Yesterday at MaRS in downtown Toronto I attended a gathering of extraordinary people with minds directed toward changing the world through social innovation.

The lecture was entitled: “Impact Investing: Building Prosperity outside the Mainstream.”

An incredible opportunity, and I was inspired and transported to a higher calling for my life’s role by the quality and depth manifested by those extraordinary presenters and participants.

This post includes two elements: my analysis and understanding of the presentations, the question period, and my questions that arose thereafter relating to this essential transformative global issue.

First, SiG and MaRS–who they are and what they are about, and then I look at the event itself: its speakers, questions which arose, and the concrete actions I am taking which relate to issues addressed at the conference.

“Social Innovation Generation (SiG) is a group who believes that serious social problems can be solved. SiG is a collaborative initiative that seeks to address Canada’s social and ecological challenges by creating a culture of continuous social innovation. Our focus will be on fostering social innovation to achieve impact, durability and scale.” Taken from the http://sigeneration.ca/

“MaRS connects the communities of science, business and capital and fosters collaboration among them.

MaRS drives social and economic prosperity by leading Canada’s innovation mission.

We at MaRS envision Canadian communities that are prospering through enhanced employment prospects, the creation and retention of local wealth and an enriched cultural and social environment. To realize this vision, we foster and promote Canadian innovation.

MaRS helps create successful global businesses from Canada’s science and technology.

MaRS provides resources — people, programs, physical facilities, funding and networks — to ensure that critical innovation happens. We stimulate, identify and harness great ideas, nurture their development and guide the transformation of those ideas into reality. We measure our success through the companies that emerge after receiving help from MaRS.” Taken from http://www.marsdd.com

MaRS, beyond the physical beauty of its environment, embodies a spirit which includes magnificent people contributing so meaningfully to Canada and the world. It is an incredible facility and for those of you who can, visiting MaRS will be an exciting life experience for you.

“Impact Investing: Building Prosperity Outside the Mainstream.”

The lecture was moderated by John Tory, the former Ontario Provincial Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, Director at Rogers Communications, and two-time Toronto Mayoral Candidate.

The Right Honorable Paul Martin, twenty-first Prime Minister of Canada (2003-2006), Minister of Finance (1993-2002), and Member of Parliament for LaSalle-Émard (1988-2008) spoke with eloquence at the conference.

Bill Young, the Founder and President of Social Capital Partners also addressed the conference.  Bill is a visionary, consistently demonstrating his capabilities in the corporate, and now, not for profit social finance world, especially with respect to creating employment programs and jobs. http://www.socialcapitalpartners.ca

Mr. Tory was an extraordinary moderator framing the discussion by providing a clear and concise vision for what was to be discussed. Specifically, three challenges which interrelate to social entrepreneurship and social innovation in Canada. Namely:

• Legal challenges
• Financial challenges
• People challenges

Mr. Young and Mr. Martin, respectively, were given the floor to introduce themselves.

Mr. Young led, speaking briefly about Social Capital Partners and its role in Canada. His vision is quite simple, robust and enormously powerful––Every Fortune 500 company within the next ten years will utilize a social hiring role in order to engage and assist the community within the context of fulfilling their respective business missions.

He also mentioned projects which have successful demonstrated that business and social infrastructure can work together to enrich lives and economic profitability: A Vancouver Property Management organization; A Winnipeg Renovations company; A Toronto Bike Courier, and ten (10) Thrift Shops in Montréal.

Each of these organizations works with a respective Community Service Agency to train and place employees in positions that allow them to contribute to their own lives as well as society in general. Many of these newly employed people move directly from social assistance to the employing organization.

Mr. Young, in the first five-year innovation and investment phase, produced results in collaboration with others that proved in doing business this way; organizations can generate a return on investment while transforming lives for the better in Canada.

It became apparent to Bill during this initial period that there had been no fundamental change in the landscape. While enabling hundreds of people to move from social assistance to employment and seeing positive societal and attitudes trends, he did not see the paradigm shift occur which is needed to create a transferrable model which can then be successfully undertaken anywhere and everywhere. Bill viewed the challenges as:

• How do we engage corporations?
• Can we make this cookie cutter?
• How can it be done easier, faster and better?
• Is it possible to franchise the core concept?

These questions led Bill Young to explore approaching franchised businesses with a simple proposition:

• He would provide funding through a subordinate debt financing package which was more attractive then the banks
• This enabled a franchise to raise money at what would be considered ‘friends and family rates’
• In return, the franchises would agree to hire from a Community Service Agency.

Bill first approached Active, Green and Ross. The pilot began with five (5) Hamilton locations in Ontario. This pilot was so successful that Active, Green and Ross now uses this same hiring strategy at twenty-two (22) locations.

