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Money Minute: How to gain a competitive edge in the job market

Money Minute: How to gain a competitive edge in the job market

Showing up to a job interview and being greeted by a room of qualified doppelgangers waiting to woo the interviewer can shatter anyone’s hopes of acing it – especially in Canada’s shaky and stunted job market.

There was a time when having a degree could earn you a couple of points, but not in today’s market where 16 per cent of Canadians have bachelor degrees compared to those in 2000, according to the latest Thinkopolis report issued by job-hunting site Workopolis. Master’s degrees are also on the up, with 43 per cent of Canadians tacking the honours onto their resumes and PhDs are becoming more commonplace with a quarter of Canadians in the Workopolis database sporting the doctor designation.

Education is still important, after all you don’t want an undergrad in history guessing at chemicals in the pharmaceutical lab or a fine arts major designing a dam but for many careers having the designation doesn’t necessarily mean getting the job.

Nearly three quarters of those surveyed say their degrees are not relevant to their jobs despite the fact that 60 per cent of Canadians believe education should be tied to the job market, according to the Thinkopolis report.

So if education doesn’t seal the deal what does get you the job?

Yahoo Canada Finance’s Ashleigh Patterson takes a look at what can give you a competitive edge in the shark-infested job market waters.