“I am a fortunate man; rainbows fall on me where ever I go. I am a truly remarkable individual, and you are soon to be in awe of my presence.”

“But, why,” they ask “are you so lucky? Why should we be jealous of you? You aren’t a rock star, we have not seen you on television.”

The answer was simple. “I am employed. I have a job where I work and in turn they compensate me for my time with money.”

“That’s not so rare, many people have jobs!”

“Ah yes, but I am young. I’m only in my early 20’s.”

The crowd released a collective gasp, and they spoke in hushed tones to one another.

“We’ve heard about people like you,” The crowd replied, “Can we touch you?”

“Umm, no,” I said.

The crowd then proceeded to chase me until we came to a cliff, which I fell from waking up just as I was about to hit the ground.

Mine is not a typical situation. According to a recent Globe and Mail article, (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/young-and-jobless-the-recessions-toll/article1387796/), youth employment is shockingly low. Moreover, earlier this year, student employment was also at an all time low. This is mostly due to the recession (surprise). So how did I escape the plague of my generation? I mean unemployment, not H1N1 or Chlamydia. Statistically speaking, I should still be looking for work, maybe living with my parents. I had no large career aspirations upon graduation. I was, as my counsellor told me, like many students who weren’t going on to grad school. I was drifting aimlessly. While I have a dream job in mind (why yes, I would like to hold the Minister of Culture position without having to run in an election or be tied to the ruling party) I mostly wanted to pay the bills without working retail. Considering when the government announces the creation of new jobs, they tend not to be manufacturing or office-y jobs but low-level retail; I was in for an interesting ride.

I heeded my friends’ and relatives’ advice and applied to temp agencies. I was successfully accepted into those (I didn’t know I could type 60 words per minute as Queen and David Bowie put it “Under Pressure”). Yet, as I had no serious experience as a secretary, receptionist or administrative assistant, I was passed by. I have pure luck to thank for my current employment. I just happened to be in the right city at the right time, where a company was expanding. This coupled with a modicum of employment ambition led me into a great job opening, with opportunity for advancement beyond learning how to work a deep-fry.

While normally, I’d brush off some of the severity of a report like that in the Globe and Mail article, in this instance I can’t. I have friends with GPAs much more impressive than mine, and pages upon pages of extracurricular activities that are having trouble even getting interviews. Not to go too deeply into a political rant, but the federal government, according to the Globe and Mail article, isn’t worried about us. Instead, it is focusing its attentions on the older generations. But, if they lose us, where will Canada’s future lie?

The bottom line is that finding a job is a terrible situation, but there is hope for you dear blog reader! I will detail two escape plans I have plotted from the actions and advice of my friends and family. When I was still in university, I was talking to one of my professors who told me about the last big recession. According to him, as a result of the poor job market in the 90’s, there was an unexpected bubble of people who stayed in university and went on to post-grad work. Generation X has a disproportionate number of university professors as a result. I can’t vouch for any numbers that would justify his claim, but it makes sense.

This leads me to the first option: do as Obama says and “Stay in school”. Don’t do it because it’s cool; poverty comes hand in hand with education and doesn’t wear well. Keep hitting the books because if you do land a job right now you’ll likely be making minimum wage pouring coffee just like you did back in high school. So, rather than travel that avenue again, you may as well get some more education. It will probably come in handy once there are jobs available. Besides, book learnin’ never hurt no one!

The second option is one that has become more and more popular. Bail! Run! Get out while you still can! Go teach English overseas! They’ll pay us money! Grab your passport! Head to Korea, China, Japan, and teach those people a new language! The world (except for Canada) is our oyster!

These are some of the only jobs where you will actually be able to pay down or off entirely, your student loans. Plus, you have the added benefit of being in a cool new country. Teaching English appeals to my generation’s passion for affecting positive change in the global socio-political environment while still satisfying our self-interest. It’s win-win, so pack your bags! We’ll listen to the CBC on the Internet and imagine what our country could have been if they had hired us!

What? No, it’s ok go on without me. I’ll keep pushing paper and trying to make it safe for you to return.

What are your plans? Is finding a job a bigger stress than it should be? Already thinking of new ways to decorate your parents’ basement? What’s your game plan?

Sam Barton

In today’s fast moving job market, social networking through social media platforms are an amazing way to land that next job. Not only do we see a huge number of general job postings listed on the internet, but social networks have given us the chance to more directly engage with peers and professionals. Recent international studies  have shown that not only are there a lot of job seekers on the Web, but an overwhelming majority of professionals as well. Engaging with these same professionals gives you the chance to learn about new jobs available that are not normally posted publically. In fact, the majority of professional jobs for new graduates coming out of post-secondary are not posted for everyone to see. Research a bit about where you want to make your next move, and then join a number of networking sites and online communities. A very good start is at http://www.linkedin.com which is tailored for professional social networking, where you create a virtual resume and a profile for other professionals to browse. Other social media such as Facebook and Twitter are also great to use depending on your own personal experience.

