Career Advice

Dreading the company’s holiday party is a December ritual. Hobnobbing with office enemies, acting happy, and watching your boss dance too close with a hot colleague of yours who’s up for promotion…it’s enough to make you skip the quagmire. Except it’s also an excellent time to sneak in some self-advancement. All the important players will be there (possibly plied with liquor or weed). So even if you hate insincerity, attend strategically and score some points.

If you’re earning minimum wage and think you’re at the bottom of the food chain, don’t feel lonely. Nearly 1.6 million Canadians – that’s about 10% of all salaried employees – took home the lowest hourly wage legally payable to most people. By late 2019 the average minimum wage in Canada was about $12.63 per hour. That compares to $11.41 in 2017 and an increase of nearly 11%. More impressive is the jump of over a third vs. 2010, when the average minimum was $9.25.

Goldilocks would have a hell of a time getting hired today. She could overcome that criminal record (breaking into bear residences; grand theft of porridge). But she’d only accept perfect work conditions.  “This one’s too hot,” she’d complain if toiling in-home furnace repair. “That one’s too cold,” she’d complain at a refrigeration plant. Where oh, where would she ever find a place that’s “just right?”  Sorry kids, there’s no such thing as a fairy tale workplace. If an interviewer asks about your ideal work environment, a bit of reality’s called.

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.