March 2, 2020 1 Comment

It’s Time to Apply for Summer Jobs

Asian woman civil engineer close up portrait on workplace, thinking about her project

The sidewalks may still be covered in ice and snow, but winter is ending soon. With that in mind, employers are starting to recruit for summer positions.

Summer jobs come in a range of sectors, including seasonal positions for amusement parks, retail, summer camps, resorts, campgrounds, as well as landscaping, tourism, and agriculture. Municipal, provincial and federal governments also post a selection of summer jobs in many departments, giving students a huge selection of opportunities to expand their skills sets, earn some money and build a resume.

Where to find summer jobs

Start with the obvious.

Search engines like Google are a good starting places to start any kind of job search. Start with keywords like summer, jobs, a job title (e.g. landscaping) and location (e.g. Toronto). See which sites are posting jobs of interest, and sign up for them to send you alerts for futures positions.

Connect with companies on social media.

Many companies and organizations post job opportunities on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can follow companies offering summer employment to get posts about vacancies. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date so employers can find you and be impressed. You can conduct searches on each platform using hashtags like #summerjobs.

Job Boards.

Use the popular sites such as Indeed.ca, as well as specialized job boards such as JobPostings.ca, Student Times and Talent Egg that focus on student summer jobs.

The government is hiring.

Summer job postings for all levels of government can start as early as January, and they fill very quickly.

Here are a few to check out:

Federal:
- Government of Canada, and
- The Federal Public Service Student Recruitment Service
Provincial:
- Ontario Public Service Careers
- Ontario Government specialized Ontario government-funded programs that support youth such as:

Cities, such as
- City of Toronto
- The Municipality of York Region
- Peel Region
- Durham Region
- Other local cities such as Markham and Richmond Hill

Classifieds’ listings.

Check out sites such as Kijiji’s Summer Job search, as well as Craigslist.

Think of which employers are busiest in summer.

For jobs in camps, check out Ontario Camps.

Remember that you can also create your own business and offer pet sitting, gardening, babysitting, elder care, house-sitting services, for a fee, to friends and family. (The provincial government offers support for summer companies, offered through JVS Toronto, through our Youth Services.)

Look around you – nearby Malls might be hiring students, for example. Put on a decent interview outfit, take your resume and walk into stores. Ask about summer hiring. Google companies you would like to work for, and apply online.

Besides an opportunity to build your resume and earn an income, summer work can have a lasting effect. Hard work and a good attitude can get you invited back for multiple summers, or turn into on-going work opportunities.

December 7, 2015 Leave a Comment

Reflections on the Montreal Massacre — thoughts about women and careers in science

Commemorations of the Montreal Massacre which happened 26 years ago yesterday, got me thinking about women in science careers.

While we stop every year to reflect on the tragic murders of the 14 female students, we often forget to mention that they were targeted deliberately for being engineering students:

One of the students, Nathalie Provost, said, “Look, we are just women studying engineering, not necessarily feminists ready to march on the streets to shout we are against men, just students intent on leading a normal life.” Lépine responded that “You’re women, you’re going to be engineers. You’re all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists.”

26 years later, while there has been progress, women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) careers still face threats and discrimination. Many don’t stay in the field. And, while pay has improved (and is still better than in most fields) there are still unexplained penalties faced by women in these fields.

In addition, not all STEM careers are equal. In December 2014, Statistics Canada published a report that noted that within STEM careers, women tend to choose the fields which are less lucrative, noting that,

…among women who choose to pursue a degree in STEM, most do so in biology or science programs, resulting in even fewer women in engineering, computer science and mathematics programs. These choices have consequences, as fields of study such as engineering and computer science lead, on average, to better outcomes in the labour market in terms of employment, job match and earnings.”

STEM career futures

Careers in STEM fields are in high demand, as the world faces the challenges of climate change and a burgeoning world population. Biotalent Canada, which describes itself as “the HR partner of Canada’s bio-economy” indicates that a third of companies report skill shortages among staff.

Critical skills: 93.1% of companies expect interpersonal skills to be very important in the near future, closely followed by 91.7% business development skills and 89.1% management/leadership skills.”

Vacant positions: The highest percentage of unfilled positions at the supervisory/professional and non-professional levels are in manufacturing, quality control/assurance, distribution, and research and development.”

In an informative post on the topic of growth in STEM careers, Eco Canada recommends that, to get into the field, students should:

Prepare: research where the skills shortages are happening — which industries and in which occupations.
Look for hands-on experience: consider which schools offer access to the best employers via internships and apprenticeships. Eco Canada offer an International Environmental Youth Corps (IEYC) program, which claims to help most students full-time jobs in their field.after completing their internship.
Develop transferable workforce skills: “business savvy” with “good communication skills, critical thinking abilities and customer service skills—in other words, well-rounded candidates with lots to offer besides hard technical skills”.

