Kabir Sarjan ’16
Economics & Political Economy
Last spring I wanted to apply for both the Economics at Cambridge Summer Seminar and the GTLI Fellowship – both notable Carleton summer programs. Both applications were strenuous, requiring extremely different resumes and application letters with totally different focuses and nuances. I visited the career center and was helped by an awesome SCA who talked me through the best strategy to market myself differently in each separate case. This person was extremely helpful to the point that they were willing to meet me outside of their work shifts to go through materials and make sure everything felt good and looked just right.
After submitting both applications, I learnt that I had got the Economics Seminar, but was still being considered for the GTLI Fellowship. Moreover, the acceptance for the seminar was only a week away, whereas the fellowship could take anywhere up to 3 weeks to get back to me. I didn’t have the option to defer my acceptance as not only would I undertake a lot of costs for bookings made in my name through the program but I would also take away a position that could be filled somebody else at the program. At this point, I was at a crossroads- stay with the Economics seminar or reject it and hope for the Fellowship to come through.
I was surprised that even with a topic so niche and strange, the student career assistants could help out so much. We sat in Sayles 050 (the room where all the SCAs work) and made a pros and cons list for each position and the current situation. After 30 minutes of intense brainstorming, I finally came to the decision to stick with what I had and leave the fellowship aside. This would have been a very difficult decision to make on my own—I’m glad an SCA could talk me through my options. Be it a cover letter/resume issue, a difficult question about job options or even a general query about life, the SCAs are here to help!