Any other of these sites that you know of? What are your personal experiences with networking?

Before you actually throw in the towel, do the minimum. 
There’s a line from the ever-quotable Simpsons where Homer advises Lisa “if you don’t like your job, you should just go in everyday and do it really half-$@*#.” Since Homer is the beacon for all that is just in the world, it follows that once you’ve given your two weeks notice, you should show up (if you really want to). That’s about where your duties would end. 
 
Two Weeks Notice is optional.
There’s probably a law out there about giving two weeks notice for quitting. This gives adequate time for your employer to find a someone else for the job. But, really if you want to leave the job then do so! They made the mistake of hiring you in the first place, make them aware that mistake by bailing with short to no notice.
 
Make sure the people who are still working there know how bad the job is. 
It follows that if you’re smart enough to be leaving the place, then let the people who work there know how bad it really is. Chances are they’re already aware of it, but pound that point home. 
 

Don’t be grateful for the opportunity they gave you. 
They hired you, their mistake. Taking the job was your mistake. So why be grateful for the opportunity if it didn’t work out.  If the best thing you got from the experience was that you know you don’t want to do that job anymore, why should you try and sugar coat it? Besides, that’s not much to be thankful for.
 
So that’s a brief but accurate description of how not to quit. All this to say it’s easy to leave somewhere you didn’t enjoy working acting like a jerk. It’s fun to leave a trail of disgruntled employees in your wake. Regardless of how good it can feel, it’s never the proper way to leave. Being negative and bitter is an easy and often fun ride, but it rarely ends with any worthwhile results.
 
What’s the worst job you ever held?  How did you leave? Alternatively, what’s the best job you left? What is the best way to leave a job?
 
Sam Barton

The first and easiest step: Don’t have anything prepared!

I recently read somewhere that having scripted talking points plotted out before an interview is a bad idea. The author claimed that unless you were a solid actor, your points would seem wooden and lifeless. Moreover, you might seem inflexible and not actually answer the questions being asked. I don’t remember much else from the article or even if this was the main point. While there is most certainly a difference between having stock answers prepared and being prepared in general, I think having a stock answer works brilliantly if you’re able to pick them apart in the interview to use key phrases, like Dr. Frankenstein but without the mess.

I suppose there are benefits to walking into an interview without talking points scripted out. For example, you can sit awkwardly thinking of how to answer a question with a chorus of “umm” and “ah” to serenade your interviewer’s ear drum. This could lull them into a sense of calm security, which they then associate with you and result in your imminent hiring!

This situation is highly unlikely. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve thought myself ready to be interviewed when an obvious question like “What’s your five year plan?” comes unexpected and makes me aware of how maybe I didn’t spend enough time preparing for the interview. In these instances, my mind flashes to a scene from a television show where a boss explains how to handle such situations.

“Repeat the question they just asked you,” he says, “it makes them think you’re listening and gives you time to formulate a response!”

This works well. Really well. And it saves the chorus of “umm” that can arrive so readily. Don’t get me wrong there’s nothing inherently bad about “umm” I just feel it makes me sound inarticulate and short on things to say. “Ummm” is great for making me feel like I’ve poorly represented myself and haven’t adequately prepared, making it a fantastic first step in failing an interview!

The second mistake: Don’t talk about yourself

In my first interviews I had the (mistaken) impression in the past that interviewers only want to know about your credentials and skill sets as they apply to the job. As such, there have been interviews where I’ve been thoroughly surprised to have to talk about myself at some length. This situation is very similar to the one above and can result in the same refrain of “umm” and “ahhhh” noises.

From what I’ve been able to gather, people looking to hire are not only looking at what you’ve done and what you’re able to do but who you are as a person. The only way to find this out is by you telling them. This may not be the best time to tell them about the fiasco of the office Christmas party and how long it took to clean up the mess.

The third mistake: Don’t do any research

While this could have been lumped in with “Don’t Have Anything Prepared” I felt it warranted its own section since this can affect the interview before it starts. If you really want to bungle an interview, not being prepared and not doing research go together like beer and nachos. A delicious beverage and food combination aside, neglecting basic research is a wonderful way to flub an interview. Here are a few examples I’ve experienced:

An HR department called me and scheduled an interview for the next day. The kind person on the phone gave me the address and some information and said she would e-mail me the rest. For whatever reason, I never did receive that e-mail. I didn’t realize until I arrived at the location that I had no idea what the business name was (I assumed they would be the only occupant at the address- I was wrong), or what they did. I knocked on a few doors and was directed to the right location by some very friendly staff at a completely different company. The situation worked out better than I could have hoped, but walking into that interview I felt about as confident as a grade niner on the first day of high school.