What can be done for women in STEM?

Seems to me that best tribute to those who were murdered at École Polytechnique on December 6th, 1989 — whose only crime was being female STEM students — is to encourage more women to enter these fields and to help set up the conditions necessary for their success.

One such worthy effort is SCWIST, the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology, which describes itself as a “non-profit association that promotes, encourages and empowers women and girls in science, engineering and technology.” The organization offers mentorship, volunteering opportunities and supports to newcomer scientists and youth, as well as a job board.

STEM Education Awareness is a Canadian website that aims to educate the public about STEM education, with a particular interest in under-represented groups such as girls and women.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada has declared the priority of promoting careers for women in the natural sciences and engineering. It has funded Chairs for women in science and engineering, and offers scholarships and fellowships.

Women who are in the midst of making a career decision — whether they are in high school, university, looking for their first job, or even reconsidering career decisions in mid-life — would do well to consider jobs and careers in STEM fields. There are supports out there to help them find and keep such jobs, and an imperative to defiantly prove those who dare challenge women’s right and ability to excel in STEM careers that they are wrong.

November 3, 2014 Leave a Comment

Ask the Employment Specialist: Facilitating a Successful Internship

Dear Joanna

I am the HR manager of a large Information Technology company. We are working with JVS Toronto’s newcomer employment program that offers employers a two-month unpaid coop placement internships with insurance coverage for their clients who are internationally trained professionals from various fields, including IT.

I am interested in offering a placement to a couple of talented newcomers clients from this program. How do I facilitate an effective internship experience for these skilled new immigrants that will hopefully lead to full-time employment, if this works out for both sides?

Signed: Success Seeker

Dear Success Seeker,

Based on my observations and experience, I have identified the following seven criteria for a successful internship program, partly inspired by Nathan Parcelis’ (June 2014) insightful article, titled The Seven Habits of a Highly Effective Intern Program:

1. Prepare a plan for “converting interns to hires”

Engage the candidate in your standard formal interview process to determine if the intern could turn into an employee. This pre-screening can do wonders later on to ensure a good fit with your team and culture, as well as identify if the candidate has the skills required.

2. Set clear learning goals, expectations and structure.

Make sure there is a formal contract/agreement indicating the learning goals of the student as well as the outcomes desired by the employer. The placement should be treated by the intern as a real job. Students should be encouraged to be transparent with their schedule. If he or she has a job interview or appointment, the supervisor should be advised. The hours and days should be indicated in the contract. If the intern has exams or school work, there should be accommodations for this too.

3. Create a structure. The best intern programs have a long-term focus and a structure.

The intern should have a job title, know their duties, roles and responsibilities are, and whom they can talk to when they have questions, to eliminate confusion. Give interns one or two overarching projects that will last the entire placement, and allow them to contribute something substantial to the team. Meanwhile, interns can be given smaller projects and tasks throughout the internship that help expand that their knowledge, expertise and exposure to their field.

4. Make sure the experience is relevant to the student’s career/employment goals and profession.

This might mean connecting the student with junior and senior managers, and the executives during their internship. Or it might mean instructing your managers to clearly connect the dots for interns on how their work fits into larger company and departmental goals.

5. Keep the intern involved.

Introduce the student to all staff members of the company. This would include an overview of routines and processes such as signing in and out, parking, file retrieval etc. Let the intern know your schedule. Make them feel wanted. Invite them to meetings, corporate events as well as social events. Interns should learn what it is like to be part of your company as well as to contribute to it. Nothing is more misleading than an internship that doesn’t accurately reflect the work environment of a full-time employee. Immersing interns in the company culture helps them make better decisions about long-term employment with your company.

6. Mentoring from within.

It is a very effective strategy to connect the student with a mentor in their department. It’s helpful for the new placement student to have a person to go to for problem solving, questions, intercultural communication issues, such as those experienced by newcomers to Canada. The mentor can take a supervisory role, as well.

7. Supervision.

Parcelis recommends that the supervisor and student meet formally at least three times during the placement. In my experience it can be more informal, as it depends on context, deadlines, work and the workplace culture. The most essential characteristic of good supervision is feedback on students’ performance including successes and growth areas. This is an integral part of their development and learning.

Feedback should come from the supervisor, and should be ongoing and frequent. In order to learn from mistakes students must be informed of them so they can be given the opportunity to correct them. Feedback should be honest, clear, immediate, direct and stated in understandable language.

Best wishes for your new Internship program. We look forward to working with you.