Career Focus
Get Cracking with Your Career
Three times in the last three months I overhead people saying:
“It’s the best site!”
“The best part of going to college was learning about it.”
“They won some award. I think it was for innovation or something like that”.
With these verbal testimonials, my curiosity grabbed hold and by the time I heard the third mention, I finally asked “What site are you talking about”. The answer is: www.talentegg.ca
The site is called “an award-winning job board and online career resource that connects employers with top students and recent graduate talent” but it can be viewed by anyone who is job searching or career planning. The site is bursting with excellent articles, career guides, and job search tips and it is easy to see why it is called “Number One in Canada”.
For job seekers, it is a resource with a job board and online career information and for employers, it is a method of broadcasting recruitment messages and positioning employer brands.
TalentEgg is a leader in online campus recruitment in Canada and in 2014 “more than 3 million students and recent graduates used TalentEgg during their job hunt”. It has won numerous awards including being named “National Best Business” along with “Canada’s Best Expanding Business” by the Canadian Youth Business Foundation. The verbal testimonials I overhead about winning for innovation is true, as TalentEgg was recognized by CACEE as the winner of the “Outstanding Innovation” award in 2013 and “Excellence in Student Innovation” award in 2012.
One of the many resources that sets it apart from other sites, are TalentEgg’s Career Guides. For example, it offers an excellent Diversity Career Guide. Job seekers of all occupations need to know that the different factors of ethnicity, gender, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, education and religion, will not be a barrier to career success, so this Career Guide can be a useful way of gaining knowledge about local policies and procedures regarding diversity.
Learning about workplace diversity before going to a job interview should be part of every job seeker’s employment preparation plan, and the articles on TalentEgg offer a helpful starting point to develop diversity awareness and understanding. You can read about issues including understanding about positive spaces in the workplace, how to become familiar with equitable employment, the gender gaps that still exist in the workplace and the mixed opinions about tattoos in the workplace.
Some of the articles that caught my attention immediately were on managing different ages at work, how job seekers with disabilities can overcome career obstacles and how to make diversity a valuable part of the resume.
Another top-quality Career Guide resource on TalentEgg is the Consulting Career Guide. It provides a revealing overview if you are considering a career in consulting and average consulting starting salaries. For example, it lists the most important traits if you want to work as a consultant including: problem solving, effective communication, flexibility and interpersonal skills. There are articles about the interview process for consultants, reasons to consider becoming a consultant, how to write a consulting resume and what to do to prepare for a consulting career.
One of the articles about consulting is by Meghan Greaves and is titled “Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Consultant?” She highlights that you will need to be a people person, a multi-tasker, passionate about your industry and confident in your leadership style. Greaves also notes that an essential skill for a consultant is resourcefulness since consultants need to know when to ask for advice and where to find the right information.
According to statistics, more job seekers than ever before are finding success as entrepreneurs or consultants, so considering this option might be a perfect fit for some people. If you like to solve problems, influence others and use your expertise to create innovative ideas, consulting might be part of your next career plan.
The founder of TalentEgg, Lauren Friese, is extremely innovative and used her expertise to create a resource that continues to help students, recent graduates, and all job seekers. In 2012 she was recognized by being named to the Women’s Executive Network as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women.
If you want to find out more about career resources such as TalentEgg or other job search essentials, contact the Centre for Education & Training Employment Services (www.tcet. com) and ask to speak to a career specialist. Whether you are a recent graduate or an expert in your field needing assistance with your consultant resume, a career specialist might be able to assist you with your path to career success. Get cracking with your career!
Lisa Trudel, is a career specialist with the Centre for Education & Training. She works at their Toronto Parliament Services location and can be contacted at: ltrudel@tcet.com