There was another interview I had a few years ago for a day camp. The person who phoned me gave me some relevant information, and was very helpful, so the most research I did was to find out the busses I needed to take to get to the place. When asked what I knew about the area (and there was a lot to know) my mind reeled. The best answer I came up with was

“I think I saw a swimming pool on my way here…?”

The day camp was in community housing where many of the occupants were New Canadians in an area that had high levels of gang activity in the past, and I ensured my perspective employer knew that there was a swimming pool up the street. This wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement for me. Especially when I had listed “Research Skills” on my resume.

These are merely two examples of how to give a terrible first impression in an interview. When you’ve got the Internet at your disposal, there’s no excuse for not looking up things like the history of your potential employer. Thus, avoiding research is also an easy way to look like the worst candidate for the job and a sure fire way to botch an interview!

What was the worst interview you’ve ever had? Why? What’s the best interview tip anyone ever gave you? What’s the worst interview tip you’ve been given? Do you think it’s a shame Jpod was cancelled?

Sam Barton

No matter where you attend or what you study there is no question that rising tuition fees across the country continues to crunch on our ability as students to start our lives after post-secondary studies. What’s more, the debt load across the map is only on the rise with limited relief in sight which only adds another barrier. However for all of us in Ontario there is an important date that should be noted which is the November 5th Provincial Day of Action to drop fees. This is an effort taken on by local groups (there’s more than likely one on your campus!) and broadly mandated by the Canadian Federation of Students to put pressure on provincial and federal governments alike. Here is some stats for you all to have a quick look at:

• In the early 1990s, user fees accounted for an average of 21 per cent of an institution’s operating budget. Today user fees cover almost 50 per cent of the institution’s budget
• In Ontario, the provincial policy for domestic students is tuition fee increases of 4 to 8 per cent each year, resulting in 20 to 36 per cent hikes over four years of study.
• Canadian full-time students in undergraduate programs paid 3.6% more on average on tuition fees in the 2008/2009 academic year compared with a year earlier. This follows a 2.8% increase in 2007/2008.
• Full-time undergraduate students paid an average of $4,724 in tuition fees for the 2008/2009 academic year, up from $4,558 a year earlier. This is an annual average increase of 4.4% over the tuition of $3,064 paid in 1998/1999. In contrast, inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, rose at an annual average rate of 2.3% between 1998/1999 and 2007/2008.
• Overall, graduates paid 3.3% more for tuition than a year earlier compared with a 3.6% increase for undergraduate students. On average, graduate students paid $5,777 in tuition fees this fall.

Obviously, this is simply just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to before and after. Despite what you may think, every individual student has a key role to play as a part of lobbying together to ease the exploding debtload and reduce tuition costs. We all know that tuition is simply the start when it comes to student life. As a university student here in Ottawa for over three years, it’s amazing to see the impact that various lobbying has on all levels. On February 7th, 2007 I joined about 12,000 others showing solidarity on Parliament Hill and just the collective energy alone was simply amazing to experience.

On November 5th, thousands of students across the province will re-unite all over to show the same solidarity. In Ottawa, students from all around will gather at the Human Rights Monument with another major event at Queen’s Park in Toronto. Other planned events are planned in Peterborough, London, and Windsor. For more details on these events and the ongoing CFS campaign, check out www.dropfees.ca as well as http://www.cfs-fcee.ca

Social networking pages such as Facebook and Twitter are also a great way to keep in touch with others across the country, as well as to stay updated about events in your area. See you all on November 5th!

Joignez-vous au mouvement étudiant ! À la rue le 5 novembre – l’éducation est un droit!
Join the Student Movement! All out November 5th – Education is a right!

Matt Janzen

So, what’s a new member of the “Work Force” to do?  Fantasize about a team of superheroes able to answer phones, collate copies and make presentations to the board of directors at lightening speed?  Nope.  That fantasy doesn’t hold up well for long.

Instead, I’ve made mistakes… several mistakes, and I’m willing to post them on the Internet for the benefit of entertaining you, Career Options reader! Thus, my blog postings are premised on the idea that mistakes are A) more entertaining and B) a source of greater learning than successes.  Although successes make for better drinking excursions.

There is no particular order to this list, just typing them in as they pop into the ol’ brainpan.

Mistake #1-
Read job postings carefully.

Sounds obvious, and it is.  If you know you really don’t want to work over night shifts or until at least 1am, and the job ad says, “You will have to work overnight shifts, or until at least 1am”, it’s not in your best interests to apply for the job.

This will save you an awkward conversation when a potential employer calls you, excited at your immaculately crafted resume only to find that you’re not big on details immediately available online.  This kind of conversation only makes HR people upset that you’ve wasted their time.  Trust me.

