In the words of The Smiths, “I was looking for a job, and then I found a job, and heaven knows I’m miserable now,” but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. For most university students, that means working over the summer break to afford the cost of living in Canada’s second most expensive city, Toronto.
My job search was tedious and at times felt hopeless. I spent entire days doing nothing but submitting application after application and praying I’d find something soon. I spent over three weeks on the hunt, my main tool: Indeed. I would highly recommend using the Indeed website, especially if you’re not too picky about where you end up working. Indeed makes it simple to apply to dozens of jobs at once and puts the majority in one convenient location. By uploading a resume and creating a profile, you can apply to most jobs with the click of a couple buttons.
I’m not one to give advice on how to write a resume or cover letter, but I did find cover letter writing software to be quite helpful. A quick google search will give you plenty of options. It provided an outline and allowed me to customize fields according to my experience. Would I use this for an internship? Absolutely not, but when applying to 20 retail stores in the Eaton Centre, it definitely came in handy.
In the end, I applied to 60 jobs and heard back from eight of them. Five of which approached me after I’d already accepted a job, and one that didn’t reply to me after I tried to arrange an interview.
It was finally time for my first interview, which I landed at a restaurant only five minutes from my house. Was I prepared? Not necessarily, but clearly I did something right. I arrived early, maybe too early, but the manager didn’t realize until I pointed it out after he continually apologized for keeping me waiting too long. The questions asked were mostly scenario based, and because I’ve never worked in a restaurant before, I was going in blind. Luckily for me, I have eaten at a restaurant before and seen servers at work. After the interview, I was offered the job, which I happily accepted.
So, I got the job – what now? Now it was time to learn the ropes. The first few days were pretty easy as the restaurant wasn’t busy and I had adequate time to learn the basics. I got used to the computer system, learned the menu and was welcomed by my coworkers. Unfortunately, the next few days weren’t quite as simple. As the restaurant got busier over the weekend, I was thrown into the chaos of it all. The night of the first big sporting event, the restaurant was packed. While I wasn’t expected to know everything, I was expected to know some things, and things I didn’t know definitely would’ve come in handy. Learning curves are real, and they’re not nice to experience firsthand when the pace of work picks up. Fortunately, everyone was very understanding, but the stress was exceptional.
Entering my third week at the restaurant, I’m officially done training and about to begin working full-time. I may have been a little presumptuous in my reference to The Smiths because I’m far from miserable, but I am a bit anxious. I’m happy to have found a place to work, no matter what the work may be. Although it is not as fulfilling as an internship or journalistic work, I’m happy to have something to do and income to support myself. So far I’ve met great people and already learned new skills. I’m excited to see where this experience takes me and can’t wait for the stories I’ll have to tell afterwards.