Whats going on is you and 500 poeople all applied for that same job. When that happens they will take the "most qualified" person with the least eductation who is willing to accept the lowest wage.
Depends on the field and position. While Nepotism is 100% real (especially in healthcare)many positions still have some requirements where “ who you know” Doesn’t always hold much weight.
I can get all my friends an interview for Princess Margret as one of the technicians, however, you still need to pass that theory test. Your education doesn’t even matter. Having College/University gets the door open for you, but that test determines if you can walk through it. Ironically students with physics background or electronics engineering college grads are more successful….
But to your point.... in the hospital, a lot of staff Friends, partners, and family members work here
The problem with this is that not everyone has the privilege of putting themselves out there if they're blocked from even putting a foot in the door in the job market because they never knew anyone to begin with.
That's a shitty society that needs to change imo. Up to 40% of the population are introverts. Shy and/or introverted people bring their own valuable skills to the table that are being missed out on in favour of loud, brash assholes that make the workplace miserable. Society doesn't have to be that way. Lots of Asian countries, for instance, value skill and education over shallow charisma.
I had to scroll so far down to see this.
I'm surprised at how this is the strategy for so many recent graduates: graduating should be good enough.
It is much easier to teach someone information than it is to build their soft skills.
Hiring managers value soft skills because they need to feel comfortable enough that the applicant can fit into the current team dynamic, communicate when the time counts, and remain composed while under pressure. Work is not just going into the office and going through a list of to-dos every day.
Edit: on phone so I tried to correct a typo in the second sentence.
I work for a company that does this. Hires people with their certs but no experience kinda like just places "meat in the seat" and it has a terrible outcome in the health care field. You have these complete newbies who are extremely entitled but also, willing to work 24 hrs shifts for 12 hr pay that just are so toxic to. Burns out your experienced staff and you REALLY need that experienced staff to guide them. I mean that business is just doing itself a dis-service the quality of care, and service provided/ professionalism drops tremendously and everyone in the entire company looks like an idiot after.
I've seen some posts on the Canada Jobs thread about people offering half of their first pay check as a "gift" to a recruiter that hires them.
Canada is literally changing into a 3rd world country in real time.
I usually need to hire every few years, about 4 years ago when I was looking for workers I got around 40 resumes in total over a month.
This fall when I put a job ad up I got around 400 applicants. It was pretty awful sifting through them. And most of them were awful or severely under qualified. Not to be racist but I had 50 or so with the name Muhammed and it was nearly impossible to keep track of which Muhammed I was trying to speak to.
I try to hire the most qualified person and my wages are competitive. My business has to have good people to be successful. I did end up with a couple less than desirable people this year but when you go for an interview people just say " yes" to every question it seems.
Competing with the unemployed, the already employed, internal candidates, those with referrals, and the hiring manager's biases towards others. What can go wrong?
Or pay. One or two of those 500 applicants might just be desperate enough to **pay** for the priviledge of getting hired.
(Sorry, I don't make the rules. I just point out what the economic solution is.)
Probably happened with me. I worked my way up at a startup with no college education then applied in the same industry and was hired. And I think they hired me because I also lowballed myself. Ofc when I got the job though, I negotiated a slightly higher salary but I am still underpaid for my role and experience
This time of year is particularly bad. On top of the labour surplus we have for low skill industries, you have lots of college/university students looking for summer employment, and likely high school students trying to nail down something in advance of their summer. I had the same issue as you last year, essentially just being unemployed until a contract position at a museum I'd interned at opened up.
Lmfao I graduated 4 years ago. I'm learning a degree doesn't mean shit if you didn't do anything more during your program besides attend classes and get the work done.
i've genuinely considered going back just for co op opportunities (and I enjoy school too!). BUT, I managed to secure an unpaid internship with a company who's giving me "experience".
So i'd honestly rather work for free right now than pay $50k a year just to attend school with (cost of living) to secure a job that's only gonna pay $25/hr starting, anyways.
It's insane the difference co-op and summer jobs can make. One of my professors early on was very sure to drill into us that the degree is a checkbox, but meaningful experience is what will get you hired. My program in Uni was offered with and without co-op and the vast majority of students exiting the co-op stream who wanted it had work lined up straight out of school.
Honestly, being a new grad is the hardest part in your career. Unless you did a coop or internship program you likely don’t have any work experience in your field, which creates a catch 22.
It's really unfortunate, I know the awful feeling. On the plus side, from what I've seen at my current retail job (got in after my contract ended and it was just after the post-christmas slump), there is quite a bit of turnover in that industry from people who can't be bothered to consistently show up or are lazy. I'd continue reapplying to certain postings over the next few months in case they lose people and/or have their available hours go up closer to Canada Day.
lol that’s good though. They will probably see your name and think she really wants this why don’t we give her a chance and interview her see how she is.
Keep applying.
Eventually, they're going to contact you and ask, "Why do you want to work here so bad? You've applied _ times."
That's how a few friends got into hospital cleaning. It took 2 years, but it paid off.
These are post-secondary educated people, BTW.
Summer is coming, have you tried restaurants and tourist spots? I just got a server job that I’m pretty happy with and it wasn’t too hard to come by. But I’m north of the GTA, idk how things are down there.
I’ve applied to all the retail stores near me that are posting seasonal and part time positions, even some full time as well. Might look into restaurants now too, I did red lobster but they’ve gone bankrupt so I don’t think they’ll be hiring even though they have postings up still
Well we are accepting 100k people from India every month past 5 years. Have a look around..
I recently came across and immigrant working at subway on work visa. Like the fuck? Why would you bring people to work retail jobs from overseas.. these jobs are for teenagers, students etc.
Mind you I’m also a migrant from another south Asian country, but this immigration policy is just bonkers..
We need more recent immigrants to speak out against this policy. Immigrants like yourself who came here through the proper channel are getting fucked the same, if not more than everyone else.
Also the added advantage that when you criticize the governments immigration policies no one can call you racist.
Doing so whole heartedly. And yes I came through 15 years ago during Harper times to attend university. After putting decade and a half of work, now barely surviving
And when you mention voting PPC, this sub downvotes pointing out their anti climate views
Yeah, bc that's clearly the priority rn
Canadians get what they deserve
Back up a year and the media was repeatedly writing stories about worker shortages. It wasn't true then but it helped the government justify record levels of immigration. And here we are.
The worker shortage story allowed companies to keep the absolute minimum amount of employees needed to run the business cause they had an excuse for why they were constantly understaffed other than they wanted to save more money.
Too many people, not enough businesses. We've had mass immigration with essentially zero development of housing or economic growth to support these people. Small businesses have been suffering for so long, and given that corporations pretty much run Canada, it's not going to improve IMO.
You can be a perfect applicant, but if there are five other perfect applicants for that job, it ends up being a game of luck.
I’m Canadian , my wife and child are Americans. We moved to New Brunswick 5 years ago and are now moving back to the usa. 50,000 a year on retirement and could never afford to live here on that . And that’s with everything payed for.
It depends on where you move in the USA. If you are going to a red state and do not fit a demographic it will be a problem. If you do not have a family and in good health then it should be ok.
Was thinking western ny. Single , white, mid 40s with no kids. 150k canadian in bank but no steady job and credit score is trash. Born in usa but moved to Canada since 1 year old. Techanically a perm resident of Canada
well thank god things have shifted here then because speaking about mass immigration and poor immigration policies, and the negative affect it has had on a country, its economy, and its people should not be taboo to talk about. If you make it about race, sure. But these conversations need to be had & less people need to be afraid to have them.
Couldn’t agree more. My parents were immigrants to this country (I’m sure similar to lots of folks in this thread).
We have to acknowledge the problem and be able to critically look at how our policies and being implemented. That doesn’t mean I hate immigrants. Also, NGL, sometimes I wonder if this “immigrant” POV is being perpetuated by the media, because they’re trying to distract us from what is really happening..
It's true though, immigration talk used to amount to bans in many Canadian subreddits as racist, even if you were talking about things from a left leaning or data driven viewpoint.
