Welcome. I don't claim to know what it was exactly that might've led you to this blog - curiosity, interest or random chance - but by all means, make yourself at home. Kick off your shoes; relax.
My name is John Currie, and I'm a Motion-Graphics Producer living in downtown Toronto, Ontario (Canada). This will be the first of no doubt many blog posts I'll be making about the task I've set for myself... which is, to stalk (and hopefully subdue) the extraordinarily tight job market in Toronto.
See, up 'til now I've played by the rules, browsing opportunities online and dispatching countless CVs and cover letters via email - replete with links to online media and profiles on business networking sites - and have precious little to show for it. The phrase I've heard most often in the small handful of replies I've received is that (apparently) I am "over-qualified" for the positions on offer. The vast majority of job applications I've made in the last year, however, have gone without any sort of response whatsoever.
I've tried Media Job Search Canada, the Service Canada website, Craigslist and searches on Google. I've tried finding work through agencies. I've followed leads given to me via word-of-mouth. Make no mistake, it's a tight job market out there. That being said, there are jobs out there. There are opportunities. It's just that it's become nigh on impossible to get my foot in the door of the places that do have jobs on offer.
Twenty years ago I could pick up a newspaper, scan it for a likely position, make an appointment via telephone and, after sitting down for a short meaningful chat with my prospective employers, secure the job. Easy as pie. But things have changed since then, and in all likelihood they'll change further still, long before I'm ready to make my final egress from the working world. The advent of voicemail, of email, of online job application pages, of 3rd-party job sites and 3rd-party HR consultants have resulted in what is now an utterly opaque and nebulous experience for the average job seeker. Like the skin of an onion, layer upon layer of technological and of administrative barriers separating the hopeful applicant from the human element - from being able to simply sit down with prospective employers to make a case for oneself. I've discovered that I have become a mere set of checkboxes to be measured against a corresponding set of checkboxes, and that, my friends, is a cold comfort indeed.
Yes, things have changed. But no, this blog is not intended as some Luddite screed railing against the inequities of today. I have chosen instead to be constructive, to work harder to achieve my goals, and rather than indulging myself by wallowing in self-pity, I believe I've found a way... a novel way, I think... to cut through all those insulating layers that stand between me and meaningful, gainful employment. In fact, I've been working towards the implementation of this new strategy all throughout the month of January.
What is this new strategy? Well, dear readers - as the "Zero Hour" approaches, all will be revealed. For now, let's just say that I'll be "Stalking the Job" (mind you, that's stalking in an adventurous way, not in some creepy manner). I'll look forward to keeping you updated on my job campaign and - maybe, just maybe - I'll see you around.
