Workopolis.ca

Create a profile and upload your resume to submit to job postings on Workopolis.ca.

Monster.ca

Similar to Workopolis, create a profile and upload your resume to submit to job postings on Monster.ca.

CareerBuilder.ca

Similar to both Workopolis and Monster, create a profile and upload your resume to submit to job postings on CareerBuilder.ca.

LinkedIn

You’ll need a profile to search jobs and careers on LinkedIn.com. A useful feature that LinkedIn provides is that it will recommend specific jobs to you that are related to your employment history from your profile.

Eluta

Eluta is an aggregator of job postings from different company and independent job boards. No account is required to use their job search engine. 

Indeed

Like Eluta, Indeed is also an aggregator of job postings from different company and independent job boards. No account is required to use their job search engine either.

Happy job hunting.

Employment Insurance (EI) provides temporary financial assistance to unemployed Canadians who have lost their job through no fault of their own (due to shortage of work, seasonal layoffs, or mass layoffs) and who are available for and able to work, but can’t find a job.

For the purposes of this post I will be referring to regular employment insurance benefits.

What are the eligibility criteria to receive regular employment insurance benefits?

• You have paid premiums into the EI Account;
• You lost your employment through no fault of your own;
• You have been without work and without pay for at least seven consecutive days in the last 52 weeks;
• You have worked for the required number of insurable hours in the last 52 weeks or since the start of your last EI claim, whichever is shorter;
• You are ready, willing, and capable of working each day; and
• You are actively looking for work (you must keep a written record of employers you contact, including when you contacted them).

You may not be entitled to receive EI regular benefits if:

• You voluntarily left your employment without just cause;
• You were dismissed for misconduct; or
• You are unemployed because you are directly participating in a labour dispute (strike, lockout, or other type of dispute).

Do I need to apply for employment insurance benefits?

Yes you do need to apply for employment insurance benefits. EI benefits are not paid out automatically.

When should I apply for employment insurance benefits?

Apply as soon as you stop working. If you wait longer than 4 weeks after you stop working you risk losing your employment insurance benefits. Also, it takes a while for the Government of Canada to process your application so the early you submit the better.

How do I apply for Employment Insurance benefits?

To apply for employment insurance benefits you must submit an application online through the Service Canada Website.

How do I know if my application for employment insurance has been processed?

You can track the status of your application through “My Account” on the Service Canada Website.

When will I start to receive employment insurance benefits?

Once you submit your application, all the necessary documentation and your application is approved you will begin to receive payments within 28 days.

What will I be paid for my employment insurance benefits?

Numerous factors go into determining your specific employment insurance benefit so it is tough to know. The basic formula is 55% of your average insurable weekly earnings. The maximum insurable earnings (as of January 1st 2012) is $45,900. That means the maximum you will receive per week is $485.

How long will I be paid my employment insurance benefits?

Another tough one to estimate, but the range is between 14 – 45 weeks. The number of weeks that you are eligible to receive employment insurance benefits depends on several factors. Those factors include the number of hours of insurable employment that you accumulated during the previous 52 weeks prior to your claim and the unemployment rate in your region.

What types of Employment Insurance benefits are there?

There are essentially 3 types of employment insurance.

1. Employment Insurance Regular Benefits are available to individuals who lose their jobs through no fault of their own (for example, due to shortage of work, seasonal layoffs, or mass layoffs) and who are available for and able to work, but can’t find a job.
2. Employment Insurance Maternity and Parental Benefits provide support to individuals who are pregnant, have recently given birth, are adopting a child, or are caring for a newborn.
3. Employment Insurance Sickness Benefits are for individuals who are unable to work because of sickness, injury, or quarantine.

Where can I find more information on Employment Insurance?

• Visit the Service Canada Website
• Call the Employment Insurance Telephone Information Service (1-800-206-7218)

Do you work hard? Skip your lunch, work weekends and put in long hours at the office? How do you know if you’re being compensated fairly for the work that you do?

It is generally inappropriate to ask your co-workers what they are making. Most people won’t tell you or it will create an awkward situation if they do tell you because odds are one of you is making much more than the other.

Here are a few simple ways to determine if you are being paid fairly.

Do a job search for comparable positions online – Do a search on popular online job boards such as Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com for job postings that are comparable to your position. Some job posting will include a salary range or hourly wage that you can use to compare against your current pay to determine if you are under or over paid. If the job posting doesn’t offer a salary range or hourly wage it might be worth your while to call the hiring manager or recruiter directly and ask them what the typical salary range is for this particular position.

Use Glassdoor.com to find out what similar positions at different companies are paid - Glassdoor is a great resource for determining what other people in the same position are being paid at other companies. Simply search under “salaries” for your job position in the city that you work in. Even better, if you know a company with similar positions as yours search for that company directly.

For example, say my job title was a “Customer Service Representative” (CSR) with a major telecommunications company.  If I search “Telus” I can find salary/wage ranges for the position of Customer Service Representative to compare against my own salary or hourly wage.

As you can see from the screenshot below the salary range for a CSR at Telus is 22K to 50K per year with an average of $37K. If I was currently being paid less than 30K for this position I’d start to question why I was below the average.

Ask your boss - Definitely the riskier of the options, but hey its not as direct as asking for a raise outright. Approach your boss when he/she is in a good mood and pose the question “am I being paid inline with the market rate for my job?” If anything, it will be interesting to see you boss’s response and how he/she values your contributions.

So are you underpaid?