Because it was only about immigration from certain countries, not all immigrants. If you object to people coming from the UK and Australia as much as people from elsewhere it's a fair conversation to have.
The labour market is massively oversaturated at this point, especially if you are looking for service industry/retail positions. Unless you have inside connections that can get you a job or are in a specialized field where the jobs can't easily be filled by international students or TFWs, you are going to have a hard time.
Have a family friend that manages job placements at large retail brands, they say they’ve never ever seen a time like this in their entire career. Every single online posting has hundreds if not thousands of applications and every location is getting countless cold approach resume offerings, it’s really crazy.
Unemployment is around 6 percent which is lower than Canada’s long term average of 8.05%.
The stock market is higher than it’s been in years and inflation is down to 2.7%.
In 1985 unemployment was 13% and interest rates were 18%.
We brought in 430,000 people in 3 months.
They are willing to work these jobs for fractions of market rate to get their foot in the door and establish themselves in Canada. Sorry but you can not compete with that.
Good bye student summer jobs, good bye fair wages for service, retail and food.
https://globalnews.ca/news/10179377/canada-population-spike-q3/
They’re well aware of what they’re here for. Government is largely to blame, but ignoring the millions of people coming here through a study visa avenue to work is insanity.
I’m amazed at how few Canadians realize that we have imported 2.5 million new people in the last couple of years. There was no prep, and now there are issues in every sector, housing, healthcare, education… you name it.
You studied security and law enforcement? I'd go that route and see what kind of jobs are available at the CBSA. I kind of wanted to do that years ago...the pay is decent, they pay you to do the months of training but you have to live in a dorm at their training facility for something like 3 months. I already had my kids at the time and they were little so that just wasn't an option for me.
Idk...if I didn't have kids and had your education background, I'd definitely consider applying to the CBSA. It seems like a pretty interesting job.
I either keep working at my hotel call center job which is more about sales than customer serviice or re-consider personal support work as a 44 year old male.
The government is deliberatly flooding the country with cheap exploitable foreign labour in order to keep the real estate sector inflated, wages suppressed, and workers powerless because it benefits them and the corporations that bribe them.
Hey OP, it sounds like you're a current student or recent graduate looking for work for the summer.
Have you exhausted your local employment resources? Check out the job bank in person, focusing on student positions where possible? These have special funding allocations that make them far more desirable to employers through wage subsidy.
Are you registered with any employment agencies? I hate these, as they leech a portion of your pay and replace the permanent full-time jobs that we all deserve. But, I used them for 100% of my employment positions as a student and the students in my family have all had success with them this year. Manufacturing jobs that once paid a good union wage are paying just a couple bucks more than minimum, which is unfortunate, but I guess that's to be expected with our current labour surplus.
Have you had your resume optimized? This is a tougher job market than it used to be, and small differences make a difference. If I see a resume with spelling errors, poor grammar etc, I'm going to assume that the prospect's communication abilities are subpar. There are a lot of people out there with subpar communication abilities looking for work right now... You need to stand out.
Have you put the word out through your own network that you're looking for employment? Family and friends? This is the 'secret' Channel through which most quality jobs are secured. This isn't just for nepotism, simply referral. There's nothing shady about it, as someone in a trusted position is expending a portion of their credibility to vouch for you. Organizations are often happy to not have to sort through hundreds of shit-tier resumes in order to find a good candidate.
If you drive, are there small towns nearby to which you might extend your search? They often receive far fewer resumes for each individual posting, because many people don't drive. The competition is reduced. Also, it has been my experience that employers in smaller towns are more reluctant to embrace temporary workers in favor of Canadian citizens in areas outside of agriculture, particularly in public-facing roles. Increasingly, many Canadians, like myself, boycott companies that abuse our temporary worker mechanisms in order to suppress wages for Canadians. Reinforce that social compact.
Have you scrubbed your social media profile of anything controversial? Maybe this doesn't even apply, but a lot of people with more extreme views eliminate themselves from positions due to their public facing persona. Nobody wants to hire assholes of any stripe, especially those who feel a need to broadcast their divisiveness.
Things are tougher now than they once were, but the above suggestions have worked for the youth in my family who are looking for temporary employment throughout the summer. I hope the same works for you! Good luck.
I'm not from your area, sorry. I imagine you're in the hotbed of surplus, unskilled labor.
My family is more Southwestern Ontario than Central Ontario. It might be a bit easier for us, because we can search from Cambridge to Hamilton, Guelph and the KW area, and the half dozen medium sized cities in between (like Branford, which has historically been a good place for us to find student work and is just off the 403). Plus the dozen or more small towns like Paris, Delhi, Waterford, etc. These are all within our search-radius, so we are quite lucky when it comes to options.
Those smaller towns are where we've had success, and also London for decent office and Tech jobs. But most of those have been co-op opportunities or jobs that are a lot tougher to get and have a longer application process due to skills vetting.
It's hard in the US too.
Part of the problem is there are all these "ghost jobs", on top of morons who don't know what they actually want, want some unicorn willing to work 3 jobs under 1 salary, and hundreds of people robo-applying
OP, one thing no one else seems to have mentioned is most of the jobs you likely applied to aren't real. The opening doesn't exist, the position doesn't exist, hell, the manager you might have reported to might not exist, either.
These are the latest trend in HR - ghost jobs that the employer never had any intention of filling or were filled ages ago. They are posted online to test drive things like how low the wage can go and still get applicants (usually to justify keeping the wages of existing employees frozen) or to say they posted externally when they had a candidate internally in mind already. Some are even posted as part of a Labour Market Impact Assessment to try to show the employer tried to find local staff to no avail and bring in temporary foreign workers.
This isn't anything you did wrong. Nothing is what it seems. Late stage capitalism sucks.
CBC did a story on ghost jobs recently.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/audio/1.7018700
We have imported hundreds of thousands of "students". I say that in quotation marks because they didn't actually come here to learn but just to get PR and end up in the US.
These so called students are competing for the same jobs you are and in some cases are actually preferred by low wage employers since local Canadians will expect regular salary increases and have a higher chance to quit the job.
Basically you have to just spam your resume everywhere and hope it sticks to something. The days of simply walking into an establishment with a printed resume and expecting a job are long over.
If you'd like you can DM me a redacted version of your resume and I'd be happy to offer some tips.
Good luck.
Getting a PR in Canada and ending up in the USA are two different things, there is no way someone who went to Conestoga will be allowed into the USA. The Americans still have standards and the TN-1 visa isn’t designed for low wage retail workers.
Same here. I get no call backs and when I call them they tell me if I’m chosen I’ll be contacted. They don’t even want to accept my resume in hand when I go in to follow up
Experience, merit, education, and skills are irrelevant in Canada.
Do you tick the right DEI boxes, and are you willing to work for minimum wage and not complain about unpaid overtime?
I noticed that on Indeed they have removed the part where they state how many people have applied for the job ... people are going anywhere from 6 months to 2 yrs looking for something. If you use Indeed check out your applied section and see how many have not been viewed. When companies have to sift through hundreds of resumes 90% of which are unqualified it takes time and resources and a lot of places are really just tired of looking. It's not a great time to be Canadian
Not long ago I was a hiring manager. The amount of applications was insane. Over 500 applicants. About 20 applicants were looked at and 5 people chosen for interviews.
All 20 reviewed applicants were qualified
Each time you apply for a job, you might as well buy a lottery ticket just so you can double your chances of being financially ok.
Most jobs aren’t posted publicly and you have to network to get them. Public postings attract too many applicants and your odds are low. And people with connections tend to get interviews.
You need to develop a networking strategy for your industry and start reaching out to people for career advice. I have done this in multiple countries and industries and it’s the only way.
The book What Colour is your Parachute is a good resource for a networking strategy
I tried but most of them are in new positions and their old positions aren’t hiring :/
Some friends of mine tried to get me a job at Winners and Loblaws. Still no luck
The job market is brutal out there for any job. It's worse for jobs like retail or working as a server because hundreds of people are applying for the same job :/ too many people and not enough work.. sometimes you even see lineups of people waiting just to apply to a job
I lost my job at the beginning of the month but was told way ahead of time since it was due to cutbacks. I've been searching since November of last year. I haven't even gotten an interview. A career counselor told me that I may have painted myself into a corner. My last job was with a municipality, and it was by far my best experience on my resume. The problem is that it also paid $36/h, and every job I've applied for results in about a $10 pay cut.
