As a former student who graduated on the deans list of an Advertising & Marketing Communications program, I’ve seen from the side of those who have succeeded with gaining employment, and the side of those who haven’t. You can chalk me up to being one of those who wasn’t able to attain employment in the field.
Was this due to lack of sending in applications? Was it due to lacking the required skills? Was it due to an over saturated ad field? What was the cause? Well, it was a little of an oversaturated advertising field, however it was mostly a lack of confidence, and a fear of failing at what I had been successful at in a classroom setting for 3 years.
With that said, i’ve thought a lot over the last few years as to how I can gain that confidence back, and try again, this time succeeding at an industry I won’t give up on. My parent strategy is quite simple, and was put into place before taking this course; it was to go back to school, this time specializing in an area of the advertising world that I enjoyed and felt like I would have the most success in. The plan was always to begin this course, then to take a course after this that addresses my weak points in an area that I know will be used frequently, that area is the Excel program. Following that course, I will then move onto an analytic based social media program where I am able to utilize the skills learned from the Excel program. Following these courses, will be actively setting up career meetings with the school, in order to make sure my resume is up to snuff, and to make use of any resources they have, which will help me along the way.
I plan on growing my network via career fairs, catch up with those who I graduated with on Linkedin, and freshen up those connections, and attending advertising events hosted around the city.
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 
You are so right with how important confiendence is to creating a successful future in any career path. Personally, I found this struggle as well during my educational journey and although I had the skills required, attaining the position I wanted was difficult. Currently, I am actually in the opposite situation, I have the confidence in my current position and they have taught me all the skills needed to succeed. Its interesting how important aqeduite networking is on an individuals professional success. I also wanted to know whether you believe that confidence can truly be gained independent from skills or the acquiring of skills have a direct link to confidence?