The hard work of finding a job
‘Gig economy’ enticing while online search sites can be ‘overwhelming’ for some
Yukon Damov wants a career.
After seven years of selling music at a used record shop, the 25-year-old university graduate is ready to exit the world of over-the-counter sales and enter a new role beyond the vinyl-clad space he’s occupied since age 18.
“I think I’m pretty much finished with retail,” said Damov. “Working at the record store wasn’t what I wanted to do forever.” Damov isn’t the only person looking for a job, or a better one. According to the Star’s Forum poll, that’s the goal of 13 per cent of Canadians this year.
He began searching for new work last summer, checking job boards at the University of Toronto, where he was editor-in-chief of the Newspaper during his undergraduate studies.
Despite his bachelor of arts degree, he often found he was underqualified or under-experienced, or both, for positions.
Damov wrote the LSAT last October and again in December, but he’s not sure any of the four schools he’s applied to will accept him. Either way, he’ll need to find work in the interim — the record store closed last month.
Like thousands of Canadians, Damov will likely join the “gig economy,” in the short term at least. While avoiding companies typically tagged under that label — UberX, Airbnb, Etsy-based home jewelry design — he may take on a short-term contract at a boat show in January.
A friend’s mother runs a nautical bookstore by the waterfront and needs extra representatives.
“I’ll probably take her up on that. It’s better to have at least something,” he said.
Word-of-mouth is still the biggest source of connecting employers and employees, says Mark Patterson, executive director of Magnet, a job portal launched by Ryerson University. “We know that leaves out people without connections or the social capital,” he said.
The Magnet platform allows students and recent graduates to create a digital resumé for employers to sniff them out through skills-based searches rather than job titles.
“None of the job boards out there speak to each other right now,” Patterson added. “They’re all silos.”
Damov knows this first-hand. “There are some job boards that are tailored for different industries or even different demographics; job boards for younger people, entry level jobs,” said Damov. “It was a bit overwhelming.” He plans to update his LinkedIn profile. “It’s a little underdone. There’s no photo, for starters.”
Profiles on professional platforms as well as sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter shouldn’t be ignored, says Jelena Zikic, an associate professor at York University’s School of Human Resource Management.
“Social media and LinkedIn are becoming some of the most important ways of connecting with employers,” Zikic said.
Ontario now boasts the highest proportion of minimum-wage workers of any province in Canada and has one of the worst rates of longterm unemployment in the country, according to a November report from the Ontario Common Front, an anti-poverty coalition.
Nearly 12 per cent of the provincial workforce — 695,000 — was working for minimum wage in 2014. About 32 per cent of part-time workers said they would prefer full-time work.
Damov has heard the specious siren song of hip companies and palatable wages. He had a potential offer from the Apple Store sales desk recently. “Another guy was really hot on working as a janitor at the TDSB. He said they get paid real well, with benefits, and it’s a way of getting your foot in the door.”
Sailing past those possibilities, his next move will be an application for a job as a legislative assistant. Though his parents are supportive — he lives with one of them, like 42 per cent of all Canadians in their 20s, according to Statistics Canada figures from 2011 — he occasionally catches heat for not having secured more stable employment. “I feel a bit more pressure from my grandpa. We had a little argument the other day,” he said.