Marc Belaiche, President of Guhuza

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. Hey again, there it is. Rob Daniels, welcome to another episode of Awareness, the podcast fostering a more compassionate, empathetic and accepting society. And hope you've been enjoying the episodes thus far. It's incredible that we're already on week number seven here. So episode number seven of Awareness. Don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and perhaps you might be watching on YouTube. So super important to do that there and help support this podcast and get it into the hands of as many people as possible. And of course to watch, to listen and to and to learn. Because, you know, the best idea is just to try and learn something new every day. And that's my personal challenge too, on this podcast, is to keep learning and to keep challenging myself, going after fears and, you know, trying to erase that stigma when it comes to mental health and awareness. So without any further ado, again, episode number seven has arrived and thank you wherever you may be listening to this podcast. And my special guest for this week is none other than the co founder of Gahuza, Mark Balaish. Thank you for being here. [00:01:35] Speaker B: Thanks, Rob. [00:01:36] Speaker A: Yeah, this is incredible. Mark and I have been working on this for a few weeks now, trying to coordinate getting an episode together for you, because we feel it's super important to discuss the, the job world, especially at this state in time and all the challenges out there. So for those that are unaware of what Mark does for a living, and perhaps you may be looking for a job, maybe it's a career change, you're going to want to be aware and remember his name again. Okay, so again, Mark Balaish, and he is the co founder of Gahuza. Why don't you, Mark, provide let's say, a brief description on what the platform Gahuza is all about. [00:02:25] Speaker B: Well, after Covid hit, we realized that there'd be a change in how people would look for work. People were starting to work from home. The pandemic changed the way people interacted and the workplace itself. And so we built this. And I've been in the recruiting and staffing business for 30 years now. And I realized that when there's fundamental shifts in something like the pandemic, it is time to rethink the way the workplace goes. So basically, the platform, we really simplified it. We looked at the problems first off, so we said that for employers, how long it takes to go through resumes, how long it takes to source, screen, schedule interviews, we looked at that, the process itself, how many hours were being taken to resumes, and we thought there's gotta be a way to fix these problems for employers. And so I wish there was something like chat GPT back then, but this is back to 2021. [00:03:25] Speaker A: Right. [00:03:26] Speaker B: And we looked at certain frameworks to try to solve these problems. I, I really like looking, I, I really like fixing problem solving problems. [00:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:35] Speaker B: And so I said, okay, well these are the problems. How do you fix it? So I looked at frameworks such as Uber, Netflix and dating sites and I said, how do they do these, how do they fix these kind of problems? Because it's kind of similar but in different ways. [00:03:49] Speaker A: Right. [00:03:49] Speaker B: So we looked at Uber, say for example. We said, well, with Uber, you, you say where you want to go to and from. [00:03:57] Speaker A: Right. [00:03:57] Speaker B: And you push a button and somebody shows up to take you there. [00:04:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:01] Speaker B: So we thought the same thing for employers. Wouldn't it be great if all they had to do is upload a job description, push a button, and then people start coming into the platform to interview live with them within minutes instead of all this whole process of setting up interviews and. [00:04:15] Speaker A: Right. [00:04:16] Speaker B: Screening people. [00:04:17] Speaker A: So it's more of an instant way of getting your applicants. [00:04:20] Speaker B: Exactly, yeah. And, and, and so the speed dating is kind of like, the concept of that part is like, hey, we, I want to see a lot of people in a very short amount of time. [00:04:29] Speaker A: Right. [00:04:29] Speaker B: And for the job seeker, similarly, we looked at, we said we just didn't want to fix the problems for the employers only. We wanted to fix the problems for job seekers too. [00:04:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:39] Speaker B: So we said to ourselves, okay, well what are their problems? What are their issues when they're finding a job? And they all would say to us how long it takes, how frustrating it is to apply to a job and never hear back. [00:04:51] Speaker A: Right. [00:04:51] Speaker B: So we said, okay, well, three step process for job seekers too. How, how easy it would be to just upload their resume to a platform to go who's a. Then they would get pinged by text, email or push notification when there's a job that matches their background. And three is they can interview live right on the spot with that employer. [00:05:10] Speaker A: So let's say that happens and they get pinged, but they're on the road, let's say, or they're at a family function. Do they have the way of saying, hey, can I, can we set this interview up like tomorrow kind of thing? Or like, how does that work if they're not instantly ready right away? [00:05:32] Speaker B: Right. So that is probably the number one question for job seekers. What if I'm not ready for an interview? So I'll answer In three different ways. One is like our marketing is all designed about. Imagine you are somewhere and you get text, like text with a great job and you can interview live right on the platform. All you have to do is just upload your resume. So that's kind of number one. And yes, there is that kind of concept of changing what you're used