The Positive Pathfinder

At work we have been organizing a series of educational meet-ups. All 6 of us pitch in with these meet-ups. My task was to arrange speakers. I wondered how I was going to bring in speakers. One day in 2016, I was looking at my LinkedIn feed and found Rakesh Kana’s story of how he and his wife (both newcomers to Canada) were having a difficult time finding a job.  They were using all the traditional methods that you can think of to find a job, but to no avail.  They decided to take a novel approach to their job search by wearing sandwich boards and handing out their resumes to passersby while standing in front of Union Station in Toronto.  They were successful in landing jobs. Rakesh wrote a LinkedIn post about his and his wife’s job search experiences.  You can read their post here . I was inspired by Rakesh’s post and I wrote a post that referenced them.    Flash forward a couple of weeks ago. I messaged Rakesh on LinkedIn to see if he would be inte

I “lost” my corporate HR job in 2013. But since that time I “found” myself. I found that I am an open and caring person. Recently I received a LinkedIn invitation from someone I did not know from another country. I noticed that we had a connection in common. Another commonality was that we are both Human Resources professionals. I pressed “accept” and accepted the invitation. We messaged each other for awhile on LinkedIn. We talked about some stuff that you might talk about at a live networking event. He mentioned that he was coming to Canada. And moving to Mississauga. That presented a barrier to me in terms of setting up a coffee meet-up. I live in Toronto and don’t like to drive on the highway to go to Mississauga. He told me where he was staying. I looked at the map (I’m old school sometimes!) and thought if he can get himself to Mississauga Square One, I could take a bus from the Islington subway station that would take m

The word “spice” seems to be cropping up all around me lately. My colleague Joe Kwon wrote a post called “ Spice Up Your Value .” Joe’s title is very clever. Spice used to be used as a currency. Currently there is discussion about robots taking over jobs. And so, Joe tied the two concepts together of how you can up your value (or currency) with respect to AI and robots taking over jobs. Joe started a trend, because I started to think about how “spice” applies to me. Last week my manager mentioned how a slight change in routine can be good for your brain. I admit that I have definitely fallen into a routine. In the morning, I park my car at the Warden subway station and take the subway to work. Once I arrive at Wilson subway station, I catch a bus. The bus drops me off steps away from the office. I’m noticing that I when I arrive at the Warden subway station, I’ve been parking in the exact same parking spot for the last couple of months. I’ve also been notic

We are preparing a free workshop for older job seekers next month. A social media expert will come and speak about LinkedIn. We will show a video that we hope will resonate with our workshop participants.  A couple of weeks ago my manager mentioned that she had some documentaries on DVD’s that we could show at a workshop.    I gave myself a homework assignment and asked to see those DVD’s. The video that I really like is called “Employment Matters.” “Employment Matters” is a 2015 documentary by Brandy Yanchyk, who is a Canadian filmmaker. You can watch this 45-minute documentary for free on the CBC web site . This documentary tells the stories of 6 young adults with intellectual disabilities who find their niche in the working world.   In the first few minutes, I was entirely hooked on this documentary. I was inspired by the young adults’ joie de vivre. They enjoyed their work and it gave them a sense of purpose. One of the subjects said that whe

I watched a movie on video yesterday called “Hello, My Name Is Doris” with Sally Field.  I would describe this movie as a dramedy where instead of boy meets girl and boy falls in love with girl, the movie turns things around where girl (Sally Field) meets boy (Max Greenfield) and girl falls in love with boy.  I liked this movie!  You can read a movie review from Variety  here .   One of the elements in the movie was Facebook where girl attempts to connect with boy on a personal level by going on Facebook and finding out about his interests.  The girl finds out that one of his interests is a particular electronica band.  By happenstance, the band would be playing at a local club, and she goes to the club in hopes of meeting the boy.  This reminds me about networking.  During face-to-face networking we try to find common ground.  We ask questions to find out what a person does, where they work or went to school.   We show interest in the other person by asking questions.  Mayb

