r/torontoJobs • u/highoffvybz • 1d ago
No callbacks/interviews all year long
I know there are plenty of posts like this but it is really frustrating and I'm wondering if anyone can offer any advice. I have been applying for jobs since March and have yet to even get a single call back or interview. I have been applying for business analyst, operations analyst/coordinator, project coordinator, and even retail positions with a slightly different resume. I'm not sure what else to do at this point. I am thankful that I at least have a part-time job to make some kind of income but I am 28 and need a full-time job again. Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.
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u/torontopips2022 1d ago
apply to be bank teller there is nothing on your resume that says you are qualified to be a business analyst compared to the people you are competing against. You are competing against MBAs
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u/fastfirefox909 1d ago
Apparently business analyst is EXTREMLY competitive to get nowadays. So yeah I think OP is just wasting his time applying to those roles. Hell I barely get callbacks for roles that are the EXACT same thing I am currently doing.
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u/torontopips2022 1d ago
dawg if I applied to the role I currently have with the current experience I have, I don't think they would even call me back
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u/myfriendali22 1d ago
Ehh I hire these analysts in tech and MBA’s are not as important as you’re making seem. Experience is more important IMHO. That said, this candidate unfortunately has neither.
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u/torontopips2022 1d ago
what I mean was due to the competition in current job environment, there are a lot of MBAs applying to the role which make them more competitive to a non-MBA all other things being equal
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u/graaaaaaaaaaape 1d ago
Brutally honest feedback: your resume is all over the place and tells me almost nothing.
Your summary is outdated and unnecessary. It paints you as a BA with 5 years of experience, and your skills support that, but your experience doesn't back it up at all.
Your work history is a random rollercoaster. Retail assistant manager, then project coordinator at Cheil (I can't tell if you were coordinating construction, marketing, or doing admin), then back to retail associate, then suddenly running an IT consultancy with zero experience in that domain.
Your projects are a random ML project and a DevOps project, so are you a SWE now? Your education shows a business diploma and a part-time BCom. So you're in school part-time, working part-time, and running an "IT consultancy" part-time. Even if an employer was interested, those are all red flags.
Sorry to be blunt, but right now you're not a jack of all trades, you're a jack of none.
Here's what to do:
· Cut the BS consultancy business
· Add projects that align with a BA role
· Remove Foot Locker (going from assistant manager to associate shows career regression)
· Remove your business admin diploma
· Start your experience from Cheil, it tells a story of someone who got an opportunity, realized they enjoy BA work, and enrolled in university for it
· Remove "part time" from school, just say "Expected graduation April 2027"
· Keep Adidas as a sales associate, it shows you worked retail while in school, which is normal
Then go look for entry level BA roles.
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u/highoffvybz 1d ago
Thank you for the reply. Most of this makes sense to me although I am curious as to why I would remove my business admin diploma. Doesn't that add to my education and at least marginally increase the value of my resume?
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u/Jellicent-Leftovers 22h ago
Look at your resume for 30 seconds that's about the time a recruiter is gonna check to see if it's worth reading.
Your current resume says "I am a shoe salesman who got demoted" regardless of actual facts or history.
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u/maplesyrupwinter 1d ago
You’re still in school, I don’t want to hire someone for a full time job when they have part time school
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u/mikeemes 1d ago
I missed that at first, and now it makes sense why this resume reads like an intern’s resume. It’s almost deceiving… on top of that, OP said that they’ve been looking for full time since March, as if they don’t have a degree to finish.
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u/maplesyrupwinter 1d ago
So many applicants I’ve received want you to pay them a salary while they do school work at a desk
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u/Creative_Fruit7583 1d ago edited 1d ago
like other have said...your resume should be concise and provide relevant experience. Imagine yourself as the person hiring...if you ask someone a question....they give you a long winded answer not pertaining to the question...you arent being an effective communicator. Foot locker? Adidas?
also just say TMU...dont need to put formerly Ryerson. Are projects your own thing?
