Seminar Review

Tonight I was at the Ottawa Public Library leading a seminar on job searching using the internet.  It went fine.  There was some participation by those in attendance, and that's usually a good sign.  However, you can get really diverse groups for these sorts of things, so you never really know if everybody is getting something out of it.

...or, at least, that's how it used to be.

Tonight, for the first time, there was actually a formal review form filled out by participants.  So I'll now go through them.  This should be interesting.  Hopefully, I'll get some good suggestions on how to improve the presentation.


Well, the first couple were positive.  There are concerns about the pace of the seminar and the length of time.  Both seem like fair issues.

Overall, the reviews were positive (though I assume that most people will tend to be err on the side of being nice, especially since they're going to see me two more nights).  One person did suggest some other courses they'd like to see, including:

• Facebook;
• Introduction to web-based email (gmail);
• Searching for beginners (Yahoo!, Google); and,
• How to really find information on the net.

This highlights a potential issue with my presentation.  I went into the seminar with some basic assumptions - that people were comfortable with the internet, used email, etc.  I tried to touch on these things briefly, but with only an hour, I couldn't spend much time on basic internet use.

I think the final suggestion is quite interesting, and probably useful to more people than realize it.  I have become pretty comfortable searching the internet (it is, after all, part of my job), and even I can benefit from some tips (by the way, if you need any, you can just google, google tips).

I'll be back at the library the next two nights, tomorrow for resume and cover letter writing, Thursday for interviewing tips.  I don't know if there is still room, but, if you're interested, you can register here.

Finally, for any Algonquin College students out there, I might be making a visit to the Woodroffe campus next week.  I'll post more information once it is confirmed.