I confess:  I am a Job Seeker. A certain perception comes to mind when you tell someone that you’re a “Job Seeker in Transition.” I’m not exactly sure what that perception is (because no one has really told me), but I’m here to tell you about the positive qualities of a Job Seeker. We are resourceful .  We feel like a number in an Applicant Tracking System, one of many candidates.  And so, we do things to get an employer’s attention like calling, sending an e-mail or even writing a post on LinkedIn! We are empathetic.   We know what it’s like to be a job seeker, so if you hire us as a Recruiter, we will be kind to candidates and treat them the way that we would like to be treated.  After all the candidate with whom we are tweeting or talking to can be a potential star employee or happy customer with the company. We are resilient .  At some point in the process, our job search feels unproductive.  I think back to one of my mentors who said that there will always

I am a Job Seeker in Transition and a positive person by nature.  I was having a conversation over lunch the other day with my new friend.  It’s exhilarating to engage in  a free-wheeling conversation where you are thinking on the spot and bouncing ideas off each other.   When you engage in conversation you create new ideas and are creative in the process.  I recommend reading Sherry Turkle’s book “Reclaiming Conversation…The Power of Talk in a Digital Age” for a further conversation about conversations. We talked about a lot of things.   For example, when was the last time you told something positive to someone?  In a corporate context, companies may wish to establish a recognition culture where employees and managers get to recognize each other daily for doing things that exemplify company core values.  It would be incredibly motivating for an employee to receive recognition and from a company standpoint  recognition drives up employee engagement.    The recognit

I am a Job Seeker in Transition.  I was at a professional networking workshop recently where there were 12-14 of us in attendance.  The workshop was very interactive and it included a lecture and discussion format. It was during a discussion when one of the attendees disclosed that he had had a stroke.  The disclosure made perfect sense for what was being discussed. I thought to myself that that was quite a startling admission to make, because we all didn’t know each other in the room.  I thought this is an open person.  I am an open person, and I like to get to know people who are open. Through a few conversations, I’ve gotten to know this person just a little bit.  I suppose you can say we’re new friends.    Picture this.  You go to the doctor and the doctor says that you have some condition or other.  You rush home to find out all you can about the condition that the doctor says you have.  It’s the same thing when I learned that my new friend had a str

I was reading an article by Warren Berger recently called  “Find Your Passion With These 8 Thought-Provoking Questions.” One of these questions is finding your sentence. How would you describe what you love to do and to encapsulate this in a sentence? I came up with my sentence.  I was surprised with what I came up with.  “I love connecting with people (relationship management), connecting people with information (customer service) and mobilizing people (team building).” Let me explain each element of my sentence. 1.        Connecting with people . I look for all kinds of touch points to connect with people. For example, I’ll forward an article that may be of interest to them; wish people a “Happy Birthday” and congratulate them on a workplace milestone. When someone sends me an e-mail, this is an opportunity to engage and I return all my e-mails quickly. I love having meaningful face-to-face conversations with people. I like to talk more than surface stuff

In a couple of weeks I get the opportunity to speak to a group of job seekers about how to conduct a job search. I would love to say certain things to those job seekers if I had the chance. First I empathize with your journey. Just recently I was looking for a job for over a year. I’ve been there, done that, and know how you feel. Know thyself . Everyone has their unique talents, strengths and passions. You need to discover what they are, so you can position yourself to employers and with everyone in your network. There is a job especially for you out there that fits you. Take some time to reflect and discover what your passions, strengths and talents are. You’ll feel happier in a job that you feel passionate about. Support Network . We were informed that we didn’t get the job. We might say to ourselves that the job wasn’t the right fit. That deflects some of the disappointment but not all of it. It may help to think of some encouragement or inspiration tha

In a previous post “ Always On My Mind ” I mentioned to job seekers to “stay hopeful and positive.” I would like to expand on how exactly job seekers (or anyone else for that matter) can “stay positive.” First I’m reminded of a  FISH! Philosophy  tenet of “Choose Your Attitude.” We can choose to have a positive attitude in a number of ways. Be nice to yourself   We can’t always feel positive (or up or cheery) all of the time. Sometimes we feel down.  I suggest that we accept that we feel down at this moment and that this feeling won’t last forever. We can think to ourselves that things will feel brighter tomorrow. Give yourself permission to feel down at this moment and take comfort that tomorrow is another day.  We can do some basic things to take care of ourselves: get enough rest, drink lots of water, eat healthy, get some exercise, etc. Other than these things, we can participate in activities that make us happy. For me, it’s spending time with family

