How to Find a Job In Today’s Job Market in Canada

Job market is really difficult these days. We see never-ending reports of layoffs, hundreds of applications and ghost job postings. Finding a job feels impossible. And in this video, we'll get to the bottom of how to approach your job search in this economy. Welcome back to our channel Make That Change, where we share practical insights on how to excel and thrive in Canada. First, let's get this straight. Contacting recruiters and sending hundreds of resumes is not going to help you succeed. It is the most obvious and easiest thing to do. So, everybody does it. So, if you do too, you're just one of the thousands of applicants that are doing the same thing. Second, let's acknowledge this. We're living through some of the most difficult job markets of the last decade. Remember the great layoffs of 2020, then the hiring boom of 2021, the great resignation of 2022, and the layoffs again. We're currently in a slowdown cycle. The cost of materials and cost of borrowing is high, so employers are more cautious about every hiring decision they make. That makes the job search climate the hardest climate of the decade. We see it every week in our career coaching sessions with candidates. Here are the most common situations in which candidates we talk to find themselves in. You may fall into one or more than one category, and the more categories you belong to, the more carefully you'll have to take notes during this video. You've moved to a new city or country, so you have to network, you don't know where to start. At the same time, you're learning the language and completely changing your resume. You have always been referred to jobs and never been in a situation where you have to look for a job, not to mention compete against the other candidates for the role. You have worked for one employer for more than five years and was laid off. You're rusty with the whole job search thing. You are transitioning to another role or industry. You feel like the whole transferable skills shebang doesn't really work for you. You have been self-employed or a business owner and are trying to find a full-time or permanent role, but recruiters think that you're a flight risk since you've worked for yourself. You are a new grad with zero real-world experience, trying to navigate the dilemma of every job requires experience, but how do I get the experience if no one hires me? Let me know in the comments below which category you belong to. Okay, here's the deal. In this market, nobody wants juniors, but it doesn't mean that you can stop looking for a job if you have less than three years of experience. In addition to that, the current market demands extreme specialization. Employers want someone with extensive experience in a specific thing, be it type of projects, type of clients, or types of problems you have previously successfully solved. They want you to hit the ground running and produce results with minimal training. That's the current reality. So it is critical to build out a stellar professional profile which includes a personal pitch and a resume that articulates your superpowers and your background. We've covered these topics in depth and if you haven't seen it, you can subscribe to our Career Deck newsletter or watch the videos we've made previously. We will leave the links below as well. In this video, we will focus on strategy of your job search and a step-by-step process of how to get in front of the right eyes. Looking for a job is difficult and it takes a ton of time. Looking for a job may very well turn into a full-time job and that's okay. Candidates we've worked with who approach the process pragmatically and thoughtfully tend to achieve better results and find jobs faster. Here's what they do. First, approach your job search process as a funnel which will lead you to that one employer who wants to hire you. And it will go like this. Interest. In your case, this is the list of all companies you want to work at and that have a job posting that's relevant to your background. Application. This is the list of all the jobs that you've applied to. Interview. A list of all companies you've made contact with aka had an interview. And finally, a job offer. Well, it's a job offer. On this channel, we always recommend getting out there and reaching out to strangers, especially on LinkedIn. We keep track of people we've reached out to, who's responded, and who's agreed to hop on a call or share their insights. Using the funnel method really helps keep track of your progress and makes it easier to analyze what works and what doesn't. As you go through this funnel, you must continuously fill it with opportunities and leads aka applications and connections. But be careful. Filling up your funnel with hundreds of random applications or messages to random people will not be fruitful. It will only take time and dilute your concentration of potential successful job applications. It really works like a funnel. Garbage in, garbage out. So, take care of your funnel. On the flip side, putting all your hopes into one opportunity, one connection, or one interview cycle reduces the chances of success and will certainly increase the chance of your disappointment. Don't forget, for every opportunity you're interviewing for, you're one of many candidates the company is interviewing. Recruiters have their own funnel too. Let's say they have a job posting and they receive 1000 applications. Then, ATS system will filter out 75% of them, and recruiters will choose to pre-screen only 20 candidates via a phone call. Around 6 of those candidates will make it to the second stage interview, and 1 or 2 will be lined up for a job offer. Yes, companies like to keep second-best candidates in the back pocket in case the first candidate rejects the offer for whatever reason. So, in order to increase your chances of success and stay motivated, here's what we recommend. Fill your funnel with good-quality companies and positions. These are the job postings where you have 70-80% match for job description. Have realistic expectations. Remember, only