I moved here (Halifax) after graduating university (B.Sc.) and expected to easily find work. It’s been a month now and I’ve papered the entire city with my resumes and cover-letters, and I haven’t heard a thing – whats the deal with this place? Even when I apply for low-wage work, I get turned down because of being ‘overqualified’ – the assumption being that I won’t take the job seriously or will leave at the first opportunity of something better. It seems no matter how ambitious I am, the answer is always no. Is it just me or is it incredibly hard to get a job here?
— Anton
This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2009.
Join the club.
Seriously, you thought you could move to HALIFAX and “easily” find work? Are you kidding me? Don’t get me wrong, I feel bad that you can’t get a job, but I’m fairly certain nobody “easily” finds work in this city and you’re clearly no exception (B. Sc, BA, or whatever).
I’m with Guava. You obviously didn’t do your research before you uprooted yourself and planted your ass in Halifax.
Honestly, we need less people like you moving to Halifax rather than more. I don’t mean to be cold and unwelcoming, but you’re just more competition for those of us already here and unable to find jobs.
I have a handful of friends who graduated with masters degrees two years ago and are STILL looking (and have been for the past two years). I have two degrees, one in writing and one in a professional study and I’ve had maybe three interviews out of the millions of resumes I’ve sent out…and no offers…so…don’t hold your breath.
Get out while you can. I certainly would if I had the financial means to do so.
she can totally be a barrista/coff-jock
This is Halifax. Unless you know someone on the inside, don’t bother applying.
Where the heck did you come in from(are you an aggie)? The province is littered with BAs, B.Scs, BFAs, etc.
Seriously, get out west, or go north, and work for a few years. Then if you want to be in Halifax, apply and come back. If you don’t get lucky, know someone here or build your own small business niche, you’re fucked out here for finding something for a B-degree.
Yep, the only degree that will get you anywhere in Halifax is a GED. Oh wait, maybe a MBA, that’ll get you into a cushy middle management job at NSP.
MBAs are USELESS and those WITH MBAs are USELESS.
ugh. 20 grand for the most useless degree ever. You’d be better off with rec management degree ffs.
PK– angry much? MBAs are required for most management jobs out there now… Sad but true. Some retail companies even require it for their operations/general managers. It could be from the “Upstairs Medical College” but they require it.
It’s all about who you know when it comes to getting work in Halifax, and Nova Scotia for that matter. There are oodles of qualified people in many different fields, so unfortunately the only way to get the job is to somehow set yourself apart from that faceless group of Masters and PhD owners. I speak from experience, as I have had four or five good professional jobs in Halifax, and each time I got the work primarily because the person hiring either knew who I was already, or knew my former boss was. Anytime that I have submitted a resume to a job opening, I have never even gotten an interview.
So, I would suggest you get yourself a nice suit, and start attending workshops and conferences in your field and try to meet some people. Once you do that, you will no longer just be another resume in the pile. It is sad, but true. When these employers are looking through potential applicants, they are almost always going to want to go with someone who they are already familiar with. I think in many cases they will pick someone they know and feel they can trust over someone with better qualifications and a better resume.
Good luck!
I hate to say it but if you want to work a good job in halifax then you are pretty much screwed!! Why do you think that NS is really hurting when it comes to a lot of things, ie infrastructure, income and unemployed. People move away because it is the easiest way to find a good job and to be able to support a family, with whatever the quals. It is the standard maritimer approach to everything that people like and hate about it here! And the reason why we are stuck to poverty when it comes to Canada. I mean seriously for all that I’ve done and people I met(From outside the Maratimes and even some from here) have I heard that people would like to live here just visit!
