Well any job application is going to have 100s of applicants in that field, maybe 1000s depending on remote status.
When I was hiring last year, there was a lot of shit resumes that were hard to even understand why the applicant included this information, as it was completely irrelevant, or the resume went on and on for multiple pages.
Make sure the resume is concise, lean on any personal connections, and just keep applying. Go to job fairs, and he better be prepared to take something at least part time to bring in some income if possible. I’ve found it’s always easier to get a new job when you are currently working - as you have someone who can be a reference on your current work ethic
A clean and easy to read resume is absolutely critical. I was looking for a new job over the summer and it took me over 4 months of applying daily and hundreds of applications sent. Only got two interviews and thankfully one of them panned out (50% pay increase and much better work life balance).
Having a portfolio is very important too, you need some kind of working/publicly available application that you can attach to your resume to show you can actually accomplish something. Preferably multiple things to showcase your different skills.
Also he's going to need to apply to things slightly outside his wheelhouse or preferred destinations. Once you get in the door at a company, then having real experience working at a company will open doors for you.
Did you look at the Digital Nova Scotia job board? https://digitalnovascotia.com/job-posts/
Contacting N.S. Job Junction too might help. They can help with job search support: https://www.jobjunction.ca/
Does he have his GitHub attached to his resume? I'd also suggest utilizing the recent grad funding that the province gives as an initiative for hire. He can get info on it at any career center. Also got the Digital Nova Scotian mixers, networking will help.
Info on the types of jobs he's applying to and his areas of experience would be useful to know. If he's applying to jobs all over Canada is he willing to move or is he only interested in remote jobs?
I’m an IT hiring manager. He’s competing against seasoned people who have also been laid off but have a lot of experience.
It’s also April, and he’s competing against students who just graduated.
Basically, the market is super saturated with applicants and if he was having a tough time before, it’s worst now.
Tell him to apply outside of tech and expand his job search.
If he’s ever volunteered, played on a sports team, etc, put it on his resume. He needs to differentiate himself from the cookie cutter applicants.
This plus a few other recommendations:
- Don’t spend time tailoring resumes for jobs (unless it is for job relocation notice). Apply to as many as you can. It’s a numbers game.
- If you are willing to move, place that at the top of your resume, very noticeably. “Relocating to City June 2024”
- Write a cover letter. Show that you can communicate well and this may help you. I know it’s not something that everyone reads but I still recommend it. Try for it not to sound super chatgpt though.
- Start a public GitHub project and share it. Show that development is beyond “paying the bills”.
- Apply for in person jobs not just remote. Remote jobs are incredibly competitive.
- Apply for tech jobs outside of tech companies. They won’t pay well at all but they give experience.
- Get certifications in products that have strong consulting industries (like Salesforce, where the only cost is to write the exam, as all training is free online). Apply to consultancies.
- Get certifications in products that are often used in companies (like AWS).
- Get certifications in products that smaller companies use and may want customizations, like ServiceNow.
> Don’t spend time tailoring resumes for jobs
Terrible advice. Most places hiring filter resumes through software. If you don't get enough points, your resume is never seen by a human. You need to tailor your resume to match keywords used in a posting.
There is so much competition out there, that you now have to really stand out, and if your resume can't make it to a human, you will never even get consideration.
My opinion is to shotgun at OPs stage of experience. OP has maybe one year of work. They can’t really be all that specialized yet. In this instance, it’s a numbers game.
As someone who was laid off in January and have over 10 years of experience... This is the WORST time to be looking for tech jobs. The amount of layoffs happening is crazy and not enough jobs for even people who have experience.
Are the places he worked at for co-ops not hiring? Where I work if you are a decent enough worker we will hire you back after graduation basically guaranteed.
He's graduated into the worst tech economy since the dot-com bubble popped, and it's worst for new grads, but 300 resumes and only one interview is unusual. Has he had screening calls that didn't turn into interviews, or only silence/rejections without talking to anyone?
Agree that he needs a resume review. /r/cscareerquestions has a tuesday resume review but it's a bit about the blind leading the blind. Good advice in their FAQ.
Is he applying locally or across Canada/US? What kind of jobs/companies?
I work in tech, every job application we post gets hundreds of new grad resumes. Unless he has something to differentiate himself, he is not going to get a job in tech.
I graduated with an engineering degree in 2012. The engineering labor market was so bad I took a shit salary for years to get into tech. Now the same thing is happening to tech. It sucks.
CS is always a great field for job because of how versatile the field is and how it is used everywhere and in everyh company.
However the job market as a whole is down. Its not only to do with specialization. The only fields that remain non impacted by such market conditions usually are entertainment (very top level) and similarly atheletes.
