Career and Job Search Help Blog

TalentEgg: Online Recruitment for Students and New Graduates

 Transitioning from student to adult life can be quite stressful, but exciting too. Getting that dream job after you graduate may not be as easy as you thought it would be. That is why its important to start planning for that dream job before you graduate.

Talentegg.ca is Canada's most popular job site and online resource for students and new graduates. It was created by Lauren Friese in 2008 after she realized how hard the transition was from school to work. Lauren went to grad school at the London School of economics after completing a BA in economics Queen's University. She found that the transition from school to work was a lot easier in London, due to all of the free career online resources. She based TalentEgg on the UK website Milkround after wondering why we didn't have anything like it in Canada. There was an article about TalentEgg last year in the Financial Post, Lauren said that England had a lot more online resources and job leads for:

“People with lots of education and not a lot of work experience who wanted that ‘first step’ into a career.”

This is how most students feel when they graduate - that they have all this education but no experience and most employers are looking for both experience and education. So, TalentEggnow provides meaningful Canadian summer jobs, internships, full time work, co-ops and entry level positions - perfect for students and graduates. There are thousands of jobs available daily and hundreds of active employers. TalentEgg actually has an Employer Directory which includes profiles of each company such as:

• Proctor & Gamble
• Rexall
• Bell
• Freedom 55 Financial
• Suncor Energy
• Loblaw, and many more.

The site has a wealth of great information such as comprehensive career guides for many fields such as: aboriginal careers, accounting, Canadian armed forces, consulting, engineering, green jobs, healthcare and many more. There are also great videos on the site which cover a wide range of topics, here is a video about how continuing education can make you more employable:

 

At North York Central Library, the business department will be hosting a program How to Hatch Your Career Through Networking with Cassandra Jowett who is the content manager for TalentEgg.

Cassandra Jowett, content manager from TalentEgg.ca will share how she hatched
her own career through networking while she was a student at Ryerson University,
and provide easy-to-use strategies that will help students and grads become
better networkers both online and in real life.

FREE. Call (416)395-5613 to register.

North York Central Library - Room 2/3

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

6:30 - 8:00pm

If you don't get a chance to register, you can drop in as long as there is space available, we hope to see you there!

What should you do Next? Join us for our Generation Next Series!

This year, the library is having our 2^nd annual Generation Next Series. This is a series of 3 programs is geared to the Millenial Generation (otherwise known as Generation Y, the Global Generation, the "me-first" generation  or the Net Generation) of individuals who have birth dates generally between the late 1970's to the early 2000's and are primarily the children of Baby boomers. This demographic cohort is said to be the most educated and diverse generation in history. They are also said to have a tendency have more entrepreneurial tendencies. However, all are welcome to attend the programs. The information can be pertinent to individuals of all ages. This generation is known for:

• Being technologically savvy, the first generation to experience social media and very innovative
• Having strong beliefs in equal opportunity and being quite ethnically and racially diverse
• Being very confident; they tend to have very high expectations in terms of wages, and ability to affect change in their workplace

The first program Entrepreneurship 101: Tips on Starting Your Own Small Business is tonight:

Join Donovan Dill, entrepreneurship program manager from Youth Employment Services (YES). He will discuss services available to aspiring young entrepreneurs and provide an overview on business planning, obtaining loans, business operations as well as advice on avoiding common mistakes.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013/ Room 1/6:30 - 8:00pm

The next program is How to Hatch Your Career through Networking

Cassandra Jowett, content manager from TalentEgg.ca will share how she hatched her own career through networking while she was a student at Ryerson University, and provide easy-to-use strategies that will help students and grads become better networkers both online and in real life.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013/6:30 - 8:00pm/ Room 2/3

The final program is Secrets of a Successful Technology Startup

Join entrepreneur Mahyar Fotoohi, Chairman & Co-founder of Unified Computer Intelligence Corp., a technology startup that is changing how people interact with the Internet and technology. Mahyar will discuss creating a product that people want, building the right team, and fundraising.

Monday, May, 27, 2013/ 6:30 - 8:00pm/ Auditorium

This demographic has been profiled alot recently. The Huffington Post Canada did an Abacus data poll on 1,004 generation Nexters to get a sense of their different characteristics since all milennials are not the same. They came up with 6 different Millennial Segments . 

