15 Pieces of Advice for New Memorial University Students

James Fraser
Sep 8, 2018 · 5 min read

After completing seven years of university, I decided to put together a list of the top 15 pieces of advice I’d give to new students starting at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

1)Attend one event unrelated to your major each week (See Memorial University Events).

2)Do as many internships as you possibly can to gain real world experience, develop tangible skills, and build your network.

3)Seek out constant feedback on your work from professors and peers.

4)Do volunteer work (Visit Student Volunteer Bureau).

5)Start a blog to consolidate your knowledge. In addition to being an effective way to consolidate the knowledge you are learning, publishing blog articles is a great way to gain confidence in putting your ideas out into the world, and is a good indicator to employers that you’re knowledgeable and get things done. Last year I received a job offer for a Statistical Officer position despite not having much of a formal background in statistics. I believe this was largely a result of being able to show the employer a blog post I had written relating to statistics, providing evidence I had some idea of what I was talking about. A simple way to write and publish a blog article is to go to Medium, sign in with a social media account or create a new account, click “New Story”, write the story, and click “Publish”. A challenge to give yourself is to write one post a day for 30 days, even if some posts are only a few paragraphs long. Pick one topic of interest from class or from your daily life and write about it daily for 30 days.

6)Say hi to five strangers on campus per week. This is definitely something I did NOT do during my time in university, but if I was starting university over again I would make a strong effort to do this. I think it would be an excellent way to meet new people, and you will elevate your mood by connecting with more people.

7)Attend Toastmasters. There are not many skills more important than learning how to speak in front of a group confidently and how to communicate your message clearly. Toastmasters is also a great way to meet new people.

8)Visit the Career Development Office. As one example of something valuable I got from attending an event organized by staff in this office, I learned to use the STAR(L) method for answering job interview questions. Since beginning to use this method, I’ve experienced a huge improvement in my performance in job interviews, including receiving a job offer for the first position I interviewed for using this method.

9)Do 10 minutes of meditation each morning. It is hard to think of a better way to start each morning than by doing a short guided meditation with Calm or Headspace. Some of the central benefits I’ve gotten from meditating on a consistent basis are increased abilities to a) stay focused, b) manage emotions, c) appreciate the present moment, and d) have compassion for myself and other people.

10)Ask more questions than anyone else. This is another thing that I did a very poor job at while in university, because I was too scared I would ask a dumb question and look stupid. I recently began making an effort to ask the most questions out of everyone at each event I attend. I think that asking a lot of questions is one of the most effective ways to learn new things and show people you’re engaged and interested.

11)Put your phone in airplane mode and only check it a few times per day. Your phone is a huge distraction machine that will destroy your productivity, and it will likely negatively impact your mental health if you’re frequently using it to check social media. If you want to be focused and productive, keep your phone in airplane mode.

12) Use the Pomodoro Technique. It was a huge game-changer when I started using this technique a few years ago. Use a timer to do 25 minutes of focused work, take a short break, then do another 25 minutes of focused work. During these 25 minutes, my phone is in airplane mode, I’m not on the internet unless it is for a very specific work-related purpose, I’m not talking to people, and I am fully focused on the task at hand. I set a goal for each day of how much total time I will spend doing Pomodoros that day, which is typically about 2.5 hours of focused work per day. It is amazing how much more work we can get done in 2.5 hours of focused work, compared to in 5+ hours of distracted work.

13)Read Cal Newport’s books to learn how to build a career you will love:

Focus: Cal has a lot of helpful advice on how to avoid distractions and do productive, focused work, in his book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

Skill Development: Cal argues that the key to building a fulfilling, meaningful career is to focus on developing rare and valuable skills (as opposed to the commonly offered career advice of ‘follow your passion’), in his book So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love.

14) Aim to improve by 1% in all areas of your life every day (intellectually, emotionally, physically). This is such a powerful mindset because if you aim to improve in all areas of your life every day by 1%, the improvements you can make over an entire year will be massive. You can improve intellectually by focusing on building a new skill, emotionally by meditating or attending a social event, and physically by going to the gym or trying out a new physical activity. Aiming to improve in each area also solves the problem that many of us students encounter, which is focusing almost exclusively on intellectual pursuits and letting our emotional and physical health suffer.

15) Be kind to yourself. Many of us treat ourselves worse than we treat our biggest enemies. By burning less energy on criticizing yourself, you’ll free up more energy for productive work, and will drastically improve the quality of your life. The one book that has had the single largest positive impact on my quality of life over the past two years is Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself by Kristin Neff.

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These are the top 15 pieces of advice I would give to a student starting out at Memorial University. If there is any advice you’d add or delete from this list, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

James Fraser

Written by

Environmental Scientist Working on Skill-Building Projects in Data Science, Finance, & Communications

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