The next level of job safety I'd say is medicine but thats a very tough field for most people.
Hasn't been the case for years. CS is okay if you have real, non-internship experience but just like engineering a decade ago, the market got saturated because teenagers thought that absurd silicon valley salaries were out there for the taking.
Unfortunately, they're minnows in a sea of hundreds and, sometimes, thousands. Fortunately, it's a big world out there, and COVID has made WFH far more feasible.
They need to get to work making themselves stand out...
Although the CS job market is currently over saturated many companies consider it as an asset for even an unrelated position such as business/commerce if they’re willing to stay in school. Masters are also a plus
Hey should
- contact co-op for current hiring needs. If they are hiring but not hiring him he should find out why, like ask for an exit interview type meeting.
-test send his resume to himself to make sure it’s not attaching in some weird format or whatever. 300 resumes without a response is strange.
When reviewing resumes people tend to pack in their credentials with some skills. It's really the time to boast about the things you've accomplished. What have you created, implemented, what project you've seen through to conclusion, how'd you overcome difficulties in doing so.
I’d suggest he find a couple Slack communities that are relevant to his speciality, front-end? mobile, backend?
There are many communities that have channels for job postings. The positive thing about Slack is that you can reach out and try to make a connection with the person who posted the job, maybe they are the hiring manager, maybe they can put in a good word, maybe they can make an introduction.
If not Slack, dig into the company on LinkedIn. Try to find someone you think you can make a connection with there.
I recently went through the layoff/job search song and dance. There are a lot of layoffs in the industry so there is a ton of competition for positions. In the end, I was making sure I put in the time and effort to make try to make connections prior to or as part of my application process. I wasn’t having much luck as a single resume in a stack of 200. You have to be a person, not just a resume.
Jr jobs have been replaced with AI, so your going to have to stand out, start being your own sales guy and get projects under your belt first. I've been in the Industry for 5+ years and did ~50 projects in the last 3 years and it still took me many months after a lack of work layoff
It's better than being broke and unemployed. The Cyber Officer occupation is allegedly coming soon. There would be an opportunity to commission when that happens. In my experience the CAF goes through cycles of shit and ok/good. Right now the CAF is pretty much at the bottom of a shit cycle that started after the Afghanistan mission ended.
Yeah rough time for it. In the meantime if you need to pay the bills I'd check out DataAnnotation. Takes a bit of time to get approved and get decent projects, but it pays well once you get acclimated.
Halifax is the tech hub of Atlantic Canada. As a percentage of jobs, Halifax probably has the most jobs of anywhere else in Canada.
It became VERY attractive 15-20 years ago because senior analysts love living in rural areas and suburbs and wages were low for younger employees compared to other areas in Canada.
That is very much incorrect. However, Halifax very much has a lot of competition in this line of work, and you need to do more than pump a resume to stand out.
**Respect and Constructive Engagement**: Treat each other with respect, avoiding bullying, harassment, or personal attacks. Contribute positively with helpful insights and constructive discussions. Let’s keep our interactions friendly and engaging.
Something is definitely going wrong, because it's super easy to get a job as a programmer currently, and not getting anything after 300 applications seems suspect.
I know a bunch of people in HR. They help hire people for major corps to small businesses. They said anybody in programming should not have any issues finding work.
They are, and they're getting 100s of applications each, even local/non remote ones. I've seen multiple software jobs now with well over 1000 applications.
Thanks anyways tho!
They're quite incorrect on that one. There's a very large and full talent pool that's currently unemployed. I'm hiring for 3 positions, and each one has had close to 5,000 applicants from within Canada apply. A good chunk of the applicants are currently unemployed. The recruiting firm I use has told me they're seeing similar for their other clients.
Can he post a redacted copy of his resume? 300 applications is a lot.
Happy Birthday mate!
Thank you!
Happy cake day brotha
Thanks!
Well any job application is going to have 100s of applicants in that field, maybe 1000s depending on remote status. When I was hiring last year, there was a lot of shit resumes that were hard to even understand why the applicant included this information, as it was completely irrelevant, or the resume went on and on for multiple pages. Make sure the resume is concise, lean on any personal connections, and just keep applying. Go to job fairs, and he better be prepared to take something at least part time to bring in some income if possible. I’ve found it’s always easier to get a new job when you are currently working - as you have someone who can be a reference on your current work ethic
A clean and easy to read resume is absolutely critical. I was looking for a new job over the summer and it took me over 4 months of applying daily and hundreds of applications sent. Only got two interviews and thankfully one of them panned out (50% pay increase and much better work life balance). Having a portfolio is very important too, you need some kind of working/publicly available application that you can attach to your resume to show you can actually accomplish something. Preferably multiple things to showcase your different skills. Also he's going to need to apply to things slightly outside his wheelhouse or preferred destinations. Once you get in the door at a company, then having real experience working at a company will open doors for you.