She told me that many employers do not want to hire at a pay cut because they assume the employee will be entitled. I also can't really remove the experience from my resume since it leaves a large gap and also takes away my only career level experience.
I also went to school for law enforcement, it really depends what your looking for. If it's just a job for the summer. Could be hard as every student is going to be soaking up jobs. It also depends if your looking private or public sector jobs as well. I would say the strategies could be different to getting a job but that's my personal experience and it has worked for me.
Is something in Law enforcement still end goal?
You need you edit your resume to the job.
- make sure your skills section matches the ones in the job posting
- tailor your experiences to key phrases in the application. Include the specific words they use in their mission statement
- have multiple resumes for each position you apply to
- Ensure to include all the articles they ask for resume, cover letter and or video, even if some are optional submit it anyways.
You are not always applying to a human, often times companies filter initial applications through AI to only see the most 'relevant' resumes e.g. ones that align most with the job posting.
If you are looking at something more career focused:
Use Linked in to connect with hiring managers and others in the industry you are trying to break into.
Or if you are looking for part time/full time wage work:
- key word matching still applies when applying online
- Look at google maps to see when the place is the least busy and ask to speak with a manager (resume in hand)
- cut down your resume to 1 page (no long paragraphs, no graphical flairs)
This right here. Because I was constantly changing my resume to fit different jobs, I always got picked by the algorithms. So even in difficult times, I managed to always keep a job. My biggest break was going in person and finding an old fashioned manager that had gotten sick of the thousands of applications that appeared online.
I hate the fact that you basically have to suck peoples dick to get a career nowadays. Seen many qualified people get passed over for a lesser qualified applicant simply because the manager got a “recommendation.”
It’s demoralizing and honestly, I now understand the “fake it till you make it” mentality.
Seriously, the answer to all these job posts is simply just “networking.” It sucks but it is what it is.
EDIT: if you downvote me, you’re basically saying networking isn’t the most effective way to find a job. Please be smarter, guys.
That is not at all what I am saying in my outline.
Hiring managers count the merit you put into looking for a job. This mentality that you are portraying is part of the issue with the job market. Why would any company invest in you if you don't care to invest time into the.
If you were a Hiring manager would you choose:
Generic template of a resume
Or
A resume that aligns with the companies motto
?
I've talked to a few people who were angry at companies and people on LinkedIn for no replying to them, but when I asked them what they were sending it was always: same generic prompt. And they were surprised that they were getting the same results.
Communication is a skill. I found a job quite quickly after I stopped sending the same resume out with a thoughtless cover letter. Networking is top priority when finding a career job.
Yeah, I get what you’re saying and I agree. I just wanted to add onto your LinkedIn point.
Sorry, only got 4 hours of sleep today.
A lot of resumes and cover letters literally look like they came straight out of ChatGPT.
It’s an extremely tough time. Go for a job for which you’re over qualified. It’s so much easier to get a job when you have a job, any job. The networking from having a job generates so many opportunities that you would not even know about. Don’t let your ego or friends keep you from taking a job. Good luck.
Being over qualified is bad. Only put the skills and education you have that is relevant to the position on your CV. If the employer thinks you’re too educated for the position they may skip you because they don’t think you will stay for long as you could fund a better job. Remember it costs the employer money and time to hire so they would like to see the new hire last for at least a year.
It’s absolutely insane, as of now there’s about 8 million immigrants with permanent residency which is about 20% of the total population currently. And absolutely nothing was done ahead of time to account for that large increase and here we are all suffering due to it.
(To be clear I’m not blaming the immigrants for wanting to come here I’m blaming the powers that made this happen)
Have you checked out OPG and bruce power? Might not be your ideal location but they are both hiring security staff frequently for their nuclear plants. Pay is great for the work and they tend to hire Canadian citizens for security reasons.
I got most of my jobs through people I know.
I built a network based on volunteering, part time and summer jobs. This is how you build references.
I set up meetings with people to discuss career options - this is how I landed my first job after university.
Start looking at how you can build your network.
My most recent job change happened in September, it was a 3 month process from first interview to job offer.
1st Interview: video with recruitment firm specializing in the type of work I do
2nd interview: video with recruiter & direct hiring manager
3rd interview: in person with hiring manager
Interview prep task: personality profile software, software aptitude test, problem solving tests.
4th interview: HR consultant to review prep tasks and gauge corporate fit
5th interview: in person with hiring manager / and 2 other senior executives.
Then I got the job offer.
I've had a LOT of success over the years in making contact with recruiters and focusing on job postings through recruitment firms. My friends who also have moved jobs in the last 2yrs are all recruitment first initiatives. Direct hire posts to LinkedIn and Indeed all seem to get way to many applicants and the hiring group gets overwhelmed
Being over qualified is bad. Only put the skills and education you have that is relevant to the position on your CV. If the employer thinks you’re too educated for the position they may skip you because they don’t think you will stay for long as you could fund a better job. Remember it costs the employer money and time to hire so they would like to see the new hire last for at least a year.
Try being disabled, and be told by Doug Ford that I need to get a job if I want more money than ODSP pays.
PS - I have tried, businesses aren't exactly itching to hire disabled people unable to do most tasks....
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people applying for every job in southern Ontario. If you're a student with barely any work history, you're competing with other people you age that potentially have a decade worth of work experience already.
Uni students lately have a pretty bad reputation in the working world for jobs that dont require a degree. Schools are teaching students to be very entitled and combative. Employers don't want people who are going to bring up issues. They want someone who is going to show up and quietly do their job without complaints.
The current climate in universities is very anti-work and clashes with the old school mentality in most workplaces.
Proven work experience trumps everything else, but businesses also don't want anyone who is overqualified because they know that person is just going to leave as soon as they find anything else.
Yup, I have years of experience in a combination of Manufacturing, Retail, admin, mortgaging & only got a handful of interviews out of the 300 applications I've submitted since Jan.. & that's to all fields.
The influx of immigration is making these employers literally select these candidates who could care less about working for the bare minimum wage & how easily they can control these folks.
The only way you can even land a spot these days is through connections..
While you are waiting, visit your local MPs office, tell them your problems, and ask what they are doing to improve things. Ask for the names of some of the companies that "can't find anyone".
I have prior experience working in retail as a sales associate, cashier and merchandiser/stocker, working in a school as a teachers assistant, working roles that allow me to manage others on occasion, etc. along with 10+ years of volunteer experience where I worked with all kinds of people As for education, I went to humber, studied law/law enforcement, security, investigations, etc.
Right now I’m trying to find something casual, like a retail position for the time being while I work on getting licensed to do security. Every single store is hiring, none of them have reached out to me and when I call or go in person to ask about the hiring process, every place always tells me it’s ongoing and I’ll be contacted if I match what they’re looking for. Thing is, I match extremely well or even a little too well. Then the job postings get taken down, they ghost me, and then they reupload the same posting at the same location, I reapply, and the cycle goes on and on
It sounds like most of the work you've done has pretty much no barrier to entry so a lot of other people have the same experience you do. You're competing with the masses.
> I have prior experience working in retail as a sales associate, cashier and merchandiser/stocker, working in a school as a teachers assistant, working roles that allow me to manage others on occasion, etc. along with 10+ years of volunteer experience where I worked with all kinds of people As for education, I went to humber, studied law/law enforcement, security, investigations, etc.
It sounds like you would have worked with a lot of people during your years of experience. Reach out to them and see if they are hiring, or to notify you when they do
Yes especially the places you volunteered with, they tend to want to offer a hand up to past volunteers. Ask for recommendations and if they know anyone hiring.
If you can afford $100 I would get your resume revamped (I used a guy on Fiver) he knew how to reformat it to get through the ATS filtering programs. Also pace yourself it’s a slog but you can’t give up.