to. [00:05:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:59] Speaker B: So it's shifting that. Number two, is there, there isn't right now a mechanism to schedule an interview, but certainly the employer gets that message that a candidate is interested because there's a link, an option that they can say, I'm interested, but I'm just not available right now. [00:06:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, so there is that option. Yeah. [00:06:18] Speaker B: And then third one is that most employers usually stay on for about an hour after they push the button. So after you get the link, it doesn't mean that you have to rush to the do the interview. You usually have about an hour or so while the employer is waiting for that interview to start or schedule starting that interview. [00:06:37] Speaker A: Okay. So there is a little bit of a time gap to get you ready. If you, if you want to brush your teeth, comb your hair to look like you're ready for an interview, you have that extra half hour or maybe an hour to. To meet with the interviewer. [00:06:50] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. [00:06:50] Speaker A: Okay. [00:06:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:51] Speaker A: Okay, so that's good. But I understand what you're saying. Like you're, you're also trying to flip the script. Flip the script for employee, sorry, job seekers, let's say, in the terms of their mindset. Like if you want to get a job quicker and it could be your dream job. Well, just try and be ready and see if you can challenge yourself in the moment to just be ready. Is that kind of what you're trying to say too? [00:07:15] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And, and a job seeker can indicate when their, their preferences are for being notified. [00:07:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:22] Speaker B: So better in the morning, afternoon, or evening. So they have that option too. So, so we try to make adjustments within the Uber 1.0 model. It was kind of like you schedule an Uber or like you, you do it right now. [00:07:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:35] Speaker B: And then in Uber 2.0, it was kind of like you can schedule an Uber to come pick you up somewhere in the future. [00:07:41] Speaker A: Right. [00:07:41] Speaker B: And so we're in the Uber 1.0, where it's kind of the here and now, the speed dating. [00:07:46] Speaker A: Right. [00:07:46] Speaker B: Boom. Just, you know, most interviews only take on the platform, take on average about 8 to 10 minutes. [00:07:51] Speaker A: Okay. [00:07:52] Speaker B: So it's not like a full fledged interview. It's just kind of like, hey, are we in the right boat? Are we in the same. [00:07:57] Speaker A: Are we. Do we want the same things right now? Do you match our qualifications and are you looking for this type of role fully? Yeah. To just be reassured now, who is managing all this, though, on Guhuza's side like that you get this instant ping, like, who's sending them out. Have you structured this, like, on the website that it does it automatically? Like, how does that work? [00:08:21] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a great question. So the matching part of it is like the core of the platform. So when that employer uploads that job description, pushes the button. Our system is matching all the resumes that are in our system. Wow. Within milliseconds, it identifies the best match candidates, just the resume to job description, and only sends messages out to those candidates. [00:08:45] Speaker A: Wow. So this is why you love ChatGPT so much. We were telling me, we had a conversation in the, in our. In our podcast kitchen about how, you know, just how instantly you can get information from ChatGPT. And this is the same type of thing with jobs, but through cahusa. So you're really aligning yourself with what's going on in society. You're embracing what's out there with the new technologies. So it's. It's really good on you for, for starting this in 2021. [00:09:12] Speaker B: So, yeah, I mean, I come from back in my early days, taking a stack of resumes home from the day that came in by mail or fax, dropped off or whatever, and literally going through them one at a time and saying, okay, this one, Yes, I want to talk to them maybe, and no. And now all that is being replaced really, by technology. [00:09:34] Speaker A: Right. [00:09:34] Speaker B: And it has been around for a while. We're just using what has been around and, and really making it even better. [00:09:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:41] Speaker B: So we get the right candidates that are pinged. [00:09:43] Speaker A: Yeah. That's fantastic. I wanted to talk to you about your expert opinion. Can you. You've been around this type of profession you've worked in for many. How many years has it been? [00:09:57] Speaker B: 30. [00:09:57] Speaker A: 30 years, which is quite remarkable. In your expert opinion, in this day and age, who do you think has it more difficult, would you say? In your opinion, would it be the job seekers or the recruiters? And why? Like what? [00:10:15] Speaker B: Why? They both have it tough for different reasons. [00:10:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:19] Speaker B: You know, the. On the recruiter side, the amount. I'll answer. Let me think it through logically on my end. But the recruiters do have it tough. Like, employers tend to not care about what job seekers have to go through, and job seekers don't really care what employers have to go through. They, they both are just trying to go get a job or hire higher. [00:10:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:38] Speaker B: So the, the employer, you know, does have a lot because sometimes if they're just posting a position online, they might get 100, 200, 300 applications. So the amount of time to figure out who's the best, who are the best candidates, contact those candidates and, and reach out, schedule interviews, sometimes get ghosted where the