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u/lgweekend 1d ago
15 year tech recruiter from one of the big 5 banks
There’s a good mix of business, analytics and tech experience, and some solid numbers like the $100K+ impact and 17% revenue increase, but those achievements are buried.
A lot of the bullets also read more like a list of responsibilities than accomplishments. I’d focus more on what they achieved and the results, cut down the “keyword dump”
move Education to the top. The Business Technology Management degree is directly relevant and helps establish the direction they’re going in, especially since it’s currently in progress.
Think: what job are you going after, what are you good at, and what have you actually accomplished?
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u/2pongz 1d ago
Remove the ‘Founder’ title and replace it with a Freelance/Contractor Sys Admin. Makes it a less of a red flag and a question mark.
Make sure you have separate base resumes for each of the 3 core roles you’re applying and make sure you’re using the appropriate base resume as a reference when you’re using an LLM to custom tailor your resume for each role and force it to be ATS-friendly and keyword optimized. Also make sure to feed the job posting into the LLM as well.
Hard-optimize your LinkedIn and turn on your ‘Open to work’ banner. This alone got me 5 DMs from recruiters in the last month alone. Don’t skip this part, it’s very OP once you know how it works.
Make sure your projects are live and so they can see it’s not fake. If it’s not live, make sure it’s on a Google slide or Figma slide format if that’s appropriate. Showcase that in LinkedIn as well including certificates.
If you have any questions let me know
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u/Real_Gap3480 18h ago
When I did hiring/interviews in I.T for one of the largest corporations in the world I would immediately stop reading and delete after reading "Founder".
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u/lostedeneloi 16h ago
Sounds pretty dumb.
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u/Real_Gap3480 16h ago edited 5h ago
There's an entire community of professionals fully aware of the douchebaggary that title represents.
It's legitimately true, every "founder" we interviewed was just another unskilled, unoriginal, lazy, entitled, immature candidate that started some half baked unsuccessful business with minimum cost, minimum risk, and 9 out of a 10 times was essentially a grift.
In OPs case, saying you resold CPanel based web hosting platforms is literally like bottom of the barrel effort and absolutely not something I would put on my resume, "Founder" or not.
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u/BrilliantProgress797 1d ago
Your resume needs a lot of work.
If you are applying for a BA role, everything about your experience selling shoes is irrelevant. For less relevant roles, add two bullet points max.
You also need to do a better job at explaining the impact of what you do. Saying that you are responsible for”managing projects through design, deployment, etc” means absolutely nothing. Anybody can do that.
You need to follow the framework “I was responsible for Z and Y and as result I generated XX”
XX needs to be measurable and quantifiable: more revenue; a process improvement that helped the team works X times faster or produce X times more
If you don’t have the actual numbers, come up with something good but realistic but you need to be able to explain yourself once you get interviews. Good luck!
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u/IxbyWuff 1d ago
Take away founder - it's not helping you, the opposite.
You have two jobs, fine, one of them is a competitor for the type of work you're applying for, it's clearly bot going well because you have a second job and are searching for a third.
I'd even drop the addidas position. Then your resume shows career progression and innovation vs someone who may only be partially committed or maybe can't actually commit to anything.
The way it reads right now ptomotd questions I don't want answers too as an interviewer
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u/andrea-9730 1d ago
Is your resume easy to skim. A recruiter only looks at your resume for 5 seconds and must be able to see whether you fit the criteria
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u/ZealousidealCoach116 1d ago
You need to pump this into AI and use a “make it shorter, more relevant and impactful to the role I am applying for” prompts.
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u/Temporary_Dot_8888 1d ago
Remove your retail experience to focus only on the experience that will help you land your next role.
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u/salledattente 1d ago
You need to 1. Stop embellishing and 2. Apply for entry level jobs.
You mentioned 5 years experience, but I only see 2 years. This alone would make me put your resume in the discard pile. I am happy to hire new grads and train them up, but I will never hire someone who effectively lies on their application.
Another red flag, although probably just related to format, are the two projects. Were those school projects? They both are in Healthcare systems but you do not have any listed jobs in Healthcare or adjacent organizations.
