Since the dawn of academia, students in the arts have struggled to find networking opportunities in their respective fields. While the resources are out there, the means to find them are limited compared to their STEM counterparts — they’re either scattered across various platforms or mixed in different areas that make finding them difficult to navigate.
Debby Reis, the project manager of Talent MATCH, alongside their career coach, Alana Hibbert, specialize in mentoring students interested in the museums, arts, tourism, culture, and hospitality industry — otherwise known as MATCH. The program aims to provide much-needed advice, volunteer opportunities, and co-op positions to those pursuing careers in the liberal arts.
“In terms of my own background, coming to this program I had worked quite extensively in the arts,” Hibbert said, noting her own experiences and how the program came to be. “I completed my master’s of adult education at [University of Toronto], and this program was a great match in the sense that I was able to create different programs and resources for students interested in working in arts, tourism, culture, museums and hospitality.”
For Talent MATCH, the program doesn’t just stop at co-op opportunities — they also have a variety of different mentorship methods. “We’ve been hard at work creating resources, and having sessions for students. I also meet with students one-on-one who are interested in getting into the sector and provide different coaching services. So that can be anything ranging from;“I want to update my resume, can you help me out here to improve this resume? Can I get some feedback on a cover letter?”
And afterwards, these mentees would come out with a successful track list. “We had a panel of former and current co-op students working for different organizations. So we had one who had worked for the Vancouver Fringe Festival, one who worked for the Vancouver Symphony, and another who worked for the Victoria Gallery.
“Students were able to come and ask questions and learn about what those experiences were. It was great for connecting students, and from there, also making connections with myself and with our program to be able to come to [us] directly for support while they were in the process of applying for co-op positions that semester.
“We’re a specific project that’s being run out of ACE-WIL, which is the Association of Cooperative Education and Work Integrated Learning. It’s basically the co-op and work integrated learning non-profit that most of the public universities in B.C. belong to, so UFV, but also SFU, and UBC — most of their co-op coordinators and work integrated learning coordinators belong to this association, and within that association different projects are created to meet certain needs.”
When asked if Hibbert would have benefited from a program like this in her undergraduate, she responded with, “Definitely, definitely.”
“I would have loved to have been able to go and pick the brain of somebody who had some knowledge in that area of different hiring trends, or what organizations were looking for, and what kind of things I could have been working on specifically for wanting to get hired at certain organizations. It definitely would have been a great use for me during that period of time.
“We’ve just released two networking guides which have advice on organizations for students who want to start networking and get involved in different events, and make new professional connections within those areas.” Students or employees interested in Talent MATCH can email Debby Reis or Alana Hibbert and set up an appointment at any time — free of charge.