candidate doesn't show up. Right. Very frustrating. So, yeah, that, that part of it is really tough. And on the job seeker side, you know, tweaking the resume, tweaking the COVID letter, applying Mostly most times, 90% of the time or more, they never hear back anything, even just an acknowledgement that we received your application. Yeah, that can be frustrating too. So I kind of like on a scale of 10, like they both have like 8, 9, 10 out of 10 frustration. And that's what we're trying to fix at Cahooza. We're trying to get. Take away all those frustrations on both sides and just make the connection faster. [00:11:30] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a, that's a good thing that you're, that you're working on with that. And I mean, I listen, it's, it's, it's a tough world out there because everyone is, it's like you said, the ghosting thing happens. There are changes that happen in organizations and then there's a lot of frustration out there. And you know, I definitely want to get to this on the podcast. Just the, the differences between just trying to find a job and, and you know, these, the recruiters, what they're actually looking for. So I'll get to that in just a moment. But I, you know, I want to know, let's say frustrated job seekers out there, because there are many frustrated job seekers seekers out there. And the, you know, they'll say stuff on the news like there's all these new jobs that are available, but they're hard to get. And sometimes, I mean, the competition is, is fierce. I would say too. So what are you saying to Let's. I know Cahooza is the answer come to Gahuza is. Is what you would say. But for job seekers, let's say, let's say who's a didn't exist. For example, what are you telling a job seeker who's sending out resume after resume online and not hearing anything back? [00:12:56] Speaker B: Yeah, and that is the most common issue with people who are not working or are actively looking for a position. I guess I would refer back to kind of like what I did. At one point I was just frustrated with what I was doing and I wanted to get something else and knowing what I knew about the industry and how people connect and finding jobs and things like that. The one, the one thing that I would probably say is just first off, start off with a list of all the things that you are really interested in doing. And that could be everything from like, do you want to work in an office, do you want to work at home, what hours do you want to work? And then what, what kind of people do you want to work with? You want to work with younger people, older people, what sector do you want to work with? And make a list. And when I did this, this is going back a little while, but I would still offer the same advice. Make a list of everything. Right? Everything. Even if it's small. Like you know, is there a fridge in the office? You know, what hours you want to do. Are you more of a nighttime person? Are you more daytime person? [00:14:05] Speaker A: Self awareness is important to understand where you work best on the clock, in the 24 hour clock. [00:14:10] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:14:11] Speaker A: Good point. [00:14:11] Speaker B: Yeah. So you know what's on that list? Like make a list. And, and that, that list might take, it could, it could take two, three, four days. It might take a week, maybe even longer. [00:14:22] Speaker A: Right. [00:14:22] Speaker B: But just write it down as you think about them. Say you're having dinner or whatever, you think of something, add it to the list. Then what I want you to do is these days with ChatGPT, because when I did this, I didn't have the benefit of having a chat GPT is I would take all that list, dump it into chat GPT and I would say, what are the top 10 jobs that match what I'm looking for? As many of these criteria that I have. This is what I'm looking for. [00:14:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:49] Speaker B: Now you know you. And you might say, well I, I like baseball. [00:14:54] Speaker A: Right. [00:14:54] Speaker B: Or I might, let's say I, there's a certain hobby, flower, whatever, um, you, you take that list and include those things that you like and it will probably blow your mind that there will be like some jobs in there that you may not have thought about before that might be the direction that you want to go in your career. I'm always thinking like being like you, Everybody works say 35, 40 hours a week or, or whatever it is. 30 hours. [00:15:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:23] Speaker B: Enjoy that time. [00:15:24] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:15:24] Speaker B: Enjoy the people that you're working with. [00:15:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:26] Speaker B: And, and if you can find that list. So then get it down to that list. Maybe there's out of that list of 10, maybe there's two or three or five that you really want to explore. And then go on to LinkedIn and find those people who are doing those roles right now and connect with them, talk to them, meet with them, you know, ask them about what it. What it's like. Ask them if you can volunteer to do, to help out with whatever it is. [00:15:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:51] Speaker B: And that scope, that, that's the, that spans every industry, every kind of job, you know, whether you're an accountant, whether you're in a. In it entrepreneur, like, whatever it is. [00:16:02] Speaker A: Shows that you're passionate, you're. You're taking a step forward. And like, do you recommend yourself? Like, trying to go for a job before the job even exists? Like, if you're interested in the company, try and look for, you know, try and make a connection before the job's even there. Right. [00:16:18] Speaker B: Create it. [00:16:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:19] Speaker B: I mean, like, just from a personal perspective. With Gahua, after Covid hit, our business was