KULJIT CHAHAL BAL - AN ANGEL FOR JOB SEEKERS

Makeup : Karishma | Dresses : Rajisandhu’sjugnicollections | Prandhi : Le Fleur Jewels The first thing i noticed about Kuljit when I met her for the first time was her eyes. There was a lot of kindness and compassion and it felt like she was a person I could reach out to anytime I had a problem and needed some guidance and wisdom. At that time, I did not know her or what she did but the minute we started talking about her life and background, I knew that what I felt looking in her eyes was real, she was an angel.

Growing up as a child in the Indian Armed Forces (her father was in the Indian Army), she got to live in several parts of India, giving her an early exposure into learning about people from different religions and languages. This childhood experience propelled her to complete her Master’s degree in English and her Bachelor’s degree in Education and choose teaching as a profession. Soon she met her husband Tony Bal and they were blessed with two children, Manjot and Jaskaranbir. Their decision to move to Canada in 2002 was a difficult one but she wanted to move closer to her extended family who were living in the United States.

As a new immigrant in 2002, they went through their fair share of initial struggles in the first few years with her doing odd jobs and her husband driving a taxi with the North Shore Taxi company. After getting laid off from her last odd job, she decided she wanted to resume her career and after attending a career decision making class at DIVERSEcity, she decided to become an employment counsellor and went on to complete her Career Development Practitioner

course at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in 2007. After spending a few initial months at DIVERSEcity as an employment counsellor, she joined the Immigrant Services Society of BC and has never looked back since. She spent a collective 12 years at ISS of BC as a Case Manager, conducting hundreds of job search workshops over the years in English and in other regional Indian languages including Hindi and her mother tongue, Punjabi. Apart from workshops, as the case manager for new immigrant job seekers, she has guided thousands of clients and helped them gain employment in the lower mainland. Her extensive experience makes her an expert in her field and she is a powerhouse of resources when it comes to understanding the correct way to job search for new immigrants who often face invisible barriers when trying to integrate with mainstream society in Canada.

In 2020, she rejoined DIVERSEcity as an employment specialist and focuses on running a very special youth employment program (Future Troopers) which encourages young adults to choose a career in trades. Being a certified personality dimensions instructor, she applies alternative strategies to get effective results in an ever-changing labor market. She is driven by a desire to make a positive difference in people’s lives by making them independent and self-sufficient in their new home, Canada. Her desire to make a difference has led her to support various causes like fundraising for the BC Cancer Foundation and contributing large funds to upgrade a school in her hometown village of Butala, Amritsar District in Punjab, India.

Today her husband Tony is a very successful realtor and her children are pursuing their respective careers (Manjot is studying for her law degree at the University of Calgary and son Jaskaranbir is about to complete his Bachelor’s in Business Management from Kwantlen). Kuljit and Tony recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and she is happy and proud of being a Canadian and is thankful to everyone in Canada who helped her and her family integrate in mainstream Canadian society during the past 19 years. She sums up her Canadian experience with a special quote from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - We have created a society where individual rights and freedoms, compassion and diversity, are core to our citizenship. But underlying that idea of Canada is the promise that we all have a chance to build a better life for ourselves and our children.

Family Photo : Snapshotsbysavy