Labour Market

Volunteering: How a Few Bold Phone Calls Got My Foot in the Door at 3 Top Companies

March 22, 2019 By The Career Foundation

Volunteering: Several people sit along a desk facing the window in a tall office tower, taking to one another. They're silhouettes against the window.

Before graduating university with a marketing and communication degree, I was trying to find a job in my field. I wanted a head start before graduation. There was something in me that told me to venture into the workforce before hundreds of others graduated with the same degree. Despite my eagerness, I found that no employer would hire me without work experience. The top five companies I wanted to work for didn’t even acknowledge my applications. I was frustrated and disappointed at the same time.

Six months before graduating, I was sitting in an advertising seminar class. My professor asked everyone, “What are you going to do after you graduate? What preparations have you guys made? Are you guys marketing yourselves?” No one had an answer. I thought about my rejected applications, and in that moment, it dawned on me: I could volunteer for the companies I wanted to work for.

A bold move pays off

The next day I called all five companies and asked to speak with their human resource department. I told them about my degree and that I was looking for an internship or opportunity to volunteer my time in their PR and marketing department. I also stressed how I, as a millennial, could add value to their brand. Surprisingly, three out of the five companies scheduled a meeting for me to discuss strategies with them.

I didn’t know what I was going to do, what I was going to say, or even how I would add the value I promised them. All I knew was that I wanted a foot in, and volunteering was the only way. When I asked my professor, she said, “Use what you’ve learned.”

Before going to the meetings, I did a lot of homework on each company. I analyzed the current market they were operating in, looked at the threats and strengths within the industry, and examined the areas they weren’t operating in. I went as far as analyzing their competitors and identifying areas in which they were successful. It was all worth it, since after the meetings I was guaranteed a volunteer position with all three companies. Two of them even offered me a stipend to assist with travel.

The benefits of volunteering

While others may look at volunteering or community service as precarious work, in the long run it pays off. Volunteering helped me use what I was learning in a real-life context, and without it I wouldn’t have gained the necessary experience to hone my skills and add value to my résumé.

While volunteering can also help a company save money, your efforts won’t go unnoticed and your value will certainly be recognized. Volunteering raises your visibility within the company (and sometimes within the public eye, if you’re working with a high-profile organization), and there’s a good chance you could move into a full-time, permanent position if you play your cards right. Even if this isn’t the case, it can help you start building a reputation within the industry where you volunteered.

Finally, the networking opportunities are endless! While you may not get media coverage or global recognition for the work you do as a volunteer, a volunteer opportunity allows you to build your personal portfolio to take with you anywhere you go. Employers like to see initiative and effort in people they hire or plan to hire. So, as a job seeker or volunteer, don’t be afraid to go the extra mile and think outside the box.

Gavin Jones is the Project Assistant/Administrator with The Career Foundation’s Youth Job Link & Employing Young Talent Incentive program.

4 Lessons on Attaining and Retaining Employment – As Taught by Indiana Jones

June 12, 2018 By The Career Foundation

To mark the 37^th anniversary since the release of Lucasfilm’s cinematic opus, Raiders of The Lost Ark, we decided to look at the significantly pertinent, if unrealized, career advice that the good Doctor Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones Junior offered us. We’ve broken these teachings into four easy categories … But you’d still be well-advised to watch the movie!

1.) The Right Education and Training

Career dreams don’t work unless you do, and before any idea can be put into motion, a plan must be made. Part of any job search plan is researching the credentials and education needed for any said profession. Indiana Jones could not have become an archaeologist without post-secondary training. He not only studied archeology, but he chose his institution precisely; attending the University of Chicago where he would eventually be mentored by Abner Ravenwood. Aside from dating, then dumping, then rescuing (over five times by my count), then marrying Ravenwood’s daughter, Indiana learned from the best. This was not only a wise move in terms of where he studied, but the networking contacts he met there.

2.) Match Your Vocation and Passion to the Current Labour Market

Indiana’s father was also an archaeologist. It was a shared family passion. That was perhaps all the self-assessment needed. Keep in mind, however, that the first Indiana Jones movie took place in 1936. This was the era of The Great Depression. Working as an archeologist would have been neither gainful nor full-time. Thus, Indiana adapted what he learned and loved to also become a part-time professor at Marshall College. While this was not what he really wanted to do, he adapted his passion and vocation to the current labour market – rather than expecting the labour market to adapt to him.

3.) Dress Correctly and Adapt as Needed

It was the 1930s and even in the middle of an economic sandstorm, people generally dressed as formally as they could. As a professor, Dr. Jones wore a proper suit. As the swashbuckling archeologist in the field he dressed down; however, he was still adaptable in that he could easily respond to changing weather conditions, formal encounters with dignitaries, tarantulas, and a lot of dust and sand. And that hat is, well, legendary!

4.) The Right Temperament is What Employers Need

A paralyzing fear of snakes aside, Indiana made it work. The snakes are worth mentioning because Indiana (despite his fear of said reptiles) never let that part of the job prevent him from working and doing what needed to be done. The lesson here is simple: no job is perfect, but you need to adapt. The job doesn’t adapt to you.

