Question:
I'm a Anglophone and a programmer and may be looking for work in Ottawa
and suburbs in about a years time.
Can anyone tell me how much I hurt my chances, or how many jobs I would be
disqualified for by not being bilingual (*excluding* government positions)?
I'm assuming I'd be disqualified from most federal government positions (but
I may have to pass on those anyway, for other reasons). But how many private
sector positions require the French language? Are there any stats on this
you could point me towards or even anecdotal indicators one way or another?
With a background including living the first 10 years of my life in Quebec
and all the mandatory French in school I took, I could probably become
literate within the next year (with great effort), I just want to know if
it's worth the trouble from the standpoint of a job.
Answer:
-That's probably not a bad thing, actually - AFAIK, the federal government
isn't hiring many programmers at the moment, and you'd need to prove you
have a degree in computer sciences before you could even put your resume
on file with the Public Service Commission.
(There are many English-only government positions for programmers, but it
looks like they're all filled by anglophone programmers who aren't
retiring any time soon...)
I have anecdotal information only, and I'm with the government so I'm
going by what my friends tell me. Of the anglophone programmers I know
who aren't with the government, about half of them are working full time,
and the others are working contract-to-contract. It isn't easy to get
your foot in the door (which is why I'm not leaving the government any
time soon), but it is possible.
It wouldn't hurt to regain basic French proficiency if you're going to
live in the Ottawa-Gatineau area. However, brushing up on your
programming skills will probably help you more - a noticeable majority of
local managers are either anglophones or bilingual, so lack of French
skills will only close a small number of doors.
-Starting in 1986 I had a good 10 year steady run with an IT job in
Kanata. Bilingualism was not a requirement of the job nor did I ever
need French.
However when looking for work in the Ottawa area I think it would be
advantageous to be fluently bilingual... both written & oral.