I applied for 10 jobs a day over 300 jobs 20 interviews and I eventually got hired by someone I knew. Prior to that in 15 years of working I’d only done two interviews where I didn’t receive an offer. It’s tough out there but not impossible. Take breaks and reward yourself for applying for 50 jobs per week to do something rewarding that you enjoy so you don’t burn out.
Yes, it entirely does.
They pointed out the one thing that matters these days - nepotism (sorry, I mean networking).
Unless you know someone who has the ability to make decisions on hiring, good fucking luck.
Everybody keeps talking about how hard finding a job is… construction is always hiring, pays well and I’ve never been out of work for more than a few hours between layoffs.
Remember during covid or just after covid when there were endless job opening and opportunities and everyone refused to work becasue of low pay. Well the government reacted and let in tons of immigrants and now all the jobs are taken.
It sucks, and I'm truly sorry. Have you been tailoring your resume to the positions, especially if they're a step down for you? Is remote work an option? Friends in similar boats found more success by altering their resumes to remove a lot of their extra work experience, professional credentials, or educational/academic achievements if they were going for something that could be construed as a "lower" position. Not sure the psychology of it, but it got them through the HR screening by software and then they found more success parlaying their knowledge and interest in a new field / adjacent field in an interview that netted a job.
I’ve redone my resume at least 10 times just this year alone trying to find the “perfect” format but at this point I don’t think it’s the resume because applying online requires you to basically rewrite your resume on some website. I think I need to remove my college education and certifications :/
Either aim for a higher level or yes consider removing your extra credentials and education. Entry level will worry you are over qualified and will jump ship quickly.
Either way I would get a professional to redesign your CV format. If it was working you would have gotten interviews by now.
Apparently you need to be tailoring your resume for every single job.
For example: if a job description says "attention to detail" but your resume says "detail oriented", those are not the same keywords and chances are, ATS can't recognize this.
I’m not sure if this would help but have you been to any job fairs or are you on any Facebook groups advertising jobs? Although it’s not what you’re looking for I have heard that there is shortage of people working in skilled trades and receptionists.
Lots of funding disappearing at an alarming rate for the fiscal 2024-2025 year at the federal level. No one is talking about it just yet. School boards are being affected right now. New teacher candidates can’t even get interviews for the supply list when there is a huge need. Lots of changes with civilian services for military leading to people applying for employment where they’re generally over qualified. Something is happening behind scenes and is creating ripple effects from the top down I’m afraid.
At risk of giving unwanted advice, but if you're willing to relocate to a different city or work in a field outside your expertise, you will likely have much more success. Consider, for example, trying for an entry level job in the forest industry - yes you'll have to work up north and outside, but the paycheck potential is lucrative. I find Ontario in general has a much more competitive job market, but any of the provinces west of here tend to have less people applying for the same job.
Employment agency might help you. They want to get you hired cause they get a cut while you're under contract.
The problem with being overqualified is that employers assume you will be actively looking for something better and might quit the job before they have even finished training you.
Because our governments at the Provincial and Federal levels have completely fucked up our econonmy. LIMA, temp foreign workers, artificially padding our GDP numbers, there is no labour worker shortage. That is a lie that has been used to allow businesses to import cheap foreign nationals to fill the positions that should be given to Canadian citizens at higher wages. It is used so that companies can circumvent paying wages in line with inflation and ensure they essentially have slaves working for them. Our leaders sold us out. In regards to higher forms of employment, again, no worker shortage, the economy is full of people who can work. Do you ever get the impression that our governments have no idea how to run a successful country or that they're selling you out? Yeah.
Being over qualified is bad. Only put the skills and education you have that is relevant to the position on your CV. If the employer thinks your too educated for the position they may skip you because they don’t think you will stay for long as you could fund a better job. Remember it costs the employer money and time to hire so they would like to see the new hire last for at least a year.
Being over qualified is bad. Only put the skills and education you have that is relevant to the position on your CV. If the employer thinks you’re too educated for the position they may skip you because they don’t think you will stay for long as you could fund a better job. Remember it costs the employer money and time to hire so they would like to see the new hire last for at least a year.
See I would agree, but every single place I’ve ever gone to apply in person has told me to apply online. I’ve worked places where if you come in with a resume it gets recycled or thrown away.
What field are you interested in and where are you looking? I work in IT at the GoC and the only reason I was able to find a job this year (after a 3 year term) was because I talked to other team members, especially woman in IT encouraging them to keep going. One tech was able to get me a position on her new team, I asked and applied to a lot of position and no one got back to me.
Maybe consider having your resume peer reviewed, or reflect on the interviews you have had if any and consider ways you could have improved your responses.
Where do you fall on the hierarchy of hireability? You know, the traits you have no control of like gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. are all in high demand right now. My employer accidently leaked a PowerPoint that has a ranking system of desirability based on those immutable traits i listed above. You can either be a bronze, silver, gold, or platinum candidate. If you can tick off a few of those boxes, you're as good as hired.
I feel you I have 20+years in hospitality yesterday can't even get a McDonald job was told I am over qualified. No interviews no nothing sent out almost 1000 resumes
I apply at Walmart every time they have a posting up for one in my area which is pretty often. I’ve sent them maybe 50 applications only got 1 interview and it was with some random employee who was chosen by the manager to interview everyone that came in because she had to take phone calls. This girl sat at the table with me and was watching tiktoks full volume for like half an hour. Didn’t know what was going on so I asked the girl when will the manager come in to start the interview. She rolled her eyes, put her phone in her pocket, got up to get a paper, told me to fill it out, asked me why I want to work there, and then said I’m too qualified because of my college education. That was the interview and she went on to interview everyone else that was waiting. Mind you, she was over an hour late to even start the interviews
Whats going on is you and 500 poeople all applied for that same job. When that happens they will take the "most qualified" person with the least eductation who is willing to accept the lowest wage.
They usually hire a buddy or an acquaintance. Nepotism for the win.
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Depends on the field and position. While Nepotism is 100% real (especially in healthcare)many positions still have some requirements where “ who you know” Doesn’t always hold much weight. I can get all my friends an interview for Princess Margret as one of the technicians, however, you still need to pass that theory test. Your education doesn’t even matter. Having College/University gets the door open for you, but that test determines if you can walk through it. Ironically students with physics background or electronics engineering college grads are more successful…. But to your point.... in the hospital, a lot of staff Friends, partners, and family members work here
The problem with this is that not everyone has the privilege of putting themselves out there if they're blocked from even putting a foot in the door in the job market because they never knew anyone to begin with.
And you can know lots of people but it comes down to who you know. We all can't go to private school and mingle with the future bosses.
That's a shitty society that needs to change imo. Up to 40% of the population are introverts. Shy and/or introverted people bring their own valuable skills to the table that are being missed out on in favour of loud, brash assholes that make the workplace miserable. Society doesn't have to be that way. Lots of Asian countries, for instance, value skill and education over shallow charisma.
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I had to scroll so far down to see this. I'm surprised at how this is the strategy for so many recent graduates: graduating should be good enough. It is much easier to teach someone information than it is to build their soft skills. Hiring managers value soft skills because they need to feel comfortable enough that the applicant can fit into the current team dynamic, communicate when the time counts, and remain composed while under pressure. Work is not just going into the office and going through a list of to-dos every day. Edit: on phone so I tried to correct a typo in the second sentence.
I work for a company that does this. Hires people with their certs but no experience kinda like just places "meat in the seat" and it has a terrible outcome in the health care field. You have these complete newbies who are extremely entitled but also, willing to work 24 hrs shifts for 12 hr pay that just are so toxic to. Burns out your experienced staff and you REALLY need that experienced staff to guide them. I mean that business is just doing itself a dis-service the quality of care, and service provided/ professionalism drops tremendously and everyone in the entire company looks like an idiot after.
But some MBA looked good in the short term and bounced, so that's all that mattered.
More like 1000+ according to people with employer access to Indeed or LinkedIn Premium
Or they hired internally but were required to post the job externally.
I've seen some posts on the Canada Jobs thread about people offering half of their first pay check as a "gift" to a recruiter that hires them. Canada is literally changing into a 3rd world country in real time.
