July 24, 2024 Leave a Comment

Ask the Employment Specialist: Career Advice for Your Kids

Dear Joanna

I am a working parent of a 16-year-old high school student who is in Grade 11 and is struggling to figure out a meaningful career path. He has pressure to start choosing his courses for next year, which is his last year of high school. He wants to go to university as well. I know that a suitable and sustainable career and future employment opportunities are critical for his personal growth, confidence and self-esteem. He has turned to me for career direction and to help him decide what he wants to be when he grows up.

I have no clue how to help him. Do you have any career advice for him?

Signed: My Kid’s Future (MKF)

Dear MKF,

According to our Career Counsellor and facilitator of JVS Toronto’s Career Exploration Opportunities Workshop, Dorota Hejnrych, often high school and university students turn to their parents for career advice. In her work with high school youth, Hejnrych often helps the students with making a suitable career choice and direction.

For many parents this is an overwhelming task, because they do not know the current labour market as well as future predictions and what is required for their child to make informed decisions. Choosing a suitable career path involves understanding one’s strengths, interests (job related and hobbies), motivating factors, labour market trends, lots of encouragement and a simple action plan, advises Hejnrych. As a frontline practitioner with over 10 years of experience, she offers parents the following strategies to help with their children’s career development, especially if these types of workshops are not offered in the school:

Career exposure.
Help your son learn about as many careers as possible. Bring him to your workplace for a day. Encourage him to talk to as many people as possible in your network, as well as in their network such as the teachers and school staff; don’t forget his friends’ parents and their network.

Help him find out what different people in your family or different professionals in your life do for a living. For example, have him arrange an information interview with your family doctor, dentist, banker, and your lawyer, as well as local politicians, police officers, to name a few. He could experience the real working world through a volunteer experience, especially if he needs community hours to graduate from school. Part-time work is also important, regardless of where he works.

Identify talents.
Again, experience gained through part-time work while in school, extra-curricular activities, clubs, school teams or volunteering, are important opportunities for youth, to start to understand and learn about who they are and discover their talents, suggests Career Consultant, Robert Shewchuk.

Furthermore, this upcoming young worker can start to figure out his strengths, skills and values as well as passions that can translate into a career path, with your guidance.

Course and program selection.
High school is a great place for your child to explore, learn and investigate different career paths. By encouraging him to take different courses during or after school, you can keep his options open, as much as possible. Encourage him to engage in broadening experiences by engaging in new hobbies and learning new soft skills (for example, problem-solving) and technical skills in addition to gaining as much knowledge and information as possible.

Hejnrych warns against selecting less applicable university degrees and majors that will not translate into a job or career. One of the main reasons for obtaining a post-secondary education is to secure a meaningful career in the end, stresses the career counsellor. In today’s reality, it is not simply enough to study what one finds interesting. Hejnrych recommends to students to choose a diploma/degree in the area that best fits their interests, strengths that can be eventually be turned into a paycheck!

Support self-sufficiency.
Be supportive, not directive, suggests Shewchuk. Hejnrych recommends assisting young adults in facilitating information interviews but refraining from doing them for them. Letting your son do as much as possible on his own will facilitate another important transferable and soft skill in the working world! Once kids learn the art of researching and asking key questions, they will be far more equipped in their careers and job search.

Be flexible.
It’s not always about finding that perfect career path or a job, concludes Hejnrych. It’s about looking for the optimal fit for the current labour market. For some, it might be a full-time job, Monday to Friday; for others, it might be two part-time positions in order to make a full-time living.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a crystal ball to predict future labour market trends. Look for career paths that are suitable now and support your son to become a lifelong learner. What works now, will not necessarily work later! Prepare him for a career plan and job skills that are transferable, adaptable, flexible and able to work in the labour market that he will be facing one day, when he is an adult job seeker.

Joanna

April 4, 2019 Leave a Comment

Is Networking overrated?

Business people chatting during a networking event

I recently came across an interesting opinion on networking that might make many job seekers happy; Networking, as many employment professionals describe it, might not work for most.

Networking is the process of reaching out to professionals in your industry, that you may not know personally, in order to make connections and gain job referrals. And when I describe it to job seekers, I can see the concern on their faces – not everyone feels comfortable marketing themselves so directly to potential employers. Many candidates worry they are not qualified enough and are concerned their self-promotion may appear desperate.

The question is whether networking is worth the effort and time required to make it work. For many job seekers, it is well worth it. For others, the anxiety it provokes and its lack of short-term returns might turn a job search into a stressful process that causes avoidance and frustration.

The good news is that there isn’t just one way to find work. Keep in mind that the often-quoted “hidden job market” isn’t so hidden anymore. The vast majority of jobs are easily found online on job boards, social media and on company websites. Of course, having good network contacts can help a candidate stand out, but that often isn’t enough – candidates have to be able to compete equally with a highly talented pool of job seekers.