Thus, Mr. Young created and proved a new model that is more effective, faster, easier and better. It then became a matter for him of connecting the dots.

Bill next approached the Canadian Tire Board of Directors. He learned that one evaluation applied to the Board and its executives related to an organizational ability to effectively engage the community and aid in its development.

Bill Young, with this knowledge, went to Brampton, walked through their Brampton distribution centers and found that Canadian Tire could benefit to the tune of 4,000 employees who would come into the environment as employees trained by the Community Service Agencies. In a sense, he had identified an important element in the demand/supply chain as related to Human Resources development and had done it from the entry point. Bill had demonstrated and proven the value proposition.

He pointed out that technology would also play an important role and sites such as Monster and Workopolis could contribute toward accelerating changing the way that businesses engage in Human Resources strategies and social hiring.

This will allows the Community Service Agencies to focus on training rather than placement. The current Government models see the Community Service Agencies getting a fee for placement. However, Community Service Agencies may not necessarily excel at placement whereas they have demonstrated that they do excel at training.

By taking the original model and turning it on its head Bill Young has proven that Governments will save time, money and other resources, that there will be new effectiveness developed in the system, and further realized that there may be a way to reverse engineer social systems to gain greater effect.

One might reasonably wonder how does one follow such an amazing presentation by a leading social innovator.

Quite simply––be The Right Honorable Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada and best damn Finance Minister the modern world has ever known.

Mr. Martin started by pointing out that there is a massive inequity in the way that Business Entrepreneurs and Social Entrepreneurs are treated in legal, tax and regulatory ways, and with respect to access to capital. He stated that this inequity leads to business entrepreneurs having access to all kinds of capital and incentives, while Social Entrepreneurs are left out in the desert.

Mr. Martin went on to define a social and business entrepreneur as being the exact same thing in that they each want to achieve the building of something, and that each fills an essential need within the context of the social fabric of Canada.

The former Prime Minister then asked a question and framed the answer: What should Government do? And in brief, he suggested the Government should treat both the same. Further, in so doing, there will be greater capital available to achieve greater results for Canada.

Mr. Martin elaborated by stating that currently there is a deficit in that social entrepreneurs have not been given a seat at the capital table–– for a myriad of reasons social entrepreneurs have not been allowed to tap into capital markets and that this represents a major challenge that needs to be overcome.

He went on to ask, “Where then do social innovators currently get money?”

Mr. Martin clearly revealed that Social Entrepreneurs are currently limited to accessing capital that may be made available by Angel investors who can see the value in undertaking social innovations through entrepreneurship. Further, that while being a good start, access to Angel investor capital is not enough to satisfy the needs of Canada and Canadian society.

It is important to note that this former Prime Minister of Canada does more than speak of the inequity; Mr. Martin has taken action to address this issue. While in Government, Mr. Martin directed $175 million dollars toward social innovation and entrepreneurship while cautioning that this was but a drop in the bucket, and yet he could not do more at that time because he did not understand the complexities as he does today.

How then does Mr. Martin now understand more? Simply, by putting his money where the rubber hits the road. Mr. Martin has long been a vocal and active advocate for the Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. He witnessed from his time as Finance Minister and Prime Minister of Canada that there was an ever-growing divide between Aboriginals and the rest of the country.

Hence the Cape Fund was born, and the critically important CAPE Fund Mission is “to further a culture of economic independence, ownership, entrepreneurship, and enterprise management among Aboriginal Peoples, on or off reserve through the creation and growth of successful businesses.”

More specifically, in communities where economic opportunity and capable political leadership are present, the CAPE Fund within a spirit and in the context of partnership provides equity and quasi-equity capital, business expertise, and mentoring on individual projects that are capable of providing both a:

Financial Return: A reasonable return based on market conditions and transaction specifics and after taking into the costs associated with the Social Return.

Social Return: consisting of the promotion of entrepreneurship, transfer of skills, and in most instances, ultimately the transfer of ownership/control to Aboriginal entrepreneurs or community.” http://www.capefund.ca

Yet, Mr. Martin acknowledged that more is required––Federal, Provincial and Territorial Governments need to recognize that this is an area of business that is going to have massive growth potential which will put people to work, and rather than bleed the tax rolls, will increase revenues while reducing unnecessary social infrastructure expenses.

As such, Mr. Martin believes it is necessary for regulatory and tax incentives to be placed into the Tax Act and sooner rather than later.

It is clear that Mr. Martin was looking for the imprimatur or legitimacy that already exists for business to be extended to social entrepreneurship.

The former Prime Minister of Canada effectively argues that there was a dearth of competent and experienced professionals inside this world of Social Entrepreneurship, and this is one factor that makes it such a difficult sale to investors and Governments alike.

