It was a cold October day in Toronto. Our Children and Youth Centre was open and the team had set up a table outside to welcome guests, and one inside to handle registrations.

Slowly but surely, over 50 clients walked through those doors and into a room where representatives from Tim Horton’s, Fresh Co, Old Navy, Roots and Canadian Tire waited to meet them. Before the event, several of these clients had worked on their resumes and interview skills with CultureLink staff, so they were ready to present their best selves for a job opportunity.

The great thing about this particular Job Fair was seeing employers making accommodations for the specific needs of our clients. Some of them had no resumes, but the employees had application forms to be filled instead. Some of them did not speak English well, but the employees would create non-client facing positions so they could still get a job.

“We don’t normally hire high school students, but after seeing your clients face to face, I have changed my mind and will be consider applications from newcomer students from this Job Fair”, said one of the employers interviewing for Old Navy.

Some of our younger candidates walked in full of doubts, not knowing exactly what to do our say, but after the first round of interviews felt confident enough to line up for more!

Both applicants and employers praised our event. “I would be happy to come back for another Job Fair at CultureLink”, commented a Canadian Tire employer.

A Senior Manager from Tim Hortons went as far as to say we can send clients to them all year round for their employment opportunities. “This is the best Job Fair for newcomers we have attended and we are very happy we came”, he told us when the event was over. We look forward to strengthening this relationship with them in benefit of our clients.

So far, we know of two clients who were hired at old Navy as a result of our event. Congratulations to Veronica and Marichka! For many others it was their first time going through an interview and being able to give them that opportunity is a great success for us. We look forward to the next Job Fair.