The pulse of Victoria

an article in today’s Times-Colonist examines four key economic sector in Victoria; Construction, Tourism, Technology and Real Estate.
The article on the technology sector reflects what Victoria Chamber of Commerce CEO, Bruce Carter spoke about last night at our networking event.
The local industry currently boasts more than 850 companies employing 12,600 people and bringing in an estimated $1.7 billion [...]

Best Employers for New Canadians

These employers have been recognized as offering innovative programs to assist immigrants in making the transition to the Canadian workplace.
Each employer is evaluated in terms of whether:

 they offer programs specifically designed to assist employees who are recent immigrants to Canada;
they have taken steps to reduce employment barriers for recent immigrants, such as by recognizing foreign educational credentials [...]

Listen up

This blog post about finding and keeping a job in a shrinking market is worth your time to check out. I want to highlight this interesting section:
Interview with your ears. Eighty-five percent of all job seekers talk too much in the interview. Listen closely to what the employer needs then respond as someone who can [...]

Picture this

Here’s why you don’t need to include your picture on your resume.

Idiom 11

It’s been a while but here is another idiom for you to consider:
At the drop of a hat
Meaning: To respond quickly to new information or changing circumstances.
Example: If we land that new contract we have to be ready to act at the drop of a hat.
All idioms

You and your references

Having an employment reference on our resume who doesn’t remember us or who gives a lukewarm reference can mean a lost job opportunity. While doing some research I stumbled upon this page (pdf) that does a good job of summing up the ins and outs of references.
Key points:

Check in with your references to get their permission [...]

Trafford publishing sold to US firm

Many of you will be interested to note that Trafford Publishing has been sold to an American company. Trafford, which is based in Colwood is this country’s most prominent self-publishing company. You can read all of the details in this Times-Colonist article but I will excerpt an interesting passage.
As a result, Reid (CEO Geoff Reid) [...]

Now hiring

Did you know that the Times-Colonist has a new feature on Saturdays that lists the names of employers who have jobs to offer ? Well now you do and if you check it out you will see that among the jobs listed that Beanstream is looking for a Junior Programmer and Victorian Epicure is looking for a [...]

The mentorship advantage

This Toronto Star article looks as how mentorships are being used to help foreign-trained professionals expand their network and bridge the gap to unemployment.
“In Canada, networking is a very big part of finding a job. “A lot of new immigrants don’t know what that means, or might be shy or apprehensive to network based on their [...]

Tourism bright spots

Those of you who like to keep an eye on what is happening in the Capital Region’s tourism and hospitality will want to not the two following news items.

A record 420,000 cruise ship passengers to visit on 215 cruise ships are expected to visit Victoria this year
There is speculation that the Canadian dollar’s value is [...]