We continue to hear about students not getting jobs and hope this helps

We've summarized the themes driving a job shortage for Canadian students and tried to help by including our tips and tricks and listing cleantech roles. Please share if it helps anyone.

Jul 17, 2024

Untapped potential or wasted dreams are among the saddest things that can happen to the individual and society as a whole, as they mean energies and ideas may go unused. This tragedy occurs as many Canadian students look for summer and full-time jobs with no success. To help with this, we’ve included a summary of available strategies and actual roles.

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The unemployment rate for youth aged 15-24 recently hit 13.5%, double the unemployment rate of the average population and the highest in a decade. There is a real worry that without experience, many students may become trapped in careers they aren’t interested in. AI likely only accelerates this problem, as one of the first use cases for AI is replacing entry-level work. This creates a rush to gain helpful experience before many entry-level jobs are automated.

Canada's current economic weakness also causes more companies to focus on costs, which reduces hiring. Specifically, inflation remains high. This is especially true for any business importing inputs given the weak currency. At the same time, borrowing costs remain elevated despite the weaknesses because the BOC can’t risk low rates further disconnecting housing prices from income. The net result is that there are fewer roles, but we hope this helps you at least find the remaining ones, especially those in cleantech.

Unique job search strategies

We’ve shared these before but want to focus on an abbreviated version that’s helpful for students.

1. Set up alerts, try new platforms, and check recent fundraising in the sector to see who is hiring and growing

You can set up alerts for websites, LinkedIn pages, and profiles to see when new roles are posted. When roles are identified, the best way to get an interview is to talk with people at the company. There is always the option to pre-empt this by creating these relationships earlier so stakeholders are partners who let you know about the new roles. You can develop these relationships with cold inbounds, but there are many more natural paths to increase your odds (i.e., cleantech events are booming, and let us know if you ever need a list).

When you reach out to people, you must 1) show them you are excited and 2) be easy to interface with.

People like other people who like the same things as them. This has always been the case, and it remains true for jobs. Tell your stakeholders why you are excited to work there. It’s an easy advantage over other candidates who may seem to want any job.

Being easy to interface with saves people time and is more likely to get a response. This means being very clear with them on what you are trying to achieve. Provide this context in person at a conference or in written correspondence. For example, “I’d love to grab a coffee” is difficult for someone to prioritize compared to “I love what you’re doing, and I want to understand more to work there in the future. Can we connect on that?”. When you take this approach, the person may engage in the meeting when they are hiring or send it internally to someone else who is hiring. This second part is way easier to do with the context you provided. i.e., “This person wants to work here, perhaps for that role you are trying to fill.” The alternative of “Someone wants to have coffee with me for some reason, can you have coffee with them instead?” never works, and it closes doors for you. People also like to know that others value what they do with their time. It’s human nature. Asking for something specifically because you value it is something they like to hear, even though it puts you more at risk for personal rejection. If you want big things, it means more transparent conversations.

Tracking recent raises is also an easy way to become aware of the companies that may have capital and needs but no formal program (i.e., “I’d love to help with what you are building for a few months, given my research on…”). Crunchbase news and lots of other publications regularly share when companies raise funds. Grant announcements are another great source, as many grants are contingent on hiring (including for students) and provide a great catalyst.

2. Read employee complaints to understand what managers want

It’s a glorious time when more data is available on the internal workings of public and private companies than ever before. An easy example for job seekers that is often used in the wrong way is Glassdoor.

Job seekers often check the platform but typically use it to understand fit. While this is extremely useful, an underappreciated asset is reading what people feel they are being pushed on. What you want to find are these complaints. “My boss only cares about attention to detail.” “All that matters is compressing the launch timeline.” “They say I’m not focused on the customer enough.” Everything that people complain about getting pushed on is what the management and board care about more than anything. These are likely the things that they want candidates to repeat back to them in interviews or cold reachouts: i.e., “All I want to do for the next four months is help you build for the fall launch.” If you disagree with what they are focused on, that’s valuable information, too, because that means it's not for you. Reddit is great for this insight, too.