LOL, no Dr F, I’m not angry, I just really don’t have that much faith in the MBA program. Especially if those graduating have no real work experience, did their BComm/BBA and MBAs consecutively and start their careers in management positions. Obviously they’re “overqualified” on paper for non management positions, but they know virtually nothing about how things really work. The best managers I’ve seen have a combination of education and work experience: they started out low on the totem pole and worked their way up. Those are the managers who “get it” and are the most effective, imho. It’s just sad, and honestly a waste of money. That’s all 🙂
You people are all pathetic. Pissing and whining like it’s Halifax’s fault that you can’t get a job! I lived here for 8 1/2 years and never had a problem fiding a decent paying job and I had no formal education. I went away to college for a year and then came back in June. And again had no problem getting a great job in my new field. No, I don’t know people on the inside, I just have drive and know how to conduct myself in an interview. I’ve got my own office now and a great salary with benefits and profit sharing. If you can’t get a job here, it’s not Halifax’s fault. There’s nothing wrong with this city, there’s something wrong with you.
Well, if we’re all so pathetic perhaps you could enlighten us with your mad job hunting skillz. *eyeroll*
Some fields in Halifax are just saturated beyond belief. I’ve been told by many MANY people in my field that they had to go away to break into the market and then come back once they had experience.
And I’m guessing, that with your limited education, Never Wrong, you’re not exactly searching for the same type of jobs people with degrees are, and that’s the problem for the most part: too many universities in Halifax pumping out too many graduates.
Believe it or not, a lot of employers will hire people with limited education (i.e.: college graduates versus university graduates) who don’t know whatever industry they’re in as in depth as the university graduate because they can get them cheaper. There’s this conception with employers that university graduates will demand more money, so they hire college graduates (or those without any formal education at all) and train them while paying them lower wages. I’ve seen it happen all the time.
I’ve been told MANY times that there are more jobs in my field in one building in Toronto than there are in all of Halifax. These are people who eventually got jobs in Halifax, some who have been working in the industry for years. Even people working contract work who have been doing it for 20+ years are finding it pretty lean these days in the field I’m in. When employers get 300 applications for one job many qualified people aren’t going to get that job. And when they interview 15 people for the position your chances of getting the job, regardless of your interview skills is pretty slim.
And a “great salary” is subjective, you can get benefits by pouring coffee at Starbucks making min wage, and Superstore offers employees profit sharing…so “a great salary with benefits and profit sharing” isn’t really saying all that much.
After three years of university, I decided to take “a year off”. That was eight years ago, and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I worked my way up from a $6.00 / hour job to making more that six times that now. People put too much faith in degrees from universities.
When a lot of my friends finally graduated from their first, second or even third degrees, they expected jobs that paid fairly well. They did not want entry level positions and refused to even apply for them. They wanted the money, now.
People, I don’t care who you are, you need to work from the bottom up!
PK: Lay out the sarcastic disdain all you want. I’m not the one with two useless degrees who can’t get a job in my field. As for my “limited education” as you like to call it, it is in a very limited field. There are only maybe a dozen positions tops in all of the maritimes. What I do is not overly special or important, not like something someone wih two degress would be doing. But it is specialized none the less and there are plenty of qualified people to do the job. My point is that if you want to succeed in any field, especially in Halifax, you have to stand out. You have to show drive and determination to get the job, so employers know that you will do the same once you get the position. Pissing and whining that your respective fields are flooded with qualified individuals is ridiculous. Bitch, Please hit the nail right on the head. You can’t come out of university, with no practical experience, wave around your degree and say “Pay me $50,000 a year because this piece of paper says I deserve it”. Just because you’ve got a degree doesn’t mean you’re qualified for the position. Start from the bottom up and gain the practical experience you need.
I suppose I spoke to soon, shortly after posting this I got a call for a fairly good job – I might add though, the only reason I was able to get it was because it was a friend of a friend doing the hiring. They even told me that the only way anyone gets hired at this particular spot was if they had an in… Thanks for all the advice/off-topic, but nonetheless entertaining views!