destroyed. [00:16:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:26] Speaker B: Effectively destroyed. We were doing recruiting and it was basically, there were no jobs. We were doing events, we were doing job fairs, and we were doing other entrepreneurs events and things like that. [00:16:38] Speaker A: And you couldn't do that. No. [00:16:40] Speaker B: So. So effectively, it was like, I lost my job. Yeah. So what did I do? I went to the drawing board. Yeah, exactly. [00:16:47] Speaker A: And back to the drawing board. [00:16:49] Speaker B: If you remember, back in, during the COVID it was about pivoting. [00:16:52] Speaker A: Right. [00:16:52] Speaker B: You had to pivot your career. It was. Everybody just said pivot. [00:16:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:55] Speaker B: So I did the same. It was like I lost my job. [00:16:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:58] Speaker B: And so I said, okay, like, where is the future? Where's the job? Where. Where should I go? [00:17:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:04] Speaker B: And that's. I said, okay, like, I want. Let's address the problems. What. For me, I'm an entrepreneur. Like, I love building stuff. [00:17:12] Speaker A: I love creating. [00:17:13] Speaker B: Creating. You're a creator, but if you're just looking for a job, which is okay. Like, most people are not entrepreneurs. Most people are look for jobs. [00:17:21] Speaker A: Jobs work. [00:17:22] Speaker B: And that's okay. [00:17:23] Speaker A: That's okay. [00:17:23] Speaker B: So what jobs might there be? And think of what jobs might not even be around. Like, who. Who even knew about AI jobs back 5 years ago, 10 years ago? [00:17:32] Speaker A: I know, right? [00:17:33] Speaker B: The. The people that saw the future. [00:17:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:36] Speaker B: Had a vision that AI was going. [00:17:38] Speaker A: To be like, you got to wonder, like, was AI created during COVID Was that a project that was done in a Covet project? [00:17:46] Speaker B: Well, I watched a. I watched an interview with Sam Altman, who created ChatGPT. [00:17:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:53] Speaker B: From 2015, 2016. And he talked about AI. Yeah, much, much before COVID Yeah. So there was always that talk. And I mean that was come. Came from California and Silicon Valley. So they had the vision of the future. [00:18:05] Speaker A: Right. [00:18:06] Speaker B: But it hadn't really become mainstream. I think really people think of AI as when ChatGPT came out. [00:18:12] Speaker A: Right. [00:18:13] Speaker B: Which was back around 20, end of 2021, I think. Right? [00:18:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:18:17] Speaker B: That's in December 20. You wanted just took off. [00:18:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:20] Speaker B: But really AI has taken. Was around in all kinds of different forms. [00:18:24] Speaker A: Right. So I probably just got a lot of work done to it during co. They probably had extra time on their hands, less travel, whoever was working with it. And they're like, okay, that's when they probably did most of their work. But it was certainly probably. Yeah, it was around for, for a little while before, like you said. So I know this, the experts saying like, you know, don't change with the world. Well, then you, you get left behind. But I also believe, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So what was it specifically, do you think that made society, let's say, change when it comes to looking for work? Like, why does it seem so difficult nowadays to land a great job? And I want to give you example is, you know, I have this postal worker that works on our street and she's probably been with Canada post for like 27 years. And she told me, well, I walked into the depot, Rob, 27 years ago and I said, are you hiring? You looking for any, you know, employees? When can you start? And she's like, tomorrow. Okay, come on in, you're hired. And she's been there ever since. And now you probably have to go through about a interview stage, about five, six interviews to be to deliver mail. And I'm like, it blows my mind. So where was it that we said in society that it has to be this difficult now to get a job you really like? What was that turning point that said we have to make this more difficult for human beings? [00:19:58] Speaker B: Yeah, you're absolutely right. It is much more difficult because it used to be just, hey, person seems good, they came in, they're ready to work, let's hire them. There's. I could probably spend a couple hours on this particular thing, but just to shorten it up, I would say the number of systems that we have. [00:20:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:18] Speaker B: So for example, when somebody would apply to a position previously, all they had to do is send a resume. [00:20:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:25] Speaker B: Even during the email time or fax or whatever. Then it moved to, okay, well, between HR and it, they Kind of got together and said, okay, let's make this a process. Let's ask for all the information. So a person has to fill in the form, like online, first name, last name, address, skills, upload your resume, answer a bunch of questions. [00:20:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:46] Speaker B: So that made it more difficult then the volume of. Or how easy it was for candidates to be able to apply. That also made it overwhelming for employers. [00:20:55] Speaker A: Right. [00:20:56] Speaker B: Where they got so many resumes that it slowed the process down. [00:21:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:00] Speaker B: Because you don't want to miss somebody. [00:21:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:02] Speaker B: And. But you want to give everybody a fair chance. Right? [00:21:05] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:21:05] Speaker B: So. So you had those things going