Working in a recession
University grads face fewer job opportunities but can still cope, experts say.
Samuel Dunsiger│April 13, 2009
Noah Schwartz thought his job prospects would be plentiful when he started his MBA at York University’s Schulich School of Business in September. But after a few months, his optimism died.
“When 2009 came around, it became a slight era of despair,” he says, referring to the global economic recession. “No one has really found work. It’s depressing.”
 Inside the halls of the Seymour Schulich Building on Keele Street, Schwartz and his fellow Masters students trade job rejection stories, and his professors lecture endlessly on the repercussions of the economic downturn.
All this talk has made Schwartz really nervous about finding a job.
The recession has changed much of the job market for recent graduates, career experts say. And Ontario’s unemployment rate spiked seven per cent in January, according to Statistics Canada. Among youths aged 15 to 24, the rate is at 12.7 per cent. There are considerably less opportunities out there for graduates, says Lynn Brownlie, the associate director of the University of Toronto’s Career Centre, who noticed that there is relatively less on-campus recruitment than in recent years. So, Brownlie and other career experts suggest that students must change their approach to find a job.
The importance of creativity
During the past few months, Schwartz did a lot of networking for jobs.
“I was doing a lot of cold-calling—any name I heard and any phone number I can get, I would call it,” Schwartz says with a slight chuckle. “Anything to get your name out there. But a lot of companies were hesitant to discuss any opportunities.”
Brownlie says that, because of the lack of opportunities, it is less of a physical job search for students today and, therefore, they need to get more creative in their job hunt. For Brownlie, a former marketing manager at Bell Canada, this means job-hunters must do less applying for specific opportunities they see and more self-marketing to garner attention within the industry.
“Students need to do more networking,” Brownlie says. She adds that they need to “meet people and build relationships. Anything to improve your marketability.”
Internships, work placements and international exchanges were cited by Brownlie as some things that would help young workers land jobs.
That’s what U of T engineering student Sara Dolcetti did; she entertained several job offers before accepting one at Boston Consulting Group in Toronto. When she graduates this year, she'll be starting her new job. Dolcetti bulked up her resume with a one-year internship in the process engineering department at CIBC. She also rounded out her experience by teaching piano and volunteering with a student consulting program. These experiences may have helped her stand out from her classmates, most of whom haven’t found a job, which made Dolcetti feel “fortunate” about landing one.
“It all comes down to expanding your skill-set,” she says, adding this could mean being involved in extracurricular activities or doing a Masters.
Not all young graduates are as lucky as Dolcetti. Brownlie says the key is to just keep at it, no matter what. The more digging you do for opportunities, she says, the more likely it is that you’ll find a good job.
Looking outside the lines
In January, Schwartz found an opportunity after extensive digging. Much to his surprise, he was offered a job at TD Bank in Vancouver. “I was shocked that they were still hiring,” he says with a smile. “I definitely consider myself one of the lucky ones.”
Schwartz had an interest in politics before the business bug hit him. Now, he aspires to get a career in real estate and community development, which is what led him to Schulich’s new Real Property Development MBA program. He says a position at the bank is a good opportunity to break into the industry, meet people and build relationships, and learn the financial side of real estate development; but it’s a job that may not have been on his radar under normal circumstances.
Lauren Friese, the president and founder of TalentEgg Inc., a Canadian career web site for graduates, says that, with fewer opportunities available, young job-hunters should broaden their searches and “look outside the lines.”
 “A young grad who has a degree in finance might not end up in that cushy bank job they thought of, but instead they might end up doing finance for a company like Cineplex or working for a small, emerging hedge fund,” she says. “[Students] have to look outside the lines of what they’re expecting to work in and how they’re going to get that first career.”
Michael Pietowski took Friese’s advice and looked outside the lines. After graduating from teacher’s college last year from the University of Ottawa, he applied for jobs at several tutoring companies when he realized he wasn’t going to get his dream job as a school board teacher. In January, he landed two opportunities at two different tutoring companies.
“There’s a lot of hype among teachers about getting a board job,” he says. “But like anyone searching for a job, you must be flexible and adaptive. Sometimes, you have to change your expectations to meet reality.”
Staying positive
The reality isn’t all bad, says Friese. “There are still plenty of opportunities out there. It’s just a little harder to find them.” In fact, students may benefit from the current economic climate, according to Friese. Her venture deals mostly with employers and, she says, during a recession, most of them are budget-conscious and hope to hire cost-effective human resources. That’s where young workers like Schwartz, Dolcetti and Pietowski come in. “They’re cheaper, and easier to mould and train,” Friese says. “Students really are those resources.”
According to Statistics Canada, employment in most industries dropped in the past year, with the exceptions being natural resources, finance, health care, hospitality and public administration. |
