Career Advice

In an intense search for work, you (hopefully) run into a boatload of people. Many you’ll only encounter online, others face to face, and a handful turnout was vital to your hunt. The rest, less so. Since you’re stressed out and dog tired, which ones do you bother staying in touch with? Read these guidelines to help you decide. Choose well who to keep in the loop vs. those you’ll ghost by cutting off unannounced.

The CBC reports 70% of Canadian employers now ogle applicants online. That’s a troubling amount of gawking at personal info.   Disturbing as that is, there’s another downright creepy aspect: What if a company could force you to hand over your personal social media passwords? Gasp! You’d have to vacuum all your incriminating dirt first[u1]. There’d be no private cyberspace left!

The trend started in the ’90s with resume screening bots, and AI became the invisible gatekeeper in hiring. Those days are laughably innocent. Algorithms today are getting baked into every nook of staffing. Witness how artificial intelligence is infiltrating performance reviews — assessing against metrics and data points aplenty. Seem like human input matters less?

Not ready for a full-time gig and tired of hunting for temp jobs on your own? A “temporary employment agency” might be the place to turn. They’re a type of recruiting firm for people just like you. If you qualify, they’ll send you out on short-term assignments to their list of employers who need help. In some cases it could evolve into a permanent role. Though a temp agency operates somewhat differently than regular recruiters, you approach (and impress) them in similar ways. Know what to expect so you can nail it first time out.

The Recruiter Roundtable is a recurring feature that collects career and job-seeking advice from a group of recruiting experts. The question we put before our panel this month is: What buzzwords or phrases do you feel have lost meaning because they are all too commonly used by job seekers in resumes or interviews?

A professional resume is a key to your job search—this, you know. It must highlight your skills, experience, work history, and notable accomplishments so that hiring managers can determine whether or not you’re qualified for a job.

Oh no. You’ve been fielding interview questions from a hiring manager, and you suddenly realize you flubbed an answer. The interviewer knows that everyone is human—so you can move on and pretend you didn’t just accidentally bomb on one of the most common interview questions, right?

Creativity and innovation are the cornerstones of many successful companies. Think about Apple, Etsy, Spotify, Peloton, Pinterest—they all brought something new and different to the table. Creative thinking results in some pretty awesome stuff. For some people, creativity is innate, while others must work harder to tap into their creative sides—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. With the right tools, environment, and encouragement, you can flex your creativity muscles every day—and help your employees do so, too.

You crushed it in university, but now you’re struggling on the job front. This is how you get unstuck.