Ask the Employment Specialist: Non-verbal communication

Dear Joanna, I recently had an interview for a position as an Architectural Technician for which I am absolutely qualified! I prepared diligently for this perfect job opportunity with the employment counsellor, job developer and friends. I practiced my presentation to death. I attended the interview skills workshop to reinforce my performance, and to make [...]

Ask the Employment Specialist: Difficult Interview Questions – Illegal Questions

Dear Joanna, I’m in shock. I just came back from an interview for a position as a customer service/order desk clerk position. The interviewer asked me if I had any children, how old they were and if I will be having any more children. I was tongue-tied and offended. I answered him with a “no”. [...]

Ask the Employment Specialist: Answering Difficult Interview Questions –Salary Expectations

Dear Joanna, I blew it big time. I was at an interview yesterday for an administrative assistant position with a law firm. The human resources manager asked me what my salary expectations were for this exciting full-time position. Needless to say, the amount was not communicated in the job posting much to my sorrow. I [...]

Ask the Employment Specialist: Answering difficult interview questions — discussing weaknesses

Dear Joanna, I am an inventory manager with over 10 years experience in purchasing and inventory management in a manufacturing company. I am happy to report that I am getting lots of interviews for relevant positions, but have always been stumped on the question from the hiring Human Resources staff which requires me to identify [...]

Ask the Employment Specialist: Explaining bad job endings to interviewers

We are excited to introduce a brand new feature: Joanna Samuels, our highly experienced Workforce Specialist Team Lead will be collecting questions from job searchers and putting them to our Employment Specialists to give you the best answers possible. Here’s our first installation in Ask an Employment Specialist. We hope you find it useful and [...]

Sound and feel confident at a Job Interview, Part TWO: tell a few good stories

Facing an employer in a job interview is often described as the most stressful and intense moment in the process of finding work. When asked what they fear most about interviews, job searchers often tell me that they worry that they may get so overwhelmed by anxiety that they might forget what they wanted to [...]

Sound and feel confident at a Job Interview, Part ONE: introduce yourself

Finally, the day has come: after sending (what seem like) thousands of carefully adapted resumes and specifically targeted cover letters, you received a call inviting you to an interview. Despite your heart beating so loudly that you worry the employer might hear it on the phone, you manage to keep your cool and sound professional [...]

Job hunting portfolios

What exactly is a portfolio and why should I have one? When we think of portfolios and who uses them, we think of people in fine arts, designers, performing arts, models, photographers and education professions. However, all types of job-seekers can make use of a portfolio.  When a client asks me whether I think they [...]