I moved back here awhile ago. I was in town for 2 days before I got a job. (And NOT a crap job either).
“How is this possible?” all you whiny bitches say…
I joined a TEMP AGENCY about a month before I moved here. My first assigment came 2 days after I interviewed with them, and turned into a full time job with benefits.
Maybe all you self-entitled whiners should try other options – Career Beacon, Jobspress, Workopolis, etc. are $hit.
There are currently several temp agencies DYING for people, and in Halifax, temp people get all the good jobs – government uses temps, so do large megalomaniacal insurance/financial institutions.
If you’re good at your job, you’re the most likely person to be hired.
Over or underqualified, maybe it’s your attitude that’s the problem.
—shut up and WORK
This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2009.
Do you have experience, OP?
It’s easy to get a job in Hfx if you have experience. Just out of university? not so easy.
I hadn’t even thought of a temp agency, OP, so thanks for that, but it’s kind of hard to compete with people who have gone away, acquired experience and then come back. I’ve been told many times by people with jobs in hfx in my field that that’s what they and others they know had to do.
“It’s easy to get a job in Hfx if you have experience. Just out of university? not so easy.”
Just another excuse, frankly.
If people spent more time looking for creative options: internships, temp positions, joining networking groups, volunteering while in school, or fresh out, and less time kvetching about how nobody wants to hire them, more people would get hired.
University degrees are vastly overrated – mostly by the people who have them. I personally do not have a University degree, and I’ve been gainfully employed for several years at jobs where I was told a degree was *required*. Bull$hit.
Attitude is EVERYTHING, experience is not as important (unless we’re talking disciplines like medicine, etc.).
Honestly, with as negative as most people around here are, it’s a wonder anyone has a job…
Temp agencies are really great for getting experience and possibly permanent work. It worked for me, too. But, I have to say that it’s not necessarily as short a turnaround as the OP says. I did temping for four years before I got my permanent government job. Sometimes, it’s just the luck of the draw and being in the right place at the right time. Still, I’d recommend them. There’s a lot of misconceptions about temping- that it’s only shit work,(why is it on tv, whenever someone does temping, they end up dogwalking?) or filling in for vacationing employees, but that’s not the case. There can be some really good work experiences to be obtained in these places.
Yeah, experience is the key… an education from the outset only really gives you a leg up in the pay department (grads see about a 10% better pay rate in the field. That’s an industry-wide average, not a strict number.) Temp agencies are okay, if you can get past some ridiculous requirements (a friend in a larger one that supplies HRM is required to know and use MS office 97, no decent workplace uses it anymore, and has to be able to type 85 WPM).
“required to know and use MS office 97, no decent workplace uses it anymore”
haha, that’s what we use here where I’m working. But, like I said, I’m in the government, you wouldn’t expect us little peons to have up to date software, now would you?
Are you kidding? Man… I’d hate to be in your IT department then. I’m glad I’m not in the public sector…
Temp agency worked for me. Spent 5 years doing the call centre tour (Minacs, Convergys, Superior Propane) before I decided to try a new route and registered with Manpower Services. My first assignment was with a bank and 6 months later I was a full time employee. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen that way, but it is another avenue for the job hunt.
Gidget: some of us who are “unemployed” aren’t just sitting on our asses waiting for jobs to come to us and using the excuse that university grads (even ones with co op!) have a harder time breaking into a field than someone with experience. I’ve sent out hundreds of resumes since I graduated and have been told the same thing by both employers and agencies: no one is hiring in my field. I have been trying to get a job, working my ASS off to do it, have sent out tons of resumes, have contacted agencies, sent out resumes to companies and have had feed back from professionals in my field and they all say the same thing: someone just needs to give me a break. They say my resume is fantastic, but the opportunities are rare in HRM.
I really don’t know why you people who continually bitch about how I’m just lazy or something’s wrong with me blahblah when I say I’m having a hard time finding a job can’t get it through their heads when I say this: NO ONE IN HRM IS HIRING IN MY FIELD AND THOSE WHO DO OFFER THE MAYBE 10 JOBS OFFERED A YEAR ARE ENTRY LEVEL JOBS THAT REQUIRE 3-5 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE.
Out of the 20 people I would consider a “friend” in my program who graduated with me, two have secured employment in our field.
Jesus h christ. Just because you found a job doing whatever it is you do doesn’t mean everyone else is going to have the same experience, especially if they’re in a different field than you.
Some of us just picked a profession to enter with lousy employment opportunities post graduation in HRM. Accept that fact and stfu already.
Pretty Kitty-
There are some people that just don’t get it. They figure because they have a job, that nobody else should be having trouble getting one. They can’t seem to grasp that there are not enough jobs for all the people looking. Finding work is tough, finding work in a specific field can be even tougher, but some just can’t see beyond their own noses, so all they can say is “I have a job, why can’t you get one? You must be lazy”.
I think the OP just came on here to brag, more than they did to help out others looking for work. It sounds like you’re doing all you can and the right way, so hang in there and hopefully something will come around your way.
Exactly, just sayin’! You summed up my feelings better than I ever could.
I’ve been working my ass off and I know tons of people in the same boat as me working their ass off trying to find a job in the field they are trained in with no luck. A few from my graduating class that have secured jobs since graduation have even been laid off already!
