Job Searching and Networking: A Local Employer Perspective (Part 2)

Join us for part 2 of our chat with local employers, to find out more about their tips and insights on how to succeed with job searching and networking! 

Transcript

Safia: 0:04

Hello and welcome to Wolfe's workplace career chats, where we discuss everything and anything careers related. Our goal is to connect students with opportunities to explore their life path, build skills and networks, and gain knowledge of how to succeed in their chosen industry to support employment and cultivate the motivation to persist and complete their studies. So just very general question, with job searching and, finding jobs in your field in particular, what are some helpful resources that have helped you along the way, or that you would recommend to students to.

Jason: 1:00

You know, for myself, I was a member of the, uh, human resource, professional association, finding, like-minded people, To help share those questions or concerns I think that's important. Again, I think it's also important, even, even from your, from the academic perspective, as you're going to school and furthering your studies is finding, people that support your vision, right. Support your growth. Cause if, if you're on, if you're surrounded by, people who are not encouraging, who are constantly looking to bring you down and unfortunately that's potentially could lead you. A straight. And that's important. And I think it's important to find on people that are, are motivated. People that, can introduce new opportunities for you. again, coming from, places where, you may have some barriers or challenges, whatever societal or whatever the case may be. It's aligning yourself with, good people that share a very similar vision, getting into healthy habit. going to the gym, you avoiding, I should be studying, I just gonna go to the bar instead and have a couple of beer cuz it's, you know, wing night and jug night, whatever the case may be. But ensuring that you stay focused. I think it's, the focus is important, right? If you, you know, it's easy, it's very easy. I know I'm that person it's easy to go on the path because of, of. Oh, I'm not gonna go to gym today. I'm not gonna go to gym tomorrow. I'm not gonna go to gym today cause it's too easy. Cause I can find an excuse. It it's easy enough to find an excuse. If you wanna find an excuse, there are many, there are millions out there. You can find an excuse for everything, but it's staying focused, staying committed and, and finding people that will support that vision is very important. You know, whether it's your friend's family, whatever it may be, Maybe it's just, you know, an acquaintance that you can lean on. You know, again, we sometimes get really caught up and, buried in, the hustle or, the school work or whatever. We also have to understand. There is a work life balance. It was a life work life balance where we have to understand. And honestly, that was one of the things with COVID for myself. I got swamped in work and I was just like, I'm trying to pull up time with more work, work, work. And quickly realize that, you know what, there is a balance here. There is a balance in life, right. Life can be gone like that. So it's important to understand too, that, you have to be healthy mentally, physically in all that, but again, finding the people that, share that, vision with you, I think is, vitally important.

Safia: 3:10

Yeah. I think it's really important to build a supportive community to find

Michael: 3:13

one. Yeah, you become the average of the five or 10 closest people around you. Right. And that's same in high school. If you play sports, you hang around, like you hang around with jocks. I don't really still all that. If your friends smoke weed, you're gonna smoke weed and you're gonna, do that. So surround yourself with people that inspire you and achieve to get greater things, cuz that whole iron sharpens iron it's so true. surround yourself with some good people who actually motivate you to get to where you want the other thing I would say as far as like tips to, to, to get a job is do your. So the organizations you're wor you're looking to work for, talk to employees. Like even though you reach out to the hiring manager on LinkedIn, maybe reach out to an employee on LinkedIn or walk into the business and ask an employee, Hey, is this a cool place to work? Like, what do they do? What's special about here? talk to customers, or if you're a customer yourself, share that experience. but don't show up to an interview with the bank and I've had it many times where I say, why, why this bank? And they're say, well, I just wanna work for a bank you might as well, just not even get up in the morning to come to that interview, like, do your homework about the organization and, and go and work for an organization that inspires you as well. Mm,

Safia: 4:15

I think that's a really good tip, doing your research and, and then of course, there's so many great resources that will help you do research such as like LinkedIn, for

Michael: 4:23

example, LinkedIn's great. The glass door, you can get reviews on employers too. So find an employer that, the current employees really like too, uh, look up customer views for that place. Cuz if they give a good customer experience, likely they're gonna give a good employee experience too.

Safia: 4:38

So, what do you wish that you knew before starting your career or entering your industry and then relating to that is what advice do you have for students or anybody really entering your field and more specific? What advice might you have for students facing barriers?