on. And then ultimately, I think. I think there's been more labor laws and employment laws that have made hiring more hiring trickier. [00:21:19] Speaker A: Okay. [00:21:20] Speaker B: Where that if you hire the wrong person, then you've got potential lawsuits, you got terminations, you got all kinds of different things from an employer's perspective. So they tend to slow the process down to make sure that they get the right person and everything checks out. And. [00:21:36] Speaker A: Which is weird. Like, how do you. Because it's like, how do you determine that? And how does the person on the other end that may be the second candidate, second best candidate, find out like, that they were less qualified, maybe. Like, it's hard to be factual with that if they can't see what that person's resume looked like or where they fully have been. It's like, you know, and this leads me to kind of like what I wanted to bring up next with you was like, you know, gone are these days where a recruiter or a hiring manager is looking at your resume and being impressed that you worked, say, in customer service at Wayne Gretzky's winery. And if you applied for a communications role for a construction company, you could probably still land that job because they. They see Wayne Gretzky's winery. Oh, and he worked customer service there. That's quite impressive. He worked for the greatest player that's ever played in the National Hockey League. I'm going to give this guy a chance. But nowadays, if they see that and it doesn't really fully match the criteria with the qualifications, you're going to still get looked over. And it blows my mind when I think of that, because now, you know, it's not so much the case. So I'm like, what is. What is it exactly that recruiters are looking for on your resume when you apply? So how can that person, now that worked for Wayne Gretzky's winery get that job? What do they. What do they have to do? [00:22:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:00] Speaker A: They Got to switch the qualifications that they got to. They make it stand out to the, the job they're applying for. It's very, it's very difficult. And, and you, you can't really. It's. There's no, I don't think there's any factor on that because you might have a hiring manager or boss that might get intrigued by that nowadays. But then 80% where. I don't know that percentage fully. But all I keep getting told from the job world and employment hubs is that it's like the, it's got to match the qualifications. What is it again? The qualifications with your skill set meet their needs. Right. And I don't know who taught that or who said it has to be about that, but I, My question is like, why can't we go back to the days where it's like, you think of Wayne, wow, this guy worked at a big. Let's give him a chance. Like it should still have that is what I'm saying. Do you still feel like that should be the case? [00:23:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:58] Speaker A: I mean, in certain scenarios. [00:24:00] Speaker B: Yeah. I guess from my perspective, I, Because I see so many resumes. [00:24:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:03] Speaker B: I have to, like, how do I screen those people? Like, how do I screen. How do I take 100 resumes and get them down to one or two. [00:24:10] Speaker A: Right. [00:24:10] Speaker B: Or five that I want to reach out to. And a lot of it, the technology is helping me get there because it is matching. But you're absolutely right. It's only matching on the skills, qualifications. [00:24:21] Speaker A: Right. [00:24:22] Speaker B: And experience. So. So it's taking all that data. Whereas in years gone by. To your point. [00:24:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:28] Speaker B: Years gone by, it would be like, oh, this person likes to play baseball or this person has a hobby. That's a. And. But that in today's world, it's irrelevant. [00:24:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:38] Speaker B: Right. Because they're only looking for matches of the skills to the job description. [00:24:44] Speaker A: Is that through the employment laws that have been put into place. Is that. Who did. Said that, that that's what the changeover like due to the implant or who, like, who flipped the script with that? [00:24:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's the volume of resumes because on previous jobs I might have gotten say 20, but now with the technology being so easy, I might get 100 or 200. So some way you gotta speed through that process. But no, there was not. I wouldn't say employment or minister of labor or anything like that. Like it's, it's has to do with employers kind of saying, hey, you know what? The main thing is that you find the right Candidate that can do the job and the best candidate. And I, I've seen so many scenarios where not the best candidate quality, like qualified get the job. Yeah, right. A lot of times the best match candidate who has everything is not always the best candidate. [00:25:43] Speaker A: Yeah, right. [00:25:43] Speaker B: Because it doesn't. The skills and qualifications don't overlay. How does this, how is this person going to fit into our culture? [00:25:50] Speaker A: Yeah. And what's their like, work style? Like, are they, you know, can you trust them with their, like if, if, let's say they want to work nine to five, but if, if they like I'm always a fan of, you know, hey, okay, if you're, if you're like 9, 9 to 5, but you come in at like 10 after 9 and you, you leave at 5, but you get all the work done, then that's okay. Like so. But if you have an employee that, that is, that slacks off and stuff, that doesn't really show in the. They may have those qualifications and such. But you, you're right, you're saying to your point, like you don't always get that right candidate because of their dedication to their work or their craft. Whatever they're doing, it might not be. They might not be as disciplined as that other employee. [00:26:35] Speaker