Like you I was a job searcher up until three weeks ago. I have a lot of empathy for the situation you find yourself in. It’s important to acknowledge your disappointment and other feelings you may be feeling. But after that it’s time to try to move on, even a little bit.   You may not like (or possibly hear) the suggestions that I make about possible jobs to look into. But maybe you can file my suggestions away and look at it again when you’re ready to explore some new possibilities?   I know it may be hard to believe, but there are people who want to help you. In Ontario there are government-funded agencies that will help you in your job search. Ask for informational interviews. Tap into your LinkedIn network for advice and support.  If we are connected, I would love to help, if only to provide suggestions. Try to find some inspiration to think a little more positively.  For me, I find inspiration in Pink’s song “Try”, particularly

I had the opportunity to present to a group of job seekers. I wasn’t sure how they wanted to be addressed, but we landed on “mature workers.” Personally I like to treat people as they are and not group anyone in a particular generational category. We all have particular strengths.   Your strengths are best suited for some situations and my strengths are best suited to other situations.  We complement each other.  When you are a job seeker, we tend to “know” what our strengths are. But for me, I was feeling stuck. I was applying to human resources jobs (what I know best) and not getting the intended results. I need to disrupt myself. I learned recently about doing a skills inventory where you reflect and write down the transferable skills that you have. I think this can go further. Let’s call this an  Inventory of You . The categories are fluid, but here are some to start off with. Skills  – What are the skills that you have a

Sometimes we are our own worst critic. I was having an online conversation with my friend Peter G. Goral on my post “ Taking Stock. ” I had an opportunity recently to facilitate a workshop with job seekers, and in describing how I thought that I did with that presentation, I said it was “pretty well-received.” If you’re like me, we sometimes use the qualifier “pretty” a little too much.     I was prepared for the workshop. I rehearsed beforehand. After the workshop was over, I felt that I was able to think on my feet and respond to questions and comments. I received good ratings from the participants. And yet, I used the qualifier “pretty” to describe how I did. Partly I think that I don’t want to appear arrogant, a “Mr. Know-it-All.” To counter that, I know there are areas that I can improve when conducting a presentation. For example, I don’t know how to work a laptop. Just to let you know, I received some help with that during the presentation, but I

My friend Peter Goral introduced me to the following quote when he commented on my LinkedIn post “ Do-Over .” "No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again" For one reason or another, we may feel down, emotionally under siege or overwhelmed from our critical self-talk, but we can always stop and pivot and shift our perspective or mindset. I’m not a fan of winter. I don’t like getting up in the morning when it’s cold and dark and dreary. Sometimes there’s snow on the ground that is just waiting to be shovelled. One morning I received a surprise. I was dragging the recycling bin to the curb when I slipped on a piece of ice on the road. I could feel myself falling. Although my hip hit the ground, I rolled over to break my fall. I burst out laughing. Not only did I escape from hurting myself, but I received a sense of delight from rolling around on the ground! In that moment in time, winter was not so humourless and dreary, and I had a reason to la

Yesterday I did something that was out of the ordinary for me.   I signed up for an 8 week improv class with the  Bad Dog Theatre Company . The idea for attending such a class was suggested to me when I attended  DisruptHRToronto  (a networking event) where I heard a speaker named Lori Pearlstein on December 1, 2016. Ms. Pearlstein owns a company called  Playworks .  Ms. Pearlstein’s company provides improv classes to corporate clients and helps people to improve their public speaking, team building and brainstorming skills. I thought to myself that improv is something that I would like to try. As is usual with me, I filed the suggestion away in my head perhaps to re-visit in the future. I was talking to a friend of mine and we were talking about food preferences. He noted that I could be more adventurous when it came to food. Point well-taken.    I wrote a LinkedIn post called “ Ham .” In this post I talk about my early foray in the world of musical