Jason: 4:55

Honestly, I enjoyed the. I actually enjoyed going in and, and as a young person shoveling the crap at the bottom of a wet pond in a plywood mill, because you talk about humility. That taught me humility, It taught me that I had to do the hard work I had to get through that bit of, tough sledding and, and work. And it helped build character for me. And throughout my career, again, it was health and safety. So I was always been pretty focused on human resources. So I never really straight too far away from that. Gotten into a little bit of sales, still in sales right now. So every aspect of, my career really helped shape who I am, what I want my company to be. So throughout my career, every place I've worked, every supervisor I had, every person I work. I used that as an educational, whether it's right or wrong, whether it's positives or the negatives, or I said, if I'm in this position, I'd handle it exactly the way he or she did or I'd handle it completely different. But I found myself always trying to learn and, and critique, and I'm a firm believer in continuous improvement. You know, nobody's perfect. We're gonna learn until the day we, dropped it for year is my thought, but I've always used those as a learning opportunity. And I think that's important, right? That we're, we're not, I'm not, we're not critiquing people to point a. It's to say, you know, what, how can we improve? How can we be better? And I think for me, that has always been, the way I approach, my life in general or, professionally, it's always been that, where it's, again, you take every situation or circumstance or opportunity that's presented itself and made the best of it, Whether you wanted to be in that position or not, you know, sometimes especially, in the. I used every aspect of that learning to, to help me in my career. And, you know, if I can share anything with some of the youth, that we work with, especially in the communities and, you know, facing some barriers. Cause all I seen going up in the reserve was what was available on the reserve, the chief and council and, and those are the career opportunities or the small town of NiPy and where I grew up. It wasn't until I stepped outside of those and seen the world. full of this tremendous amount of opportunity that it just blew my mind and I'm going like, and getting past the thought that people didn't want me there. It's like, no, no, they want me there. And is there gonna be some battles long way, 110%, but everything throughout the process has helped in identifying who I am as a person, whether it be commercial fishing with my grandfather at a young age and understanding, listen to his stories, all of that, every aspect of that has. And, I think we can't discredit anything, even some of the negative stuff, it's still, it might seem negative at the time. There's still a PO it's a learning, Understanding it is a learning. And I think, it'll shape who you are as character. If you're really in the moment in the time that you're cognizant of what's actually taking place, it might take some time to reflect, but it's all learning and it all helps shape, your character.

Safia: 7:30

I think, yeah, it's definitely about. learning that you're constantly growing and seeing. And like you said, in the beginning, like perspective mm-hmm yeah. Do you have anything to add to that?

Michael: 7:38

No regrets. I don't live by regrets. I'm just happy to, to be alive and have a great family and a great job. But if I could go back a decade or two. and give myself advice. When I was here, number one would be maybe get more involved with the university. I wasn't the best student. I just went to get my degree. I wasn't involved with Lu Sue. I wasn't involved with any student clubs, so maybe get involved there. I caught up after I was on the alumni board. I'm on the board of governors now. So I'm humbled with that experience, but I wish I got more involved in the actual university when I was here instead of just go to my job and go to class. And that, that was it. Things, I would tell my friends though, would be consider Northwestern, Ontario for your career. So of all the people who came up in my first year of residents, there were 120 of us. I was the only one who ended up staying, right? Like a lot of people didn't give Northwestern, Ontario with thunder bay, a shot. we have the benefit of looking back now through Facebook and Instagram and seeing what those people are up to. we live a pretty good life here in Northern Ontario. We're an hour and 20 minutes with an air Canada flight to Pearson, but we live in an amazing place. low cost of living high quality of life. I mean, Jay, we travel quite a bit. Like we cross paths and airports and Ottawa and other spots. And I think just the ability to live in Northwestern, Ontario is it's a special place. There's lots of great employers here. Jay leads. One of the most amazing companies here right now that that's really exciting, so that there's amazing businesses here that you can go and work for. can live a great life and Hey, you can be on a plane and be wherever you need to be pretty quick. so if I could go back and tell my friends. Give it a year to find a role here in Northwestern, Ontario, cuz you're gonna love it. And I've had a couple now looking at moving back or having moved back. So, I, I would urge more of them to reach out to local employers, but I also urge local employers to reach out to students now, too, because it's a Lakehead is such a great, place to pick up some phenomenal employees. And I think employers need to do an equal part at reaching out to the university to hire folks.