B: Yeah, those are for sure point excellent points. And the other thing I would also add is that there's a, a reduction in the amount of dollars that companies are spending on training and development. [00:26:48] Speaker A: Right. [00:26:49] Speaker B: I, I think that there's a few different reasons. One is that the expectation is that somebody comes in and has that. But I think the second thing is that there's so much more online training that people can do on their own, whereas it used to be you'd have to send people away to courses and seminars and workshops and things like that to get that, because there wasn't any. Anything in house or you had to bring an expert in to train the staff. But now kind of, I think the expectation is a little bit more that the person's coming in already has that experience. They've gained that from somewhere else. [00:27:21] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:27:21] Speaker B: So we don't have to train them. [00:27:22] Speaker A: Okay, gotcha. You know, this is not to. Meant to be like a controversial type of a question or a podcast. It's only just to bring into awareness what, you know, we've seen realistically, what has it been over the last five years that a lot of people like. Canada is a very welcoming country. We let a lot of people into the country from different areas due to different particular reasons. No judgment whatsoever whether it's War or a better life here. You being in the profession that you, you've been in for so long, do you ever experience complaints from, let's say, Canadians themselves, that they're losing out jobs to people that have come here trying to settle that are not Canadian? And is there, is there like a fairness thing going on? Is there something where it's, you're, you're hearing, hey, it's not fair. This is, these are our jobs and they're not going to Canadians. And do you hear that? [00:28:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I hear it all the time. [00:28:28] Speaker A: Okay. [00:28:29] Speaker B: And it's. Decisions were made at the federal government level about the number of people coming to Canada. And a lot of them have really great experience and they do, they do take away jobs. Especially if you ask the youth, right, who were working in say Tim Hortons or other, you know, say retailers and things like that, that they had those jobs before, but now they don't have those jobs, they don't have those opportunities. So there's definitely that, that overlaying everything going on, I think also the differences. And not that I'm an immigration expert or anything like that, but, but years ago I would find that the people that were coming to Canada, a lot of them were, had formed companies in other countries. Like they, they were entrepreneurs themselves in other countries. They came here, they settled and they became entrepreneurs here and they created jobs and they created businesses and. But whereas these days I, I don't find the same, like they, the people that are coming, they have great experience somewhere else. Like, you know, there, a lot of them are engineers, accountants and everything else, but they're not creating businesses, they're not creating jobs through there. So that I've seen that as a change from where we were like say even 10 years ago. Yeah, 10, 20 years ago, it was a very different type of person that would come in. They would still let in all kinds of different people from all the different areas of expertise, industries, professions. [00:29:59] Speaker A: Right. [00:30:00] Speaker B: But, but you don't see as many entrepreneurs that are coming in compared to the what I saw from 10, 20 years ago. [00:30:07] Speaker A: Right. Have you seen any stats or anything in regards to, let's say like, you know, the war in Ukraine, for example? There was a lot of people that were welcomed into Canada after all the, you know, atrocities that were going on there, and they're trying to find a new home and find peace. Have they settled? Have they found work? Have you heard of any stories in regards to those types of people? [00:30:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I've, I've heard where they've come They've landed. They sometimes they live in somebody's house here and they get settled that way. Government has programs as well that help people get settled. [00:30:45] Speaker A: Okay. [00:30:45] Speaker B: And then there's a lot of job training programs that are available through the governments, through the various levels of government that will help train, will help intern, like, get them internships, get them Canadian work experience, get them on, you know, get them up to speed in terms of Canadian standards and things like that. But in terms of. In terms of jobs, I don't know of any statistics specifically. [00:31:11] Speaker A: Right. [00:31:11] Speaker B: But yeah, there's. There's all kinds. I mean, you know, one thing, and I'll just share this story real quick. I think part of the challenge with people who come from other countries is that there's so many different standards in different countries that's hard to know. [00:31:25] Speaker A: Right. [00:31:26] Speaker B: Like, where they really stand in Canada. Yeah. [00:31:29] Speaker A: Like, I've. I'll be honest with you. I met someone once at a car dealership, and he was studying to be a. A car sales guy, like a salesman for. At a car dealership. But back in India, he had his license for medical. Like, medical license to be a doctor. But it. That didn't translate here quite yet. He was still trying to figure that out, and he just took what he could for the time being. [00:31:53] Speaker B: That's a perfect example. Like, somehow, you know, people are different. They have a different body than they're here, here versus there. My dad came here. He was a veterinarian from France. [00:32:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:07] Speaker B: But he had to go through the same process. And like, I kind of joke around, somehow animals are different. Cats and dogs