However, he pointed out that through the Cape Fund, they have invested in a building company, which hired directly off the Reserves which dot the Canadian landscape. To overcome this challenge, he felt, the best thing to do was to put outside experienced and competent managers in place and allow Aboriginals to be promoted from within as time allows. Mr. Martin believes that over the course of the next decade he will be able to hand the reins over to competent Aboriginal managers and––His vision is bang on.

Mr. Martin went on to allude to the fact that the paradigm shift has already occurred. That the Global Financial Crisis has exacerbated this shift, and that Governments in Canada have been slow to recognize that this paradigm shift has occurred. He elaborated that the effects of this recession would be long ranging, perhaps as long as ten years, and we need a definite plan to deal with the realities, with Social Entrepreneurship, leadership and training being three areas that ought to be considered as promising contributors to the future well-being of Canada and Canadian society.

The former Prime Minister emphatically pointed out that Government is the problem. By virtue of the Leviathan, Government is slow to react to situational realities. It needs to be demonstrated in such a way as to make it easy for Government to embrace the necessary changes.

And, to do this it is important to clearly understand and be realistic about returns on investment and yet point out that some of the returns may not immediately measurable.

Thus, there are longer-term considerations that need to be examined, and metrics developed to figure out returns on investment.

Mr. Martin, in conclusion, eloquently made clear that a crack exists in the fabric of society and this crack will only worsen if it is not addressed now. Further this is far greater than just the distribution of wealth inequalities––Unaddressed this rift will cause far more problems and damage to society. He points out the need is currently greater than it has ever been in the past, and that the funds available to deal with that need are ever smaller due to the recent economic meltdown. As such, we need fresh vision, new ideas and champions to attempt to reverse this damaging trend.

The next post will look at the question period related to the regulatory, financial and people problems that exist within this field.

“Social entrepreneurs are helping to create a more peaceful, just and sustainable world.” Robert Alan

“Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.” Bill Drayton

Be Inspired Today!

The New Currency
 SDM
“Change…At the Speed of Thought”

I have taken it upon myself to do a lot of research on the recruitment industry and if there was one thing that popped up over and over again it was this message:  if you want the right job to come to you, put yourself out there!

 I am sure this sounds obvious to most of you. But when you really start to think of it, how “out there” are you?  Is your resume on Workopolis? Do you have a LinkedIn account? What about a Facebook account? Do you have a blog? A website? Is your name on published documents?

 I am not saying that you should join every social network or post your resume on every site but I am saying that you should think about your own presence online. The fact of the matter is, if you are a talented and skilled worker in the tech industry, you should definitely make yourself available to be found. The labour industry is facing some incredible challenges and companies are always looking for talented people. But, those opportunities won’t always come your way if you are hiding in your office cubicle.

 It should also be said that recruiters are always vying for that coveted passive candidate, which means we are desperately looking for that person that is not looking for us.  So, hate to break it to you, but if you are the kind of person that applies incessantly to job offers, you are not exactly putting yourself out there in a way that gets results. You are better off making a name for yourself on LinkedIn writing comments on blogs and even joining “Talent Pools” for specific industries (jobs that go to you). The point is, get your ideas, your achievements, your personality posted in areas that will be seen and opportunities might just come knocking on your door.

 You would be surprised how many candidates, both passive and active, have been turned on to new opportunities which were made possible by the powers of social networking, and the ability to be found.  So, there you have it: make yourself known, make yourself accessible and make yourself found.  What is the worst thing that could happen??

**Article inspired by Jane and Marta**

J’ai eu la surprise ce matin de constater que mon billet sur la lenteur et l’amitié en vélo se retrouve publié dans Le Nouvelliste de Trois-Rivières…deux mois après sa publication initiale dans La Presse, et trois mois après le voyage en question! On peut s’interroger sur ce choix des gens du Nouvelliste mais si je choisis une explication flatteuse pour mon ego, il faut croire qu’ils ont trouvé que mon texte était bon! Ou alors, (ce qui est plus plausible) il leur fallait un billet écrit au “je” à la dernière minute et ils étaient malpris…hum!

Quoiqu’il en soit, je ne suis malheureusement pas payée pour ces republications de mes papiers dans les autres journaux du groupe Gesca, qui sont chose fréquente. Mais je préfère ne pas m’étendre ici sur le sujet des groupes de presse au Québec et leur version des droits d’auteurs, allez savoir qui pourrait lire ce billet, n’est-ce-pas?

J’ai donc 5 articles publiés dans les journaux aujourd’hui, celui sur l’opéra, deux brèves et un dossier dans le cahier “Carrières et emplois”, et celui sur mon voyage à vélo de Québec à l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard.