Jason: 9:28

So I think if I add, tell Mike's was mentioning there that, the, the beauty thing about what we're seeing here, Mike's being was very active and still very active within the chamber of commerce. but what we're seeing and talking with the CEDC and the future for thunder bay and your region is very bright. And I don't care what sector you're looking at from tech sector on there's a tremendous amount of interest from. corporate Canada and the world to invest in Northwestern, Ontario. So as a student, as you're looking, come into it, eyes wide, open ears, wide open because there are some major companies who are looking to make some major place here in thunder bay. And it is very exciting and it, and it's so cool. Some of the stuff that we're hearing, through the grape flying where, you know, some, potential investments start to be made, you know, we talk about ring of fire. We talk. the resource sector. That's really cool. You talk about, green energy, there's some huge things coming down, the pipes there as well. but I think also as we open up and expand, the north for opportunities that in itself is gonna create some, enormous opportunities for, for thunder being a region. It's exciting. It's really exciting. Like as, as a young person growing up, like I said, I hope they see what we see, from thunder bend. I hope you all see that I don't care where you're coming from a walk of life because, we need you, we need everybody here to be pulling and working and supporting our community because, you know, I'm excited. And, you know, I think everybody within, the region here, chamber of commerce, and I actually had a chat today with, mayor, uh, bill Morrow and, we're all pretty excited for. the future holds.

Safia: 10:52

Yeah, for sure. And I know that. If students are interested in connecting with employers, we also have like career fairs. We host events where students can meet local employers. And then also there's that whole side of networking and reaching out to do informational interviews. Yeah. So it doesn't really matter what field you're in. there are local employers that you can reach out to and of course, if you're a Lakehead student, the student success center is here to connect you and to, give advice if you want to connect with employers

Jason: 11:22

and it doesn't even have to be about business, it can be about friendship. Mm-hmm right. Oftentimes we get, you know, caught on this whole stigma about it being strictly business. we, as an organization, we do cultural awareness training. And, but it's not even about the indigenous culture. It's every culture. we use this thing called the three cup of tea approach and it's really about building relationships. And that's the important part is, we can never have enough friends and we all want more friends and we all want a larger network of people and people that we can lean on. I think that's the important part of building a sense of community is just connecting with people you might lean on somebody one day that you may never thought of. So I think that's the important part is just sitting there going, oh, if you're, you know, a newcomer to the community, get. if you've been in this community and you've been living a bit of a shelter, like get involved, right. You know, step outta that comfort zone, because I think that's where change really happens. You have to almost be uncomfortable to make

Safia: 12:08

change. Absolutely. Yeah. It's definitely putting yourself out there. It might be daunting, but, at the end of the day it's worth it. Yeah, you

Jason: 12:16

meet good people. Good people are gonna connect you with other good people. So, that's really, what's about right.

Michael: 12:20

There's yeah. And an invitation to reach out. I know Jay would open it up too, like reach out to either of us through LinkedIn or whatever platform you can. Yeah. Uh, I would suggest going to the thunder bay chamber site, looking at what events are coming up, whether it's an after business event or a trade show or something, and look up shift thunder bays, young professional network, cuz there's also an organization that does ongoing events that you could just show up. And there'll be a lot of people there wanting to.

12:43

Yeah,

Safia: 12:44

absolutely. And, on this topic of connecting with people, this is kind of something that we've been talking about so far, but, more specifically, what networking methods have worked for you, or what methods would you like to see in students and what would you like to see students bringing forward when they're trying to network? And just aside from that, what would you encourage students facing barriers to do? When speaking to employers, if they're a little hesitant.