are different in France than they are here. Yeah, they're the same. Right. But, you know, the standards are different, like the training and education. So you have to have some kind of certain. [00:32:22] Speaker A: A borderline. Yeah, yeah. A fine line there to figure it out. Baseline. Exactly. Going. Just quickly touching on what we were talking about a little earlier about struggling with. With tweaking your resume and this, this is sort of like a personal thing for me, but for others out there that might be struggling with their resume and tweaking it for each and every position that they apply for. If, if you struggle with that in that, that specific, you know, issue. Let's say, what. What do you. What would you recommend to those people that. That have. They struggle with tweaking every component with the qualifications and the skills to match those qualifications. [00:33:07] Speaker B: Right. So I'd say not to spend as much time worrying about that. And I always say, like, if you ask, if you ask 10 people in the recruitment industry, you give them your Resume, you'll get 10 different opinions as to what you should change on the resume. [00:33:27] Speaker A: Right. [00:33:27] Speaker B: And I'm like, you know what? Just put your job title, your company, what you did, your accomplishments, responsibilities, and just run with that. Spend more time talking to people rather than, rather than wait. Not wasting, but spending too much time on tweaking your resume. Because one person will like it, one person won't. And I'll just share this real quick story, and that is that I equate changing your resume every time somebody says you should change your resume to that store owner who is not getting customers coming into the store. So what do they do? They start moving products around the store. Oh, I'm going to move these products to the top shelf instead of the bottom shelf. [00:34:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:10] Speaker B: I'm going to move these from aisle one to aisle three. Well, that's just shuffling stuff. [00:34:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:15] Speaker B: It's not hitting the core of bringing customers into your store. [00:34:20] Speaker A: Right. [00:34:20] Speaker B: You know, most people, their biggest problem with finding a job is that they're not seeing enough customers, they're not getting enough customers coming in. [00:34:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:29] Speaker B: It has nothing to do with this where the store is and shuffling stuff on the paper. It might have to do with how you're marketing yourself and who. The people that you're talking to and really going out and meeting people. You know, most jobs are found through that hidden job market. People never. The jobs aren't advertised. [00:34:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:48] Speaker B: 80, 90% of jobs are found through the hidden job market. [00:34:51] Speaker A: So there's a site for that. A website? [00:34:53] Speaker B: No, it's just through referrals. [00:34:55] Speaker A: Through referrals. Through referrals. My bad. Yeah. [00:35:00] Speaker B: I should have known. [00:35:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Through referrals. No. 100%. [00:35:06] Speaker B: Never advertised. [00:35:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, moving on. So what do you. We know, we know that this, this has been nuts. This whole tariff situation, you know, south of the border and, you know, not being nice to their good friends of Canada. Canada. The U.S. i love the U.S. i love Canada. I, I don't. I, I just want everybody to get along. Stop. Stop creating division all the time. If it's not a Covid thing, if it's not a war thing, it's a tariffs thing. What do you say to these people that are working now who have this, this looming fear that is a very rational fear of a potential recession happening in the near future and they could lose their job? [00:35:49] Speaker B: What do you tell them? Always have your resume ready. Always be networking, make connections with recruiters, Plan ahead. [00:35:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:58] Speaker B: You know, don't, you know, gretzky used to say about go where the puck is, right? There are structural changes going on. There are structural changes going on, not just because of terrorists, but always structural changes. Always things that are coming up. Like, who would have thought in 2000 that you would have had a pandemic 20 years later? Who would have thought you would have a credit crisis, financial credit crisis in 2008. Who would have thought that you'd have tariffs in 2025? Like, yeah, there's always stuff going on. There's always shifts. [00:36:29] Speaker A: What about who would have thought that no longer cash is king could be the same because now they're not. I want to go to the Blue Jays game. As you love the Blue Jays too. If you quickly just. You want to go to loony dogs night, you can't use a loony to buy a hot dog. What the heck is going on here? Like, so I don't. Yeah, I know. It's always structural changes. Things are happening. We just have to move with it. But yeah, we can't if you resist. Well, yeah, unfortunately, we fall behind. Right. So. [00:36:59] Speaker B: Well, the other, the other thing real quick I would say is, is that so many people, when I talk to them when they're working and they're happy and whatever they're doing, they're. They're not connecting with recruiters, they're not building their network. [00:37:12] Speaker A: Okay. [00:37:13] Speaker B: They're doing their job, they're going home. I might reach out to them. I might send out LinkedIn messages, emails about jobs and so on. Crickets. [00:37:20] Speaker A: Crickets. [00:37:21] Speaker B: Okay. [00:37:21] Speaker A: So they're not using. They're not like trying to take advantage of potential leverage situations. [00:37:27] Speaker B: Network, even if you're working. [00:37:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:30] Speaker