Matt Baril » Vancouver

Be a Sexy Job Seeker and Increase your Odds of Getting the Perfect Job

Matt Baril — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 05:51:25 +0000

All my life, I've been extremely lucky in my job hunts and career opportunities. Unfortunately, I have many friends who are not so lucky and are currently looking for a job, it actually seems like most of my friends are looking for jobs in the Vancouver area right now. Luck, determination and hard work have been the main factors of my career opportunities, but I think everybody works hard and is determined, but there are ways to put odds on your side and increase your luck. I thought I would share resources and tricks that have helped me and some of my friends to put odds on our side.

1. Be resourceful. There are some really nice tools out there that can keep you on top of things really easily without much effort. Use them! The first thing you need is a good way to know about the relevant jobs available in your area, and in 2010 there are 3 websites you cannot leave without for job hunting:

These 3 websites are what we call aggregators (read this post to understand why you should love them) and a search will fetch and provide you with results from many different websites. If you're looking for tech jobs in Vancouver for example, they will go on many job boards in Vancouver and do a search based on the keywords and the area you entered. That means you don't have to do and redo all these searches on all these website everyday. You can also save your searches and subscribe to the RSS feed, so you don't even have to go back on the website at all, the job postings are just delivered to your RSS feed reader. If you don't have an RSS feed reader, I would recommend Google Reader. You can even make the RSS feeds to be emailed to you on a regular basis with free services such as feedmyinbox. For instance, you could get up in the morning, open up your email client and apply on all the relevant jobs posted within the last 24 hours while having your breakfast. Cool eh?

If you're more into technology, you can use Yahoo! Pipes. That's like the Lamborghini of all the tools you can possibly have. It lets you make your own feed instead of using on of the web sites mentioned above. You can aggregate your own feeds, search, filter, sort, etc. That’s the tool I use for my job posting on this blog which displays the 150 most recent tech jobs in Vancouver in real-time. Yahoo! Pipes is free.

2. 2. Use LinkedIn. LinkedIn is just the most awesome social networking tool for jobs. I know many people who complain about it, but I think they just don't know how to use it. I've had 3 job offers since January through LinkedIn. Jobs I did not ask for, the companies came forward and offered me a job or an interview. There are also a lot of jobs available on LinkedIn (you can find them through simplyhired.ca as well) and now you can follow companies (brand new of a few days). So if you're interested by one company you can follow them, and when they open a position or when someone leaves, you can apply on the job even before the company advertises for the job. Having a complete profile on LinkedIn also adds credibility to your application, especially if you can get a few recommendations. Anyways, my point is that LinkedIn is just great! If you decide to join, add me: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/mattbaril.

3. 3. Own and use your dot com. This might be pushing it a bit, but having a website helps as well. My website is a blog and there is quite a bit of content, which means that potential employers can surf through it and read bits and pieces to see my English proficiency, my capacity to write, think and how disciplined I am to keep the blog up-to-date. It helps in two ways: an employer can find you through your blog, but it can also add credibility to your application. In my interview at Elastic Path, a company I worked for during the Olympics, the HR person kept talking about my blog and she asked me only one interview question, the rest of the 45 minutes were spent talking about my blog which she pulled up on her screen. But, a personal blog is a lot of work and I know people who have used their website differently and have had some success as well. I went to school with this guy called Cody Watson and I like what he has done with his dot com. It's pretty simple, it takes few hours to put together, but it looks really professional and helps for the first impression.

4. 4. Always apply on all jobs, even those you’re not too fond of. This is probably the most important mistake people make, not applying on all kind of jobs. Don’t be picky, you don’t have a job for god sake, just apply on everything you think is related to your area even though it’s not the dream job. There are many reasons to do so:

You can practice your interview skills and will not have the pressure you would usually have if you really wanted the job.
You will have feedback on your resume and the experience you have that is most appreciated by employers. If you don’t get the job you can even ask why and know where you’re falling short.
And most importantly, you’re much sexier when you have a job. People are people and hiring someone who doesn’t have a job seems like a risk. If that person was that great he or she would have a job right? Right… so get a job to make yourself more attractive. It also shows you are motivated, ambitious and driven. Once you have a job, you can say things such as: “I love working for company ABC, they have provided me with XYZ kind of experience and treat their employees very well. However, I feel that with my background and experience I could add more value and be more useful to a company like yours by doing ABC. As you can see from my resume I have already worked on projects similar in scope and have had great success.” Well now you are lot sexier than by saying: “I’ve been spending the last 2 months looking for a job, but couldn’t find the right fit.”