J’aimerais revenir sur l’une des brèves. Elle parle d’un job de rêve aux J.O. de Vancouver, voici le texte:

Emploi de rêve aux J.O. de Vancouver

Vous rêvez d’assister aux Jeux de Vancouver? Voici peut-être votre chance. Le site de recrutement en ligne Workopolis vient de lancer un concours pour embaucher “L’ambassadeur Workopolis”, un poste spécialement créé pour la durée des Jeux. Un emploi qui fera sûrement la convoitise de plusieurs avec, en plus d’assister aux événements, un salaire de 7000$ pour trois semaines de travail! L’heureux élu sera également transporté, logé et nourri aux frais de Workopolis, le tout pour une valeur de 15 000$.

Son rôle? Assister le fournisseur du programme de tourisme de Workopolis pendant les Jeux. L’ambassadeur devra accompagner les invités à l’occasion de 18 événements sportifs et cérémonies, ainsi que sur les autres sites des Jeux, comme la Maison olympique du Canada et la Maison du hockey. Il devra également alimenter un blogue sur les coulisses sur le site de Workopolis.

Le candidat idéal sera donc capable de cumuler divers tâches et relever des défis avec le courage d’un véritable athlète, comme le souligne Gabriel Bouchard, président de Workopolis. Une habileté exceptionnelle à communiquer, à gérer son temps et à solutionner des problèmes constituent des atouts de taille pour les candidats. On peut consulter la description complète du poste en visitant ambassadeur.workopolis.com Les candidats doivent être disponibles pour travailler à temps plein à Vancouver du 9 février au 2 mars 2010. Toute personne de 19 ans ou plus est invitée à poser sa candidature avant le 21 octobre.

***

C’est moi qui vous le dis: j’ai bien envie de faire parvenir mon CV!!! J’avais aussi envie d’être bénévole aux J.O. mais il faut payer soi-même son transport et son hébergement. En plus d’être obligé de manquer ton travail pendant trois semaine; je trouve qu’il y a des limites à payer pour être bénévole, même aux Olympiques. Mais ce truc de Workopolis? Wow!

C’est une brillante idée que les gens de Workopolis ont eu de lancer ce concours. Ça fera beaucoup parler d’eux, ce qui est l’objectif principal, n’en doutons pas. Ils se sont sûrement inspirés de l’office de tourisme australien qui avait lancé un concours mondial pour trouver un gardien pour le récif de corail, l’an dernier. Ils avaient obtenu une visibilité médiatique incroyable.

Hi All,

This past June I was fortunate enough to join the team at Workopolis.

So far so good, it certainly lives up to its reputation as one of Canada’s premier employers.

I have announced this via LinkedIn and Twitter in the last few days but now it’s time to make a “formal” announcement on my blog. I have landed.

I will be the marketing manager for Extreme Brandz which is a private Canadian franchise company. I will be managing one of their brands/restaurant franchise and am very excited about the opportunity. The people are good, the challenge is great, and the opportunity to use my marketing/project management/social media skills is amazing. I’m very happy and excited.

Looking back on the last few months, I have learned a great deal about the job search, myself, and the amazing people in Toronto. The process was at best an exciting opportunity and at worst, frustrating when it felt like my efforts weren’t paying off. I kept a regular schedule and got up at 6.30 am to exercise and start my day. During the day, I worked on applications, called/e-mailed people for informationals, met people, attended networking sessions, practiced interviewing etc. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about getting out of this unemployment phase. It became a mental challenge. How do you keep yourself motivated and positive? Answer: you just have to believe that things will work out and you have to keep trying. Staying positive was the key to it all. The scariest part about the process was not knowing where my next opportunity would be coming from so I frantically tried to do everything and pursue every lead. I avoided writing cover letters/resumes for positions that I found on Workopolis. I knew my chances there were much more slim if I pursued that route. So I talked to people in the marketing industry. I had a target list of people. Told them my story and my interests and passions. I asked them what their path was and what advice they could offer me. It was about developing relationships with people who cared enough to meet with me and cared enough to want to see me succeed. I’m going to be sending personal notes to the people I have met. It just may take some time since I met with over 30 people for coffee and also kept in touch with loads of people from the past. Every single person I met in the last little while has helped me on my journey whether it was recommending a company or giving me a nudge of encouragement. For that, I thank you as I am very grateful for it.

