Why Career Edge

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.

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Read Jumana’s story, from a new grad to an essential part of Career Edge.

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…

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Read Purvi’s story of being an immigrant to Canada and how she found her job through Career Edge!

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.

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Read the story of Candice and how she started with Career Edge. If you’re a new grad, Career Edge can help you find your first meaningful job.

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.

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Read the story of Kyle and his perspective on life in Canada and his career ambitions!

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.

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Learn about the journey of Aziz with Career Edge.

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?”

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Read Jeff’s story of leading Career Edge’s team and how they are changing lives

Jeff Lazenby

President and CEO

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.

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