5. 5. Spend 8 hours a day looking for jobs. Finding a full time job is a full time job. You should set targets for yourself such as sending 10 resumes a day. Once you have the right tools set up for you, you can easily get 100 jobs per day into your inbox or RSS feed reader. Pick the 10 most interesting and apply. Make a couple of cover letters for different kind of roles you are interested in and tweak them to make it sound personal. It will take you less than 10 minutes to apply on a job with a “personal” cover letter. Count about 3 hours to do so and applying on 50 jobs per week should get you anywhere between 1 and 5 interviews per week. You can then spend the next 5 hours of your day for sharpening your interview skills (free job centre resources), having real interviews, tweaking your website, making new connections on LinkedIn, joining new groups on LinkedIn, networking at different events, blogging, volunteering, taking courses/classes/certifications. Every single hour should be an investment in your career and a step forward, something that will lead you to a job or will enrich your resume.

There is definitely a big part of chance in the process, but you can improve your odds of finding a great job if you do the above. You will also need someone to support you, a wife, a husband, a friend, a parent for the times when everything goes wrong. The week you will have sent 50 resumes and went to 3 interviews and get nothing in return will be a tough week, but it’s not the end of it. Keep working at it and you’re putting the odds in your favor and sharpening the saw.

What are your tricks and tips to become a sexy job seeker and increase your odds of getting the perfect jobs? What do you think doesn't work versus what really works?

Good luck all!

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February 28th – Business Idea #28

Matt Baril — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:39:50 +0000

Idea #28 Vancouver IT blog with interviews, latest news, videos, pictures, upcoming events, etc.

My idea is not completely new, but there is nothing quite like this yet and I find it odd. There is Techvibe who is close to doing this, but what I have in mind is a real complete blog completely dedicated to the IT sector in Vancouver and the business world surrounding IT. There should be many articles of the best experts in Vancouver, interviews with successful entrepreneurs, short video reports, pictures. It should be the place everybody interested in IT and business should go to. One thing that would be very useful would be to have a section of all the relevant upcoming events as well.

Money could be made with premium subscriptions, but it would be better to use advertising and conferences to finance the venture. Conferences make connecting with real people easier, add credibility to the blog and are a great marketing tool. Services for venture capitalists should also be provided in order to help young startups and Angel Ivestors connect. The blog, even though virtual, would be extended to real life and would help connect people.

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Job Posting Is Back on Track

Matt Baril — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:47:33 +0000

Google seems to have fixed the problems with feedburner that kept the feed from displaying properly. You can now enjoy the full job listing updated automatically displaying the 150 most recent tech jobs in BC!

If you were to experience any problems, please let me know by using the form under the contact me tab at the top of this page.

Cheers,

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One More Tool to Find Jobs

Matt Baril — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:27:55 +0000

I have just added a tool that allows you to search for jobs in indeed.ca from this website. Indeed.ca fetches jobs across many job boards and is one of the best tools out there and I highly recommend it. If you want to test it out you can click here.

Good luck on your job hunt!

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Will you be using Social Media to follow the Vancouver 2010 Olympics?

Matt Baril — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:22:15 +0000

Here we are, it's the 1st of February and the Olympic Games will be happening in less than two weeks. We can feel the excitement and the city is almost unrecognizable as everything has been decorated and streets have been shut down! Some tourists are already here, ready to enjoy the international event in Beautiful British Columbia, the best place on earth! In case you weren't aware, that's BC's motto and as good as it may sound, it does make some British Columbians feel uncomfortable since most Canadians value modesty and this doesn't sound too much like it. I would personally not dare claiming it's THE best place on earth, but I would definitely argue it's in the top 10! If you're not familiar with British Columbia and wonder what's so special about it, I invite you to watch one of the best Vancouver2010 promotional video I've seen. It shows the natural beauties such as mountains, oceans, forest, but also the people and the culture like architecture, festivals, etc. If you really want to understand and live BC, well you gotta be here for the 2010 Games!