I sought mentors (formal and informal ones). I volunteered with the Heart and Stroke and Toronto Community Foundation. I scored an internship with Summerhill Group, a leading environmental management consulting company and did online work for them. I learned some Mandarin. I entered into a blog-off contest with the Community Marketing Blog which now I’m a strategic partner for. I joined Toastmasters. I attended seminars and webinars on marketing/social media. I joined the Queen’s Alumni Association Toronto branch. The list goes on. These are things that I *wanted* to do. There’s much less structure when you’re unemployed and I wanted more structure. I still wanted to contribute to society. I was working harder unemployed then employed (HA! ) because the job process consumed me. I was never “off”. I didn’t want the recession to be my excuse for not being employed. If it means I work that much harder then so be it. This journey taught me great life lessons. Some of which I share in the blog, some of which I don’t. If you would like to learn more, I am happy to connect. You can reach me via this blog by submitting a comment, sending me a tweet or e-mailing me at jenmy.huynh@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading this and joining me on this journey. I am about to end one adventure and about to start another.

I have had at least three Quality Assurance position assigned to me over the last 2 weeks and I have found them to be challenging.  The reason for my challenge is that I receive so few applications from local candidates.  Can anyone tell me why?

I receive many applications – I would say too many applications – however most of the applicants are from the Toronto or Montreal area.  While I have no problem working with out of town resources, I find it hard to believe that there are so few local candidates. 

I personally do not like being assigned an order by our Toronto office (corporate headquarters) and then submitting them candidates that lives 5 minutes away from their office.  This makes me feel like I am not doing my job.  Surely a recruiter in Toronto can find a Toronto based candidate who will travel – because I am certainly finding them.

Perhaps it is the situation of the labour market which is forcing people to expand the location they are willing to work in, but more and more candidates seem willing to accept a contract five hours down the 401 for the same rate they would get paid back home.

I am going to look into finding a ‘QA’ only job board because I am not turning up enough local candidates.  Perhaps they have something against traditional job boards like Monster and Workopolis.

This is a funny video about a guy who goes to an interview and uses his gaming skills. You have to watch it all the way to the very end to find out what happens. Warning, it is a bit gory.

Now that you have some time to yourself, take a few minutes and update your resume. Two great sites for posting your resume and cover letters on is Workopolis.com and Monster.com

I received a call this week for a sales position, I informed the guy I have my own business now and asked where he got my cell number from? His reply was, “I got your resume off of Workopolis.” I had completely forgotten about the resume, it had been a year since I last looked at it. A lot has changed since then, I have started my own business called Idea Girl Consulting and I spend my days writing blogs, working on my websites and looking for paying freelance work.

I’ve had a few hit and misses, so I decided it was time to update my resume and write a brand new cover letter. Something to promote my future goals in writing a novel (The Mansion On The Hill) and creating lots of traffic to my blogs and websites. I created over 50 websites to use as referral material and it’s working. Now when people ask me for advice on business, home, marketing or writing, I just direct them to one of my websites. It saves me time and money. The websites are free on Squidoo and I use them as research tools for students, children, parents, single people, couples and more. I cover a variety of topics that can be useful in every day living.

I may not get much traffic to my websites but I get a fair amount to my Idea Girl Consulting Word Press Blog. It’s great, I haven’t even done anything to promote my blog! I just post them on Twitter and sometimes on Facebook and that’s about it. This month I reached a goal of over 2000 hits but I’m hoping to reach 3000 by midnight tonight.

Last month my goal was 1000 hits and I reached that on my Today.com site before it was shut down for good. Now i’ll be focusing my skills on writing the novel, and two other book ideas I’ve come up with this month. I have many ideas, I just don’t always find the time to work on them. As soon as I get online I love surfing the internet looking at pictures, youtube videos and sharing it with all of you. Anything I find interesting, I post on here.

I find it hard to concentrate at times, so when something “really” interests me, then I know it will definitely interest all of you. I look for material that hasn’t had many viewers or something that has. We can all learn from other people’s success. It’s a good way to encourage you to follow your dreams.

Susan Boyle taught us to follow our dreams and walk a new path no matter how old or young we are.

Adam Lambert taught us that it only matters if you finish to the end of your goal and reach it.

Kris Allen taught us that surprises can happen even if it looks like your the underdog you can still win.

The list goes on. The one thing you want to do is update that resume and cover letter.

You never know who may be looking for new employees and you just might catch their eye and you could be offered your dream job.

Many of us desire many things to happen in our careers, now is the time to put yourself out there and sell who you are to people. The Universe will take care of the rest if you pray and believe that it will.

We’ve all probably used either Monster.com or Workopolis.com at some point. Whether or not we did so successfully or enjoyed the process is another story. Looking for work online can feel clumsy, impersonal and of questionable effectiveness. Even professional networking apps like LinkedIn haven’t really made significant advances to the way we go about searching for jobs on the web. A new service, called Raveal, hopes to bring some fresh perspective to the online employment search game.