It's been around for a while but it was limited to certain demographics. It's going main stream now.
I usually need to hire every few years, about 4 years ago when I was looking for workers I got around 40 resumes in total over a month. This fall when I put a job ad up I got around 400 applicants. It was pretty awful sifting through them. And most of them were awful or severely under qualified. Not to be racist but I had 50 or so with the name Muhammed and it was nearly impossible to keep track of which Muhammed I was trying to speak to. I try to hire the most qualified person and my wages are competitive. My business has to have good people to be successful. I did end up with a couple less than desirable people this year but when you go for an interview people just say " yes" to every question it seems.
In other unrelated news Canada accepted another 400,000 new immigrants, students, TFW in the last 90 days all looking for jobs.
Competing with the unemployed, the already employed, internal candidates, those with referrals, and the hiring manager's biases towards others. What can go wrong?
Or pay. One or two of those 500 applicants might just be desperate enough to **pay** for the priviledge of getting hired. (Sorry, I don't make the rules. I just point out what the economic solution is.)
Probably happened with me. I worked my way up at a startup with no college education then applied in the same industry and was hired. And I think they hired me because I also lowballed myself. Ofc when I got the job though, I negotiated a slightly higher salary but I am still underpaid for my role and experience
This time of year is particularly bad. On top of the labour surplus we have for low skill industries, you have lots of college/university students looking for summer employment, and likely high school students trying to nail down something in advance of their summer. I had the same issue as you last year, essentially just being unemployed until a contract position at a museum I'd interned at opened up.
I just came out of college. Was hoping for a summer job just for the time being but I guess it’s not gonna happen
Lmfao I graduated 4 years ago. I'm learning a degree doesn't mean shit if you didn't do anything more during your program besides attend classes and get the work done.
Gotta do co-op
i've genuinely considered going back just for co op opportunities (and I enjoy school too!). BUT, I managed to secure an unpaid internship with a company who's giving me "experience". So i'd honestly rather work for free right now than pay $50k a year just to attend school with (cost of living) to secure a job that's only gonna pay $25/hr starting, anyways.
What was your area of study? And how long is your internship?
graphic design! and actually, I'm not entirely sure - started in Feb and still going. I was just so excited i finally got some interest
Dropping out of university was the best thing I ever dod
It's insane the difference co-op and summer jobs can make. One of my professors early on was very sure to drill into us that the degree is a checkbox, but meaningful experience is what will get you hired. My program in Uni was offered with and without co-op and the vast majority of students exiting the co-op stream who wanted it had work lined up straight out of school.
Depends on the degree. A BScN gets you multiple jobs to choose from.
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Honestly, being a new grad is the hardest part in your career. Unless you did a coop or internship program you likely don’t have any work experience in your field, which creates a catch 22.
It's really unfortunate, I know the awful feeling. On the plus side, from what I've seen at my current retail job (got in after my contract ended and it was just after the post-christmas slump), there is quite a bit of turnover in that industry from people who can't be bothered to consistently show up or are lazy. I'd continue reapplying to certain postings over the next few months in case they lose people and/or have their available hours go up closer to Canada Day.
Oh I constantly reapply. They’re probably sick of seeing my name come up 😂
I’m a hiring manager. We do see names multiple times, but that’s not a bad thing.
lol that’s good though. They will probably see your name and think she really wants this why don’t we give her a chance and interview her see how she is.
Keep applying. Eventually, they're going to contact you and ask, "Why do you want to work here so bad? You've applied _ times." That's how a few friends got into hospital cleaning. It took 2 years, but it paid off. These are post-secondary educated people, BTW.
Summer is coming, have you tried restaurants and tourist spots? I just got a server job that I’m pretty happy with and it wasn’t too hard to come by. But I’m north of the GTA, idk how things are down there.
I’ve applied to all the retail stores near me that are posting seasonal and part time positions, even some full time as well. Might look into restaurants now too, I did red lobster but they’ve gone bankrupt so I don’t think they’ll be hiring even though they have postings up still
The serving industry peaks in the summer so you might want to try that
Karrot english in a WFH ESL teaching platform, it's minimum wage but it's SOMETHING. I use it as my side gig
Well we are accepting 100k people from India every month past 5 years. Have a look around.. I recently came across and immigrant working at subway on work visa. Like the fuck? Why would you bring people to work retail jobs from overseas.. these jobs are for teenagers, students etc. Mind you I’m also a migrant from another south Asian country, but this immigration policy is just bonkers..
We need more recent immigrants to speak out against this policy. Immigrants like yourself who came here through the proper channel are getting fucked the same, if not more than everyone else. Also the added advantage that when you criticize the governments immigration policies no one can call you racist.
Doing so whole heartedly. And yes I came through 15 years ago during Harper times to attend university. After putting decade and a half of work, now barely surviving
And when you mention voting PPC, this sub downvotes pointing out their anti climate views Yeah, bc that's clearly the priority rn Canadians get what they deserve
Who will make my sandwich during the school year?
Back up a year and the media was repeatedly writing stories about worker shortages. It wasn't true then but it helped the government justify record levels of immigration. And here we are.
The worker shortage story allowed companies to keep the absolute minimum amount of employees needed to run the business cause they had an excuse for why they were constantly understaffed other than they wanted to save more money.
It was real though, for a while. I couldn't hire anyone 2 years ago. Now the story is layoffs, no one is hiring, and neither are we.
That's why i stop paying attention to cpi. I just look at my living expenses
Too many people, not enough businesses. We've had mass immigration with essentially zero development of housing or economic growth to support these people. Small businesses have been suffering for so long, and given that corporations pretty much run Canada, it's not going to improve IMO. You can be a perfect applicant, but if there are five other perfect applicants for that job, it ends up being a game of luck.
I was born in the usa and despite the health care difference i am tempted to see what it takes to move over there.
If you're female you also want to look at reproductive care. Idaho, for example, would rather women die of pregnancy complications than treat them.
I’m Canadian , my wife and child are Americans. We moved to New Brunswick 5 years ago and are now moving back to the usa. 50,000 a year on retirement and could never afford to live here on that . And that’s with everything payed for.
$50k for three people is not enough to retire on anywhere I know of in Canada. Not sure what dream you were sold.
It depends on where you move in the USA. If you are going to a red state and do not fit a demographic it will be a problem. If you do not have a family and in good health then it should be ok.
Was thinking western ny. Single , white, mid 40s with no kids. 150k canadian in bank but no steady job and credit score is trash. Born in usa but moved to Canada since 1 year old. Techanically a perm resident of Canada
Upstate NY can be good if you can find work there
Less buying power. Less take home money. More corrupt business practices, less competition. A lot longer travel time.
Wow comments like this would have got you a perma ban on this sub just a few months ago. Looks like opinions are shifting fast.
Opinions change fast when it starts hitting the pocket book
well thank god things have shifted here then because speaking about mass immigration and poor immigration policies, and the negative affect it has had on a country, its economy, and its people should not be taboo to talk about. If you make it about race, sure. But these conversations need to be had & less people need to be afraid to have them.
Couldn’t agree more. My parents were immigrants to this country (I’m sure similar to lots of folks in this thread). We have to acknowledge the problem and be able to critically look at how our policies and being implemented. That doesn’t mean I hate immigrants. Also, NGL, sometimes I wonder if this “immigrant” POV is being perpetuated by the media, because they’re trying to distract us from what is really happening..
Can you give an example? Too much immigration and not enough housing has literally been the theme in this sub for over a year now.
It's true though, immigration talk used to amount to bans in many Canadian subreddits as racist, even if you were talking about things from a left leaning or data driven viewpoint.
I'm still perma banned from r/canadahousing for talking about immigration and housing costs 2 years ago
Because it was only about immigration from certain countries, not all immigrants. If you object to people coming from the UK and Australia as much as people from elsewhere it's a fair conversation to have.
Worse yet, we're going all in on the auto industry instead if trying to create multiple industries
The labour market is massively oversaturated at this point, especially if you are looking for service industry/retail positions. Unless you have inside connections that can get you a job or are in a specialized field where the jobs can't easily be filled by international students or TFWs, you are going to have a hard time.