You can try to work from the ground up; but there’s a lot of luck in there too. My field (finance/banking) is full of old codgers that are well beyond retirement age (why should they? You’re behind a desk all day, it’s easy work) and the only reason why I’m in the position I’m in is because one of the guys in the office had a heart attack in the office (seriously) and the company told him to retire, that left the hole and I was in the right place, at the right time. Pure luck.
Just for kicks, I did a very quick check of the Career Beacon website, where there are 973 positions waiting to be filled. As of today, businesses are for psychologists, sales representatives, engineers, orthotics technicians, accounting assistants, recruitment consultants, lab technicians, social workers, budget coordinators, nurses, bookkeepers, assistant television producers, executive secretaries, software developers, and on and on and on.
How can you say there are no jobs? 973 unfilled positions is not an insignificant number in a province of this size. Pretty Kitty, you’re often on here whining about the lack of jobs. It would seem to me there is plenty of work to be found. Perhaps your degrees are just a little too specific?
BTW, my husband has an MBA, and neither he nor his degree are “useless”. I’m fairly certain the only reason he got his job was that degree. No experience, just great grades, and an equally great attitude.
Your bitterness is boring.
973 positions and maybe 10 of those are in my field. With 100 or so people graduating with the degree every year the odds are kind of stacked against you. MAYBE 15% of the people I graduated with actually have jobs right now (and they’re not all in our field, either). I’ve talked to people who do hiring in my field and they say they get easily 300 applications for the jobs they post. Like I said, I’d move away in a heartbeat if I could afford it. And yes, I fully realise taking that degree was a big fat waste of time. The university and the program are both pretty much a big fat joke, but I’m stuck with the decision I made and have to make something out of it (or at least try to) in order to pay back my massive student loan debt.
And I’m not all about making tons of money right out of university. You have to pay your dues in the field I’m in, and all too often that certain group of nitwits who took the degree feel they are management material out of an undergrad.
Career beacon might have over 1000 job postings, but very few are in my field, and most require 3-5 years experience for pretty much entry level positions and the pay is ridiculously low for the job description/duties and for the experience/education they want.
Welcome to Nova Scotia…..looks like you didn’t do your research,honestly,could have been done just by watching episodes of This Hour has 22 Minutes or The Rick Mercer Report…..then you would know that one of the most beautiful provinces in Canada is also regarded by past and present governments as being the armpit of Canada…..not fair, but good luck anyway…..
Uh who moves to Halifax to look for work? You need to move to a larger city stat.
I know your looking for work but to be honest there is work here. The last unemployment stats that I am aware of was 5.6% almost a year ago. I have no idea what your field is ,but I have some understanding of how it is to just get through University. There is a large banking center here which include other Financial Institutions. There is numerous jobs in the fields of science with Dal and Research , also a home grown company Med Mira which produces a quick test for aids and has sales to China…. Research In Motion as just built a huge building in Bedford. You must of heard of the number of buildings going up. There is a project in Dartmouth called Dartmouth Crossing which is a $280 million dollar business park and will employ 10,000 when the project is completed. Halifax is the largest city in Atlantic Canada. You can check stats @ statcan.gc.ca The population is around 372,000 and is GROWING excuse me but I know about this City and I know people that live and work there and their not on the streets. I do not like comment from Ontario which have their problems as well with the car industry bust and asking for federal dollars. We haven’t asked for anything as yet. There are jobs here depending on your credentials
Sorry for the sharp tongue there for a bit because this place has a lot of history that goes back a couple hundred years. We were once the richest province in the country and I know we never treated Central Canada the way Ontario treats us ,but that is changing with the finds of natural gas offshore and onshore. We have been collecting royalties for awhile now from the sable well!
Again I apologize for some of my comment and I wish you great success on finding work here or maybe you’ll have to move on. Note: I don’t know how old you are but it takes time to fit in to new surroundings I know because I was living in Boston for over 11 years. I am from here ,but came back and for awhile it was unbearable and I was homesick for awhile so hang in there and make sure about where you want to be. Good Luck