Raveal is aimed at the job hunter, promising to represent those who list themselves with the service as people, not assets. It’s an attractive prospect when you’re coming from a situation where you feel significantly less than human in the meat market that is Monster. And it has a distinctly simple, clean Web 2.0 look that at least shows the site’s designers take their job seriously.

Once I got into the process of actually creating a profile, though, I began to wonder if the look and feel of the site were the only things that distinguished it from its predecessors. The information asked for when setting up your public profile is suspiciously similar to the information you’d be asked for on Workopolis or any similar site. I suppose the basic search criteria that employers will use doesn’t vary that much, so maybe Raveal using it can be excused. Still, for a modern Web 2.0 app, I found the categories provided to be pretty traditional and restrictive.

Raveal’s resume creator is a little more free-form. The standard “Objective,” “Experience” and “Education” fields are all there (although you can customize even these basic section titles), but you can also add as many additional custom categories as you want. Each section has entries within it, which consist of a title and a description or details. It’s a very simple format, but it does allow for considerable customization.

Finally, the “Portfolio” section offers what is perhaps Raveal’s most important distinguishing feature. In it, you can write a brief bio for yourself (or, optionally, use your resume objective), and then add “Galleries” to fill it out. For each gallery you can set a title and decide whether or not it is publicly viewable, and you can add as many items as you want, up to your storage limit (100 MB on free accounts, 1 GB for Pro users). File types supported include images, videos, audio, and Flash files, and also entire web sites, so long as there is an index.html file and your internal links are relative. This could be very handy for web designers who have templates or designs not hosted elsewhere.

Raveal’s Portfolio feature saves it from becoming yet another Workopolis or Monster. It gives you a visually rich way to present your work to prospective clients, without having to link them off to a bunch of different locations. So far, I don’t see any reason to jump to a paid subscription just yet, but this is an early release, so we’ll see what Raveal brings to the table in future iterations.

Share your online job search experiences in the comments.

I am currently in the middle of a search for an ATIP (Access to Information and Privacy) professional and I have decided that those resources are extremely scarce. My client is not even asking for that much experience – 3 years or more. Which generally is not a great deal – but for an ATIP Analyst it is turning out to be a deal breaker.

I have found several people on Monster, Workopolis, LinkedIn, etc who all have ATIP listed on their CVs or profiles; however none of them have 3+ years experience. It seems to be a skill people pick up here and there but never really specialize in.

To be fair I have reached out to 5 or 6 individuals, however to make this position even more of a recruiting challenge – the candidates must have a SECRET level clearance.

Anyone know where all the ATIP resources have gone? Because I am looking…..

Visit www.bigcareertips.com to get on the right track to a new career.

In times like these (crappy economy) you’ll find that there are tons of newspaper and magazine articles and books about how to find a job. That market is definitely booming. So is the EI office which is flooded with applications…

An interesting article I found was in FORTUNE magazine dated April 13, 2009. It’s titled “How to Find a Job”.

Key takeaways (Bissonette reference if you’re from Queen’s Commerce):

• Applying for a job that’s posted online is like buying a lottery ticket – Chances are your resume won’t be called back for an interview (I think I just heard that bubble burst)
• Get creative in your job search
• Network
• Don’t take a job if it’s not the right fit because when companies start hiring again you’ll have experience you didn’t want and not in the direction you wanted anyway

It was a very good article – pick it up if you can. In times like these, think about what your unique value proposition is. And sell it. Connect with people. Although applying online is a good start, the people that actually get those jobs are very slim. But I can say that I know a couple people have their dream job thanks to Workopolis (you know who you are). Just know it’s a terrible numbers game. I want to have a Workopolis success story but I also know it’s more likely that I’ll find a job by targetting what I want. The amount of research I have to do is ridiculous (the list gets longer everyday) but it’s the type of thing where I’ll have to sit my bottom down in a library and do my due diligence and research and connect and take risks.

You may need a cheerleader to help you along so maybe a friend to push you. Or I can be your cheerleader. I think I’m peppy enough. In fact, my former boss told me in my first round interview that she thought I was perky. And then she offered me a contract on the spot. I’ll be in your corner cheering for you!

What a strange Thursday.

Got a call this morning from another contracting agency. It’s the same job I’d applied for over a month ago, that I hadn’t heard anything about in ages. Turns out that specific opening had been filled weeks ago and this is a new opening for the same type of job. The agency is checking now to see if old resumes are being reused or if they’re looking for new resumes. If they’re looking for new, then I think she’s going to submit mine again — she’s going to get back to me by the end of the day. That would be good since I haven’t heard anything else from the original submitting agency.

A few moments after I’d hung from talking with them, I received a call from another agent at a different agency, who’d seen my updated resume on Workopolis. She sent me some forms to fill out so she can start up a file and, in light of the bus strike, we’re going to have a phone meeting on Monday.