Jason: 13:08

I, I think ultimately it is just putting yourself out there, right? If it's, if it's practicing with your peers and, and do that, If you need a sounding board, like I said, I'm pretty open to talking to anybody, you know, we'll reach out, I'm happy to have a conversation. I'm happy to share. I'm happy to introduce people to whoever I think. Right. And it's having a conversation, maybe it's over a cup of coffee, whatever the case may be. But I think, you know, again, it is really. looking at a multifaceted approach to networking's important, it's not just one way of doing it. It it's, maybe it's stopping and maybe it's, you know, I'm interested in, being a part of the construction association, go visit Harold instrument and the construction association, just finding out the network, finding out who's out there and. Who's available. The chamber of commerce is a great opportunity to get, we want more members, everybody here the community, every organization that's, public and, and community focus is all, it's all about inviting new people in. You know, getting some, some new and different perspectives. That's important. So, you know, social media is one aspect and it's a huge aspect for hitting the, the wider, uh, audience. But I think getting involved locally is also very important, right? Because, you know, you may may think that's under me as just a small community of 110,000 people, but the reach outside of a hundred bay is huge. It is huge. And it's important that It's just getting out and, and building that confidence and, maybe having some small successes that'll help you in your career, The small wins, right? It, it, sometimes it takes those baby steps to get where you want to achieve, but at end of day, you gotta start somewhere and building up that confidence is important. I can send back the investment into the bank. It's it's like, the more you put in, the more you're gonna get out, If you're gonna sit back and not go and be engag, and expect people to come talk to you and, and gonna be tough. Right. So, you know, sometimes you have to just keep pushing, Push it a little further, a little further. And again, I, I'm pretty confident saying it'll, it'll pay dividends in the end.

Michael: 14:52

if you're going to an event, do some research to before. So chamber events and other events, they usually have a Facebook. Like RCP on there. Look at who's going and do a quick go Google search, find out where they work. If there's someone you wanna meet with that li that night set some goals for yourself. Hey, here's the five people I really want to meet, do up some personal business cards, but just show up prepared and, and have a bit of a game plan when you get there. And then afterwards, always follow up. It's so important that you, you follow up, uh, especially if you commit to, to connecting with someone afterwards. and then the last thing I would say is don't, once you get a job, don't stop the networking. like continue to want to grow and cultivate relationships in the community. And just cuz you got a job, uh doesn't mean that, that ends right there probably just starts right there

Safia: 15:36

Mm-hmm absolutely. I love that advice. And that's something that students don't really think about is that your journey, your career journey is only just beginning. There's so much room for growth and connect. And finally, is there a last piece of advice that you hope listeners take away with them? Jason. Did you wanna take that first? Yeah,

Jason: 15:55

sure. You know, again, it's, it's first of all, you know, I, I, I appreciate and applaud, the students taking this journey cuz it is, he was under undertaking, First step, even, you know, to decide on, on Lakehead as, the educational choice they've made right. In our community. So that's important, you know, again, it is really. in the situations of, of challenges and obstacles and barriers. And, you know, there may be times where you're, lacking a little confidence and, and feeling the struggle, but, think about the future and what, you know, you're setting out to achieve, because I, I believe you're gonna be very excited in, in the rewards and the possibilities and the doors that'll open, for you as an individual. But again, you know, it is really about, you know, setting your mind to achieving and achieving a goal, You, you set your mind to achieve that goal and stay committed to that goal. And I think you'll have unwavering success, you know, again, I I'm really confident and. where we are going as, as a, as a region where the country's going, from the economic perspective and opportunities, you know, I really think that, in these times, anybody who's, you know, just getting ready to enter the workforce, we're in a great place and use those opportunities to, to create a, a great life and, approach things with, with the utmost confidence, not arrogance confidence, and being committed to.

Michael: 17:07

I'd say quality over quantity. So don't go to a networking, wanting to meet 50 people and walk away with 50 business cards, walk away with five really good conversations you had that you can follow up on those and create more substance behind those. From a banking perspective, don't apply to every bank. The similar role at every bank put your. Focus on the one bank you really want to work for, cuz it'll come across in the interview. Right. I can tell if someone's meeting with all the banks right, right away. And the lack of preparation, so quality over quantity Focus on doing a good job with a couple as opposed to shotgun approach mm-hmm and I

Safia: 17:40

think that would just demonstrate. Like you said, your commitment for the company itself, and then if you are interested in that company, then your passion will ultimately show through. so this brings us to the conclusion of this episode. Thank you so much for our guests. For joining in, it was a really insightful discussion about job searching. And thank you so much for listening. All the resources mentioned in the episode are going to be linked in our show notes as always the career zone at Lakehead university is eager to support your career journeys. Feel free to reach out at any time at all. You can visit the career zone space@thethunderbaycampusorconnectwithusthroughourwebsiteatlakehead.ca slash career zone. To obtain more information see you in the next episode.