Careers

What does it take to renew the world?

You. And a Catholic movement dedicated to fulfilling the Great Commission.

Through our reach on university campuses and our support programs in parishes, CCO is catalyzing missionary disciples all over the world.

You are called to renew the world. Could it be through a career with CCO?

Who are we looking for?

Above all, we are looking for individuals who share our vision: reaching future leaders with the message of the Gospel, and building them into multiplying missionary disciples who will go on to renew the world. We accomplish this primarily on university campuses, and then through parishes and our alumni. If you are passionate about evangelization and seeing the world reached for Christ, God could be calling you to join us!

Check out our Builders Magazine to learn about what makes us who we are, such as our tenets and Core Values.

If you are ready to put your talents, gifts, and strengths to work in service of the Church, CCO could be the place for you.

Students and Graduates

Whether you are studying, about to graduate, or recently graduated, CCO has an employment option for you.

Working Professionals

We need skilled professionals like YOU who can offer their experience and wisdom to moving the mission forward.

Career Opportunities

Campus

Work on the frontlines of evangelization on one of the many campuses where we serve, inviting students to encounter Jesus and become multiplying missionary disciples.

HQ

Help lead and support CCO’s mission in a unique environment of faith and professional excellence at our National Headquarters in Ottawa, ON.

Questions? Check out our FAQ or contact us.

Current Openings

CCO offers a variety of ways to work with us. If none of these postings seem right for you, contact us at hr@cco.ca. We are always looking to add excellent people in a variety of positions, and not all opportunities are posted.

Discernment Resources

While not everyone is called to be a CCO missionary, we know many people are being called. These resources will help you hear whether or not God is calling you to work for CCO.

Are you thinking about CCO staff, but don’t know where to start? Builders will give you direction and answers to your most pressing questions. What do missionaries do? Who is CCO looking for? What about support raising? And much more.

Many people struggle with discernment. This resource uses Ignatian principles to guide you through a two-week discernment process. By the end of those two weeks you will have peace, courage and clarity on where God is calling you.

The Missionary Disciple Podcast

This podcast is an essential companion to the Prayerful Discernment Guide. Join Angèle Regnier as she discusses the attitudes and skills necessary for proper discernment.

FAQs about working for CCO

CCO has received official canonical recognition as a private juridic person of diocesan right. The Ultimate Relationship booklet and CCO’s faith studies have received the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur.

In 2002, the movement was honoured to receive a letter from Pope John Paul II (now Pope Saint John Paul II) on the occasion of our 15th anniversary. Our movement has also participated in many initiatives connected to the broader Church. In recent years, our executive team gave an intervention at the Gathering of Lay Movements convened by the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. In 2019, our Founders were invited to give a keynote address at a gathering organized by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization (PCPNE) to celebrate the 5th anniversary of Evangelii Gaudium.

In 2015 our founders were awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal, which is one of the highest honours the Church bestows on lay people for outstanding service to the Church.

Anyone! Whether you are graduating soon, recently graduated, already established in a career, or even retired, God may be calling you to join us.

We value previous CCO or similar ministry experience, though it is not always necessary.

Are you a working professional longing to do something more? Or perhaps you are a retiree with the skills and experience we need! We are looking for skilled, highly motivated individuals who want to put their specific training and experience to work for the Great Commission. Your skill set is not only needed, but critical to advancing the mission through a variety of positions at our National Headquarters in Ottawa.

 

CCO looks for people who are motivated by the mission of proclaiming Jesus clearly and simply. We want people who will be willing to work hard to spread the Good News of the Gospel and to multiply missionary skills, knowledge and attitude into others. Campus applicants should feel called to work with university students as a strategic age group of future leaders.

We take great joy in our work, even when it means moving beyond our comfort zones. Our joy comes from having hopeful hearts that God will do more than we can ask or imagine in all situations. We are willing to do whatever needs to be done, say whatever needs to be said, and go wherever we need to go in order to fulfill our mission. Our missionaries must be highly motivated to seek opportunities to meet new people and allow others to feel welcomed in their presence.

Our staff must also deeply identify with our Core Values and Tenets (See Builders Magazine for more information).

CCO conducts our mission in an intentional manner and we are serious about training our missionaries to best meet the demands of ministry. All first year staff attend an orientation and training week called CCO 101 mid-August. First year staff in their Formation year then continue with an eight-month weekly training program. Second year staff attend further training (CCO 201) to prepare them for greater leadership within the movement. Apart from these set programs, our staff have many opportunities for ongoing missionary and spiritual training and formation, such as yearly attendance at National Staff Gathering, retreat days, spiritual direction and various conferences.

Each CCO missionary has the privilege of completely relying on God’s providence. Our missionaries develop their own team of financial and prayer supporters who contribute directly to the funds for their salary. We call this Support Team Partnership Development, or support raising. 

At this point, you may be thinking, “I can’t do that,” and are tempted to close your browser window. Before you do, please read “Nervous about Support Raising?”!

You might be thinking, “There is no way I can support raise this amount, my salary. This is crazy!” You are not alone. This has gone through the mind of almost every single person who has applied to work with CCO. However, all of our over 100 missionaries, as well as our more than 30 years of CCO history, are living witnesses to the fact that this is possible.

CCO has an excellent support raising training program that teaches you not only how to raise funds effectively but also instills the key attitudes and mindsets that drive our paradigm of living by providence. This training takes place after you have been hired, in preparation for you to begin your role in CCO (whether on campus or in the national headquarters), and includes weekly coaching sessions with a support raising coach throughout your fundraising.  