So, for not applying to jobs you don’t really want (for example, I hate working overnight shifts and becoming as Michael Stipe so wonderfully wrote a “Daysleeper”) you save your time and energy for positions that you really want.  You also save some HR employee an extra bit of energy. While you may never meet this person maybe someday you’ll be at a bar celebrating your new job and REM’s “Day Sleeper” will come on the stereo at last call, and you can strike up a conversation with this mysterious HR person, and that HR person will buy you your last drink of the evening.

Ok, this is highly unlikely, but it’s still good advice.  And REM’s “Daysleeper” is still a great song.

Mistake #2-
Editing

All through high school, I felt an affinity to the generation before mine rather than my own. Nickelback couldn’t satiate my angst, and instead I turned to Nirvana.

While there are numerous reasons why I can’t and won’t be a part of generation X, my date of birth being one prime example, the goods that came from its ranks had a great influence over my formative years. One result of this is my tendency towards slacking off, a trait (or cliché) frequently attached to Generation X.

I don’t enjoy pressure but I do seem to thrive off it.  In university, I never pulled an all-nighter.  I came close a couple of times, but I always made sure I got at least a couple of hours of sleep.  I did well enough through university to graduate with highest honours, and I’d like to think that is reflected in my work.

The thing that always surprised me about papers were the last minute details, you know, page numbers, headers, footnotes, title pages.  Invariably there would be one or two details that would escape me, or cause me trouble last minute.  I’ve handed in papers with (professional looking) hand drawn numbers at the bottom of each page.  I’ve crafted title pages that have alternatively garnered such comments as “This title is the best part of your paper” and, on the other side of the scale, simply “Ugh.”  Guess which title page I crafted in the final thirty seconds before I handed the paper in.

All this to say that I’ve found if I give my resume and cover letter the same last minute treatment, it hasn’t worked in my favour.  The same problems arise as with papers, it’s not the spelling and grammar, but instead things like formatting that become big problems.  It’s something I never thought a great deal about until I was desperate to be employed (it’s more or less a constant state for me when I’ve been unemployed).

I decided to run my resume past a complete stranger to see if he had any pointers.  The best piece of advice he gave to me was, “Don’t be afraid to make your resume look good.”

Yes, your CV should look professional, but dress it up some.  Most tips are obvious enough, like “don’t write in paragraphs”.  HR people read many, many resumes in a day so formatting yours as a dissertation on why you’re the best possible candidate may not work well for you.  So, bullet points are good, maybe find some that catch the eye.  And for your own sake, don’t use Times New Roman or Courier New type face- the most boring available they practically induce comas.  I highly recommend browsing some books on resumes at the library.  Just make sure they’re recent, you probably don’t need to know what a fax-machine technician’s resume looks like.

So, after you’ve double-checked spellings, make sure everything is formatted well. I’ve transferred my resume to another computer to print and not checked thoroughly enough, only to notice that sentences were split between two lines throughout the document.  Unfortunately, I noticed this just as I was handing it over to my potential employer in an interview.  Thankfully she already had a copy (sans mistake) and I chose not to let her know that I can be kind of a slacker, sometimes.

Do you have any stories about editing or formatting?  Do you have people read your resume before you print it?  What’s the best resume advice you’ve been given?

Sam Barton

Consider the experience you’ve gained. You don’t want to sit in front of a computer all day, what else have you learned? Would you be happier in a more creative role? Are your days behind a desk are over? Do you like the corporate setting or should you explore community organizations? What do you miss from your education/past experiences? Inventory your likes, dislikes, and needs – what have you learned about the way you’d like to work and the kind of work you’d like to do?

Look at those around you, both in and out of the workplace. Who catches your interest (or envy)? What new roles have you been exposed to over the course of this year? Pull together themes that arise. Perhaps the roles that catch your attention all involve working creatively, or with the public, or perhaps they’re all in a particular industry.

Compare what you’ve learned about the kind of work you would like with the areas you find interesting. Talk to people in roles, companies or industries that interest you. Ask how they got there, what experience or education is needed, and what advice they have for someone looking to enter the field.

While some roles may require further training, it is entirely possible to enter a new field by developing related experience and capitalizing on the education you already have. Your computer science degree prepared you well for roles outside of the IT industry. Instead of focusing on your technical skills, emphasize transferable skills such as project management and analytical skills that will help you apply your education to other functions.

If you require specific experience, consider volunteering. If you require specific training consider part time courses, sometimes having relevant education in progress on your resume is enough to get you an interview.

Talk to existing contacts and develop new ones. Emphasize transferrable skills on your resume to help you move into new roles. Consider contract or entry-level positions to get your foot in the door. Most importantly, stay motivated. Small steps can help you make big changes.

Best of luck to you.

Rebecca Markey
Career Consultant