FEATURE
Finding employment in a pandemic Employment specialists suggest that digital networking, reskilling and recognising what employers want are strategies that could help you land your dream job in a post-pandemic world. By Baisakhi Roy
T
he pandemic year has been challenging for job seekers to say the least. So, when Lebanese-born Georges Oneissy reveals that he landed not one, but two jobs within months of landing in Toronto from Dubai, one wants to know more.
affected than their Canadian-born counterparts encouraged him to take up a course in digital for a variety of reasons. One of them being that marketing, which he promptly did at the University recent immigrants tend to have shorter job of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. tenures and therefore could be more vulnerable to layoffs when the economy is in a downturn.
Oneissy lost his first job offer in March 2020 – “Though I prepared an entire year to get ready right when the world was shutting down due to to come to Canada, like many others, I wasn’t COVID, and he was devastated. expecting a global pandemic to hit our lives. I’ve “It was depressing and demotivating but I had been here for about 18 months now and it still to carry on and so I did,” he says. feels unreal,” he says. Oneissy’s prep before immigrating to Canada According to a study by Statistics Canada, the Canadian labour market lost about three proved to be a lifesaver. He had hired the services million jobs in March and April 2020. The study of a career coach while he was still in Dubai who says that immigrants seem to be more negatively not only helped him perfect his resume but also
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CANADIAN IMMIGRANT Volume 18 Issue 3 | 2021
above Georges Oneissy