B: And then what happens is when they find a, when they lose their job, boom, guess what? My. My emails. Yeah. [00:37:35] Speaker A: Oh, hey, you want to be ahead of the gang. [00:37:37] Speaker B: I know. [00:37:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's exactly. [00:37:38] Speaker B: Always be building your network. [00:37:40] Speaker A: Exactly. That's a very, very good point. Turning the page to a mental health struggle that you were telling me you wanted to share with the. The audience today. And again, thank you for listening, watching wherever you get your podcast. So we're bringing into awareness now. Keep this in mind. This is the co founder of gahua, who's had 30 years of working in helping others find jobs and you know, been a CEO of other numerous companies, is an entrepreneur himself. But he's revealing today that even though he's an entrepreneur, he's had some mental health struggles before, which is okay. And it's very much amazing to bring into awareness to show that even Though you may have some mental health struggles, you can do some very incredible things in your lifetime. Okay, so tell me what you wanted to share with the audience today about this mental health struggle of yours that you've apparently had for years. [00:38:36] Speaker B: For years. Yeah. Well, it's anxiety, mental health. I mean, the definition. But yeah, I have a pretty bad phobia of flying, a fear of flying. [00:38:48] Speaker A: And you have to travel for your jobs a lot. Like last week you're telling me you were in Philadelphia at a conference there. The other week you're in New York, was it. So you're Miami, you're. You're all over the US at different conferences for the job world. And this is a frequent fear that comes up. So how do you manage it? Because you're not the only one, believe it or not. [00:39:10] Speaker B: Right. [00:39:10] Speaker A: And I've, you know, I've had a psychologist in the past that told me that one of his, One of his patients. And, you know, they never name names, obviously. And I would never pry into that. Just, he said that you would not believe the amount of the tremendous fear that that is in people when it comes to flying. It's one of. It's like the top three when it comes to anxiety. I would, I would say the way he was mentioning it to me, this is again, going back 15 years ago, but the way he said it, it's. It's a common one. And I want to know for you, because everybody manages it differently. What works for you if you have to fly frequently? [00:39:47] Speaker B: So I. Well, for Philadelphia, I actually drove because, you know, and it's kind of like the amount of time to get to the airport and fly and delays and things like that could have been about the same amount of time to actually drive. So sometimes I will drive, assuming that it's somewhat. [00:40:06] Speaker A: So you try to practice avoidance when possible. [00:40:08] Speaker B: Avoidance. I've been to Hypnotist twice to do this. I will. On Spotify, there's a hypnotist that will, you know, put in fear flying hypnosis. [00:40:23] Speaker A: Right. [00:40:24] Speaker B: And they will. There are some experts that will put you under even through Spotify, just listening to it through your headphones and, and, and that has helped also just calm me down. [00:40:36] Speaker A: Okay. [00:40:37] Speaker B: And then also I watch a lot of YouTube videos on planes landing. [00:40:42] Speaker A: Okay. [00:40:43] Speaker B: Taking off and seeing that, you know what. [00:40:45] Speaker A: Does that heighten the anxiety? No, it lowers it. [00:40:48] Speaker B: Yeah. It helps me. Like in, in Toronto, for example, there's about a thousand flights that come in and out of Toronto every day. [00:40:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:55] Speaker B: And so I'm like, well, how many flights have problems? Well, there probably are, but you don't only hear about the worst of the worst scenarios. [00:41:02] Speaker A: Right? [00:41:03] Speaker B: So I'm like, well, a thousand every day, like 7,000 a week. Like, how many flights are going in? My flight is just one of those thousands that are going in and out every day, week, month or whatever. And so that helps to calm me down when I watch also videos and about how most of them land safely and take out all of them do. I mean, what. The ones you watch. So I. So that helps me. [00:41:26] Speaker A: What about, like, when you're in the moment, just quickly on, on the plane, are you taking like an Atavan or something or. No. Yeah. You try to stay away from it. [00:41:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I used to take gravel. [00:41:35] Speaker A: Okay. [00:41:36] Speaker B: But it didn't help. Like, I'm literally, you know, I sometimes scare people that are, that are sitting beside me. I'm like, I tell them before the plane takes out. I said, look, I'm a bit nervous. I might do some weird gestures with my hands and stuff like that. Just ignore me and don't talk to me. [00:41:52] Speaker A: Like, I find like, you know, with this, it probably just doesn't, it doesn't fully go away, but you find, you find ways of keeping it at bay. [00:41:59] Speaker B: Right? [00:42:00] Speaker A: And I think that's important. [00:42:01] Speaker B: Right. [00:42:01] Speaker A: Ladies and gentlemen, Mark Balaish, the co founder of Gahuza. If you're looking for a job, if you're a recruiter, you'll definitely want to check out that website, cahooza.com. that is fantastic. Now and quickly, if they have any questions for you, Mark Belish. How can they be in touch? [00:42:18] Speaker B: LinkedIn's usually the best way. [00:42:19] Speaker A: And just add your. On LinkedIn. [00:42:21] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:42:22] Speaker A: Fantastic. Thank you so much for stopping by Awareness today. That's episode seven. Thank you so much for joining us. And wherever you get your podcast, don't forget to like and subscribe. And thank you so much to producer Mike. I'm Rob Daniels. We'll see you in the next episode.