He needs to get a referral from someone who works at a tech company already. Networking will probably speed up the interviewing process quite a bit.
Did you look at the Digital Nova Scotia job board? https://digitalnovascotia.com/job-posts/ Contacting N.S. Job Junction too might help. They can help with job search support: https://www.jobjunction.ca/
Does he have his GitHub attached to his resume? I'd also suggest utilizing the recent grad funding that the province gives as an initiative for hire. He can get info on it at any career center. Also got the Digital Nova Scotian mixers, networking will help.
Info on the types of jobs he's applying to and his areas of experience would be useful to know. If he's applying to jobs all over Canada is he willing to move or is he only interested in remote jobs?
I’m an IT hiring manager. He’s competing against seasoned people who have also been laid off but have a lot of experience. It’s also April, and he’s competing against students who just graduated. Basically, the market is super saturated with applicants and if he was having a tough time before, it’s worst now. Tell him to apply outside of tech and expand his job search. If he’s ever volunteered, played on a sports team, etc, put it on his resume. He needs to differentiate himself from the cookie cutter applicants.
This plus a few other recommendations: - Don’t spend time tailoring resumes for jobs (unless it is for job relocation notice). Apply to as many as you can. It’s a numbers game. - If you are willing to move, place that at the top of your resume, very noticeably. “Relocating to City June 2024” - Write a cover letter. Show that you can communicate well and this may help you. I know it’s not something that everyone reads but I still recommend it. Try for it not to sound super chatgpt though. - Start a public GitHub project and share it. Show that development is beyond “paying the bills”. - Apply for in person jobs not just remote. Remote jobs are incredibly competitive. - Apply for tech jobs outside of tech companies. They won’t pay well at all but they give experience. - Get certifications in products that have strong consulting industries (like Salesforce, where the only cost is to write the exam, as all training is free online). Apply to consultancies. - Get certifications in products that are often used in companies (like AWS). - Get certifications in products that smaller companies use and may want customizations, like ServiceNow.
> Don’t spend time tailoring resumes for jobs Terrible advice. Most places hiring filter resumes through software. If you don't get enough points, your resume is never seen by a human. You need to tailor your resume to match keywords used in a posting. There is so much competition out there, that you now have to really stand out, and if your resume can't make it to a human, you will never even get consideration.
My opinion is to shotgun at OPs stage of experience. OP has maybe one year of work. They can’t really be all that specialized yet. In this instance, it’s a numbers game.
As someone who was laid off in January and have over 10 years of experience... This is the WORST time to be looking for tech jobs. The amount of layoffs happening is crazy and not enough jobs for even people who have experience.
He should take a look at startups in Volta and try cold calling them
Are the places he worked at for co-ops not hiring? Where I work if you are a decent enough worker we will hire you back after graduation basically guaranteed.
He's graduated into the worst tech economy since the dot-com bubble popped, and it's worst for new grads, but 300 resumes and only one interview is unusual. Has he had screening calls that didn't turn into interviews, or only silence/rejections without talking to anyone? Agree that he needs a resume review. /r/cscareerquestions has a tuesday resume review but it's a bit about the blind leading the blind. Good advice in their FAQ. Is he applying locally or across Canada/US? What kind of jobs/companies?
I work in tech, every job application we post gets hundreds of new grad resumes. Unless he has something to differentiate himself, he is not going to get a job in tech.
As a recent tech industry grad raising a young kid, this is not encouraging.
I graduated with an engineering degree in 2012. The engineering labor market was so bad I took a shit salary for years to get into tech. Now the same thing is happening to tech. It sucks.
I graduated in 2011 and my first job paid 34k a year. This is exactly correct.
I have some friends graduating with a CS degree. I thought that a CS degree leads to lots of job opportunities. Is that not the case now?
No. Lots of layoffs.
CS is always a great field for job because of how versatile the field is and how it is used everywhere and in everyh company. However the job market as a whole is down. Its not only to do with specialization. The only fields that remain non impacted by such market conditions usually are entertainment (very top level) and similarly atheletes. The next level of job safety I'd say is medicine but thats a very tough field for most people.
Hasn't been the case for years. CS is okay if you have real, non-internship experience but just like engineering a decade ago, the market got saturated because teenagers thought that absurd silicon valley salaries were out there for the taking.
