As we all know, the rent doesn’t pay itself. Having come to Canada from Singapore to study using my own savings, the less I use my savings means the longer I can survive over here. Therefore, Sing in Can has prioritised job search. Last month, I attended a Job Search Workshop organised by my university to adapt myself to the local culture and be familiarised with the recruitment practices in Vancouver.
The Job Search Workshop was organised by the university’s Career Development Centre to help students like me prepare ourselves for the working life. The full day programme included topics like resume and cover letter writing, industry research, interview and networking techniques.
Networking for Success
As I covered in my vlog, networking is the most important, but overlooked, aspect of the job search process. In fact, networking should take place before the submission of a job application.
From a HR perspective, if I were to receive an application from someone I met before, I would spend that 1 extra second from the tonnes of applications that I received, whether to take a second look, or to recall what went on during the networking.
From an applicant’s perspective, the networking will also allow me to have an insight to what the workplace culture is like and perhaps the daily tasks related to the job. Because as someone who held 3 full time jobs before, I know very well that the things I do on a daily basis rarely matches the job description on the job posting.
In fact, all 3 jobs had no official job descriptions and I was the one who wrote and submitted the document to HR in a “HR transformation” exercise.
Since finding a job is like finding a lifelong partner (explained in the post linked below), networking is like the dating process, where I look for prospective long term partners by assessing whether our values match and whether they will treat me well.
Interestingly, I’m not a stranger to this term, and yet, I did not actively participate in networking since my university days. At work, I did network with colleagues so that I could get things done faster, and network with outside stakeholders for the same objectives. However, I had not actively networked in order to find better career prospects.
Another point worth noting was how easy it is to get involved in networking. In my current university, the Career Development Centre organises networking sessions for students. Networking sessions are also available on Eventbrite, organised by independent parties, and centred around career interests. These were some of the opportunities I had “missed” out for the past years!
Resume
As I had mentioned in the vlog, there were parts of resume writing that I had already known, and parts I didn’t.
For example, online advice I found said that in Canada, having a photo is a no-no. In East Asia, however, resumes without photos will be tossed aside. In fact, one of the new friends I made, who was from Japan, said that the job application forms she had to fill in back in Japan were all asking for intimate personal info, like date of birth and information of family members, that would be a taboo in resume-writing in Canada!
And speaking of personal info, one aspect that baffled me (which I only knew during the workshop) was the requirement to add our mobile numbers and residential addresses. Compared to divulging my date of birth, I found it more disconcerting to have to disclose my residential address so early in the job application process.
Back in Singapore, there were many job postings that were phony – postings that had the objectives of gathering information so that scammers could “harass” us with calls to “attend a one-day job preview (a.k.a work one day for them for no remuneration” or “recover the inheritance from my long-lost Nigerian prince relative”. People could also use our addresses for loansharking activities, which would mean a long term, neverending headache of having to get the loansharks off our backs.
Most importantly, we gave our residential addresses only after we accepted the employment offer.
After raising such concerns, I was told by the instructor that I can opt to just include the city and province I am living in, though mobile phone number is still required.
Cover Letter
Similar to resume writing, we were expected to write our residential addresses, though we can whittle it down to the city and province we live in.
The new knowledge I got was that we had to write our cover letters the traditional, formal way.
Back in Singapore, cover letters are no longer compulsory, as employers are more interested in skills-match rather than the ability to write (I have a suspicion that HR managers just do not have time to read through 300 pages of cover letters). Therefore, even if we do send cover letters, they were more of a memo-format, rather than a formal letter.
For someone long winded like Sing in Can, the formal part (including my residential address, the employer’s official address, titles and subject heading) took up almost half a page. That left me with barely enough space to boast about my achievements! 😛
Another learning point about writing cover letters was the part about “what to write”. In the past, I tried to cover my whole career: touching on achievements and the “struggles” behind the achievements.
Instead, I was told to look at the requirements of the job posting and pick 2 or 3 points that were most relevant to my work experience, and then support those points with work activities/projects that I had completed.
Although that meant I had to re-write my cover letter for every job application (which increases the chance of errors), it also meant that I had a more targeted content for the hiring manager.
By the way, did I mention that we should avoid just using “Hiring Manager” and find out exactly who was going to read the cover letter?
In the age of digital job postings, where job posters hide in anonymity, that is actually one great hurdle to overcome in the job search process!
Friends
The workshop lasted for an entire day and I did not leave with just new learning points about the job search process, like how to better my networking process, how to adapt my resume to Canadian criteria and how to customise my cover letters for each job application.
Most importantly, I made new friends! As a Singaporean in Canada, I am new to the environment and look forward to knowing more people – people whom I know face the same struggles as me and can provide support to me.
I got to know friends from New Zealand and Japan, both countries which I always look forward to visiting (and perhaps live in for a few years in the future?)!
Hopefully, I can get to hang around them more often, and share more of our journey in adapting to the Canadian way of life.
Till then, sing while you can!
Editor’s Note: This article was first posted on Sing in Can blog in 2019. It is now re-posted with edits on Live.Life.Love as SiC has closed down.
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