Posted:Â April 2, 2024
By:Â Emm Campbell
Ceilidh Bray (MASC’22) was excited. She had just completed the GradPD certificate, which offers graduate students at 17³Ô¹ÏÍøÔÚÏß professional development opportunities to help launch their careers, when she received an invite from Colliers to interview for a job. She aced that interview and has been promoted twice since joining the company.
“It’s been steady improvement and progress for me here,� says Bray, senior associate, infrastructure advisory. “In this role, I’m using more of the skills that I learned in my engineering degree, which I am really happy about and GradPD helped make that possible.�
Bray is the first graduate of the GradPD certificate program. She heard about it during the COVID pandemic when few companies were hiring. She was struggling to land a job and was looking to gain a competitive edge. “I wanted to be more prepared when I graduated because I thought the industry would be more settled by then,� Bray says. “This program seemed like the perfect way to do that.�
The comprehensive program made all the difference for Bray, with workshops, experiential learning and reflection exercises across four pillars— communication, career intelligence, health & well-being and leadership. Overall, she found the leadership-related learning particularly beneficial.
“I didn't have a lot of experience in industry, so it covered areas I was a little iffy on, such as business etiquette and projecting yourself,� Bray says. “I also learned tools like time management, goal setting and how to do job interviews, which gave me more confidence in myself.�
Thanks to GradPD, Bray is ready for whatever comes next. “It helped me better understand what I want in terms of goals and now I can look at the leadership roles I want to achieve on my career path,� Bray says.
"In this role, I'm using more of the skills that I learned in my Engineering degree." - Ceilidh Bray (MASC'22)