27. On Career Development in Atlantic Canada: Q&A with Margaret Schwartz

On the 27th episode of The Career Planning Show, we feature an interview we conducted with Margaret Schwartz in April 2021 while she was serving as Strategic and Youth Initiatives Outreach Coordinator with the Government of Nova Scotia. She now serves as Communications and Community Navigator with Placemaking 4G and TRIBE Network.

A natural connector and storyteller, Margaret works with the Halifax-based recruitment firm Placemaking 4G to intentionally connect with communities to share career opportunities, and helps to amplify the firm’s story through its communication channels. Holding a degree in Public Relations from Mount Saint Vincent University and eight years of experience across multiple non-profits and most recently, a position with the Province of Nova Scotia, Margaret is guided by her will to unite others on a shared sense of purpose – to create and amplify equitable opportunities for historically excluded groups in the Atlantic region. Through a Cluster Employment initiative, Margaret’s time is shared with the Tribe Network, where she helps entrepreneurship and innovation-focused members navigate funding, entrepreneurial resources and programs created for racialized communities. Margaret also serves as a board member at Team WORK Cooperative, fund development committee member at MacPhee Centre for Creative Learning, mentor with EduNova Cooperative’s Study and Stay Program, and mentor with Halifax Partnership’s Connector Program.

In our interview with Margaret, we discussed the importance of tapping into your personal and professional networks for career advancement given that 8 out of 10 jobs that employers hire for in Nova Scotia are not posted online, the fact that it’s important to build your self-confidence to reach out cold to employers to express your interest in joining them based on your skills, values and overall fit with the organization, the opportunity to tap into post-secondary career centres and community employment services organizations, the ikigai career planning framework, the importance of finding a mentor and developing the three critical soft skills of collaboration, communication and critical thinking.

Connect with Margaret via LinkedIn or Twitter, and see her Amplify East profile.

Resources:

• Placemaking 4G
• Tribe Network
• Ikigai framework
• Government of Nova Scotia Department of Labour programs and services
• “Humans Wanted” report by RBC
• Halifax Partnership’s Connector Program
• EduNova’s Study & Stay Program
• OneNovaScotia dashboard
• NPower Canada

To learn more about The Career Planning Show, visit Rascanu.com/TheCareerPlanningShow.