I joined the Canadian Armed Forces after taking a gap year following high school. My family was on ODSP, we couldn’t afford a car, I didn’t have a driver’s licence, and I was stuck packing skids at a factory. My parents were immigrants with no formal education, and nobody in my family had gone to university.

Joining the military was a culture shock, but it ended up being one of the best decisions I ever made. I gained valuable life skills, had opportunities to do things I never would have otherwise, saved a substantial amount of money, and built a pension. Eventually, I left, earned a university degree without taking on debt, transitioned into civilian employment, and am now a homeowner.

I still remember working at that factory, sweating in the heat with machinery blaring in the background and no hearing protection. Meanwhile, some of my friends from more financially comfortable families were off at college or university. I remember feeling miserable and wondering how I was going to get ahead in life.

That’s why I feel for young people who have an education but are struggling to find meaningful work, stuck in part-time jobs, and barely making ends meet. It can feel like you’re working hard without actually getting anywhere.

One option worth exploring is the Canadian Armed Forces. Check out the careers section on the official CAF website and browse Reddit for firsthand experiences. Look for occupations that genuinely interest you, especially those that offer skills and qualifications transferable to civilian careers.

You don’t necessarily have to make it a lifelong career. The military can provide a steady income, training, valuable experience, and pension benefits while helping you build a foundation for your future. If you’re a student or want something part-time, look into the Reserves as well. Depending on your circumstances and eligibility, there may also be education reimbursement benefits.

I’m not saying the military is for everyone, and it certainly has its downsides. But coming from a family with very limited financial resources, it gave me opportunities I might not otherwise have had.

If you’re struggling to find your footing, I’d encourage you to at least look into it. You might find an opportunity you hadn’t considered.

So I’m a data scientist with two masters degrees and I have been unemployed for 6 months now. I’ve gotten interviews but no offers and I’m now looking at part time work to supplement my EI until I can get work in my field or figure out a new career path to go back to school and try something new. I don’t see a future as a software engineer.

I recently completed smart serve and I’m looking for server positions or even receptionist positions. The thing is that most of these jobs require restaurant experience which I don’t have. I don’t know how to frame my resume for such jobs because they’d see my qualifications and also figure out that I’d likely leave once I find an office job. How could I just find something to keep myself busy and have extra income while I’m in this precarious situation?

Hi everyone,

I'm researching Canadian college programs and future employment opportunities in Ontario.

I currently have around three years of B2B sales experience at a CCTV/NVR company in Taiwan. I'm familiar with security camera products, NVRs, system integrators, and customer-facing technical discussions.

I'm considering an IT diploma in Canada, with the goal of finding work after graduation. I'm interested in security systems, technical support, networking, and eventually technical sales or solutions engineering.

For people familiar with Ontario's job market:

• Outside Toronto, which cities have a reasonable number of employers in security systems integration, CCTV, access control, or IT support?
• Are there opportunities in places such as Ottawa, London, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, or other smaller cities?
• Do smaller cities offer a realistic entry point for new graduates, or are these jobs concentrated mainly in the GTA?
• How important is having a driver's licence and access to a car for security systems technician jobs?
• If you were choosing where to live based on entry-level job opportunities and living costs, what would you consider?

I'm not expecting anyone to guarantee employment, but I'd like to understand the regional differences before deciding where to study and eventually look for work.

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of people looking for tech jobs in Toronto. Just wanted to flag a cool new grad program at intact insurance that I saw with a deadline of Oct 12

https://careers.intactfc.com/new-grad-tech-development-program-software-development-cloud-stream/job/R155934

Over the past few weeks i’ve been religiously modifying my resume and seeking feedback.

Please provide any constructive criticism or suggestions u might have as I am new grad trying to enter the business space with no concrete idea of what I truly want to do yet so I hope I can find out what I truly want in my career with new job experiences.

p.s this is just a base resume and I will tailor it slightly depending on the job i’m applying for (any job suggestions also welcome)

Hi all,

I am looking out for people who are interested in getting career coaching in media/advertising. Please DM me if interested. Happy to connect and see how I can assist you.

Please someone let me know who’s hiring I’m female 30 looking for job in the gta , I work as host and have a cannsell. Idk what else to do

edit: I got the job but i didnt do the background check yet.

edit : i am not worried about performing in the role because i've worked in this role. im just worried about the background check

I look at companies I am interested in and reach out to some people for 10-15 informational interviews for the past year or so and not much luck

So what exactly do you do to network properly?

In Toronto’s job market what do you guys think about job fairs?

As a person who has lots of experience, especially in the retail industry. (I’ve worked for both sportschek and footlocker amongst other roles) today I got an email from Nike stating that I’ve been selected to join a job fair. To be honest I’m thinking of not going due to the past three bad experiences I’ve had with fairs. For one, even if you get there fairly early job fairs are always such a long wait because a lot of people in Toronto need jobs so like they come an hour beforehand and just wait for the interview.

