fear of asking questions.” - Kyanna Sarmiento is a SFU alumni of Spring 2024 with a minor in Print & Digital Publishing. With her co-op experience that led to her passion in the healthcare sector and her current position as a Social Media and Content Coordinator, she shares the value of exploring diverse opportunities and acquiring new skills.

1. Can you tell us about your co-op experience?

I started my first co-op term at Surrey Hospital Foundation for four months, which eventually got extended to a full eight-month co-op. As a Marketing & Communications Assistant, I was responsible for creating social media content, and it was a huge learning experience for me. It was my first time handling social media on a professional level, where a brand’s voice, engagement, and analytics are taken into consideration, unlike your everyday social media usage, so it was a really exciting experience.

Additionally, I think one of the biggest factors that I learned during co-op was that I was able to actually utilize the tools I learned during co-op seeking terms and apply them elsewhere after I finished my co-op terms. This included learning how to write a professional resume and knowing how to properly answer interview questions with the STAR method, etc., which greatly helped me after I finished co-op and was looking for full-time jobs outside of the healthcare sector. Overall, I really enjoyed the co-op experience, and it’s been really useful for me to this day.

2. What was your main role as a Marketing & Communications Assistant?

Marketing & Communication: My main role involved everything related to social media—assisting with building the strategy from concept to execution, along with reporting on the analytics and engagement which was a big part of the task. I was also responsible for executing various campaigns across social media while maintaining the brand voice of the organization. I also assisted with signage for the Foundation at the hospital. On the other hand, as I handled communication work, I also worked on stories for the website blog.

Event Planning/Management: Additionally, I also did some event work which involved planning an event for the hospital staff during the holidays. For this, I helped create an event called Holiday Cheer week and I was able to learn different factors to consider when it comes to event planning—purpose of event, target audience, general event logistics etc. In addition to being involved in the “concept to execution” part of the planning, I was also responsible for the facilitation of the event and making sure it was running smoothly. This was a really cool experience as a second-year co-op student and I was happy to be involved in it.

Campaigns: Additionally, as they are a non-profit organization, a big part of the task was assisting with running campaigns to raise money. An example would be one of the facilities celebrating a 10-year anniversary and the campaign was to raise funds for new equipment in the facility. A big part of the campaign deliverables I was involved in included social media as well as assisting with the website content.

3. What are some of the key achievements from your co-op experiences that you’d like to share?

First one is the 10-year anniversary campaign that I mentioned earlier. As Marketing & Communication can often be a broad term that requires handling different types of tasks, I got the opportunity to learn everything from coordinating the campaign on social media to assisting with film production for some of the media content. I got to speak with a few donors during this campaign as well which was also a new experience for me. Overall, the whole campaign was a huge project that I didn’t think that I was ever going to experience and I am really grateful that I got to be part of it.

I was also involved in coordinating one of their programs called Grateful Patients; this involved interviewing current or past patients who had a positive experience under the care of one of the facilities the Foundation funded, which would be shared on social media, the website blog, and/or turned into a video. I conducted the interviews and was part of the production process as well, and it was a really great experience to be in the film production aspect in addition to everything else I was able to be a part of.

4. Were there any unexpected aspects of the job that you hadn’t anticipated before starting?

I think in terms of the marketing itself, a thing that I didn’t think I would have difficulty with prior to starting the job was adapting to the brand’s voice. I think there was a realization where I thought “I am just a student in my 20s, but I am speaking to people who are in different stages of life in a professional setting.” So it was a lot about learning how to deliver key messages in the organization’s brand voice, as well as knowing how to adapt my personality to still be myself while also tailoring it to the people that I was speaking to. I think that was a huge learning curve and a very unexpected challenge for me.

Another challenge involved becoming more comfortable with asking questions. I think the difficulty came from entering the work term thinking I had so much to prove; so when I asked questions, I felt like in a way, I wasn’t up to par with what they were looking for. It took time for me to be more forgiving with myself and understand that it’s a learning opportunity, both as a student and an employee. Overcoming the thought that I have to be the “great employee who understood everything” helped me to be comfortable with asking questions, which allowed me to succeed even more.

Having the mindset of “I am never going to understand it if I don’t ask questions to the people who know and have the knowledge for it” helped me to overcome such challenges. Thanks to my manager and co-workers, who were very open and understanding with providing the guidance and help I needed, I was able to become more comfortable with asking for help. But yes, that would be my piece of advice: you are never going to learn unless you overcome the fear of asking questions.

5. Any insights and key takeaways you learned through this co-op experience that helped you in your current full-time position?

It was an eight-month co-op, and at the end of my first term, I felt a little “stagnant” in what I was learning. I knew there was still a lot to learn within social media, but at some point I thought, why not learn more in other aspects of marketing as well, since it’s such a broad field? This led to having more opportunities to explore different aspects of marketing, like graphic design and making signage using Adobe programs under the guidance of the Marketing & Communications Coordinator, who is incredibly experienced with graphic design. I think that was my biggest takeaway: being not afraid to ask to learn more and explore different roles in the marketing-related career path. Learning as much as I could about the different umbrella terms of marketing did also help me to figure out what I want to focus on after co-op, which ended up being social media and content. If I hadn’t touched on those other things, I wouldn’t have understood what actually gets me excited when I go to work.

Another big key takeaway for me was that because I took my co-op earlier in my undergraduate years, I was able to tailor the classes to finish off my degree to what I wanted to learn even more. For example, co-op term was my first time doing tasks like film production and video editing on a professional scale, and after that experience I became more interested in taking classes in IAT, for example, which helped me to learn the fundamentals of it instead of just the editing skills. So I think that was really great, that I was able to enroll in courses based on the roles and fields that I learned I had a passion for from doing the co-op.