3. Review company filings to become more knowledgeable than the person interviewing you

Many cleantech companies remain private given the early stages of the industry. As a result, it’s easy to check the website exclusively, but this is a cop-out for job seekers who don’t want to put in the required prep. Most large cleantech companies, even if private, will have done some placement or have a debt instrument that forces them to put way more corporate information on the web than you’d expect. For public companies, you’ll find more information than you ever need. If you are in the US, these documents are on EDGAR and SEDAR if you are in Canada.

You can usually start with the company’s name and see options, as the brand name might differ from the legal name. You can always check news releases to see the legal name.

Existing employees may get a different level of detail in town halls and internal meetings simply because people are busy and no one communicates well. This lets you come better prepared than many people you chat with. The most valuable items in the filings are typically the drivers behind the growth forecasts, which is what you need to work hard on, and the risks, which are what you need to help them prevent. Usually, the senior executives will have signed off on most of the language, so it also gives you a sense of how they talk/think, and people like it when you parrot back to them their dreams and goals.

The detailed work above has the added benefit of providing further details on what companies are doing well.

4. Understand how the market works by reviewing trustee filings

When building a company, people are often blinded to the risks. In the majority of cases, this isn’t malicious; it’s simply that you need to be optimistic to build something, and kudos to them. It’s only in retrospect that even the most confident of leaders can be realistic about what the core impediments and risks were. Understanding these market-based risks is excellent as they are the same for everyone and teaches you what to avoid. This is valuable knowledge to bring to a company. Most people think you can only get this detail by listening to interviews and podcasts about founders’ failures. Still, there has been another source of even more detailed information for decades: bankruptcy filings. An easy way to find these is to pick some competitors in the space that went bankrupt and then find the accounting firm acting as their trustee. A straightforward Google or Perplexity search can do that. You can then go to the trustee firm’s website, and you will find the full background on what led to the bankruptcy as they submit to creditors and the courts a history of what took place and where the money went.

Trustee reports are typically the best high-level detail, but all the documents are fantastic.

It might take you ten minutes to scan it and imagine the value it adds when asking questions at the end of the interview. “How do you think about critical suppliers, given what happened to your peer?” “With the extended permitting times, what measures should we take to conserve capital and avoid the same fate as x?” “Should we spend more time growing in another market given how difficult x found regulatory approvals?” These are incredible insights that add instant value to a company.

Impact Logic, a technical recruitment leader for impact-driven founders, sponsors our jobs section (including all the cleantech student roles below). Reach out to them here as you look to fill critical roles.

The jobs below help finance the energy transition, distribute new forms of energy, optimize existing infrastructure, and apply cleaner technologies to existing industries.

Community & Indigenous Initiatives Intern with Fortis

Management Development Program - New Grads with Guillevin

Backend Cloud Software Developer - New Grad with BlueWave-AI

Summer Analyst, Fall Analyst, and Full-time Analyst at Agentis Capital

Hydropower Analyst - Mechanical at Stantec

Proposal/BD Coordinator at Hatch

Junior Environmental Scientist with Matrix Solutions

Account Executive role with Friendlier

And take advantage of your flexibility as a student to target companies not formally hiring

We’ve seen contacts and readers try any of the below with success. It’s always worth a try.

Make a list of the cleantech companies in other countries that you’ve been most impressed with. Contact their teams and ask if they need someone on the ground in Canada.
Study every company that has recently raised money and message the teams saying that you are ready to do any type of work and are flexible. With new startups, the company is more important than the work you do, so this is an easy way to arb that and be proactive in picking the company. You’d be shocked how much teams need someone keen, smart, and hungry right after they raise.
Build a circular economy business around any waste in your community that you identify.
Reach out to cleantech founders and suggest new commercial models that create jobs for you. For example, if they’ve created a new vertical greenhouse technology, ask if you can run a franchise.
Broker carbon credit deals (a lot of carbon credit deals are still impaired by the lack of transparent marketplaces - i.e., find the farmers that haven’t yet heard about how they can be inserted in the biochar supply chain)