1. The Achiever
2. The Pacer
3. The Spark
4. The Stampeder
5. The Simple-Lifer
6. The Firefly

You can take a quiz to figure out which millenial you are.

There was also an interesting  Globe and Mail article The six ways Generation Y will transform the workplace.  Here are a couple of the ways:

• Having more women in leadership roles - the majority of millenials were used to both of their parents working so they have had positive female role models. 
• Have regular, immediate social media feedback - immediate feedback is effective especially in terms of evaluating performance and even rewarding performance publicly.
• Emphasize a performance, result driven work environment - evaluation is based mainly on performance not necessarily presence

So remember to check out our programs. They are all free of charge. If you'd like to register, call us up in the Business department at 416-395-5613. You can also drop in without registering as long as the seats aren't all taken.

Hope to See you There!

 

Canada : Student loans, grants and scholarships

Getting Started:

The Business Department at North York Central Library has a careers section that includes educational directories as well as directories that include scholarship opportunities.  The Business, Science and Technology Department at Toronto Reference Library also has an extensive collection of educational calendars and directories.

Searching the Library Website:

Suggested Subject headings/Keywords:

Scholarships--Canada--Directories

Student loans--Canada--Directories.

Endowment of research--Canada--Directories.

Suggested Titles:

Scholarships.com. - entrance awards directory which includes comprehensive information on Canadian scholarships and awards.

Assistantships and graduate fellowships in the mathematical sciences.

Scholarship: a handbook of scholarships, awards and financial assistance for Canadian high school graduates.

Canadian University Scholarship Handbook.

Guide to Canadian scholarships.

 

Using On-line Resources

Recommended Websites:

Canada: Student Loans, Grants and Scholarships:

CanLearn.ca - Browse through this section for tips on everything from financing your education to managing your loans.

The Canada Student Loans Program provides financial assistance in the form of loans and grants to post-secondary students who demonstrate financial need.

ScholarhipsCanada.com is an educational site for students to find scholarships, student awards, bursaries and grants.  Students can search for scholarships by name, school, field of study and scholarship provider.

Youth.ca will help youth learn about the various options available to help manage finances and pay for education.

Ontario: Student Loans, Grants and Scholarships:

Ontario Student Assistance Program - This is where you apply for OSAP or 30% off Ontario tuition.

Ontario Education and Training - Check out the Ontario Student Assistance Program  - a mix of grants and loans available for students.

Ontario Education and Training (loans grants and bursaries) - Where to find money that can help you pay for a college, university or apprenticeship program after high school.

Other:

The Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) administers a range of awards on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

Student Awards.com was established in 1998 and is a free scholarship matching service, devoted to helping Canadian high school, college, and university students by providing information about scholarships, bursaries, grants, fellowships and other forms of financial assistance.

World Wide Learn.com strives to provide students with up-to-date information about financial aid for online learning programs. 

Recommended Databases:

Career Cruising - includes in depth information on college and university programs

For further assistance contact:

Business Department - fourth floor, North York Central Library - 5120 Yonge Street - (416)-395-5613

or

Business, Science and Technology Department, third floor, Toronto Reference Library - 789 Yonge Street - (416)-393-7149

It's That Time of Year Again! Revisiting Your Career Plans! (Part 2)

I've long since spent all my money on Christmas gifts. For months, I was beavering away at my Christmas list, buying, wrapping, writing, mailing. Now I'm looking at a new project - ME!

In a recent post, we visited the idea of taking a introspective look at your career. Jobsites such as Monster.ca also has a number of interesting career-related articles. One of them provides unique tips on how to refresh your career.

Here too are some books on the same topic:

     

Distractions at work? Learn how to stay focused

 

(http://www.businessinsider.com/fancy-hands-2012-8?op=1)

I read an excellent article in the Globe & Mail Why you won't finish reading this article at work

Did you know?