one person gets a job, while everyone else they interview does not. Practice the three-legged stool approach. The three-legged stool. Let's imagine for a second that your job search process is like a three-legged stool. The seat is the core of your professional profile. That's your background, experience, and how well you articulate what you're capable of. And there's three legs that support it. These are the critical components that make everything work. If you remove any one leg, the balance is lost, and the stool falls down, no matter how good the other parts are. So, let's look at what these three legs are. First, it's the personal networks leg. Personal networks are the number one way people get hired these days. In fact, 80% of all the jobs are filled via the so-called hidden job market. These are the types of roles where, let's say, I have a hiring need, and I don't publish the job online right away. I start thinking about who in my network could be a good fit. I go through friends and former colleagues and people I know. If I don't find anyone, I ask friends and colleagues to refer me to someone. Step by step, that's how, eventually, I find a candidate for the role. There was no job posting, and sometimes even no structured interview process. That is why you must stay visible and active. Reach out to former colleagues. Start contacting every employer, partner, stakeholder you've ever worked with. Let them know that you're open to having a discovery call and a meeting about opportunities where you can add value and help them achieve their outcomes. Reach out to strangers, too. We wrote a great manual on how to reach out to strangers in our newsletter, so make sure to check it out. And subscribe for more career tips. What does staying visible and active really mean? It's staying in touch with your network by sending them occasional messages, sharing relevant resources to them, or simply inviting them for a cup of coffee every now and then. Maybe you even come across an opportunity that your contact might be interested in. This is one of the best ways of paying it forward and giving before you asking for something. So when you start your job search, always reach out to your contacts and let them know that you're open to new opportunities. If you're connecting with strangers, don't ask for a job or referrals. Build a connection first. Share some relevant industry insights. Stay top of their mind. Unless you're top of their mind, people will not likely remember to keep you in mind when an opportunity comes up. Remember, it's not about you looking for a job. It's about you looking for an opportunity to make an impact and add value. That's the framing to use when talking to your prospects. The second leg of this tool is decision makers. Another more precise but more effortful way to find your next job is through finding the stakeholder who owns the specific hiring problem and reaching out to them directly. Let's say you're a designer looking for your next opportunity. Reach out to 10 creative directors or brand managers in the companies of your interest. Message them directly. Find something in common and show your interest. This increases your chances of tapping into that hidden job market at best. And at worst, if they're not ready to hire you, you will have made a connection and learned some insights. Speaking of learning insights, learning about what works and what doesn't is a crucial part of your job search process. Every rejection is a signal for what you could work on next. Always ask for feedback when you're rejected. You may not get an answer, but not asking guarantees not getting an answer. When you reach out to strangers, don't hesitate to ask for advice too. Someone may not be open to connecting or meeting, but everyone surely loves giving advice. The final leg of our stool is recruiters. Did you know that most people never actually get a job through a recruiter? This is because recruiter's goal is to find people for a specific job, not find jobs for people. They have a specific company that they work for and a specific job description that they need to fill. Recruiters generally do not invest the time in calls and discussions with candidates who are not fit for the specific job that they're currently working on. So working with recruiters is part luck and you have to be at the right place at the right time. That is why it's so important to stay top of mind of your past colleagues first and connect with recruiters strategically. When you're selecting your recruiter to contact, take the time to research their practice area. Do they work in the industry that you want to work in? Do they recruit for your specific role? Do they create or share content demonstrating that they want to share more practical insights about your field? Getting strategic and aligning your recruiter outreach to the specifics of the job that you're looking for will yield much better results than contacting every single recruiter randomly. Finding a job takes effort and grit, especially if you are in a situation where you need to find one as soon as possible. As someone who helps job seekers find their next gig, here is our advice. Get strategic. Don't apply for hundreds of positions blindly. Build a list of 10 to 20 companies you really want to work and invest your time into and work with that list, tailoring your applications to each opportunity. Treat your job search as a funnel. Keep filling the funnel when you get rejections. Keep track of your application progress and analyze your results. And network, network, network. Oh, and did I say network? Let me know what aspects of job search you need most help with or subscribe to our newsletter Career Deck where we share career tips and job postings every week. And watch this video where I share how I found my first job in Canada within 30 days. Thank you to our channel members and patrons for support. If you too want to support our channel, you can do so by becoming a member or simply tapping the like button and subscribing to our channel. That helps too. Thank you for watching and take care guys!