Show Notes

• CELPIP Live: Episode 12
• Youtube CELPIP Channel
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Transcript

CJ [00:00:00] Hello, everyone, and welcome, or welcome back, to the Official CELPIP Podcast, where we aim to help you, our test takers, get the score you need and support newcomers building a life in Canada. My name is CJ, and along with my co-host Chris, we talk to a variety of guests—from test takers, language teachers, and raters to employment counselors and immigration consultants, just to name a few. We also bring in our in-house staff on the show to get their perspective. They’re the people in the company that work behind the scenes to make the CELPIP Test available to you. So, Chris, how’s it going? How’s your work life been during COVID?

Chris [00:00:44] Well, it was quite challenging at first, but I’ve adapted to it now. I have to admit, I like working from home, but I’ll be happy when we get to go to the office at least sometimes.

CJ [00:00:55] Yeah, I, you know, you and I have worked together for a long time, and I have to say that I do kind of miss seeing everyone in real life. I mean, it’s great to wear shorts every day and have all the convenience of working from home, but I think it’ll be really nice just to have a cup of coffee in the same room as a coworker. And of course, I’m just sick about worrying about COVID.

Chris [00:01:22] Yeah, it’s been a challenging time for everyone, but it’s been especially, an especially tough time for those looking for a job.

CJ [00:01:30] Yeah, and that’s so true. And that’s especially true for those that are new to Canada.

Chris [00:01:36] That’s right. So today, to help those who are looking for work right now, we’re going to revisit a CELPIP Live show we did on job hunting during the pandemic. It’s an excerpt from an interview with a highly experienced career developer who has lots of great advice for those currently seeking employment. His name is Jose Duarte, and he specializes in helping people find jobs at nonprofit organizations in Canada. Even though we recorded it during COVID times, the advice very much applies to looking for a job at any time. We should mention that the interview is conducted by Aswathi, our social media specialist. Also, that we will provide a link to a complete sort of live show available on YouTube.

CJ [00:02:29] Right. That was a great episode. So thank you for setting this up. I think we should just get right into it.

Aswathi [00:02:41] So there are people who are waiting to get their PR who will probably come to Canada after the COVID-19 lockdown is lifted. What tips can you give them for looking for a job after they land?

Jose [00:02:54] OK, I think I want to give you a couple ideas. Number one is those people have to do their research, and the research—and the market is changing, no? And they need to do a really, really good research about what they need to do in order to have, to do their job in Canada, because now a lot of associations, they are changing the standards. A lot of groups of engineers, they discover there are new ways to do certain things. My first tip will be: do a research about the field you want, go to professionals associations, follow people in the in the field, no? And if you like forestry, for example, go to LinkedIn and find a person with that background and learn or see what that person is doing and try to make a connection. That will be the second tip. The second tip is: be comfortable doing networking online. No? Because all this—COVID, it is COVID, everybody’s at home. And, and try to do the networking, but networking is something like—I’m personally scared to do the networking, going on a [?] and ask for a card, it is something that then is not my favorite thing to do but—

Aswathi [00:04:27] Me too.

Jose [00:04:28] Yeah. But if you want to find a job—a lot of the jobs are by invitation. It’s what happens. No? And if you know a person, if you… First you do the research, you see what position you want, and then you research, you find a company with that position. Follow—in LinkedIn, in social media—that company, and try to find a person in that company and make a connection. But just be careful with the connection, because my—in my LinkedIn, I have these, I have career coach and [?], and I receive a lot of invitations from people I didn’t know. And the first question they ask is, “Hi Jose, I send you my résumé in case you have something for me. I need a job.” And if that person will be in a coffee shop, is like, “Hey, this is my résumé. Find me a job.” in and my first reaction is, no, no, no. Things are going not that way. If you start a relationship with someone online or in person, you have to build the relationship. You have to create a good bond with that person. First you’re saying, “Hi, hello. My name is Jose, I notice you and me, we are in the same industry, human resources, and it’s fascinating.” That’s it. And wait that person reply to you: “Oh thank you. Hey, I found this article. I think that will be interesting for you.” That, share information: that is networking. And, and then, and you build the relation, and when the relation is strong, or is, ah, you feel more comfortable, you can ask: “Hey, can I know more about you? Can I know more how you are in the place you are?” No? And that, that, when you meet someone in the company, what happen is, a lot of the positions don’t go to the Internet, because what happen? Let’s, let’s put an example. In my company, let’s say I talk with my boss, and, “You know what? I found another job. I’m leaving.” My boss, she will tell the team, “Hey, you know what, Jose’s leaving, who wants to occupy his position?” And one of my colleagues, maybe part time or maybe someone in another area, say, “Oh, I want it.” And they will do the internal process, interviews, and my position is filled. And my position never go outside, no, never was in the Internet. No? And if nobody in my company want to have my position, my boss and human resources, they will say, “Hey, you know someone who can fill Jose’s position?” and is when the networking start, no? That is the second tip. And the third tip: now, if you are outside of Canada, you have the time to prepare yourself for the Canadian standards of jobs. I know the dentists have different standards. The doctors have different standards. The engineers have different standards. People who work in I.T. has different standards. Now is the time to do your research and see what are the standards for your profession in Canada.

Aswathi [00:07:53] Great. So thank you for that. That was really—those are three really effective tips and I hope our viewers were able to catch that. We are getting some questions about specific industries and I will go into that. But before that, I wanted to just—if you could give us a quick kind of talk about, or tip about, like how important LinkedIn is during this job search, because you did touch upon that a little bit. And outside of networking, I just wanted to know, because a lot of people, they are on LinkedIn, but they’re not sure about their profile, you know, how it’s supposed to be, how it looks. So if you could just give us a little bit of information about that.