• That office workers are interrupted roughly every three minutes? And, once thrown off track, it can take 23 minutes for a worker to return to the original tasks, according to Standford  University Research.
• Reading and processing 100 email messages can occupy more than half a worker's day?
• Open plan offices meant to foster collaboration, subject workers to a non-stop stream of chitchat

Wall Street Journal

And then, bosses wonder why it is hard to get any work done. Maybe you feel like you have bad time management skills, or that you have problems concentrating or getting distracted. But, could it be partly the fault of your own company's modern workday set up? Modern day workers are struggling to get their real work done while they spend most of the day going through internal emails, attending meetings, interrupting themselves with social media urges, listening to co-worker's stories, working on collaborative projects, telling their own stories to coworkers etc. The "real work" which needs to be done often requires deep thinking, which is quite hard to acheive with little everyday, office distractions.

The reality is that often managers push their employees to do more with less, especially with our multiplying screens (see picture above) and increased digital demands/distractions. Maybe you work with multiple screens, or have coworkers who do - it isn't as easy to multitask as you may think, I actually heard on the radio last week that people who believe they can multitask are actually the worst at it.  How does it make you feel? I know that when I'm multitasking, I feel flustered and need to write things down more often so I can remember them.

Some companies are experimenting with different ways to keep workers focused, some are trying to reduce the amount of internal emails while others try to reduce the number of projects workers do simultaneously. At Abbott Vascular , a health care company,vice president, Jamey Jacobs and productivity consultant, Daniel Markovitz realized that the majority of employees were using email to communicate the majority of their issues whether they were serious or mundane. Employees weren't really using the office telephone (I know I'm guilty of this, I think that it is faster to send an email rather than make a phone call), so they told employees to assess the importance of their messages, if it was urgent and complex - use the telephone, email was to be reserved for non-urgent messages. I know that if I did that with my work, it may make my life easier and my work more efficient. I think that emails have a tendency drag out an issue, and have a large potential for miscommunication. Whereas phone calls tend to me more direct and issues can be dealt with faster.

The company Atos, which is just outside of Paris, specializes in global IT services. After an internal study, they found that workers spent about 2 hours a day just managing their email inboxes. This company decided to completely get rid of internal emails. Now, workers can use email to communicate with external customers but they now use an internal social network to communicate with colleagues. 

The reality is that there will always be distractions at work, and they will probably increase as we venture deeper into the digital age. We should also remember that distractions and working under pressure aren't all bad. A little bit of pressure and urgency can actually motivate you to accomplish tasks faster, but it does increase your stress levels.

Check out these books about productivity at work:

                                   

                                                (also available as an ebook)


   

Have a happy, healthy and productive day at work!

 

 

 

 

 

A New Year - A New Career?

A new year is approaching--is it time for a new career? Have you been thinking about a new job? Or maybe a different aspect of your current job--maybe upgrading and advancing? 

Do you like your current job but feel you can't advance? Look into upgrading your skills and training.

Perhaps there aren't enough opportunities with your present employer. Speak to your boss, your Human Resources department, co-workers, and network with people in similar companies to see what you need to move ahead. You might want to move out on your own, become an entrepreneur and start your own business.

Maybe you want something completely different. If you know what you are looking for--you have always wanted to be a chef, an architect, a designer--research it. What credentials, training, education do you need? What is the job market? Do you want to specialize in a particular aspect--not just a chef but a pastry chef or specializing in Spanish cuisine; a designer of kitchens? If starting your own business, is there a demand or market for your services or products? What is the competition?

How do you know if you will like this new career? Speak to people doing it. Network. Volunteer. Try it out. I worked for some temporary agencies and got experience in banking, accounting, and other types of companies--actual work experience--and found some I enjoyed and others I didn't. You can do the same.

The library has books, databases, and programs that can help you. Check out the Careers & Training area of our Job & Career Help section of our website, as well as the Business & Personal Finance section if thinking of starting your own business.

              

 

       

 

Employment Resource Centres in Toronto

It's always been there for me - if I needed to find a legal clinic, look for a Registered Massage Therapist, or more recently, look for some employment resource centres. 211Toronto.ca is a directory of over 20,000 community, social, health and government services. I did a search for employment centres and was presented with a list of 27 centres from across the city - from Scarborough North to Etobicoke South.

Upgrading Your Skills: A Return to the Classroom

Thinking of returning to school to upgrade your skills? Lots of people do that for any number of reasons: Canadian accreditation, lost their job or are still in a job and realize that their current skills can be updated in order to make them more competitive; bored and want a career change, in the hopes of landing their dream job; or simply wanted new challenges.