I’ve even gone back to school to get more training in a similar but more in demand field to compliment my degree in hopes of actually finding a job. And, I’ve been looking at ways i could fund a move to Toronto. I have a few contacts up there in large firms who have given me leads on internships. I’d really hate to have to take out a loan to relocate, but that’s probably the only viable option in the end. Halifax just doesn’t have the supply to meet the demand in a lot of industries. Maybe if I go to Toronto I can move back one day after I get some experience and get a job here within 2 days like the OP of this thread. But since I’m lazy…*eyeroll*
That wasn’t what I was trying to get at, PK – I wasn’t talking about people who choose a field for the love of it and can’t get a job in their *field*, I’m talking about thoise people who bitch that there is *ZERO* work in Halifax. I don’t work in *my* field either, but I can get WORK.
PS – I like the cut of your jib – you should come fwork for *me* – if you’ll take something not in your field that is…
I agree with Gidget. Pretty Kitty, you’re ALWAYS on here moaning there’s no work in this city. There’s lots of work to be found. It’s no one’s fault but you’re own you chose an obscure field that’s no longer hiring. Perhaps you should consider a change of direction…
As someone who is making absolutely zero use of his degree, I’m getting a kick out of this thread. Did the call centre thing until my current job smacked me in the face. I applied despite my fears about it, got hired, love it. Jobs can be had, and the experience may halp you get jobs “in your field”. If you need something in the experience field, volunteer work may just be what you need to get that crucial reference.
In Hali, when it comes to the “good job” it’s a lot more of who you know, than what you know…that’s the truth.
But I walked by a couple of Tim’s the other day that were hiring! Feel free to drop off a resume there!
Also, we’re about to come into tourist season and A LOT of places do their hiring in the next month or so for it, so start putting out resume’s at places like the casino, restaurants, bar…tourist type places…they’re all hiring…working in a bar/restaurant or the casino during the summer will make you some serious money.
I don’t mean to come off as someone who’s moaning about no work at all in halifax. If I have, I apologize. I’m just a bit frustrated about the lack of jobs in certain fields. I mean there are lots of jobs in different fields around here, but they don’t always fit a person’s qualifications.
My mom, for example has no problems getting a job in her field because it’s in high demand. She’s been doing her job for 30 years and doesn’t have any formal education. In fact, you don’t need a university degree to do her job, but you do require a college diploma now and without experience you’re screwed. My mom has no problems finding a job doing what she does because she has 30 years experience. Meanwhile, there’s no way someone would hire me for her job.
Regardless, I’m just very skeptical of the job opportunities for new university graduates in specific fields, that’s all.
I swear, those jobs are dead ends 90% of the time.
job sites, rather
Career beacon is a huge cock tease. heh.
What I love about career beacon is how the NS gov’t posts all their internal job opportunities on there as if to say “WE HAVE JOBS BUT YOU CAN’T HAVE IT BECAUSE ONLY PEOPLE WE’VE ALREADY HIRED CAN APPLY.”
What’s even more comical is how they have so much schpeel about internal appointments and union garbage on their job postings that they don’t have enough space to put the full job description.
Can the NS gov’t not post internal positions INTERNALLY?
I applied for a Dept. of Justice job once on that site and got an email! It told me “Thank you for applying, but we’ve filled the position.” Found out later it had been filled internally and they just forgot to take it off the website.
At least you got an email! LOL
The federal government only posts internal job opportunities internally and THEN will post it externally. At least when you go to jobs.gc.ca you know you can actually apply for the jobs advertised.
I don’t even bother with career beacon that much anymore. 80% of jobs aren’t even advertised, let alone advertised on the internet. You’re better off going to an employment agency and even cold calling companies yourself.
Halifax has no opportunities for new graduates period. I would say over 80 percent of my class has gone to Ontario or elsewhere. Halifax completely lacks many fields, it is just not a big enough or diverse town to have it.
If I may add one comment . . . “mailing out resumes” has nothing to do with searching for a job, unless you are applying for those very rare advertised positions. (And those get hundreds of applicants.) If you send an unsolicited resume to a company, NO ONE EVER SEES IT! Honestly, the HR people throw them out, and I’m not saying that to be mean. They have more unsolicited resumes than they can deal with, and not one of them means anything unless they can connect it with an actual person.
The ONLY way to find those “hidden” (non advertised) jobs is to pick up the phone and start making appointments with managers, directors and other people who actually do the hiring—to meet in person, introduce yourself, discuss your qualifications, leave a resume (and a business card if you can) and make yourself enthusiastically available for “anything that might come up in the future.”
I got three of the best jobs I have ever had this way. The “great” jobs may not come up immediately, but you want to be at the top of the list when someone quits, goes on leave, retires . . . you would be amazed how many things “open up” when one person leaves a job, and people leave jobs every day.
Pick up the phone, make the calls. It’s really a numbers game, like sales.
While you’re at it, get on Career Beacon—they send out genuine, legitimate job postings tailored to your profile. You’ll get decent leads. Not every day, maybe only a few a month, but you’ll get ones worth pursuing.
I am sorry but it is almost next to impossible to get a decent job in Halifax despite excellent references and a good education if you are caucasian male and over 30, the government of Canada’s official policy of political correctness has insured that I am only able to secure menial jobs at minimum wage because I am not a woman a first nations person and, or a member of a visible minority…