How I went from a pizza deli to Toronto City Hall
Before diving into marketing in college, my irrelevant work experience left much to be desired.
By 22, I could recommend you the best cell phone on the market, offer you a few ideas for resort destinations, and bake you the worst pizza you ever had in your life.
So when the opportunity came up to join the co-op program as part of my application to business marketing at George Brown College, it was simply a no brainer.
Here’s the thing: enrolling in a co-op program doesn’t suddenly mean employers will start topping up your resume. You’re going to have to war it out with not only your peers, but other similar college and university programs.
It was in effect… a death match!
Okay. Maybe I’m being a bit dramatic about it. I just drank two coffees in under 10 minutes. Being stuck indoors during the pandemic. AYO.
If your co-op program requires two semesters of work experience (like mine), one nifty way to get your foot in the door is to utilize the co-op job listings in your second placement.
I’ll explain.
While almost all co-op programs offer you a job listing to search and apply to, which are shared with every college and university in the vacinity, some programs offer you the option to find your own placements.
Leading up to the completion of your first year, network your brains out with business owners in your area of interest, or with friends that work at places you want to co-op for.
Seed it in that you’d like to do an unpaid, or paid-very-little, placement over the following summer.
When it’s time to find your co-op placement, if you have yet to grab a good placement with the co-op listings, have that specific business fill out the self-placement co-op form as your fall back option.
Do your co-op term as self-placement.
I know this kind of sounds silly - you’re paying extra for the co-op program as it is.
By covering all your bases, you’ll 1) unlock the most amount of options for co-op placements, and 2) proactively get your placement without missing a beat. I’ve seen far too many people drop out of the co-op program because they couldn’t find placement. And unfortunately, many of the same people either dropped out of the program, or didn’t have the relevant work experience post-graduation to land a job.
This method also sets yourself up for a kick-ass second co-op placement. By having relevant work experience on your belt, heading into the application and interview process for placement #2 becomes a heck of a lot easier.
My self-placement was at Gotstyle, a small business retailer for menswear, where I started my career off as the intern.
A small town dude with zero fashion sense, I showed up on my first day in the dead-heat of summer wearing a turtle neck sweater because it was the only stylish thing I owned.
On Starbucks runs, I learned what how to pronounce Caramel Macchiato and the steep learning curve of their cup sizing system.
I also learned how to properly open a bottle of wine (because boxed wine wasn’t so boujee it seemed).
By the end of the term, I went from cowering in the corner at fashion events to finding a bit of confidence in myself. Plus I had some decent marketing experience on my belt.
I used that on-paper experience as leverage outside of the co-op program. The following summer, and with the help of my cousin, I scored a temporary job at Manulife through a placement agency.
Data entry may not have been my calling in life, but anything was better than standing at a Future Shop kiosk for 12 hours, or cooking up off-kilter pizzas at a grocery store. Having your own desk at a Fortune 500 in Toronto: hey, that’s progress.
The contract ended with an offer to stay (which I declined as I needed to finish college), and in a few years, would help pave my path into the marketing department at Manulife.
With two new work experiences on my belt, I went into my second round of co-op placements with confidence and proof. From the co-op listings, I applied, interviewed, and scored a marketing assistant role with the City of Toronto in the special events department. Talk about upgrade; I now had my own desk on the 6th floor of Toronto’s city hall.
Did you know: the end scene of Resident Evil: Apocalypse was shot on the roof top of Toronto’s city hall?
I assisted in setting up major city events such as WinterCity Festival, Carnival of Lights, Winterlicious, and being 10 minutes away from wearing the Just For Laughs mascot outfit next to the mayor. I also ended up with the coolest email ever: rtan@toronto.ca.
Not bad for a small town kid with zero work experience in just a couple years.
I should make a footnote: this probably reads a lot like I had some Gary-Vee-level-hustle when I arrived, but frankly, I didn’t. I hadn’t learned how to proactively chase what I truly wanted. My primary focus, oddly enough, was survival.
Ultimately, I had two driving factors that got me there:
I had to maximize and leverage every opportunity I had, and
I had an undying fear of returning back home with my tail between my legs. I wasn’t going to let that happen, no matter what.
Whatever moves the needle, move it. If your motivator is a better life for your children, git ‘er done. If your motivator is to get into that Lambo, git ‘er done. If your motivator is avoiding damage to your self-pride: Git. ‘Er. Done.
In your career, it’s survival of the fittest.
On Monday, assuming I don’t experience weekend burn-out, I’ll touch on the final challenge coming out of college.
I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
―Stephen Leacock
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GameStop (GME) is back on the news, hitting over 100% after close on Wednesday. It’s a risky bet - one I took, but not for gains but for principle. The ceiling was exposed to retail investors and I, like many others, felt the need to speak with our dollars. I didn’t invest enough to make me hug my pillow and cry myself to sleep at night - I’m not a baller by any means - but as a trader I do feel uneasy knowing the house will always win. If you’re still holding, keep holding!
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