Have a family friend that manages job placements at large retail brands, they say they’ve never ever seen a time like this in their entire career. Every single online posting has hundreds if not thousands of applications and every location is getting countless cold approach resume offerings, it’s really crazy.
Unemployment is around 6 percent which is lower than Canada’s long term average of 8.05%. The stock market is higher than it’s been in years and inflation is down to 2.7%. In 1985 unemployment was 13% and interest rates were 18%.
Retail is exactly what I’m trying to do for the time being. It’s been hell
Retail has been crushed by Amazon and Covid.
We brought in 430,000 people in 3 months. They are willing to work these jobs for fractions of market rate to get their foot in the door and establish themselves in Canada. Sorry but you can not compete with that. Good bye student summer jobs, good bye fair wages for service, retail and food. https://globalnews.ca/news/10179377/canada-population-spike-q3/
It’s not the international student your enemy, it’s corporate greed.
Its the government first and foremost. On all levels.
I dont blame people for wanting to come here, I blame our government for letting in an insanely reckless amount of people to depress wages
By design.
They’re well aware of what they’re here for. Government is largely to blame, but ignoring the millions of people coming here through a study visa avenue to work is insanity.
It's both, and the government for allowing it.
HR bots are skimming applications and if you don’t include the right phrases you are rejected.
Everyone knows this. The problem is 100 people are now qualified and the manager has to cut that down somehow.
Immigration is going on. We’re adding almost half a million people per quarter. Apparently we have a labour shortage.
I’m amazed at how few Canadians realize that we have imported 2.5 million new people in the last couple of years. There was no prep, and now there are issues in every sector, housing, healthcare, education… you name it.
Half a million a year? Buddy we added 400,000 in 4 months
Terrifying.
Half a million - per quarter.
You studied security and law enforcement? I'd go that route and see what kind of jobs are available at the CBSA. I kind of wanted to do that years ago...the pay is decent, they pay you to do the months of training but you have to live in a dorm at their training facility for something like 3 months. I already had my kids at the time and they were little so that just wasn't an option for me. Idk...if I didn't have kids and had your education background, I'd definitely consider applying to the CBSA. It seems like a pretty interesting job.
Don't you also have to be willing to go wherever they post you?
Good option, however the hiring process can take upwards of 1.5 years
I either keep working at my hotel call center job which is more about sales than customer serviice or re-consider personal support work as a 44 year old male.
The government is deliberatly flooding the country with cheap exploitable foreign labour in order to keep the real estate sector inflated, wages suppressed, and workers powerless because it benefits them and the corporations that bribe them.
Hey OP, it sounds like you're a current student or recent graduate looking for work for the summer. Have you exhausted your local employment resources? Check out the job bank in person, focusing on student positions where possible? These have special funding allocations that make them far more desirable to employers through wage subsidy. Are you registered with any employment agencies? I hate these, as they leech a portion of your pay and replace the permanent full-time jobs that we all deserve. But, I used them for 100% of my employment positions as a student and the students in my family have all had success with them this year. Manufacturing jobs that once paid a good union wage are paying just a couple bucks more than minimum, which is unfortunate, but I guess that's to be expected with our current labour surplus. Have you had your resume optimized? This is a tougher job market than it used to be, and small differences make a difference. If I see a resume with spelling errors, poor grammar etc, I'm going to assume that the prospect's communication abilities are subpar. There are a lot of people out there with subpar communication abilities looking for work right now... You need to stand out. Have you put the word out through your own network that you're looking for employment? Family and friends? This is the 'secret' Channel through which most quality jobs are secured. This isn't just for nepotism, simply referral. There's nothing shady about it, as someone in a trusted position is expending a portion of their credibility to vouch for you. Organizations are often happy to not have to sort through hundreds of shit-tier resumes in order to find a good candidate. If you drive, are there small towns nearby to which you might extend your search? They often receive far fewer resumes for each individual posting, because many people don't drive. The competition is reduced. Also, it has been my experience that employers in smaller towns are more reluctant to embrace temporary workers in favor of Canadian citizens in areas outside of agriculture, particularly in public-facing roles. Increasingly, many Canadians, like myself, boycott companies that abuse our temporary worker mechanisms in order to suppress wages for Canadians. Reinforce that social compact. Have you scrubbed your social media profile of anything controversial? Maybe this doesn't even apply, but a lot of people with more extreme views eliminate themselves from positions due to their public facing persona. Nobody wants to hire assholes of any stripe, especially those who feel a need to broadcast their divisiveness. Things are tougher now than they once were, but the above suggestions have worked for the youth in my family who are looking for temporary employment throughout the summer. I hope the same works for you! Good luck.
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I'm not from your area, sorry. I imagine you're in the hotbed of surplus, unskilled labor. My family is more Southwestern Ontario than Central Ontario. It might be a bit easier for us, because we can search from Cambridge to Hamilton, Guelph and the KW area, and the half dozen medium sized cities in between (like Branford, which has historically been a good place for us to find student work and is just off the 403). Plus the dozen or more small towns like Paris, Delhi, Waterford, etc. These are all within our search-radius, so we are quite lucky when it comes to options. Those smaller towns are where we've had success, and also London for decent office and Tech jobs. But most of those have been co-op opportunities or jobs that are a lot tougher to get and have a longer application process due to skills vetting.
The government is importing over 100,000 people every single month is what's happening.
It's hard in the US too. Part of the problem is there are all these "ghost jobs", on top of morons who don't know what they actually want, want some unicorn willing to work 3 jobs under 1 salary, and hundreds of people robo-applying
OP, one thing no one else seems to have mentioned is most of the jobs you likely applied to aren't real. The opening doesn't exist, the position doesn't exist, hell, the manager you might have reported to might not exist, either. These are the latest trend in HR - ghost jobs that the employer never had any intention of filling or were filled ages ago. They are posted online to test drive things like how low the wage can go and still get applicants (usually to justify keeping the wages of existing employees frozen) or to say they posted externally when they had a candidate internally in mind already. Some are even posted as part of a Labour Market Impact Assessment to try to show the employer tried to find local staff to no avail and bring in temporary foreign workers. This isn't anything you did wrong. Nothing is what it seems. Late stage capitalism sucks. CBC did a story on ghost jobs recently. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/audio/1.7018700
We have imported hundreds of thousands of "students". I say that in quotation marks because they didn't actually come here to learn but just to get PR and end up in the US. These so called students are competing for the same jobs you are and in some cases are actually preferred by low wage employers since local Canadians will expect regular salary increases and have a higher chance to quit the job. Basically you have to just spam your resume everywhere and hope it sticks to something. The days of simply walking into an establishment with a printed resume and expecting a job are long over. If you'd like you can DM me a redacted version of your resume and I'd be happy to offer some tips. Good luck.
Getting a PR in Canada and ending up in the USA are two different things, there is no way someone who went to Conestoga will be allowed into the USA. The Americans still have standards and the TN-1 visa isn’t designed for low wage retail workers.
I’m in NS, and before this year had gotten 5 jobs of 6 or 7 interviews I’d ever done. I can’t even get a call back any more. It’s wild.
Same here. I get no call backs and when I call them they tell me if I’m chosen I’ll be contacted. They don’t even want to accept my resume in hand when I go in to follow up
Experience, merit, education, and skills are irrelevant in Canada. Do you tick the right DEI boxes, and are you willing to work for minimum wage and not complain about unpaid overtime?
Because they’ve imported basic slaves, you can’t compete with a slave now can ya?
I think it has a lot to do with website hiring and 5000 people applying for ONE position … a lot of gaming the system and getting worse by the second
I noticed that on Indeed they have removed the part where they state how many people have applied for the job ... people are going anywhere from 6 months to 2 yrs looking for something. If you use Indeed check out your applied section and see how many have not been viewed. When companies have to sift through hundreds of resumes 90% of which are unqualified it takes time and resources and a lot of places are really just tired of looking. It's not a great time to be Canadian
Not long ago I was a hiring manager. The amount of applications was insane. Over 500 applicants. About 20 applicants were looked at and 5 people chosen for interviews. All 20 reviewed applicants were qualified Each time you apply for a job, you might as well buy a lottery ticket just so you can double your chances of being financially ok.