Jose [00:08:29] Well, one important thing is LinkedIn is to sell yourself, not the company you work, right? A lot of people, a common mistake is that people say, “I work for this, 123.Ltd. Company. That company sell three billion dollars in paper, this company is blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was the manager of sales.” You are selling the company, not you’re selling yourself. And a common mistake is people talk more about the company, about the goals of the company, than the skills they have. And a good profile— and, well, that is one thing. But the second thing is people doesn’t have anything in LinkedIn. That is the first thing, but I want to talk about that later. But if you describe what you do in LinkedIn is, LinkedIn is about you and your professional profile. I—my idea and maybe I’m so a traditional person—Facebook is to make friends, to party pictures, and…and now in this time, people is sitting on the bench and watching TV and you have, no?, the picture. This is Facebook. LinkedIn is something more professional. LinkedIn is professional. And in LinkedIn, you share a good article, news, you share what are the things you like to do; also, you can write what happen. Now if you are in this COVID and you have a new way to do something, a routine—for example, as a parent, I wrote my routine in the morning. Share that in LinkedIn. You see, everybody is a parent. Or, as a daughter, you want to support your, your old, your parents or old people how to use a telephone and you write something, write it and put it in LinkedIn, because someone from your age is interested in that knowledge. No? And that’s made your profile interesting. That’s made your profile—“Oh, look, let’s see, no?, Aswathi: Oh wow. She talk about social media, she talk about English, she talks about music. She talks about…” Something that people want to read about you, no? And the other thing, when you describe what you do is start with your skills, what you do and how you are doing what you do. Yeah? The way you, people say, “Oh, I’m achieve a goal. I sell two billion dollars in one year.” That is a good statement. But I will write something like, “Preparing a plan with my team and create the strategy to increase the sales in my company. As a result of the plan I have, we have 30 percent increase.” It’s exactly the same situation. But in the second one, you listen to the word team; that means that person works with a team. “I create,” “I planning,” “I am organizer, I organize,” “I develop”: all these words, they are verbs, action verbs that describe my skills, and it’s what you have to put: your skills. In LinkedIn, it’s a space—and I can talk about LinkedIn a lot because I love it and it’s something that I really like, and it’s part of the coaching I help people, because…your skills. Some people, “I like to read. I am a good artist.” And, OK, what really: I know I am a good drawer. And I did all Disney collection or all these… Try to—it’s your profile. People, it’s like a picture. And some people just have in the LinkedIn profile the name of the company, the position and the years that it’s. I learn no more about you. I want to know how you did things, no? And the other really, really important thing in LinkedIn, you have in the, in the first part, the summary, your summary. Some people just have words: “entrepreneur.” If Bill Gates has “entrepreneur,” you completely understand what is entrepreneur, no? You know, but if nobody knows you and you put “entrepreneur,” it’s everything and it’s nothing and it’s better you describe: “I am an executive coach, a career developer. I love pets and my specialty is support people with complex needs to find a job.” That is a big description about. No? And this is LinkedIn and we can talk more about LinkedIn, but now is the time to be on LinkedIn, prepare your LinkedIn and profile. Because when a recruiter to receive a resume, a professional recruiter, the first or the second step at the step after reading the resume is go to the LinkedIn profile. And if they don’t find anything interesting in the first five to ten seconds, bye. And the other thing that happen is now in a lot of of meetings, and I attend in my professional career, and we have, everybody has fun. And, and, I have this thing, I don’t have a business card with me normally or when I finish my training, everybody say: Oh, are you on LinkedIn?” ”Yeah.” “Oh, what is your name on LinkedIn?…Oh.” Boom. “I send you a request.” Boom. “Now we are connected. Thank you. Bye.” And when this happens, the next thing you have to do in the afternoon and night or the next day is: “Hi Aswathi, it was a pleasure to meet you today in the program, in the episode. I loved to, your participation. I loved your creativity. I love…” You have to say something about the relation you create with that person. “I look forward to meet you, look forward to talk to you later, and I hope we can do something together in the future. Thank you for your advice.” Something that says: “Hey, Aswathi! Oh, yeah.” And you will remember me. Is, is, is a plan. If you are doing networking, you have to do something to create an image about you and the people to remember you. No?

Aswathi [00:15:32] Sounds great.

Jose [00:15:33] And this is a short answer for LinkedIn.

Chris [00:15:40] And we’re back.

CJ [00:15:41] OK, that was great. What were some of the main takeaways for you, Chris? I think I just want to ask you a few more questions.

Chris [00:15:50] I like what he said about focusing on your actual skills rather than just talking about the companies that you worked for. I think that’s a common mistake many people make. But it was really interesting to hear him talk about LinkedIn and how best to share information with other people. The idea that you should share things that are useful to other people, like an article or something you learn to do.

CJ [00:16:15] Right, keeping it professional. It’s not Facebook. Anything else that you liked about that?

Chris [00:16:22] Yes, I also like the idea of finding someone who is doing the kind of work you want to do and learning how they got there.

CJ [00:16:31] Yeah, I loved that as well. So this is just a reminder to everyone that if you’d like to watch the rest of the interview, the link to this CELPIP Live episode on YouTube is in the show notes.

Chris [00:16:45] And that’s it for this week. What have we got coming up?

CJ [00:16:48] Well, next week we’re going to revisit another CELPIP Live episode. And this one is all about understanding common English mistakes.

Chris [00:16:58] Oh, that’s going to be useful for a lot of test takers.

CJ [00:17:01] Absolutely. It was a very popular episode of CELPIP Live. Until then, all the best to everyone looking for a job—

Chris [00:17:10]—and getting ready for the test.

CJ [00:17:12] Bye!

Chris [00:17:14] Bye!