What I find truly interesting though, is the fact that it's the first time we be having a broad set of Social Media tools during the Olympics. The fact is that the Social Media phenomenon truly took off at some point in late 2007 and has been on a steep rise ever since. Even though the Beijing Olympics happened in 2008 Social Media use wasn't as spread as it is today. For instance, Facebook had 60 million users while it now has over 350 and Twitter had about 3 million users, and it now has about 25 million users. People are much more aware and active than before and this will probably have a big impact on the way people will follow, live and perceive the 2010 Olympics. Will you watch TV, go on Twitter, read blogs, subscribe to a youtube channel, read your Facebook feed for content your friends might share?

There are many people and companies ready to broadcast the Olympics through Social Media channels and I've been trying to make a page with the best resources I've come across. I'd like this page to have everything we need to be up-to-date and know everything about the Olympics. I want to tap into blogs, Twitter, youtube, and flickr for the best content and might add other tools later on. This is a work in progress and I'll be updating the page until the end of the Games. You can find the link to this page in the top menu or you can click here Vancouver2010.

I'm also very interested in knowing whether you'll be using Social Media tools to stay tuned and if so which one are you going to use? Do you think Social Media will actually help broadcast the Olympics or it will only create noise? Are text based tools such as Twitter useful to broadcast an international sport event. Which channel is your favorite?

Use the comment section to let us know and take the poll!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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More Job Results in the Vancouver Tech Jobs Section!

Matt Baril — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:13:39 +0000

Following a comment from Bill, a visitor on this blog, I decided to include indeed.com to the Vancouver Tech Jobs listing. The website is an aggregate of different job boards and company websites and does what my simple job posting page is attempting to do, only on a larger scale. My aggregate includes more local jobs, more local sources and has 15 different search criteria for indeed.com alone and is therefore better targeted for the Vancouver tech sector. I would however strongly recommend you have a look at indeed.com since it's a very powerful tool and it gives you the opportunity to customize your research and even receive an email digest on a daily basis. According to the company's website, indeed.com has been around for almost 6 years now and I'm not sure why I never came across it before, but it's probably one of the best resources out there and you should definitely give it a shot.

There is only one downside to adding indeed.com to the current aggregate and it's the fact that there might be some overlap and jobs showing up twice on the job listing. That's because indeed.com fetches job postings on sites I fetch job postings too. I'll try to delete and eliminate the repetitive sources as we go.

So, how has the job listing helped you so far? Has anyone found a job following the use of this website? (I did, more to come!) Is there any other sites I'm missing?

Have a great weekend folks!

If you're new to this blog, you can click here to access the job listing.

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Why Giving Up Business Sense Is Bad for your Community

Matt Baril — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:12:49 +0000

Common sense is a dangerous thing since pretty much anything can become common sense even though it doesn't make any sense at all. I don't think it ever made sense to do business without having revenues, but for some reasons it does make common sense now. How many e-business start-ups are begging for money from VCs while their business model is to create value and give it away for free in an attempt to scale up and reach "critical mass market". I had an interesting email exchange with an entrepreneur and MBA candidate from Vancouver and here is a quote (copy/paste):

"When our user-base reaches critical mass then we'll let the community tell us where our value lies, what products they want built, and what it is worth to them. We see this as a long process, but the first stage is building value and giving it away for free."

I love that quote because I think it summarizes so beautifully the mindset most online entrepreneurs have. While this sounds like a great strategy at first glance, it just doesn't make any business and social sense for both the organization and the community. Building a community and doing business should not be separated. They both go together and there is no need to sacrifice any of the two to be successful. it's quite the reverse actually.

