Hiring Tips & Advice

Working at the Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a diverse and innovative community at TMU. As the students’ union we work to advocate for students, build a strong campus community, and provide cost-saving services. We hire students for part-time roles throughout the entire year, as well as in full-time roles in the summer. We also at times are seeking professionals to join our team in one of our full-time roles.

All of our current job postings can be found at yourtmsu.ca/jobs. This page goes over some of our expectations for applicants, as well as gives advice for students who may not have much experience applying to jobs before.

Cover Letter Expectations

To impress the hiring committee, keep the following in mind when writing your cover letter:

  1. Prove you are a good fit for the role by highlighting past experiences and education that has prepared you for this role – and be specific. Read the job description and talk about your ability to do the tasks listed.
  2. Don’t just state things, give examples. If you are super passionate about campus extra-curriculars for example, don’t just say it. Provide examples that allow us to see and understand what you are passionate about.
  3. Be professional with your writing. Most of the jobs we hire for have a significant “customer service” aspect to the job, so we often look at how well you’re communicating in the cover letter as an indicator. NOTE: We recognize the difficulty of learning English as an additional language, and are mainly looking for students to not use slang or texting shortcuts in their application.

Resume Expectations

The hiring committee will be looking for the following things when reviewing your resume:

  1. Relevant experience should be featured the most prominently in your resume. If you don’t have a lot of directly related experience to the job posting, make sure to find examples of tasks or projects you worked on in past positions that are at least similar or rely on the same transferrable skills.
  2. Good formatting can make a huge difference in your resume. There are a lot of different ways to layout your resume, and we won’t immediately discount a resume due to its formatting, unless the formatting makes it hard to read or we can’t understand what you’re trying to communicate. Have clear headings, make sure text isn’t too small or cramped, and make sure you emphasize the most important information with your layout.

Get More Support

Applying to jobs can be overwhelming, and there are tons of resources our there to help you get the job you want!

Career Centre

The Career Advising staff in the TMU Career and Co-op Centre can help you with every step of the job search.

Career Centre Site

TMSU Hiring Fair

During the times of year where we are hiring for lots of positions, we try to hold a “hiring fair” where you can drop by to ask questions.

Next TMSU Hiring Fair: tba

About Us & Our Positions

The TMSU hires for a lot of different roles across several departments within our organization. We always recommend you read the job description to get the most accurate description of the role, but this section should give you a decent idea about how we work and what to expect in our jobs.

Overall, we are always looking for students who are passionate about being part of building a strong campus community. Whether that be through helping with things “behind the scenes” so we can provide our services to students, or being on the “front-line” and interacting with students and helping people make new friendships and connections. As the students’ union it is our job to unite students and build a strong community, so people who share this goal and passion with us make for great TMSU employees.

Equity Service Centres

Each of the 5 Equity Service Centres (Access Collective, BIPOC Collective, The Queer Space, Centre for Women and Trans, and the Trans Collective) is run by student coordinators that take the lead on events and campaigns the centres will run that year. To work in any of the Equity Centres we are looking for candidates with lived experience advocating for the community the centre serves and for people passionate about making society and our campus a more inclusive space.

CopyRITE Printing

Working at CopyRITE is a lot like any regular retail job in terms of what we are looking for in a candidate. You need to be good at problem solving and helping customers, and bring a positive attitude to the shop. Having experience studying or working in printing is of course an asset, but it is not required since you will get training on all of our machines if you receive the job.