Job numbers are up, here's how to ready your resume

Memo from Anastasia ♥️ 

Navigating our career journeys isn’t easy. Sending hundreds of applications, getting ghosted by recruiters and never hearing back - we all experience this all too often. But remember this: progress isn’t always measured in leaps, sometimes it’s in the small, quiet steps that move you forward. The important thing is that you keep going.

Take time to make small adjustments to your resume, even if it means reworking your professional summary or adding a bullet point to your experience that makes you proud. Reach out to a friend or old colleague for a brief catch up chat - nothing professional, just a catch up to chat about life and future plans. Change your surroundings - a work session from a local cafe can be just what you need! ☕️ 

Reflect on where you were a year ago - you’ve come so far! You're capable of far more than you give yourself credit for, it just sometimes takes a little extra push. Trust in the process, stay curious, and keep pushing through. You’ve got this!

Featured

🇨🇦 Canada’s tightening Temporary Foreign Worker rules. Employers in areas with unemployment rates of 6% or higher will no longer be able to hire TFWs for low-wage roles; the cap on hiring TFWs for low-wage positions has been reduced from 20% to 10%. TFW duration is also reduced to 1 year. (CTVNews)

🤠 Canada’s new jobs rate finally is rebounding - Canada has added 47,000 jobs and unemployment rate unexpectedly declined, mostly in the information, retail and culture sector as well as wholesale and retail trade, while education, health care and agriculture lost the most jobs. (FinancialPost)

😳 Canada’s wealth inequality is highest in 25 years. For every $100 of disposable income, the top 40% of households took home $73, while the bottom 40% only got $26. At the same time, young people’s (under 34 yo) debt ratio may have improved slightly, they still carry a high debt burden relative to their income. (StatsCanada)

💰 Rent price growth is slowing! This is thanks to the caps that the government of Canada is introducing on foreign workers and international students (CBC)

Overall, along with rate cut anticipation and slowing inflation, it looks like the worst of the Job Market and Rising Cost of Living is slowly getting behind us.

🎩 Career Tips

Master your IMPACT on resume (even without exact data)

You’ve heard it before: strong metrics on your resume dramatically boost your chances of getting interviews. But what if you don’t have actual numbers?

We’ve got you covered with some expert strategies to create compelling metrics—even if you didn’t track them.

🤠 Use Industry Standards

No exact data? No problem. Look up industry benchmarks for your role or department. Most industries have well-documented averages for things like revenue growth, process efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Use these benchmarks to estimate your impact. For example:

❗️“Implemented new customer service protocols, expected to improve customer satisfaction by 20% based on comparable case studies.”

❗️“Led the implementation of a new software feature, estimated to enhance user engagement by 10% based on industry standards for similar feature rollout”

By referencing common standards, you’re giving recruiters a clear picture of your contribution—even without exact data on hand.

⏱️ Highlight Time-Based Improvements

Speed matters. If you made things happen faster—whether it’s streamlining tasks or reducing turnaround times—calculate the time saved. If you cut a 5-hour task down to 3 hours, that’s a 40% improvement.

Here’s how you could phrase it:

❗️“Reduced customer response time by 50%, allowing the team to handle 30% more support tickets per day, resulting in higher customer satisfaction."

❗️"Improved financial reporting accuracy and reduced reporting time by 30%, resulting in more timely financial insights for strategic decision-making."

These improvements demonstrate efficiency, a key quality employers value.

👯 Impact on Team Morale or Engagement

If you led or contributed to initiatives that boosted team morale or improved employee engagement, quantify it. Most people forget to highlight the human element.

❗️ "Led a team-building initiative that resulted in a 20% improvement in employee satisfaction, as indicated by internal surveys."

❗️"Organized cross-functional collaboration workshops, resulting in a 30% improvement in inter-departmental communication, boosting overall team productivity and job satisfaction."

📧 Tools & Resources

🧑‍🏭 Looking for a new job soon? Sign up for a free email Job Search course

📄 Ready to build a rockstar resume? We’re launching our next cohort of a 7-day resume challenge. Sign up to be notified when it starts!

💵 Cool Deals!

🚂 VIA RAIL has a 40% Black Friday SALE on train trips

🥕 3 Ways to spend less on food

🧥 Our favourite store to buy winter clothing - LAST HUNT has a Thanksgiving Sale up to 80% .

👀 Job Postings

Got a job posting you’d like to promote in our newsletter? Fill out this form

📍 Do you speak Spanish, Korean, Arabic? Cohere, a leading enterprise AI company with offices in Canada an US, is looking for Linguistic Data Annotators, as well as Machine Learning Engineers.

📍KOHO, one of Canada’s leading alternative banking solutions has recently raised a round of funding and is on a hiring spree. They’re looking for Marketing, Software and Product folks.

📍EvenUp, an American legal software provider is hiring for a handful of Software & Data engineers, as well as legal associated in every major city in Canada

📍VendorPM, a vendor management and procurement software company is hiring in Sales Development and Product.

📍Ever considered working for the government? Government of Canada has over 500 open positions across the county, with great salaries!

📍Browse 100 Bookkeeping roles open in Greater Toronto Area

📍EastPenn Canada, local battery manufacturer and distributor is hiring for 20+ roles across technical, logistics and sales.

AI Cartoon of the Week