As a CCO missionary, our Support Team Partnership Development (STPD) is not a means to an end. It is an opportunity to proclaim the gospel. Every person you encounter will have an opportunity to hear the Lord’s message through your witness of relying on His providence and being abandoned to Him. We feel called to have every single person encounter Jesus in a personal way. Our mission field is not only on campuses and through our parish and diocesan coaching relationships, but also in every visit we have with a potential supporter.

There are many legitimate reasons someone would choose not to apply for staff, and we work hard to ensure support raising isn’t one of them.

While having a university degree is not a requirement for being accepted to CCO staff, we highly recommend it. This is for various reasons: we encourage people to finish what they started, a degree keeps your options open if God calls you out of CCO, and the skills and knowledge you receive over the course of your degree will benefit your career long term.

Our Mission Year program offers the opportunity to take a gap year mid-degree. That being said, some people are called to respond to God in a radical way by leaving their degree, and that is where proper discernment becomes crucial. It is not a light decision, and we will often encourage you to finish your degree before applying.

God uses all things for our good, including life experiences, both good and bad. Depending on where God is calling you in CCO, there’s an opportunity for your degree and work experience to be put to good use. This is true particularly in the areas of finance and business management.

We invest a great deal in leadership opportunities, training, formation, and practical skills for our staff. CCO also provides you with excellent experience in the non-profit sector, which is a very marketable skill. Our goal in CCO is to grow each of our missionaries in leadership, and if a missionary leaves staff, that they would leave better equipped than when they came in. 

Many of our staff alumni have gone on to successful careers in the world and are able to say that their experience in CCO has made them better at their current job.

Discernment is key when it comes to working for CCO. Afterall, this is not just a job, it is a calling from God. Discernment is a topic most Catholics are aware of, but many of us struggle in discernment, mainly because we feel we don’t know how to properly discern. The good news is there is a method of discernment called ‘Ignatian Discernment’ that will help you clearly and simply hear God’s call on your life. See CCO’s “Prayerful Discernment” Booklet for practical guidance on how to properly discern God’s will. It is easy to use and will be a huge help to you as you bring this to prayer. You can access a PDF version of it here.

We desire that our compensation be modest and a reasonable remuneration relative to other comparable work in non-profit organizations. CCO also seeks to recognize and honour relative work-experience in other fields. We do this to attract and retain talented individuals who have some pre-existing skill, experience, and knowledge. For more information about entry level salaries of mission year and CCO staff in a formation year please contact our HR department.

Yes, absolutely! Many of our missionaries are parents, raising a family on a single missionary income. Our comprehensive benefits package helps our families thrive for a sustainable, long-term career in ministry.

We strive to create an excellent workplace culture, and provide many non-salary benefits which allow staff to thrive in their vocation and serve for their career with CCO. Full-time missionary staff members and immediate family are eligible for health benefits as well as Specific Taxable Benefits. Eligible staff can also join our group saving RRSP plan. These benefits are designed to be a blessing to you and your family.

As a campus missionary you can share the saving message of Jesus Christ with countless students, accompany believers to spiritual maturity, and train others so they “will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2). Day-to-day, this involves leading small group faith studies, one-on-one accompaniment and leadership development with students, and planning and running large group events to encourage both outreach and fellowship.

Your days will be full, a typical day will have you leading 1-2 different faith study groups, a few one-on-one meetings with students to accompany them towards Jesus or equip them as leaders, and some time just to be around students and build community. You will also have administrative tasks, such as emails, faith study tracking, and event planning. Throughout your day you will also have spontaneous meetings, such as with a student with a particular struggle who needs to talk, welcoming a new student. See the ‘Builders Magazine’ for an example of a daily schedule of a campus missionary.

Being a CCO missionary, no matter the context, takes hard work, lots of energy, a disposition of seeing and seizing opportunities,  and a total reliance on God. It is also super fun and life-giving.

In our National Headquarters, you will take the skills you have developed in the professional setting or through your degree to help lead the renewal of the world by supporting our campus mission. Our office is comparable to many regular office jobs with a few notable differences: we begin every work day with a time of prayer, worship and intercession for our ministry, meetings are marked with times of prayer and listening for God’s prompting and inspiration, and finally the experience of the CCO staff family is tangible in the office as we are not just co-workers but co-labourers in the mission.  

Whether it is processing donations in our Finance department, hiring and onboarding new staff through our Human Resources department, or helping expand our reach and influence through our Media and Marketing department, work as a HQ missionary is life-giving because it directly impacts the reach, growth and effectiveness of CCO in accomplishing the mission we have been entrusted with. 

CCO uses a four-step application process to best facilitate discernment on behalf of the applicant and CCO. Our goal at each of these stages is to evaluate a fit with CCO as well as the attitudes, skills and knowledge necessary to thrive as a CCO missionary.

  1. Application
  2. Interview
  3. Reference checks
  4. Police background check: Vulnerable Sector Check

At each of these four steps, CCO evaluates for suitability for the role being applied for and whether to continue the process.

Yes! CCO does have a Co-Op program for our national departments. For more information on the CO-OP program see the ‘Builders Magazine’.

CCO is currently serving on seventeen campuses across Canada and at our National Headquarters in Ottawa. Missionaries can be sent to serve on any of our campuses, which is an opportunity for our staff to live out our heart of abandonment. Most national roles are based out of our headquarters in Ottawa.

Placements are always prayerfully discerned. Decisions are then made by balancing both the needs of the movement and giving consideration to where staff will best be able to use their skills and talents and grow in leadership.

In applying for staff, ask yourself: Am I willing to go anywhere God asks me to go for the sake of the Gospel?

Still have questions? Reach out to our HR team.

Jackie Lavery 

Recruitment and Talent Manager

jackie.lavery@cco.ca