University graduate looking for employment in Halifax. Any jobs? FUCK NO!!!!! There are no jobs here!!!! NONE!!!!!!! WHY THE FUCK DID I COME HERE???????????????????????? Just to witness a bunch of hipster fruits walk around in their tight jeans and fancy shirts!!!! Wow, Fashion Forward douche bags who spend their parents money!!!! This is a second tier Toronto in my opinion. You are not as original as you think!!!!!! This place SUCKS!!!!!!!
—Levin Town
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2009.
Maybe you should put your talent where your mouth is and move back to whatever whiny place you came from. I am so tired of whiny graduates who nothing but a BA in some dumbass major. Go out and get a professional designation like a CFA or CGA and there’s how you get into the professional world. That’s how I did it and I haven’t looked back since I quit Dal 8 years ago.
I hear ya buddy!
I have a degree, and a diploma in a health trade and I have put out 50+ resumes since January. I have gotten a total of 3 interview calls. One for a staffing agency that hasn’t called me since our interview. One interview where they had someone already in mind (union) and the other where I had to wait 3 weeks post interview to actually find out if I had the job or not – which I didn’t. I have experience, and education and glowing references. People say that it’s “who you know” in Halifax – well I have been networking up a storm and even that isn’t working. Worst of all, I find that employers in Hali have this attitude that THEY are doing YOU a favor by hiring you. Unfortunatley, I am unable to leave NS for family reasons, but if I were you I would go somewhere where you are appreciated. A couple years ago I went out west with absolutley no experience at all and within 3 days I had two offers and I was bartering my pay and benifits. Good luck – I know how discouraging it can be.
You’re right, we have nothing for you here. You should probably be leaving soon.
I left Halifax for a 20,000 a year raise in toronto with full employee paid benefits and parking. Oh yea and my move paid for.
I am 25, have nothign but a bachelors degree and a few years experience.
And before you get on the Toronto is Expensive bandwagon, it is a little pricier in some ways but you save in others… i.e. food is reasonably priced, public transportation is realistic and actually cost effective, gas is cheaper, utilities are cheaper, there is actually stuff to do here on a regular basis (i.e. if you miss a concert you dont have to worry that there will never be another act here for a year or two, and yes, people are overall friendly).
THe best thing I ever did was get out of Halifax. In a few years when the economy picks back up I will be able to go back to halifax with this “Big City Experience” as most Nova Scotians view it and get a good paying job back home. But until then, I am going to go watch a Leafs game and get cheap flights down south.
Cheers
My work is screaming for people and we can’t fill positions. So maybe you’re just looking in the wrong field or wanting to make the most you can without having to climb that ladder…really your fault
My work is screaming for people and we can’t fill positions. So maybe you’re just looking in the wrong field or wanting to make the most you can without having to climb that ladder…really your fault
Or maybe he or she thinks that they should be making $50,000 right out of school.
Halifax is a Toronto wannabe. Honestly, my times spent in TO are more comfortable than Halifax, because that certain air of pretention Halifax exudes seems to practically disappear as soon as I get off the plane at Pearson. Halifax is pretty dinky in comparison. (I love Hfx, but really. You can’t even distantly compare Hfx to TO.)
Fever’s right though, and I always get a kick out of people in arts who have no intention in furthering their education and expect to get a job. I have an arts degree, and while I learned a lot and expanded my mind, it would’ve been pretty useless on its own. I have a friend with a soc degree who was told she isn’t even qualified to do receptionist work. HA!
If you’re not going to do something after you get the BA, then save your time and money.
Bro Tim: haha, the last degree I did everyone thought they were going to make 50 grand+ right after grad and they were totally going to have to fight off the employers and their offers of sweet management positions. I told this to a girl I know in a large firm in Toronto and she told me they’d probably start out doing her photocopying. haha.
I mean at least I’m realistic about it.
Youboreme: what field are you in?
One final point to my argument… University grads only get a higher rate of pay, not a guaranteed job.
seismic…which also deals with alot of oceanograhpic research…based here in hali and we have openings from lower to senior level……we’ve grown from 30 to 60 people over the past year and are still expanding.
I think all the whole fuck of ya should leave. Why hang around some place that you don’t like and obviously hate. why bitch everyday day in and day out over and over again. I used to live in a big city but I’ll ask ya how big is big. Hog town 3.2 million or Halifax at 400,000 and if you want the exact numbers look them the fuck up!!!! The point is does it feel bigger the one to the other and the answer is really FUCK NO!!!!
So split and pack your bag and hit the road for what you FUCKING THINK IS BETTER. You always take your old baggage with YOU. It follows you where ever you go.
owen & loving it
The bottom half of my body is a 100 pound granite boulder, just like the ones you see at Peggy’s Cove. I ain’t going nowhere – there are a lot worse places to live. Besides, my ass is a drag.
People have fancy shirts in Halifax?? Where??? There is virtually no fashion in this city.
I hear the frustrations. I’m going through them.
I regret taking an Arts degree. It’s doing nothing for me. And I’m not going to expand my education because I don’t want to be in any more debt. I’m now in the ‘living poor’ category, working two jobs, which pay minimum wage, with around $20-$40 a month to shell out on food after paying student loans, rent, and bills.
But I don’t threaten to leave Halifax. The OP probably has handed out 2 resumes, and didn’t get offers straight out the gate for either.
Try sending out double digit numbers – then you can start getting frustrated.
ehh, keep lookin’ trooper.
I had the same problem when I first moved here… I probably put out around 40 cv’s, and for a majority of those I included a lengthy and cover letter (written for that specific job) and did not get so much as an interview… I was in the same boat, being that I was a uni grad, but thing finally worked out… and now i have a nice car and I eat gold plated lobster for dinner every night… keep plugging man, things will work out.
Ps. fuck those super-tight-pants assholes
Perhaps the field you chose was what you wanted… but it’s what is desirable in the halifax market.
As has been said, an arts degree alone isn’t going to get you a whole lot. A degree in marine oceanology… in a port town…. well that may suit you better. Halifax sure doesn’t have every facet of job available so you either adapt or fuck off to somewhere more appropriate.
I was sort of lucky to stumble into a decent job a month out of school and haven’t looked back BUT that month of waiting was quite the drag.