General

Over the coming months, hear stories right from our very own staff about why Career Edge and the work that they do is so important to them.

Jasveen Kaur

Talent Specialist

I moved to Canada in 2019 as a stay-at-home mom of 2 lovely boys aged 5 and 2. The move came about in a short period of time as my husband was presented an international opportunity to relocate. I had been on a parenting break since 2014 after a successful professional career spanning 10 years in HR and Talent Acquisition leading IT, banking, and financial services recruitments.

The plan was to restart my career after spending initial few months to settle in the family, but soon the world was hit by a pandemic and as anyone could be, I was lost, unsettled and clueless on how to restart my career. The career plans went on a backburner as I ended being the CEO of our home during 2020, navigating the family through the worst part of the pandemic with a lot of hope for the future.

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Over the coming months, hear stories right from our very own staff about why Career Edge and the work that they do is so important to them.

Lola Pitan

Talent Specialist

Before moving to Canada, I had heard lots of stories about challenges and difficulties often faced by skilled newcomers when it comes to securing jobs due to their lack of a Canadian work experience. That’s why I decided to take a different approach.

I set out to obtain Canadian education through a college diploma course in Honors Business Administration with a focus in Human Resources to help smoothen my transition from Law (which was my original professional background) to Human Resources. As my program gradually came to an end, the fear and uncertainty of a pandemic era job market started setting in and it was at this point that I heard about Career Edge.

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Over the coming months, hear stories right from our very own staff about why Career Edge and the work that they do is so important to them.

Suji Satkunarajah

C# Programmer Analyst

Getting the first job as a new graduate is hard; almost every job requires some experience. If you’re a newcomer, you also need “Canadian experience”. You can try networking, but your connections might say the same thing: you need some experience, or even some “Canadian experience”. This is where Career Edge plays a big role.

The program provides paid internships to new graduates, newcomers, and people with disabilities so they can get their first work experience or “Canadian experience”.

And that’s what the program did for me.

Following graduation, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. After spending a year on a failed startup, I knew I had to get some real-world experience. I started applying to postings, but like many graduates have gone through, I didn’t hear back from anyone.

Over the coming months, hear stories right from our very own staff about why Career Edge and the work that they do is so important to them.

Tamara Stone

Payroll & Human Resources Coordinator

After giving a company 11 years of service, I was permanently laid off.

I knew I wanted to go back to school to learn a new set of skills but was scared for the change ahead of me. As a single mom, you want to devote as much of your time as possible to your children and I knew that returning to school would take away from that. Not only did I feel like I would be neglecting my familial responsibilities, but I also felt like once I was done school, I would have a difficult time reentering the work force as I would have no work experience in this new field.

Over the coming months, hear stories right from our very own staff about why Career Edge and the work that they do is so important to them.

Jumana Baker

Marketing Design Specialist

My story with Career Edge started when I graduated from school. I had just finished four grueling years of studying, assignments, tests, projects and now I had to go out into the real world and find real employment. Only problem was, I had no idea how.

Everyone kept talking about networking and leveraging your family’s and your parents’ networks, making connections that way. Well, I’m an immigrant and so are my parents. We had moved to Canada when I first started university, so we were still rebuilding our lives and setting down roots. And at that point, my parents’ network that I could have leveraged was currently residing on the other side of the planet, so the family network was out.

So, I just started applying to positions. And, as many, many, many people have experienced, I didn’t hear back – that was fun…

Over the coming months, hear stories right from our very own staff about why Career Edge and the work that they do is so important to them.

Purvi Patel

C# Programmer Analyst, IT

I immigrated to Canada in June 2016. Since I did not have a Canadian education or work experience, I struggled a lot to start my career in Canada. The first job I got was as a data entry clerk, which was only to fulfill financial needs, so I decided to go back to school the next year, in 2017, where I attended the .Net Developer Bridging Program at Humber College. After graduating in 2018, I started job searching in my field of education; I created and submitted so many applications for employment agencies and roles, but unfortunately, I never got any affirmative responses.

Fortunately for me though, my Employment Advisor from Humber College recommended that I register with Career Edge, which I did promptly.

Over the coming months, hear stories right from our very own staff about why Career Edge and the work that they do is so important to them.

Candice Leung

Talent Specialist

When I first came across Career Edge, I was trying to find a job myself. I had just graduated and after giving myself a 6 month to enjoy responsibility-free time, I decided it was time to give myself some real adult-life stress: find a job that could potentially be my career for the rest of my life.

Albeit, I actually had no idea what it is I wanted to do with my life, let alone my career. To be honest, I’m still not sure (and trust me, it’s okay not to know).  However, what I did know, was that with my minimal work experience and fluctuating anxiety, Career Edge’s recent graduates with a self declared disability program was perfect for me.

Over the coming months, hear stories right from our very own staff about why Career Edge and the work that they do is so important to them.

Kyle Gray

Vice President, Finance and Operations

“The vision of a champion is someone bent over drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when no one else is watching.” – Anson Dorrance, former USA Women’s Soccer Coach.

Many years ago at the height of my soccer (or football as we call it) journey in Trinidad and Tobago, this quote was given to our team by one of our coaches; with the appendage of “When was the last time you felt that way?” Ever since that day, this quote has been a consistent mantra for everything I do.

This resonated with me for many reasons including its vivid yet simple illustration; its call for excellence, commitment to and development of a winning mindset.

Over the coming months, hear stories right from our very own staff about why Career Edge and the work that they do is so important to them.

Aziz Smailagić

Director, Client Services

My relationship and connection to Career Edge extends far beyond employee-employer. The organization was once the guiding light that led my own career search as a recent graduate, and now I have the opportunity to help others find their light as well.

Before you are truly in the job search (whether in school, in another country, or still exploring your interests) the search seems like something that cannot be too hard, right?

“There are job postings all over the internet, surely someone will hire me, right?”

Over the next months, hear stories right from our very own staff about why Career Edge and the work that they do is so important to them.

Jeff Lazenby

Executive Director

What makes Career Edge special? In wanting to tell the story of what makes Career Edge special, the only place I could start is with the staff at Career Edge and the work that they do every day. Since I joined Career Edge, the one constant is the dedication of the staff who, day in and day out, all strive to make a difference in someone else’s life. Seeing their efforts every day to help someone overcome a barrier to finding meaningful employment is nothing short of heroic. Every moment of their day is singularly focused on making a difference to someone they barely know.  To have a front row seat to witness it makes it more special.