Category: Job Seekers,

What is accessibility? Are we compliant or complicit – Accessibility in 2025?

Paul Wagenaar

We notice the ramps, the braille on some washroom signs, we all sometimes use the power door options when we have large items to get through doors, but do we notice the places that aren’t accessible?

More than 20 years legislation became law that guaranteed accessibility standards for people who live with barriers and disabilities. The law promised action. It has been hit or miss, there have been some improvements, but not enough. We need to ask ourselves are we compliant or are we complicit? We also need to advocate and take action.

How well do you read social cues?

Paul Wagenaar

As a career advisor who works with people who live with barriers it is interesting reversing perspectives about social cues. Most people who live with barriers have to learn to adapt to social cues that are not intrinsic to them, what are you doing to recognize and accommodate their social cues?

This post is a brief introduction to social cues that could add understanding and appreciation to our daily interaction with people who experience barriers. The more we support diversity, equity, and inclusiveness; the more opportunities for growth we all have.

Solving the puzzle …

Paul Wagenaar

I know what it feels like when you do everything right and things do not work out in your favour. Job searching can be like that. As a career advisor I see the frustration I have felt quite often. I encourage, support, and reinforce that success is achievable and will happen … as long as you continue to look at ways to solve your particular puzzle. Persistence, resilience, and hard work with an evolving employment plan will get you to where you want to be. These tips will help, they have worked for me, my job seekers, other people, and they will work for you.

Revisiting the 20 Things

Paul Wagenaar

The original “Twenty” was shared with me many years ago as a guide for excellence. Designed, initially for sales excellence, I have kept it close from job to job, sector to sector, and with some periodic updates, it continues to be my guide to achieving success. I am grateful to the friend who shared them with me and I hope you may find them to be as useful for you.

Connecting the dots …

Paul Wagenaar

Doing well in an interview is so much more than just showing up. From creating a resume that evolves for each opportunity to tailoring an equally directed cover letter to solve an employers staffing problem. To knowing how to follow-up professionally and preparing for each interview; your successful job search relies on you connecting all of these dots.

WINS, LOSES, TIES, and other ways to find VICTORY – Part 1

Paul Wagenaar

Have you ever tried to get into a building but couldn’t open the door? Have you ever needed immediate assistance only to be told you will have to go on a waiting list for six months or more? Have you ever wanted a job but didn’t get it knowing that you were not considered, not because you couldn’t do the job, but because of someone’s bias you weren’t given a chance?

In Canada everyone has the right to employment, but it is far from a “level playing field;” people who live with barriers, including disabilities have to work harder to achieve their wins, they often lose, occasionally tie, and have to find ways to make progress and achieve a measure of victory.

In this, part 1 or 2, I hope to illuminate some of the barriers, the challenges, and to help dispel the myths and biases to help people who live with barriers and disabilities to achieve their employment goals.

We need your awareness and your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusiveness.

Work pressure and sick time.

Paul Wagenaar

In the past and even today, work has stressed and made me feel overwhelmed … and I know that I am not alone. There are ways to mitigate these feelings and even to “get ahead of them;” consider this post to be a guide with “Tools Everyone Can Use” to help you stop being affected as much.

Helping a friend

Paul Wagenaar

I think my best posts are those that I write with a specific person in mind. I believe this is especially true when helping someone with a resume. A resume is a one or two page representation of a three dimensional person with skills, experiences, and attitudes that has to capture all of those things along with the nuances that makes that person unique and this is hard to do. This post is a start on that process, and what I wrote for one person might help you or someone you know as well. Please use it, share it, and add to it, I hope it is tool my friend will use as well as you.

A way forward …

Paul Wagenaar

I have been unemployed … I have been worried I won’t find another job … I have laid awake wondering and worrying. I believe in illuminating fear, of turning towards it instead of away from it. I believe fear can be overcome, but it needs to be acknowledged, recognized, and there is a process to move past it. This is a brief post on getting started on that path.

A short guide to “digging out”

Paul Wagenaar

It is easy for your emails to become overwhelming and challenging to reign in the avalanche of communication that seems to accumulate in a short periods of time. You are not alone in having this happen and you are not the only one who can quickly feel stressed and overwhelmed as a result.

Consider this post to be a simple guide to a series of tools you can use to “dig out” from the avalanche and lessen your daily stress. Thank you to RF for suggesting this post.