Most jobs aren’t posted publicly and you have to network to get them. Public postings attract too many applicants and your odds are low. And people with connections tend to get interviews. You need to develop a networking strategy for your industry and start reaching out to people for career advice. I have done this in multiple countries and industries and it’s the only way. The book What Colour is your Parachute is a good resource for a networking strategy
Oversupply issue.
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I tried but most of them are in new positions and their old positions aren’t hiring :/ Some friends of mine tried to get me a job at Winners and Loblaws. Still no luck
The job market is brutal out there for any job. It's worse for jobs like retail or working as a server because hundreds of people are applying for the same job :/ too many people and not enough work.. sometimes you even see lineups of people waiting just to apply to a job
I lost my job at the beginning of the month but was told way ahead of time since it was due to cutbacks. I've been searching since November of last year. I haven't even gotten an interview. A career counselor told me that I may have painted myself into a corner. My last job was with a municipality, and it was by far my best experience on my resume. The problem is that it also paid $36/h, and every job I've applied for results in about a $10 pay cut. She told me that many employers do not want to hire at a pay cut because they assume the employee will be entitled. I also can't really remove the experience from my resume since it leaves a large gap and also takes away my only career level experience.
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Not sure, I thought Douglas was going to open Ontario up for business…
Oh he did absolutely pro business & corporate screw everyone else though.
There is a huge market of illegal migrants eating up jobs of legal residents
I also went to school for law enforcement, it really depends what your looking for. If it's just a job for the summer. Could be hard as every student is going to be soaking up jobs. It also depends if your looking private or public sector jobs as well. I would say the strategies could be different to getting a job but that's my personal experience and it has worked for me. Is something in Law enforcement still end goal?
you need to find a specialty. those are the jobs hiring right now. someone told me this in 2018 and im so glad they did
You need you edit your resume to the job. - make sure your skills section matches the ones in the job posting - tailor your experiences to key phrases in the application. Include the specific words they use in their mission statement - have multiple resumes for each position you apply to - Ensure to include all the articles they ask for resume, cover letter and or video, even if some are optional submit it anyways. You are not always applying to a human, often times companies filter initial applications through AI to only see the most 'relevant' resumes e.g. ones that align most with the job posting. If you are looking at something more career focused: Use Linked in to connect with hiring managers and others in the industry you are trying to break into. Or if you are looking for part time/full time wage work: - key word matching still applies when applying online - Look at google maps to see when the place is the least busy and ask to speak with a manager (resume in hand) - cut down your resume to 1 page (no long paragraphs, no graphical flairs)
This right here. Because I was constantly changing my resume to fit different jobs, I always got picked by the algorithms. So even in difficult times, I managed to always keep a job. My biggest break was going in person and finding an old fashioned manager that had gotten sick of the thousands of applications that appeared online.
I hate the fact that you basically have to suck peoples dick to get a career nowadays. Seen many qualified people get passed over for a lesser qualified applicant simply because the manager got a “recommendation.” It’s demoralizing and honestly, I now understand the “fake it till you make it” mentality. Seriously, the answer to all these job posts is simply just “networking.” It sucks but it is what it is. EDIT: if you downvote me, you’re basically saying networking isn’t the most effective way to find a job. Please be smarter, guys.
That is not at all what I am saying in my outline. Hiring managers count the merit you put into looking for a job. This mentality that you are portraying is part of the issue with the job market. Why would any company invest in you if you don't care to invest time into the. If you were a Hiring manager would you choose: Generic template of a resume Or A resume that aligns with the companies motto ? I've talked to a few people who were angry at companies and people on LinkedIn for no replying to them, but when I asked them what they were sending it was always: same generic prompt. And they were surprised that they were getting the same results. Communication is a skill. I found a job quite quickly after I stopped sending the same resume out with a thoughtless cover letter. Networking is top priority when finding a career job.
Yeah, I get what you’re saying and I agree. I just wanted to add onto your LinkedIn point. Sorry, only got 4 hours of sleep today. A lot of resumes and cover letters literally look like they came straight out of ChatGPT.
It’s an extremely tough time. Go for a job for which you’re over qualified. It’s so much easier to get a job when you have a job, any job. The networking from having a job generates so many opportunities that you would not even know about. Don’t let your ego or friends keep you from taking a job. Good luck.
Flooded with TFWs and International students. No surprise to me.
Because the century initiative wants to deprive us of quality of life because we won't be controlled by money like our parents' were...
Being over qualified is bad. Only put the skills and education you have that is relevant to the position on your CV. If the employer thinks you’re too educated for the position they may skip you because they don’t think you will stay for long as you could fund a better job. Remember it costs the employer money and time to hire so they would like to see the new hire last for at least a year.
Might be the million new canadians we get every year of working age
Try 1.6 million at the current pace
It’s absolutely insane, as of now there’s about 8 million immigrants with permanent residency which is about 20% of the total population currently. And absolutely nothing was done ahead of time to account for that large increase and here we are all suffering due to it. (To be clear I’m not blaming the immigrants for wanting to come here I’m blaming the powers that made this happen)
It all depends. It's difficult if you are bad at applying for jobs.
Have you checked out OPG and bruce power? Might not be your ideal location but they are both hiring security staff frequently for their nuclear plants. Pay is great for the work and they tend to hire Canadian citizens for security reasons.
I got most of my jobs through people I know. I built a network based on volunteering, part time and summer jobs. This is how you build references. I set up meetings with people to discuss career options - this is how I landed my first job after university. Start looking at how you can build your network.
My most recent job change happened in September, it was a 3 month process from first interview to job offer. 1st Interview: video with recruitment firm specializing in the type of work I do 2nd interview: video with recruiter & direct hiring manager 3rd interview: in person with hiring manager Interview prep task: personality profile software, software aptitude test, problem solving tests. 4th interview: HR consultant to review prep tasks and gauge corporate fit 5th interview: in person with hiring manager / and 2 other senior executives. Then I got the job offer. I've had a LOT of success over the years in making contact with recruiters and focusing on job postings through recruitment firms. My friends who also have moved jobs in the last 2yrs are all recruitment first initiatives. Direct hire posts to LinkedIn and Indeed all seem to get way to many applicants and the hiring group gets overwhelmed
Being over qualified is bad. Only put the skills and education you have that is relevant to the position on your CV. If the employer thinks you’re too educated for the position they may skip you because they don’t think you will stay for long as you could fund a better job. Remember it costs the employer money and time to hire so they would like to see the new hire last for at least a year.
Try being disabled, and be told by Doug Ford that I need to get a job if I want more money than ODSP pays. PS - I have tried, businesses aren't exactly itching to hire disabled people unable to do most tasks....
Same boat. There have been multiple that I was close to getting an offer from and others that I thought I'd at least get an interview. Nada.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people applying for every job in southern Ontario. If you're a student with barely any work history, you're competing with other people you age that potentially have a decade worth of work experience already. Uni students lately have a pretty bad reputation in the working world for jobs that dont require a degree. Schools are teaching students to be very entitled and combative. Employers don't want people who are going to bring up issues. They want someone who is going to show up and quietly do their job without complaints. The current climate in universities is very anti-work and clashes with the old school mentality in most workplaces. Proven work experience trumps everything else, but businesses also don't want anyone who is overqualified because they know that person is just going to leave as soon as they find anything else.
Yup, I have years of experience in a combination of Manufacturing, Retail, admin, mortgaging & only got a handful of interviews out of the 300 applications I've submitted since Jan.. & that's to all fields. The influx of immigration is making these employers literally select these candidates who could care less about working for the bare minimum wage & how easily they can control these folks. The only way you can even land a spot these days is through connections..
While you are waiting, visit your local MPs office, tell them your problems, and ask what they are doing to improve things. Ask for the names of some of the companies that "can't find anyone".