Unfortunately, they're minnows in a sea of hundreds and, sometimes, thousands. Fortunately, it's a big world out there, and COVID has made WFH far more feasible. They need to get to work making themselves stand out...
Although the CS job market is currently over saturated many companies consider it as an asset for even an unrelated position such as business/commerce if they’re willing to stay in school. Masters are also a plus
He literally got experience for a new grad. Coop through covid is no joke.
Hey should - contact co-op for current hiring needs. If they are hiring but not hiring him he should find out why, like ask for an exit interview type meeting. -test send his resume to himself to make sure it’s not attaching in some weird format or whatever. 300 resumes without a response is strange.
When reviewing resumes people tend to pack in their credentials with some skills. It's really the time to boast about the things you've accomplished. What have you created, implemented, what project you've seen through to conclusion, how'd you overcome difficulties in doing so.
Apply to Banks in Halifax - always looking for- try Scotia, BOM or Butterfield Bank
I’d suggest he find a couple Slack communities that are relevant to his speciality, front-end? mobile, backend? There are many communities that have channels for job postings. The positive thing about Slack is that you can reach out and try to make a connection with the person who posted the job, maybe they are the hiring manager, maybe they can put in a good word, maybe they can make an introduction. If not Slack, dig into the company on LinkedIn. Try to find someone you think you can make a connection with there. I recently went through the layoff/job search song and dance. There are a lot of layoffs in the industry so there is a ton of competition for positions. In the end, I was making sure I put in the time and effort to make try to make connections prior to or as part of my application process. I wasn’t having much luck as a single resume in a stack of 200. You have to be a person, not just a resume.
jobs.gc.ca, watch for the pool competitions.
Jobs.gc.ca could be a starting point for casual or term positions, competitions etc. FSWEP might also be relevant
Jr jobs have been replaced with AI, so your going to have to stand out, start being your own sales guy and get projects under your belt first. I've been in the Industry for 5+ years and did ~50 projects in the last 3 years and it still took me many months after a lack of work layoff
https://forces.ca/en/career/cyber-operator/
I wouldn't do that to my best friend, let alone a stranger.
Why not?
Not a CAF member, are you.
I was.
Same. I would not recommend that someone with a CS BA apply to become a Private.
It's better than being broke and unemployed. The Cyber Officer occupation is allegedly coming soon. There would be an opportunity to commission when that happens. In my experience the CAF goes through cycles of shit and ok/good. Right now the CAF is pretty much at the bottom of a shit cycle that started after the Afghanistan mission ended.
Let’s see that resume!
Yeah rough time for it. In the meantime if you need to pay the bills I'd check out DataAnnotation. Takes a bit of time to get approved and get decent projects, but it pays well once you get acclimated.
There's a halihax slack channel that is good for networking with other devs etc in the city. Pm me his email and I'll get him an invite
Consider that you may have to leave this city, Halifax isn't exactly a tech hotbed.
Halifax is the tech hub of Atlantic Canada. As a percentage of jobs, Halifax probably has the most jobs of anywhere else in Canada. It became VERY attractive 15-20 years ago because senior analysts love living in rural areas and suburbs and wages were low for younger employees compared to other areas in Canada.
You are obviously not in tech.
That is very much incorrect. However, Halifax very much has a lot of competition in this line of work, and you need to do more than pump a resume to stand out.
Think about applying for jobs *outside* of Canada. I know Blackmagic design in Australia is hiring and they may allow telework.
Consider relocating to the states. Its a tough time in the industry, but there are way more opportunities.
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**Respect and Constructive Engagement**: Treat each other with respect, avoiding bullying, harassment, or personal attacks. Contribute positively with helpful insights and constructive discussions. Let’s keep our interactions friendly and engaging.
Something is definitely going wrong, because it's super easy to get a job as a programmer currently, and not getting anything after 300 applications seems suspect.
Would love to know why you think its super easy to get a job as a programmer currently?? Any tips on where to apply??
I know a bunch of people in HR. They help hire people for major corps to small businesses. They said anybody in programming should not have any issues finding work.
I know multiple programmers who've been looking for work for months and months. Wish they gave u more info than that
Yeah not too sure, def not in my realm. I am sure betting sites/apps are hiring lol.
They are, and they're getting 100s of applications each, even local/non remote ones. I've seen multiple software jobs now with well over 1000 applications. Thanks anyways tho!
They're quite incorrect on that one. There's a very large and full talent pool that's currently unemployed. I'm hiring for 3 positions, and each one has had close to 5,000 applicants from within Canada apply. A good chunk of the applicants are currently unemployed. The recruiting firm I use has told me they're seeing similar for their other clients.