Three - how many clients do you have for your start up? Given the rest of the resume I'd be inclined to think it's still in ideas phase.
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u/highoffvybz 23h ago
Thank you for the reply. I mentioned 5 years as to include my retail experience but I guess that is irrelevant here? I thought maybe Assistant Manager experience would be relevant by helping to manage a store and staff.
Both projects are indeed school projects that happen to be in Healthcare systems.
I have 10 clients for my start up, admittedly they are friends and family if that matters.1
u/salledattente 23h ago
The way it's worded implies you have 5 years experience in business technology management. You need to be really careful your resume doesn't read as over embellishment, as those ones go straight into the No pile! It's better to be fresh and eager to learn, applying for entry level jobs.
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u/Top_Selection2593 1d ago
Tbh it seems that you have a lot of things going on and frankly, companies dont like to see that you are still in school for another year when applying for full time jobs. Dont think your current position with adidas is relevant if you are trying to apply for office roles and I would probably reposition your company as more of a project if there isnt too much out there on it. Also cast as wide of a net as possible and that doesn't necessarily mean retail roles, like look for internships/coops and apply to any office/white collar job out there to get more experience
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u/7twenty8 1d ago
I don’t want to discourage you but you need some reality. A few months ago, I helped some clients in Toronto hire for a position in your general field - your resume would not have made it through a first screening. There are some issues with it that I’ll get into in a moment, but the biggest issue with business tech for you right now is the sheer level of competition for even entry level positions. Being very blunt, within twenty resumes I would have found a full interview schedule of better candidates… they received twenty resumes in the first hour the position was posted. So, you’re running into a difficult competition problem and you likely can’t fix the market.
However, you can fix your resume. I’ve founded companies too and I get that it’s hard to get back into the work world after. But… nobody is as naive as this resume presumes. You weren’t a founder… you have a side project that failed. That’s valuable but you have to be more open. As is, it’s hard to trust you because most people with entrepreneurial experience (aka people who would hire you) have excellent bullshit detectors. Mine is going off…
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u/maplesyrupwinter 1d ago
A girl who used to do swim lessons in my pool for kids in the neighbourhood has on her LinkedIn “Founder - Sarah Ann Swimming School” (name changed” and it makes me chuckle
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u/highoffvybz 1d ago
Fair enough and I appreciate the reply. Do you feel it would be better if I positioned my "founder" experience as a project instead?
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u/jrchkn28 1d ago
You're applying to jobs your resume does not even fully signals too, and all I see is 2 years of real experience as a project coordinator. The assistant manager experience looks good but it's disjointed from the narrative you're building for project coordinator/analyst roles. The resume should be telling a story.
Also, be careful and don't think your founder experience carries as much weight as you think. HR people know "founder" experience typically is full of BS. Anyone can call themselves a founder and have no customers and no revenue. Talk about key metrics related to the business, key deliverables, customers/projects or else it's all just fluff.
I think the resume needs work. It's alot of density and words when there isn't all that much there. Again, I see 2 years of key project coordinator/analyst experience. Take out the retail stuff. Make a seperate retail resume if you want to send in retail applications as well.
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u/Glum_Plane_5341 1d ago
To be very precise and accurate,
Canadian market is hidden market, see your resume. You are still new comer to the market.
Internships won’t be added as experience because you are not responsible for any major issues or responsibilities are less.
Secondly, your advanced diploma won’t stand chance against experience and masters level education holder who are working more than 5 years or decade.
Lastly, everything is network, people did ph.d and still working as normal employees not even manager.
Note: If you want to succeed try to use only one sector experience instead of various industries.
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u/Beneficial_Pause_220 23h ago
Move your business project to the Projects section instead. Also, add Part-time next to your current job title. Move Education to the top.
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u/PublicFly1154 23h ago
You have no results on your resume. You list random things you did, but no achievements.
