Like most recent university graduates, Andrea Jara was feeling overwhelmed.
After completing her Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from York University this past April, Jara was now presented with the task of transferring the skills and credentials gained through her studies into some sort of full-time employment. A task that Jara, 23, said was like another full-time job in itself.
Jara said she spent long hours sending out job applications, even starting as she was about to complete her degree, but she wasn’t getting any calls back. She, like many others she knew, continued to work a part-time job outside of her area of study.
“It’s very tough for [recent grads] to get that foot in the door somewhere,” she said. “I’ve been noticing that when I was applying, when I was trying on my own, I knew I had to change something because clearly, the more I was applying, the more I wasn’t getting anything back, so I thought to myself, my delivery isn’t right and is not conveying the message I need to convey to employers or else I would be getting those call backs.”
By chance, Jara’s mother saw an advertisement for a job fair at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre while reading the Metro newspaper one morning, and handed her the clipping. When she attended the job fair, Jara stumbled upon a booth for the Next-Steps Employment Centres.
From there, she dropped off her resume and didn’t know what to expect.
Within one or two days, someone from the centre called her asking if she would like to meet with an employment advisor.
Approximately one week later, Jara went into her local Next-Steps Employment Centre, located at 3701 Chesswood Dr., where she was provided with the invaluable tools, skills and advice to help her find meaningful full-time employment.
The seven Next-Steps Employment Centres - located throughout the GTA - are fully funded by Employment Ontario and offer free services to people of all ages, who are seeking meaningful employment.
“We help people who are looking at re-integrating back into the workforce through employment,” said Wilf Flagler, Community Services Supervisor for the Next-Steps Employment Centre on Chesswood Dr.
In addition to providing one-on-one employment advising services for individuals seeking work, the Next-Steps Employment Centre also offers a number of workshops in resume writing and interview skills among other things, in order to help prospective employees streamline their applications to be more in tune with what employers are looking for.
Jara took advantage of these services, attending workshops and receiving individualized advice from the professionals at the centre. “Obviously, as most grads, and someone in my position, we don’t necessarily have a lot of professional experience apart from our schooling and the odd part-time job, so it’s hard to showcase the skills that we’ve gained throughout our time at school as well as through our part-time work,”
Jara said. “I have very limited experience, but [the advisor] told me that the first thing that we would have to do is just re-format my resume.”
Jara said that her initial resume was a combination of chronological and functional style. She said she didn’t even know the differences in resume styles before she went into Next-Steps, but that the advisor informed her that different industries look for different types of resumes, and worked with her to help her craft the specific types of resume that would likely be the most successful for the specific jobs she would be applying for.
After that, Jara said, things happened pretty quickly for her. First, she received a full-time job offer from an education company, and after working there for two months, she was able to land a job as the lead receptionist for the finance department at Adidas head office.“It’ll be an entry level position and I didn’t expect any less,” Jara said about her new job. “That’s what I wanted because, of course, I don’t have 10 to 15 years experience under my belt like most professionals do.”
Jara said she hopes to eventually use the experience she gains to move into a career in human resources and she is already enrolled in a post-grad diploma program in human resources starting this fall, which she will attend while working full time.
According to Flagler, the Next-Steps Employment Centre does not just offer services for young people, or for university graduates, but it offers services for all people seeking all types of employment.
Currently the centre helps employers take advantage of Ontario government incentives to hire both youth and older workers, and is also working with employers on youth apprenticeship initiatives.
Jara said she is extremely thankful for the help that she received from the Next-Steps Employment Centre in starting her career. “I would really stress the fact to any other person and I’ve talked very highly of the Next-Steps Employment centre to my friends,” she said. “Anything you do in life should be a two-way street, and if you are going to put an effort into something, then the tools are all there for you, you have the resources available, you don’t have to pay a penny, but it’s only if you have that willingness to drive yourself and to push yourself.”