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How to seek employment in the city?

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Greg

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Hello Everyone,

I am currently marketing myself for employment and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to how to find a job in Toronto.

I just graduated from the University of Toronto studying English, History and Art History. I also have great extra-curriculars and lots of job experience in government positions and in customer service. I'm looking for basic entry level positions, data entry, admin assistant, researcher etc.

What is the best avenue for finding employment in Toronto? I've found websites like Charity Village to be a great resource. Monster and Workopolis and the Canadian Job Bank have been eclipsed by telemarketing jobs and placement agencies.

Sometimes I walk downtown and I just look at the thousands of high-rise buildings, and think, "Wow, all these people are working somewhere" or "All these buildings are full of people working away at their desks". I need to be one of those people!

Any tips or guidance as to how to seek out employers in the city would be much appreciated!
 
Although it sounds like a catch-all term, "networking" is so important and fundamental to many businesses, particularly the higher up in the ladder you are. Seldom are executives hired through job postings. As a recent grad, start with your peers, acquaintances, friends, classmates. You'd be surprised how many people are hired over others with qualified resumes simply because they were referred to by someone else already in the organization.
 
umm, hustle man. be outgoing. it may be partially because i live downtown, stand 6'6" and walk a lot, but i'm turning down job offers left and right...

when i didn't have a gig, i would print out 100 resumes and go to the top floor of FCP, and canvass down. repeat for the 100+ major office towers downtown. lots of work.

"don't tell me this town ain't got no heart, just gotta poke around." - jerry garcia
 
I like the idea of targeting a building that you like and cold calling all the interesting firms in the building.

I've lived in Cabbagetown since 1998, but except for a three year stint at Yonge and Lawrence, all my jobs have been in Markham, Mississauga or Vaughan. I'd like to find something downtown, but my background is in consumer product marketing and international sales, logistics and operations. Jobs downtown seem to be in finance, law, government or medicine.

Not that I want to leave the job I've got now in Markham. With a combined DB and DC pension, great benefits, ability to work from home (like now), good merit bonuses, competitive pay and some of the best private sector non-union job security I've ever seen; I don't think I'm going anywhere.
 
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I think you're experiencing what most people graduating from an undergrad at UofT experience--- that the highly pedagogical and academic programs they offer provide very little real, hands-on skill that make a person immediately marketable.

You're going to want to be creative... really put yourself out there, stressing the extra-curriculars you've been participating in. Network network network. You might not find something immediately but you can start to develop connections that will last for years or a lifetime.
 
I know the feeling. Going on 18 months now without work after finishing up my Masters degree in Planning. I've had two interviews so far and I've been told by places I've applied to that there are around 500 applications for every position being posted. Most places interview 5-7 people, so if 1% of applicants look better than you on paper, you're out of luck. Places are also being bombarded by people who just want to volunteer to get work experience and the number of places that have rejected me or simply not responded when I've offered my time is hard to believe.

Personally, I'm not sure what the answer is, so I'm not sure I'm much help to the OP. Networking is great and a must for anyone seeking professional work but it hasn't led me anywhere. I've even broadened my search across the country over the last 8 months or so, so maybe that's worth thinking about.
 
I think job hunters would be better off if they sought education and certification in fields where there is a combination of demand for qualified workers, shortage of same, and a barrier to entry to said profession.

Why is everyone talking urban planning now? Is there a demand for planners in Canada, is there a shortage of qualified workers? Is it difficult to become a planner? If ALL of these three criteria are not met you're going to have difficulty getting and keeping work.

I have a friend who's a nuclear engineer at Pickering. There is a huge demand for his work, an equal shortage of qualified workers, and a high barrier to entry. As such he's got his dream job, and has high job availability and security.

And you don't have to be "rocket surgeon" to get the above advantage. I have another friend who's a tower crane operator. Again, there's a huge demand for qualified personnel, a huge shortage due to experienced operators retiring, and a steep barrier to entry as you need a license, training, and provincial certification.

I have a third friend who is a ultrasound technician at Sunnybrook. Again, they're in huge demand, there's a big shortage, and the qualifications are hard to get. Thus she can get a job anywhere, in any economy.

My advice to my daughters for careers is if you want high job availability and job security (and not everyone does, some want to be artists, musicians, etc. etc...) you need to pick a career that is in demand, in short supply of qualified workers, and difficult to enter.
 
