Student Blog: Summer Job Hunt; Complete!

The search for employment.  Universally hated, universally experienced.  Searching for jobs can be a very draining and exhausting process, especially when it stretches over a long period of time.  After a semester working on three very time-consuming productions, the prospect of a summer job got pushed to the back burner, something that “I would figure out later.”   When the school semester ended, I knew it was time to buckle down and start searching immediately for work.  Usually, I spent my summers at home in a small town in Ontario, and headed out west to British Columbia, where I planted trees every day and lived in a tent for three months.  This year, I felt uninterested in moving across the country to do gruelling manual labour and leaving my friends and family behind in Ontario, so I decided to stay in Toronto, and experience a “summer in the city.” 

During April, I landed a job working in a small Italian restaurant, being a jack of all trades and serving, hosting, bartending, and bussing simultaneously.  While I liked the people, and the fast pace of the work, the fact was that I could not spend my summer working only 15 hours a week.  My bank account needed more.  I spent the next month gruelling every day doing just about everything you can do to get a job.  I cold-called and emailed companies, walked up and down the streets of Toronto with my resumes, and applied to every job online that I could possibly find! After a few weeks of hearing minimal responses, I finally landed a few interviews and found my positivity re-entering my body.  During this process, I had applied for a plethora of jobs in pretty much every field I could think of, but I was still holding out hope to find something, anything, at least semi-related to the theatre industry.  While I would be happy working anywhere, I came across a few jobs on LinkedIn that were in my field, and looking for summer students. These were the ones that I honed in on and focused my time and energy making the best application possible!

One day, during my job hunt, I saw a posting that was perfect for me, but I had missed the deadline by two days already.  Immediately, I set to work creating my application, and explaining that I had not seen the post until now, hence my lateness.  Within two days, I had interviewed for the position, and a few days later, I got the job! Anxiety lifted! Skin cleared! 

I am now very happy to be an administrative assistant for a theatre company here in Toronto, and even more happy with my work schedule! I am currently doing four days of remote work, and one day in person, giving me plenty of time to visit my family back home as well.  It truly was the perfect storm that came together.

I am so thankful for the privilege and the opportunity to have a job in Toronto, and I am so proud of myself for coming this far! This summer is sure to be one that I will not forget, and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the month brings.  Happy July!