6. How did your co-op experience contribute to your skill development and current career path?

The people I worked with during my co-op made a huge impact on my career growth. The people in the marketing team were great mentors for me and guided me in any way to develop the skills that I wanted to learn. It was great being able to have opportunities to learn what I truly was passionate about, rather than only being assigned specific tasks. With the co-op opportunity, I have also received the permanent part time offer in the same position a year after, and eventually landed on my current position as a Social Media and Content Coordinator in the same organization. It feels great to work with people who inspired me so much and with whom I felt very comfortable learning from and working with.

Upon finishing the undergraduate studies, I decided to explore other fields such as real estate, to gain a better understanding of different fields and skill sets. This was before I secured my current position and was an attempt to figure out what field I ultimately wanted to pursue. I eventually returned to the healthcare sector as I found my true passion in this field.

7. How was job searching for Full-time positions like after graduation, were there any differences between Full-time positions vs. co-op positions?

The time period when I entered the real estate sector was my first time looking for a full-time job outside of co-op. I found it to be more difficult than when I was searching for co-op positions, as it took me time to find jobs that I was really interested in outside of the healthcare sector, while also considering my level of experience and status as an undergraduate student. It involved processes like searching for jobs on LinkedIn and Indeed with notifications for keywords that I was interested in. Another part of the job search that really clicked for me was that I had to do multiple interviews to get the hang of it and relearn how to present myself effectively during interviews. Since it had been nearly two years since my last interview (because I was working at the same place from the co-op until then), I felt like I was out of practice during my first interview for a full-time position. I became a lot more comfortable around the third one, and once again, using the STAR methods for explaining my experience really helped me to answer the interview questions while showing my skills in the best way possible.

After a few interviews, I ended up finding a job that was great, but it just didn’t work out for me as I didn’t find myself being as passionate about real estate as I was about healthcare. This experience influenced me to return to the healthcare sector, where I am currently employed in my present position.

8. What strategies did you find most helpful during your job search after graduation?

I can refer back to one of the interviews I had when I was transitioning from healthcare to real estate. The position that I applied for was heavily focused on graphic design, particularly creating graphic content and visual materials like property brochures and prints. Graphic design for print materials was part of my role at Surrey Hospitals Foundations but it wasn’t my primary task, so I started off explaining the graphic aspect of the role in the interview then expanded on the rest of the tasks that I did in my previous experience. In terms of industry-specific experience, I was very open about not having any prior experience in the field. When asked, “what do you know about us”, I explained that I read the website, but I don’t fully understand it. In my case, honesty worked. It was valuable to learn that because they were looking for someone with the graphic design skills, it was less of a concern that I did not have the real estate knowledge for it. They preferred someone with a strong background in marketing and graphic design, believing that they can teach me the specifics of the real estate industry as long as I am qualified to do the required task for the graphic design.

It was good to know especially as someone who’s new in the industry—that it is not always the case that you HAVE to know industry-specific knowledge. As long as you have the required skills and have the right mindset to learn, sometimes that’s enough to get yourself started in a new industry and you can learn the industry-specific knowledge as you go. This can also make the job search easier, as you can broaden your job search through applying this strategy.

9. Any advice for a strong job application package / interview tips?

For me, leaning into my previous work experience and demonstrating how it could benefit the organization I was applying to was very helpful. During my first co-op interviews, I had no professional experience in the marketing, so I focused on the skills I gained from my previous role working in healthcare, such as handling conversations and understanding front-line communication with patients. By emphasizing these skills that I already have and showing my eagerness to learn marketing, I was able to secure the position I applied to. This approach is particularly useful for co-op positions, where it’s common for students to have limited professional experience. Highlighting your existing skills and demonstrating how you can succeed in the role, even with limited experience, can strengthen your application.

10. What activities and involvement outside academic aspects do you feel were helpful in securing your co-op positions?

Although I completed my co-op before joining CMNSU, I highly recommend students to join clubs and on-campus involvements! Especially for CMNSU, it helped me in so many ways like how to implement a strategy and gain a well-rounded experience of how to manage different things. As the Vice President of Marketing, I learned a lot about leadership and being able to establish my own goals and KPIs within the social media and marketing field. This was a huge learning curve for me, as prior to this experience I was more used to doing tasks that were delegated to me—through this opportunity, I was able to learn how to delegate and distribute tasks amongst the coordinators and manage it. It’s also definitely fun to meet so many people, and that’s one of the best parts of joining clubs!

Looking back, I sometimes wish that I had joined other clubs earlier, as I really enjoyed my time at CMNSU. Because of this, I strongly recommend others to join more clubs, and especially CMNSU!

11. What advice would you give to undergraduate students, primarily to those who are starting their university years?

Join clubs and take full advantage of every opportunity you can! You are paying to be there, might as well make the most out of it :). Take advantage of every opportunity that’s out there, and try to explore everything you can.

What about those who are in their final years / soon-to-be-alumni? - When I was in this stage, talking and leaning on people who are not currently going through the same experience as I am at the moment really helped me. Talking to my mentor, who is my current manager, and asking questions helped me to figure out what I wanted to pursue in the future. They provided me with different perspectives than just talking to people who are in the similar stage as me, and I was able to hear lots of good advice like how to tackle interviews in a certain way etc. and just other things in general. It really helps to hear advice from people who already had that experience prior to it.

12. Any last comments?

Shout out to CMNSU, Liesl, and Sara! (always attend CMNSU events!!)

Feel free to connect with Kyanna on LinkedIn!