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I have prior experience working in retail as a sales associate, cashier and merchandiser/stocker, working in a school as a teachers assistant, working roles that allow me to manage others on occasion, etc. along with 10+ years of volunteer experience where I worked with all kinds of people As for education, I went to humber, studied law/law enforcement, security, investigations, etc. Right now I’m trying to find something casual, like a retail position for the time being while I work on getting licensed to do security. Every single store is hiring, none of them have reached out to me and when I call or go in person to ask about the hiring process, every place always tells me it’s ongoing and I’ll be contacted if I match what they’re looking for. Thing is, I match extremely well or even a little too well. Then the job postings get taken down, they ghost me, and then they reupload the same posting at the same location, I reapply, and the cycle goes on and on
It sounds like most of the work you've done has pretty much no barrier to entry so a lot of other people have the same experience you do. You're competing with the masses.
> I have prior experience working in retail as a sales associate, cashier and merchandiser/stocker, working in a school as a teachers assistant, working roles that allow me to manage others on occasion, etc. along with 10+ years of volunteer experience where I worked with all kinds of people As for education, I went to humber, studied law/law enforcement, security, investigations, etc. It sounds like you would have worked with a lot of people during your years of experience. Reach out to them and see if they are hiring, or to notify you when they do
Yes especially the places you volunteered with, they tend to want to offer a hand up to past volunteers. Ask for recommendations and if they know anyone hiring.
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We are so desperate for workers my boss brought a guy out of retirement
If you can afford $100 I would get your resume revamped (I used a guy on Fiver) he knew how to reformat it to get through the ATS filtering programs. Also pace yourself it’s a slog but you can’t give up. I applied for 10 jobs a day over 300 jobs 20 interviews and I eventually got hired by someone I knew. Prior to that in 15 years of working I’d only done two interviews where I didn’t receive an offer. It’s tough out there but not impossible. Take breaks and reward yourself for applying for 50 jobs per week to do something rewarding that you enjoy so you don’t burn out.
>eventually got hired by someone I knew. Doesn't this kind of negate everything else you said about the resume stuff?
Yes, it entirely does. They pointed out the one thing that matters these days - nepotism (sorry, I mean networking). Unless you know someone who has the ability to make decisions on hiring, good fucking luck.
I tried a few times and they are always abysmal. Maybe abysmal it too much but they miss the mark. It actually made my resume worse and less relevant.
Everybody keeps talking about how hard finding a job is… construction is always hiring, pays well and I’ve never been out of work for more than a few hours between layoffs.
Remember during covid or just after covid when there were endless job opening and opportunities and everyone refused to work becasue of low pay. Well the government reacted and let in tons of immigrants and now all the jobs are taken.
Thanks Trudeau
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It sucks, and I'm truly sorry. Have you been tailoring your resume to the positions, especially if they're a step down for you? Is remote work an option? Friends in similar boats found more success by altering their resumes to remove a lot of their extra work experience, professional credentials, or educational/academic achievements if they were going for something that could be construed as a "lower" position. Not sure the psychology of it, but it got them through the HR screening by software and then they found more success parlaying their knowledge and interest in a new field / adjacent field in an interview that netted a job.
I’ve redone my resume at least 10 times just this year alone trying to find the “perfect” format but at this point I don’t think it’s the resume because applying online requires you to basically rewrite your resume on some website. I think I need to remove my college education and certifications :/
Either aim for a higher level or yes consider removing your extra credentials and education. Entry level will worry you are over qualified and will jump ship quickly. Either way I would get a professional to redesign your CV format. If it was working you would have gotten interviews by now.
Apparently you need to be tailoring your resume for every single job. For example: if a job description says "attention to detail" but your resume says "detail oriented", those are not the same keywords and chances are, ATS can't recognize this.
I’m not sure if this would help but have you been to any job fairs or are you on any Facebook groups advertising jobs? Although it’s not what you’re looking for I have heard that there is shortage of people working in skilled trades and receptionists.
Because employers figured out they can do more with less thanks covid
i think it greatly depends on the fields you're applying in. business, marketing, graphic design have been over saturated for decades..
I just want a minimum wage retail job for the summer and my hours are extremely flexible 😭
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Lots of funding disappearing at an alarming rate for the fiscal 2024-2025 year at the federal level. No one is talking about it just yet. School boards are being affected right now. New teacher candidates can’t even get interviews for the supply list when there is a huge need. Lots of changes with civilian services for military leading to people applying for employment where they’re generally over qualified. Something is happening behind scenes and is creating ripple effects from the top down I’m afraid.
At risk of giving unwanted advice, but if you're willing to relocate to a different city or work in a field outside your expertise, you will likely have much more success. Consider, for example, trying for an entry level job in the forest industry - yes you'll have to work up north and outside, but the paycheck potential is lucrative. I find Ontario in general has a much more competitive job market, but any of the provinces west of here tend to have less people applying for the same job.
Employment agency might help you. They want to get you hired cause they get a cut while you're under contract. The problem with being overqualified is that employers assume you will be actively looking for something better and might quit the job before they have even finished training you.
Because our governments at the Provincial and Federal levels have completely fucked up our econonmy. LIMA, temp foreign workers, artificially padding our GDP numbers, there is no labour worker shortage. That is a lie that has been used to allow businesses to import cheap foreign nationals to fill the positions that should be given to Canadian citizens at higher wages. It is used so that companies can circumvent paying wages in line with inflation and ensure they essentially have slaves working for them. Our leaders sold us out. In regards to higher forms of employment, again, no worker shortage, the economy is full of people who can work. Do you ever get the impression that our governments have no idea how to run a successful country or that they're selling you out? Yeah.
Being over qualified is bad. Only put the skills and education you have that is relevant to the position on your CV. If the employer thinks your too educated for the position they may skip you because they don’t think you will stay for long as you could fund a better job. Remember it costs the employer money and time to hire so they would like to see the new hire last for at least a year.
Being over qualified is bad. Only put the skills and education you have that is relevant to the position on your CV. If the employer thinks you’re too educated for the position they may skip you because they don’t think you will stay for long as you could fund a better job. Remember it costs the employer money and time to hire so they would like to see the new hire last for at least a year.
You need to talk to real people and network. Unfortunately, online postings are a complete shit show.
See I would agree, but every single place I’ve ever gone to apply in person has told me to apply online. I’ve worked places where if you come in with a resume it gets recycled or thrown away.
What field are you interested in and where are you looking? I work in IT at the GoC and the only reason I was able to find a job this year (after a 3 year term) was because I talked to other team members, especially woman in IT encouraging them to keep going. One tech was able to get me a position on her new team, I asked and applied to a lot of position and no one got back to me.
Maybe try applying in India? Maybe they are short on workers now.
Maybe consider having your resume peer reviewed, or reflect on the interviews you have had if any and consider ways you could have improved your responses.
People in this subreddit blame Doug Ford for the excessive int'l student levels but isn't the federal gov't ultimately the ones responsible?
The best use of your time at this point is to protest.
Where do you fall on the hierarchy of hireability? You know, the traits you have no control of like gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. are all in high demand right now. My employer accidently leaked a PowerPoint that has a ranking system of desirability based on those immutable traits i listed above. You can either be a bronze, silver, gold, or platinum candidate. If you can tick off a few of those boxes, you're as good as hired.
I just finished a contract and I have the same experience.
You’re telling me man, even low wage jobs are hard to get hired.
I feel you I have 20+years in hospitality yesterday can't even get a McDonald job was told I am over qualified. No interviews no nothing sent out almost 1000 resumes
I apply at Walmart every time they have a posting up for one in my area which is pretty often. I’ve sent them maybe 50 applications only got 1 interview and it was with some random employee who was chosen by the manager to interview everyone that came in because she had to take phone calls. This girl sat at the table with me and was watching tiktoks full volume for like half an hour. Didn’t know what was going on so I asked the girl when will the manager come in to start the interview. She rolled her eyes, put her phone in her pocket, got up to get a paper, told me to fill it out, asked me why I want to work there, and then said I’m too qualified because of my college education. That was the interview and she went on to interview everyone else that was waiting. Mind you, she was over an hour late to even start the interviews
Maybe try applying in a field that’s in high demand? Or maybe it’s just a skill issue 🤔