So, let me put it out to the Universe. I want to start a new job in January 2009. Really. I’m OK with having the rest of December off but I want, need to get back to work. No, I will get back to work in the new year.

eQuest, a provider of job posting and Internet recruitment management services, announced that it has extended and expanded its strategic partnership with Taleo, a provider of on-demand talent management solutions.

The new multi-year agreement grants Taleo customers broader job posting services and support including 24/7 global support, online training, formation of an eQuest-Taleo user group and free, unlimited delivery access to CareerBuilder, HotJobs, Workopolis, SEEK and Monster.

The agreement also expands eQuest Interactive Media services to Taleo customers, allowing companies to tap into eQuest’s metrics and analytical tools. eQuest is one of the fastest growing interactive recruitment media companies worldwide, signing more than 70 new customers since early 2007.

For more info: http://www.equest.com

Matt Lafata, HRchitect

Workopolis did a study about Canadians and their work habits. They ask if stressed workers are actually working hard, or just working too much. While the study doesn’t seem as scientific as other studies, it is an interesting read regardless. A link to the study is at the end of the post:

Working around the clock; Survey shows Canadians clock an estimated 145 extra work hours each year

Not many of us are working nine to five anymore, and in fact, Canadians are working almost three hours more each week than our employers expect.Add that up and we’re working an average of 145 extra hours each year.

But do logging long hours qualify as ‘hard working’? According to the Workopolis Hardest Working Canadians Study, the top three factors that determine hard work are: a high degree of responsibility, a high level of concentration or mental effort and a heavier than average work load. Overall, one third (32%) of Canadians surveyed indicated they’re working ‘too hard,’ while six in ten (59%) thought that work levels were ‘just right.’Another 9% confessed they’re not working ‘hard enough.’ Age plays a factor and 40% of those aged 50-plus say they work too hard, compared to only 20% of those 16-24. One-quarter (25%) of Albertans surveyed report working hard all of the time.

“As Canadians continue to work harder and harder, are we in fact working any better or smarter?”Longer hours don’t necessarily mean increased productivity.” said Patrick Sullivan, president of Workopolis.

“The bottom line: assess the reasons why you’re working hard. Do you have an intrinsic drive or are there external factors being placed on you?”

REASONS WE’RE WORKING HARD

According to the survey, Canadians report they’re working hard because:- It’s expected of them (51%)- Nature of the job (48%)- Work environment is understaffed (41%)One-quarter (25%) of respondents said they can’t leave work behind, and another quarter (22%) indicated they work hard for financial compensation.

Not surprisingly, Western Canada’s labour shortage continues to impact the workforce.

They were most likely to report working hard due to understaffing.

Women are more likely than their male counterparts to work hard to prove themselves (38% versus 31%), while men are more likely to be doing so in order to get ahead (37% versus 31%) in their careers.

WHO WORKS HARDER:

Six in ten (61%) managers surveyed believe they work harder than their employees.The reason why? Managers indicated that increased responsibility is a sign of hard work. But when employees were asked if their managers work harder, only one-quarter agreed with the statement. Most Canadian workers think they either work equally hard (45%) or harder (30%) because they’re able to get more done.

HARDEST WORKING PROFESSIONS

According to the Workopolis Hardest Working Canadians Study, Canadians weighed in and here are the top five hardest working professions:- Moms- Nurses- Air traffic controllers- Surgeons- Fire-fighters

But their reasons for landing on this hard working list vary. The survey revealed that for moms, it’s because of their high amount of responsibility and non-standard work hours that put them on top. But stress, mental concentration, physical effort and even danger were essential factors for the remaining four professions that rounded out the list.

THE HARD WORK EFFECT

As Canadians continue to put in the extra time, according to the survey, working Canadians are turning to a variety of coping mechanisms to compensate for hard work. Taking a little ‘me’ time was the most popular, followed by exercise, vacation days, drinks out and delegating more. Fifteen per cent resort to taking a sick day when they’re working too hard, while only slightly more (22%) would approach their boss about it. Non-managers were more likely to turn to colleagues for help, while managers were more inclined to delegate more.

“While it’s important to find coping mechanisms to relieve stress and remove yourself from a difficult situation, the next step is to resolve the problem is through communication,” added Sullivan. “Employees who find that they are unable to cope with the pressure need to speak up and look to your manager for advice on how to improve the situation.

“It may mean that additional support needs to be hired or that some of your work is delegated to others, but it is critical to find a solution rather than simply relying on a temporary escape.”

EVALUATING YOUR HARD WORK

How much of your day is ‘real’ work versus ‘busy’ work? Be careful not to let meaningless e-mails or playing phone tag with someone fill up your day. Put technology to good use to help you to work smarter -not harder.