I'm not so sure "everyone" is taking urban planning now. Maybe because this is an urban issues message board it might appear that way, but it doesn't seem to be that popular of a career choice. Many people that I talk to don't actually know what urban planning is. Hell, one friend just thinks I want to design parking lots. There aren't very many planning spots in masters programs in this province either. So it's not an over-saturation by any means. When I say that 500 people are applying, that's an average. I've applied for positions that have had 100 applicants, and others that have had 1000, and often it depends on the specific job qualifications needed. With so many layoffs due to the recession, there are a lot of over-qualified people looking for entry-level positions or positions outside their regular field. The more that happens the harder it is for anyone to stand out, no matter what field it is.

Also, I don't think you can simply cherry-pick a career that is "in demand" in a fast-changing and rather volatile economy. When I applied and started my Masters Degree in Urban Planning, the global recession hadn't hit yet. In fact, given the urban growth in this country, planning was seen as "in demand" though perhaps not in the sense that we were struggling to find planners, but due to the fact that the profession appeared to be growing. Cue a recession and the slashing of government spending (which had a huge impact on not just the public sector, but also private sector planning firms as there weren't as many contracts available) and suddenly in the span of 2 years once I received that shiny piece of paper things weren't looking so good.

Apart from my career choice being something I'm passionate about and also good at, the other reason I went for a planning degree was because planning is a very broad concept. It's not just urban planning but also things like public policy, economic development, culture, tourism, the environment, etc, and all of those areas aren't disappearing anytime soon. I felt it was a responsible direction to take given the future of the profession, and the broad number of paths I could take with it. It just hasn't worked out that way.
 
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jn_12 said:
Also, I don't think you can simply cherry-pick a career that is "in demand" in a fast-changing and rather volatile economy.
Click to expand...
That's a fair point. Back in 1991 I chose International Relations for my BA, and then in 1995 took International Trade at George Brown, followed by obtaining my CIFFA certification at Humber College, and then Spanish at UofT ConEd.... all in the pursuit of building a career in international sales.

This was all well and good, and I had a great career in Canadian export sales to Europe, Asia, South America and Africa, with lots of international travel to China, Europe, Israel, etc... until the Canadian petrodollar went from $0.67 to about par with the USD in 2003ish. Then the export sales jobs vanished, my employer shut down its international trading division and I had to change careers, including a move to Fredericton.

Now I'm the Canadian marketing/product manager for a major Fortune 200 US-based industrial/cpg firm; so I landed fine, but back in 1991 I thought Canadian finished goods exports would carry on nicely. Now if I was in exports of resources and unfinished goods I might have stayed in the biz.
 
While beating the pavement can still work, the weeding out of applicants will still be done online at some point. Even if you meet someone in person and get an interview they will likely heavily search your online presence to see what kind of fit you might be. If you don't have one already I would recommend creating a LinkedIn account. This seems to have eclipsed the old Workopolis and Monster listing sites: it includes job boards, but also leverages that friend-of-a-friend kind of connection that makes you more than just a random applicant in the right situations.

Populate your LinkedIn profile education and work history -- although just graduating, I assume you have some work history, summer jobs, co-ops, those sorts of things. Proofread every word heavily, as you would a resume. Link in friends or acquaintances who already work in industries that interest you, and participate on the relevant discussion boards on there to keep your name popping up in places where a potential employer might click it.

For the sorts of starting jobs you describe (entry level admin, etc.) a lot of companies go through recruiting agencies rather than hire directly. Some agencies are more reputable than others, but they can help you get a foot in the door. In the beginning, don't say no even to crap short-term gigs (say 2 weeks filling in for someone on vacation, or a month tediously transferring data from one system to another). The agencies have a hard time finding people who are reliable, professional and show up on time -- once you've proven you're a good find, they give you better, longer contracts. Then you can leverage that experience on your resume into a proper full-time job.
 
Can't open new thread, so:
Choosing my path...
Thinking about education or/and getting work experience, here are inputs:
1. My mom rents out a house and she knows all the sides of this activity.
2. My sister is a construction accountant, not a big bird, but following one of the projects was solely her responsability.
3. My niece is a manager of one of the Cana company projects. Not the chief manager - she is only 29, but sometimes she was performing chief manager duties too.
4. I'll be married soon. My wife's family is in bridge construction bussiness in Northern Europe.
And me - I'm just small salesperson, I make my money using internet and reselling small stuff.
No education. But quite active and can start things. So...
Right now I can't imagine better future for myself than becoming mortgage broker. I love math, still good at arithmetic... But have filling that I'm making mistake.
What paths may I choose so it will be benefitial for my family in the future?
 
You could always try online job boards, like workopolis or monster. Don't make your resume public though, learned that the difficult way.
 
I always found job boards to be entirely useless. Hundreds, if not thousands of resumes sent, each of them individually tailored to meet the demands of the job, with absolutely zero response. I would not bother with this and try to do the networking bit as much as possible
 
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