Job Hunting & Employment

We officially moved to the city back near the end of June, beginning of July and I have been looking for employment since then. It’s been super frustrating as out of hundreds of resumes I have only heard back from two places. The first was a security company and I would have to pay for cpr & first aid out of pocket before I even had any assurance of a position and then I would have to pay for further training, my uniform and steal toed boots all out of pocket before starting. I just can’t afford that right now. So I turned it down.

The second place to reach out to me is actually the one I am the most interested in! It’s actually a position as a bus operator with Halifax Transit, which is part of the HRM (Halifax Regional Municipality) so a city job. It pays really well, has benefits and a pension and would be a career and not just a job. I am so excited about this for many reasons and I really hope that everything goes well. I have not even heard back from anyone else other then these two which is so discouraging after more than two months.

I have always wanted to drive for a living. I absolutely adore driving. Though I have never driven anything as big as a bus (and we have the accordion busses here too), I have driven the largest vehicles my current license will let me and I’ve really enjoyed it. I know my way around the city really well and have done jobs that involved driving in the city before so I know a good chunk of the side streets as well. I also love the idea of being able to serve the people of the city, help people get around the city and make a real difference in peoples day to day lives even if they don’t even realize it.

So the next step, step 2 of 5 in the recruitment process is testing on reading, writing and comprehension skills as well as a tablet based (iPad cognition is what they called it) test which I assume is to make sure I know how to use one as I assume. I have an iPad and am moderately familiar with how to use it so I hope that shouldn’t be an issue. I always get apprehensive about tests of any sort but I am pretty sure that I would pass this without any issues. It’s not really anything I can study for. I either pass or don’t.

I’ll write more about this in the coming weeks as it unfolds and hopefully in a while I may be one of the newest bus operators for the city and if I don’t make it then at least I know I tried my best!