Here are some interesting insights from the New York Times:

Having a strong network cannot replace qualifications, experience and competitive skills.
“It’s true that networking can help you accomplish great things. But this obscures the opposite truth: Accomplishing great things helps you develop a network.” Networking tends to be more effective if you are already accomplished and have an established credibility in your professional circle.

Sustainability matters.
“Achievements don’t just help us make connections; they also help sustain those connections.” Networks need to be sustained, and that can only happen if your accomplishments are visible.

Connections have to be meaningful, not just plentiful.
”Networking alone leads to empty transactions, not rich relationships.” While it is a good idea to connect to as many people as possible, it is even more important to build your existing relationships and get to know your contacts.

Networking works much better if you already have recognizable achievements.
“It’s remarkably hard to engage with those people unless you’ve already put something valuable out into the world. That’s what piques the curiosity of advisers and sponsors. Achievements show you have something to give, not just something to take.” Share your achievements on your resume and on LinkedIn. It will make you a much more interesting to others and a valuable professional contact.

Networking cannot replace achievements.
“The best way to attract a mentor is to create something worthy of the mentor’s attention. Do something interesting, and instead of having to push your way in, you’ll get pulled in. The network comes to you.” Work on making an impact, whether it is in your volunteer work, your current interim job, or in a training course.

Access and opportunity do give certain people an unfair advantage.
It is important to acknowledge that networking is much more challenging for those who are new to a country or a career. In those situations, job seekers may have to rely on transferable skills to market themselves. “It’s dramatically easier to get credit for achievements…if your pedigree is full of fancy degrees and prestigious employers, and you come from a family with wealth and connections. But if you lack these status signals, it’s even more critical to produce a portfolio that proves your potential.”

It is key to work on recognizing and publicizing your achievements.
“Accomplishments can build your network only if other people are aware of them. You have to put your work out there. It shouldn’t be about promoting yourself, but about promoting your ideas. Evidence shows that tooting your own horn doesn’t help you get a job offer or a board seat, and when employees bend over backward to highlight their skills and accomplishments, they actually get paid less and promoted less. People find self-promotion so distasteful that they like you more when you’re praised by someone else — even if they know you’ve hired an agent to promote you.”

It’s not all about making connections. Focus on making an impact through interesting, innovative and impressive activities.
“The best networking happens when people gather for a purpose other than networking, to learn from one another or help one another.”

February 8, 2016 Leave a Comment

Tips for students looking for summer work

It’s only February, and even the groundhog doesn’t seem to think that summer is coming any time soon. So who’s thinking about summer jobs?

Employers are. Google “Summer jobs” and you will find a list of jobs and programs in your community with opportunities for youth and post-secondary students. You might even be surprised to find that some of those opportunities’ deadlines have already passed and been taken by a quick early bird.

Don’t worry, though. It isn’t too late. There are still plenty good opportunities out there to find something meaningful.

Why look for summer work?

Besides the obvious reasons for working (i.e. bringing in some much needed cash), a summer job might have some unexpected benefits which are even more beneficial than money in the long term, which may include:

Add some new experience to your resume
Network and meet new people, some of whom might want to hire you permanently or hire you again next summer
Make a good impression and gain a reference
Learn some new skills that you can take to your next job or help develop new business ideas.

First: make sure your resume is up-to-date and looking good.

Have a resume ready before you start looking for work. Don’t wait until there’s a job to apply for — you don’t want to rush this process.

Here are a few basic principles for writing a good resume:

Make it no longer than 2 pages
Use a simple, sans sarif font (Arial, Calibri, Helvetica)
Write it in 1st person, but without pronouns (No “I” or “my”)
Include:
- Your name and contact info
- A Summary/Profile which includes your skills
- Work history, with dates, job titles, company names, locations
- Details of some of your key accomplishments in each job
Don’t include:
- An objective
- Your personal info such as age or citizenship
- Your references (those can be presented at the interview)
Make sure to spell check carefully
Prepare a simple, short and well written cover letter, to accompany each resume, written specifically for each job.

Here are detailed instructions and samples for student resumes from some of my favourite sites:

Second: get online, search for and bookmark relevant job sites for leads.

There are lots of good resources online for work leads. Start off with a Google search and bookmark the sites that seem to lead to good opportunities. Check out some of the sites dedicated to summer or student jobs:

Third: seek out government programs.

All levels of government, including federal, provincial and municipal, have programs to help students look for and find work. These positions fill quickly, so don’t delay:

Fourth: look and ask around — tap into your networks.

Speak to family, friends, teachers and other community members about your job needs. Tell them about your availability and skills. Have your resume available to share.

Look around, there are often opportunities right nearby:

Local stores and services might be looking for help — walk in and ask if they’re hiring students. Offer your resume and tell them them that you live nearby, within easy access. Think of your bank, doctor’s office, local mall or supermarket
Check out websites for the local parks and recreation departments, as well as for summer festivals and events
Think about local summer camps, private and public, day camps and overnights. Think of your particular skill set — is there a local tennis, chess or art club that you could work for?

Bottom line.

Act fast: get your resume ready, go online and ask around. Good student opportunities are out there for those who act quickly.