One of the problem with this strategy is that your community has no clue what it wants, most of them are not IT experts, they're common people with normal problems and they expect you to find a solution. It's your role as a leader to come up with solutions. Also, by giving your product away for free you'll either alienate your customer base in a near future or go bankrupt. Not many people would agree to pay for a product or service they had for free not so long ago. The company faces two choices: stay free and have no revenue or start charging and lose the majority of the community it had built. Either way a lot of resources are wasted which is always bad for the society at large and the business.

I wonder if we could shift this mindset and have businesses charging for the products or services right from the beginning and slowly grow a community? It's much better to have 1000 true fans (one of the best marketing article out there, absolutely worth the read) who pay $10/month for your service than 10,000 average fans who don't pay a penny for your product.

The most important point is the fact that this strategy is actually harming the customers. It's just not sustainable and sooner or later the company will have to 1. abandon the product, 2. charge for the product, 3. neglect the product for lack of resources. In each outcomes the community loses. Having a product at a fair price right from the beginning allows the company to invest all the resources necessary to provide the best value for the community in a sustainable way. This in turn will create a satisfied community which is more likely to have more dedicated fans.

PS. I strongly suggest you to listen to a podcast from 37signals about this "online phenomenon" of giving everything for free in an attempt to falsely build communities. http://37signals.com/podcast/#episode5

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Julien Smith at Third Tuesday Vancouver [updated with video]

Matt Baril — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:24:09 +0000

Yesterday, on January 19th, the famous co-author of Trust Agents, Julien Smith, delivered a presentation at Ceili's Irish Pub in downtown Vancouver. This talk is part of a series of talks organized by Third Tuesday Vancouver, a meetup group that holds free monthly meetup for the Vancouver area. Here is a summary of the talk based on my own personal notes. If you were there and you feel I misinterpreted a few things or missed something important, feel free to use the comment section below.

Copyright Jeremy Lim

"Hype dies, but channels stay forever and controlling your future means controlling your channels." Smith started by using radio as an example of a channel that is still around even though it has evolved for so many years, and his point was that some people control radio and you're not one of them. Obviously Social Media offers a new channel and it is an opportunity you should take. The old channels are failing and trying to get your attention by pushing things at you. For this very reason, Smith claims (and contradicts himself) that we need to replace the old channels by new ones that are more adapted to our needs.

Then Smith went on to my favorite part and talk about walls and how Social Media is changing the way we interact with each other. He used bars as an example. Let's say you're in a bar, would you go and talk to a complete stranger about some random topics? No, not really, we just don't do that. However, Social Media does change things and it's ok to connect and engage a discussion with a complete strangers about some random topics on Twitter for instance. Social Media allows us to connect much more easily than ever before and encourages us to share and discuss much more freely.

Even though walls are not as present on Online Social Networks, they still exist and Smith identified at least 5 different ways to get rid of them and engage in productive conversations.

1) Do Stupid Things

Stupid things bring down the walls and help us connect. Smith gave the example of @shitmydadsays on twitter which is exactly what the name claims to be. This account has over 1 million followers and Julien explains this by the fact that people love stupid things because it makes starting a conversation easier. He then showed a dog in a guy's sweater with its head popping out by a sleeve. Some laughters followed and then he waited a couple more seconds, which seemed a bit awkward, but then Smith said that the picture is usually what he hears the most about after he's given a talk. Why? Because it's stupid and it brings down the wall between him and the people in the audience.

2) Be the Church of Your Tribe

You must facilitate the exchange of social capital and be the centre around who people gather. A church is this place where everybody gathers and have you ever noticed how easy it becomes to talk to strangers in a church? Now you want to create exactly this kind of environment on your Social Media channels because it will obviously bring down the walls, once again, and therefore get a conversation started.

3) Speak Insider Languages

Smith looked at the audience and said we should use insider languages, like 26.2. The audience didn't react much as most of us, me included, had no idea what 26.2 what suppose to represent. It turns out that 26.2 is the number of miles a marathon has. Using this jargon or insider language helps create link between two strangers as they can identify each other as having similar interests.