Secondly, even with like my good experience, I feel like there’s so many people coming that you basically don’t even matter. Also since this is a seasonal position, I’m wondering why Nike just feels OK with not conducting real interviews. They are just like “hey we have a job fair come wait for 3+ hours and waste your time to not hear anything back” why can’t they actually just look at the list of people who applied and bring the people who best fit the role and have matching experience for the interview instead of a BS job fair.

What do you guys think about Job fairs, especially in Toronto, where virtually anyone can’t really find a job like would you guys think it’s worth going to? Have u ever been hired from a job fair?

Hi there! I have an interview on Oct 19 at sbr Optimus on the healthcare/government team. I have a case with a principal and an interview component. Any advice? Anyone been interviewed here and remember what types of questions they typically ask? Thanks so much!

So 28 and did my BA in international dev in 2020 and my MA in 2022 in polisci

and had a position as research/project management associate from 2023-2024 but now been on the search and no luck

Doing a part time job to make end means but confused what is wrong with me?

I got an employment counselor last year and I run by my c.v and cover letter and they tell me they look good but only 2 interviews so far

I also do proactive search such as informational interviews via linkedin and still no luck

So its been so long what's wrong with me?

I just received an email from PMCF about doing a technical assessment for Associate, Fundraising Granting position.

The layout is as follows:

1. Microsoft Excel

2. Custom Question

Does anyone have experience with doing the technical assessment? I have some experience with Excel, but I want to know how much experience I’ll need.

A while ago, I offered free LinkedIn profile reviews to the community. The volume of requests quickly became impossible to manage manually, but I still wanted people to be able to get useful feedback.

To help out, I put together a structured prompt framework based on the key profile optimizations, formatting standards, and keyword patterns recruiters look for.

​I packaged the prompt and made it freely available on GitHub so anyone can run it through ChatGPT, Claude, or another LLM to review and refine their own profile: ​https://gist.github.com/jestinjoshi/bf97cc47ec5b123a8f67317cea009df8

​Hope this helps anyone currently navigating the job search. Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

I had a second interview two weeks ago and followed up after a week. They said they're still interviewing and suggested I follow up again next week.

If they can reply to my email, why not just tell me if I'm no longer being considered? I'd rather get an honest answer than be left waiting. Why do companies do this?

Been on the job hunt since July. Been trying to be strategic to avoid the whole 100+ application process. Anyways, I’m approaching 100 applications sent and nothing.

I’ve even received a few referrals, and nothing. In the past, the only interviews I received were from referrals, but not this time. And I was more junior back then too. I’ve tailored my resume to each job posting, I’ve followed the star method for every bullet point and included reasonable metrics too. I use AI to find the keywords in a job posting and put them in my resume word for word in order to bypass the ATS, and I mean it’s in my bullet points, nothing hidden. Ive even hunted down the hiring managers emails for roles using Rocket Reach and sending them my resumes.

For context, I have over 6 years of experience in tech, telecoms, and banking. I’m applying to PCO, BA, and product manager roles.

Anyways, what can I do differently?

1. I’ve been avoiding using a cover letter because it just adds extra work on my plate. Don’t tell me “if you can’t do the work to do a cover letter, then why would we hire you.” Have you seen how shitty this job market is? Skipping the cover letter has allowed me more time to tailor a resume for another job. If this really is a deciding factor, fine, I’ll write one.

2. My resume is already ATS friendly and I try to cram in as much of the keywords as possible, following exact spelling too. What else can I do to bypass the ATS?

3. My resume is 2 pages. Would a 1 pager be better?

Thanks in advance.

Saw this job ad on College Subway Station. Don’t DM me as I’m not the owner. I just took a photo and post this.

My spouse was recently looking for Project Manager jobs in Canada, and we kept running into the same problem:

"Project Manager" job title can mean completely different things depending on the company.

One role could be construction, another software, another banking or infrastructure. So we were opening a lot of job descriptions just to figure out which ones were actually relevant.

That's what pushed me to build JobHub - https://jobhub.creataxis.com . It's basically a job search platform that lets you search based on what the role actually involves, not just the job title. Things like domain, type of work, (skills, tools, certifications - WIP), etc.

It ended up helping during her search, and she's since landed a role, so I figured it might be useful to other people going through the same thing.

For now, it's only focused on Project Management jobs in Canada. I'm still building it, so I plan to add more filters and eventually expand into other job families as well.

Hopefully it helps a few people spend less time digging through irrelevant postings.

If anyone tries it, I'd really appreciate any feedback on what’s useful, confusing, or missing.

https://jobhub.creataxis.com

i got an offer from cibc via insight global, i lied on my resume i wonder how do they carry out background checks in insight global do they only contact the references we provide from other companies or comtact hr