No matter the position, many employers want similar characteristics in their employees. While brash at times, Indiana Jones was as equally as patient and perseverant. He was technically astute, while remaining both an independent and loyal team player. He was also never afraid to roll his sleeves up and get dirty (assuming he still had sleeves). Employers crave these qualities.

It’s also worth pointing out that perhaps the most heroic employability quality to the personality and appeal of Indiana Jones was his ability to innovate. Whether it was using a statue to go through a wall, cutting down the bridge he was standing on to get off said bridge, or using a rubber life raft to escape a crashing airplane, Indy was never afraid to take a risk by looking at things differently. The ability to accomplish goals by thinking outside the box (or in this case the Ark of the Covenant) is not only a key trait in being hired but staying hired and being promoted.

Last we saw him, Indiana was promoted at Marshall College to associate dean. For his lucky students (if they can keep up with him), valuable life and employability lessons would seem to be aplenty.

Jason Douglas Smith is a Training Application Coordinator with The Career Foundation, and has successfully directed clients in not only developing personalized job search strategy plans, but in circumnavigating the rigorous demands of applications for provincially-funded retraining. When not working, this self-professed Futurist can often be found reading, writing and barbecuing in his native Burlington.

Labour Market Information For the Year 2117 (Predictions for the Future!)

January 2, 2018 By The Career Foundation

A screenshot from the 1985 fantasy/science fiction film, Back to the Future

Before reading below, imagine a partially-robotic female narration that sounds eerily like the voice of Orson Welles:

It’s the year 2117. Humans have discovered that they are no longer alone in the universe. This revelation unifies humanity in a way that has never been achieved before. While out-of-this-world contact was limited and conducted over thousands of hours and hundreds of light years through the principals of mathematical binary coding, Earth has finally made contact! Humanity has been introduced to its new neighbour – and a most evolved species, at that. They are called the “Wai-Kouk-Gan” and they are equally happy to make contact with us.

Solar-Sail quantum physic principals still to be worked-out; our neighbours may even visit us someday. As an elder civilization among the stars they are a species of peace. Their only warning is to heed the mistakes they made with their own ‘soft blue planet’: Share and protect your natural resources at all costs. Needless to say, this heroic advice along with the actual discovery of the “Wai-Kouk-Gan” has brought with it an abundance of changes to the way humans have restructured their economies…

The Career Foundation, in keeping with being a forward-thinking Employment Ontario Service Provider, is pleased to present the following employment opportunities and labour market information from the next century! These excerpts are from The Burlington Post “Classifieds Level Four Augment,” originally uploaded on December 20, 2117.

The Following Positions Have Multiple Vacancies
Required for Both Terra Firma and Exoplanet Duties

Oceanographers – Duties include but are never limited to: coral rehydration and cross-flora networking with iridium DNA processing; plastics collection and recycling; fauna documentation analysis; and rehabilitation project proposal writing. A strong knowledge of binary processing and audiometry will be an asset.

Farmers – Plant and Soy specialists with additional training in Bio-Engineering and Nano-Soil regenerative properties experience an asset, as is the ability to speak another language. Current fields are tractable and based on multi-level platforms. As such, a Working at Heights Safety Certification Level 3 will be required.

Linguists – Linguists will be required at every level of the ongoing Environmental Rehabilitation Initiative (ERI). However, this cannot be their only discipline. A linguistics background must also be complemented with certification in one of the following disciplines: Physics, Bio-Engineering, Mechanical-Engineering, Nano-Interface, and Zoology. Preference will be given to those candidates who also specialize in and/or have worked in online energy transference. A strong knowledge of binary processing and audiometry will be an asset.

Variant Atmospheric Specialists – Job description is considered classified information. Formal security clearance will be required for access. Only qualified specialists with 5+ years of experience may inquire within.

Waste and Recycling Processors – Please note that these positions are available in both Standard (university degree) and Advanced (MA + Charter Certificate) Standings for the available entry-level positions.

Actors and Performers – Actors required for roles to be shot locally for the upcoming three-part film production of Lucasfilm’s reimagining of The Sound of Music. Applicants should include in their Augment Cover Video which of the following roles they are auditioning for: Captain Von Trapp, Maria Von Trapp, Liesel Von Trapp, Kurt Von Trapp, Gretl Von Trapp, Sister Margaretta, Herr Zeller, Rolfe (in all 5 incarnations), and Hannibal Lecter.

Except for listing #6, those in possession of a Level One Pilot Licence currently in Good Standing with the Terran Aerospace Defence and Rescue Command (TADRC) will be given application priority and are advised to note this in their Augment Cover Video. The Hiring Process will begin in the New Year. Wishing you and your loved ones a bright and burnished Solstice.

It may be well advised to not only consider what your career is, but what it will need to become.

FYI: in the future, electricity will be shared and naturally harvested; passed from dwelling to business to public infrastructure via the cables that are currently used to power the Internet. This will be called online energy transference. Just know that.

Labour Market Information - To be continued