4) Be a Human Artist

I'm not sure about that one to be honest, I had to go to the washroom and I think I missed important clarifications about this one! But from what I remember Smith meant to craft your relationships with people. You need to work on your network all the time and not your facebook network, you real network with real people.

5) Break the Patterns

How many times do you go to a conference or an event in general and you ask: "So what do you do?". This is totally predictable and you'll almost certainly turn down the other person who will most likely go into a nervous reaction. We all know that depending on what we'll answer, the person asking the question will either idolize us, or ignore us. Also, some people have very unique jobs and describing it is not that easy at all. Lastly, the person asking the question is almost certainly doing so with the hope you'll ask back so they can show off a little. Break the pattern and do, act and ask questions that people don't expect at all. It'll make you more interesting and people will be more open.

Touch the Burner

"Take the risks and do something that nobody was doing before, and nobody had done before." Smith encouraged people to take risk and try new things because according to him, "when you stop touching the burner, your world stops getting bigger."

Be a Leader

Smith encouraged us to be the lead goose. The lead goose is the one in front in the "V" formation the birds use to fly. By flying the first, the lead goose has to work harder and make the way for the birds behind who benefit from a reduced drag force. Smith mentioned a book he read called Connected and according to the book, your mood and what you do impact people 3 degrees away from you. The rationale being that you impact someone who impacts someone else who impacts someone else. Based on that assumption, if you're a lead goose and you break patterns, you make it easy for people 3 degrees away from you to break patterns as well.

Finally, Smith ended his talk by saying: "We will never need more advertising, we need more communities." An end that is consistent with the book (Trust Agents) he co-wrote with Chris Brogan.

Want to know more?

[update]

Many thanks to Justin Carlson who recorded Julien's talk last Tuesday. Make sure you have a look at Justin's blog, this guy is talented and knows how to use a camcorder.

Copyright Justin Carlson from Carlson Media

[/update]

You can see the liveblog at: http://hummingbird604.com/2010/01/19/julien-smith-at-third-tuesday-vancouver-liveblog/

Twitter hashtag: #3TYVR

Few people present at the event: @monicahamburg, @NetChick, @mattbaril @jeremylim @lindanaiman @wildfirejane @bluefinch604 @CathyBrowne, @OnlineStrategy, @adamkambeitz, @Clippernolan, @jason_baker, @JuanHerr, @jonjennings, @johnbiehler, @renocoach, @chriswalts, @lacouvee, @HudsonHomeTeam, @ByzHubOwen, @chrisgoward

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Top 150 Most Recent Tech Jobs in Vancouver

Matt Baril — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:11:24 +0000

As I just completed my BBA, I'm officially a job seeker. Good times! Fortunately, people living in Vancouver have access to many resources online, most of them for free. However, their number makes it difficult to keep up with all of them and I ended up spending most of my time surfing all these websites in search for new postings.

I got tired of manually looking for new jobs and decided to use RSS feeds to make one big feed of all the tech jobs in Vancouver. I used Yahoo! Pipes to aggreagte, sort, and trunk the many RSS feeds and feedburner to display the feed on my website. I was quite impress by Yahoo! pipes easiness to use and its power, definitely worth a look at.

These jobs are taken from websites such as symplyhired.ca (which already aggregates all major job boards e.g. monster, CareerBuilder, etc.), techjobsvancouver.com, craigslist.com and google search. All the jobs are filtered in order to be targeted for Tech people living in Vancouver, BC and are sorted from most recent to least recent. Clicking on the job title will bring you to the website that has originally published the job post.

Working with RSS feeds means that everything is done automatically and I do not host these job postings, it's merely a collection of links. As such, I cannot delete a job post that is irrelevant and I cannot be held responsible for the content.

Lastly, you can subscribe to the master RSS feed if you want to save yourself the hassle of visiting the same page all the time. Click here and add the feed to your favorite RSS reader. I also invite you to share your favorite job boards so I can include them!

Hope you'll like it and good luck!

Top 150 Most Recent Jobs in Vancouver

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