Collective Action Fuels Canadian Job Search

Annual Marathon to Find Employment Pays Off in Quebec

Oct 22, 2009

Looking for a job is like mountain climbing: One false move and the climber finds himself in freefall. So why not climb the mountain as a team that's roped together?

That’s the concept behind le marathon de l’emploi in the Lanaudiere region of Quebec northeast of Montreal, where each year hundreds of marathoniens visit employers big and small during a one-day event in October in search of job openings. This effort to connect employers and potential employees is a collective initiative, one not based solely on individual action. “Parce qu’ensemble, ça marche! (Because together this works!)” reads the event’s slogan.

Job Search Website

To that end, when marathoniens in groups of four begin their day of visiting employers, they carry no CVs or thoughts that the job openings they uncover will necessarily be for them. They simply compile the information about the jobs, understanding that the data will be turned over to the marathon’s administration at the end of the day. The following day, the job openings get posted on an Internet website where the participants can scour the full list and apply for jobs they think they are qualified for.

Participants are rewarded for their work by getting exclusive access to this list for three weeks after receiving a user name and password. The 2009 event produced a list of more than 600 jobs around the Lanaudiere region after the participants hit the pavement around their cities to find job openings that are not usually well publicized. Often these openings remain under the radar of many jobseekers; the goal of the marathon is to bring them into clear view for the participants.

Working With Emploi-Quebec

The history of the event dates back to the 1990s, when France held a national day to help jobseekers, dubbed le markethon. Regions of Quebec later imported this idea of applying collective action within a market economy, and the first marathon de l’emploi de Lanaudiere rolled out in October 2000. The region’s office of Emploi-Quebec, the provincial government’s organization to assist individuals in finding jobs and companies in search of workers, and the non-profit group carrefours jeunesse-emploi, whose branches offer services to improve the lives of young adults, oversee the event, which also has private sponsors.

Each marathon team consists of a guide who is in charge of advancing the team along its predetermined route; a presenter who introduces the members of the group to merchants or human resources personnel; an interviewer who collects details about each available job; and a chaperone who answers participants’ questions and offers encouragement to help the team complete its mission.

Motivated Jobseekers

In 2008, event organizers reported that fully 50 percent of participants in the marathon succeeded in finding employment. They say the event is successful because being part of a large group motives jobseekers, helps them learn about opportunities throughout the region, brings workers and employers together, and generates energy from group solidarity.

Supporters say the annual event is especially beneficial to younger people who are new to the workforce and to recent immigrants. Participants may find that the process of finding a job they want, sending a CV and interviewing remains an uphill battle to achieve success, but being part of a team makes the climb much less daunting.

The copyright of the article Collective Action Fuels Canadian Job Search in Job Search is owned by Michael Carroll. Permission to republish Collective Action Fuels Canadian Job Search in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.