An understaffed environment isn’t a good reason to be overworked, unless it’s just for the short term. Speak with your manager and let them know how you’re feeling. You may want to consider meeting with a time management consultant for tips if you’re feeling overwhelmed at work.

SIGNS YOU’RE OVER-WORKED

Exhaustion topped the list with three-quarters (72%) of respondents indicating this was the key indicator of being over-worked. Stress, lack of balance in life, time away from family and working too many hours are among the many other symptoms being felt by Canadians. Now is an ideal time to take stock of your workplace behaviours and reassess your career path. Canadians can go to http://www.hardestworking.ca to find additional information and take a quiz to see if they are working too hard.

Comment about this post

Je ne sais pas pour vous, mais je suis un peu inconfortable avec les publicités des grands joueurs du domaine de la recherche d’emploi : Monster, carrebuilder.com, workopolis. En fait, ce n’est pas vraiment avec leur pub que j’ai de la difficulté, c’est plus avec le rôle plutôt passif qu’ils se donnent dans le monde du travail… leur refus de devenir des joueurs vraiment actifs dans l’amélioration globale du monde du travail.

Ces géants de la recherche d’emplois en ligne sont très forts pour faire de la publicité, mais dans les faits ils ne sont qu’un répertoire d’annonces pas toujours valides et ne font pas grand chose pour aider les travailleurs à faire progresser leur carrière. Allez sur leur site et dîtes-moi ce que vous trouvez qui pourrait s’approcher d’un service Web 2.0. Vous voyez un wiki pour que les travailleurs s’entraident? Des forums? Autres choses que des articles simplistes sur les 50 questions les plus demandées en entrevue? C’est décevant, surtout en rapport avec leur positionnement marketing.

En bon “marketer”, les Monster-careerbuilder.com-workopolis de ce monde excellent à nous vendre du rêve. Cette pub de Workopolis ne fait justement que ça : vendre l’idée que leur site est LA solution à l’amélioration de votre carrière.

Monster est plus sophistiqué dans sa publicité récente (la 1ère qui suit) qui nous montre un membre de la génération Y qui cherche à se distinguer de la masse qui ne fait que suivre le chemin tracé. Encore là, le site Web de Monster n’est certes pas un modèle de ressources pour les travailleurs. Personnellement, je préfère les pubs qui cognent plus fort, comme la 2ième.

Finalement, Careerbuilder n’est pas meilleur pour offrir des services d’aide aux travailleurs sur leur site Web. Mais j’aime bien leurs publicités qui présentent le monde du travail comme un zoo duquel les travailleurs cherchent à fuir…

Well people it’s a balmy 2 degrees out there – yup…spring is here and you know what?  It has absolutely nothing to do with the calendar date (stating it’s spring) or that it’s kind of a double whammy being sunny AND Friday – it’s all about the bbq.

We BBq all year long – except when there are 7 ft of snow burying it and reaching it with steaks in hand could be considered treacherous.  So it’s been awhile for all of you out there joining in the joy that is THE WINTER OF 2007/2008.

I digress.  Today we are having steaks – they were on sale and gosh darn it – it’s friday soooo I lit the bbq and thankfully nothing jumped out at me and no sizzling sounds were to be heard – whew!

That smell is the ultimate summer smell isn’t it?  BBQ – yum.  Enough to make me forget that I have sent my resume out to a bazillion companies over the last few months only to find a glaring error in the most recent addition (in the date no less) such a LOSER!!! GAWD I’m like the female Napoleon Dynamite but whatever, I’m over it cause it’s BBQ time baybee!!!

Yes this would be a great illustration of a person with way too much friggin time on their hands.  As well as someone looking for a diversion that doesn’t include monster,workopolis or jobbank.

All Hail The Coming of SPRING!!

University courses are almost done, which means that summer is just around the corner.  With summer means the job hunt has begun.  Yes I know, I should have started looking for a job earlier.  But with how things have gone, I just haven’t gotten around to it.  In looking for a job, I guess I’ve become very picky.  I would like to have my evenings and weekends free, along with a job that I enjoy.  So for today’s item:  You are to find a job that you actually enjoy.

If you find a job that you actually enjoy the days seem to go by much faster and you actually look forward to going to work. I personally think that when you find the job that you enjoy, your life will also be better.  You won’t feel grouchy about going to work and instead you feel joy in what you do everyday.  I’ve yet to find my ideal job, and that’s my hope for this summer.  To find a job that I really enjoy, but also pays well.

In my search for the dream job I’ve been searching workopolis.com and monster.ca  I’m still looking, but I’ll let you know when I find that dream summer job.  I know it’s out there, I just have to find it.