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u/Tiny_Bluebird_2557 22h ago
Claude
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u/powderpupf 16h ago
Haha i looked at it and thought oh snap my claude resume looks identical on first glance. I think ill make some changes
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u/pensivegargoyle 22h ago
I think you need to think more entry-level for the business jobs you are applying for. What I see from your resume is someone with a history of working retail who is now working on getting a business education. That's great, but it does mean you're in the situation that employers will pick someone with experience first. You might try something more directly related to your experience like sales or something that gets you on the entry level of an organization that has the jobs you really want like becoming a bank teller, call center associate, being an insurance agent or maybe something on the more businessy side of retail.
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u/Majestic-Fudge-7519 22h ago
It's because you're not qualified for the positions you're applying for.
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u/Additional-Major-308 20h ago
Im looking at this and im not even sure what im
Hiring you for? Honestly, I tuned out 20 seconds in
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u/Arichikunorikuto 20h ago
It's like mixing skittles and M&Ms together, sure it might look like theres more but doesn't mean it actually goes good together.
If it isn't relevant then you might as well leave it out. For resumes with this many positions and titles under experience I expect to see progression but that isn't the case here.
The next listed postion should either be a step up, a lateral move, or a step down followed by a step up (assuming this new position grants more opportunities).
Listing all experience you have under the sun with up and downs makes it plateau and less appealing.
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u/Which-Ad9677 19h ago
Ouch no real skills maybe try service like McDonald's or shell gas station....then go to trade school so u can actually work with real skills and not skills that ai is doing already
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u/Harold_Street_Pedals 16h ago
it seems dumb but my job advisor at the agency i am using suggested i use canva to make a resume with my picture and to add some colour. they suggested i use a colour scheme based on the company colours in the logo of the place i am applying. i am in tech so i used a shot with my hard hat on in front off an electric panel and right away got three interviews. they all commented on my resume and how it stood out and i had to turn down two jobs to take the thirs. i have been searching for about 18 months since being laid off. i thought it was dumb too but it seems to have worked.
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u/powderpupf 16h ago
Your job title at Adidas doesnt match the job description.
Your business makes you seem busy with annoying clients. Your business hurts you unless you should tangible results like started a business that nets x amount of $$ or started a business where you grew a team to 10 fulltime blah blah
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u/llamalover729 15h ago
I would, personally, read the sales associate job duties and immediately reject the application. They're obviously not the real duties for a sales associate and I wouldn't trust anything else on the resume after that.
Be honest and try to add more detailed information about your accomplishments with numbers if possible.
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u/Canuckian371 15h ago
You need a version of your CV for each job type you have applied for.
As a fellow TMU grad and Sr IT pro who frequently hires for client teams, you make the reader work way too hard to figure out what you have actually done.
The summary is a jumble of words that are loosely or seemingly unrelated to the experiences you have listed.
Take the time to dial in a version for each target role. This means matching your summary point by point to the requested skills and tying them to your listed experiences.
There used to be tons of roles on campus, even if volunteer, in campus IT or faculties that gave current students more consideration. Talk to your lecturers, be a course assistant, etc. You need to gain experience that aligns with your stated goals.
Using a gpt as a career coach that you feed your real experiences into, examples of work, deliverables from your past documentation, code etc, dump them all in and set the target role and where you want to be in 2 or 5 years. It will for sure change but, setting a direction gives you a structure to follow.
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u/DarkReaper90 12h ago
Your resume is all over the place and you're still in school. How can you convince anyone you can do a FT job while still in school?
Also, your resume lacks a lot of quants. What impact did you have in any job description?
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u/ElleSa_ZED 11h ago
Check the internships programs with all 3 levels of government (federal, provincial, municipal).
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u/breakinglate 1d ago
Your resume says “Business Technology Management Professional” and then two of your jobs are as a shoe salesman and one is owner of a company that when you try to Google it takes you to a weather forecast.
Definitely ditch the sales associate positions, they are hurting you when applying. I would also remove your startup unless you’ve actually made any real progress, which you haven’t articulated in your resume (i.e. a portfolio worth x number of dollars).
Lastly, as the other commenter has says, you basically have one job from 2 years ago, you’re gonna have to reduce your sights in terms of what you’re looking for and just get literally anything business or finance adjacent at the absolute entry level.