The other thing you want to look into is getting exemptions in a few subjects. You may be offered prior learning and assessment recognition for previous studies. 

The Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities funds a program called Second Career. It provides up to $28,000 in grants for tuition, books, transportation and a basic living allowance. As it is a grant, you are not required to pay it back to the government. Getting approval isn't easy - it involves travelling around the city research schools, completing labour market research and talking to people who are in the field to which you are aspiring. I suppose the goverment does that in order to ensure that each candidate truly has the desire and ability to complete their program successfully. Job hunting techniques are also included, eg. preparing an effective resume, cover letter and interview techniques.

On another note, the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services offers a program called Ontario Works. For those in temporary financial need and can show that they fulfill certain criteria, Ontario Works can provide them with money and help them find a job.

CV (Curriculum Vitae) writing tips - Do I need one?

Your CV (curriculum vitae) is similar to a resume and cover letter, almost like a combination of both but more detailed. It is a complete profile of your academic achievements, degrees, research, scholarly interests, your thesis or dissertation description, associations or boards you may be in, references and any publications you may have. You use it to promote yourself like a personal advertisement - it should highlight the things that are most interesting and impressive about you.  It is mainly used for those applying to graduate school or academic/research positions; especially ones with multiple applicants or graduate school. It should show all that you have done and plan to do, unlike a resume.

It is a lengthy process, so you should make sure you start early.  The U of T Career Center has an excellent CV Resource which outlines the 5 basic steps of creating your CV.

1. Review your academic and scholarly profile and conceptualize how to order your CV.
2. Draft the document.
3. Work on the formatting, style and appearance.
4. Get your CV critiqued by either a placement officer or faculty member (and other people you trust).
5. Work on additional drafts, and incorporate the feedback you received from your critiquers in order to eventually produce a final copy.

There really isn't a template for a CV because it really depends on which sector you're applying to, you can always look at sample CVs for a better idea. Your CV should always be neat and typed using a legible font (something like Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, Verdana etc.) about size 10 - 12. Your name should appear on the header of each page of your CV. Make sure that there are absolutely no spelling mistakes! Spelling mistake highly reduce your credibility for your CV, resume or cover letter and are a top reason why employers don't hire people. Also, just like your resume and cover letter, your CV should be tailored specifically to the job you're applying for - make sure your CV matches whatever the employer is looking for.

It can be very difficult for people to articulate their own skills, achievements, values and interests - we're used to being modest in everyday life - but this is your chance to gloat! McGill University also has a very detailed and comprehensive CV guide from their career planning department. One of the hardest things about writing a CV, resume or cover letter can be listing all of your achievements, they suggest using the S.T.A.R. technique:

Situation -Provide a brief overview of the situation.

Task - Outline the specific task or responsibility you were asked to accomplish.

Action - Explain the action or activities you took and why.

Result - Describe the positive result or outcome of your actions.

Here are a few more quick tips for your CV:

• Include a profile or objectives section in the beginning of your CV.
• Only list the past 10 years of experience.
• Spell out any acronyms you use - don't assume the employer will understand.
• Try to use bullets when you can - remember that recruiters scan hundreds of CVs, bullets can really help them identify your main points quickly.
• Don't use jargon or slang, just clear simple English.

As always, you can always find some more information at the library. Check out some of these books to help you write your CV - good luck!

                     
      

Careers in the Financial Sector

By Ra

If you're in a part-time job and want a solid career, or deciding what to study, or even considering a change in career, read on! Professions in financial industries are booming, so if you have the training and aptitude for one of these positions, you can expect good money, a relative amount of job security and the knowledge that companies are vying to hire you. And remember, the average worker, in his or her lifetime, changes careers - not jobs - three to seven times. So don't be afraid to take the plunge into something new.

Financial manager
Demand for money managers is increasing as the private and government sectors are looking for whizzes who know the complexities of financial management.

What to expect: An unemployment rate half of the Canadian average.

Tip: If you have knowledge of foreign finance or are fluent in a foreign language, consider yourself doubly attractive -- and pack your bags for a potentially international career.

Getting started:

1. Visit the International Financial Management Association's website at www.fma.org.
2.  Some books: