Question:
There is no doubt many people find it difficult finding employment in
their field when coming to a new country. Here are some of my
observations:
Too many people depend on their "professional" qualifications -- when we
hire it is as much based on personality, etc. than it is the degree to
hang on the wall.
Fluency in English --- it has become apparent that fluency means
different things to different people.
Job search is hard work -- not many people are prepared to do more than
mail out CV's. Mailing out CV for a marketing manager's job when you
have a Masters in Electrical Engineering -- are you surprised if you
don't get a call!
I am sure I was just lucky, but here is my experience when I arrive
about 2 years ago -- I have a degree from the UK in finance with some
good experience.
I arrived in Toronto in June 20001 without a job. Started applying for
jobs on Workopolis / Monster /etc. but no response.
I did meet with a professional career counsellor who told me that
only about 10% (can't remember the exact number) of jobs are filled
through postings.
So, I decided to get aggressive. From August - October I proactively
contacted (many I showed up without an appointment) approximately 50
different companies -- each one I did some quick research and modified
my CV to match the company and what I thought might be a fit. It wasn't
easy at all -- only about 7 actually replied and 2 of them led to
actual interviews. I didn't get any of the jobs. However, one of the
people I did meet called and referred me to someone they knew at their
old employer -- I met with them and was hired after the second interview
-- a great job! Since I took the job I had 3 of the companies on that
list call me to come in for interviews (which I declined). By the way
-- during that time I applied for approx. 30 "posted" jobs (mostly from
the internet) either directly with the company or through agencies and
received 0 replies.
Think about it -- if you were hiring and posted a job, and received 100
applications -- 99 with Canadian experience and 1 without, which ones
would you call? I don't think that is exclusive to Canada -- I think
you would find the same almost anywhere
Answer:
Question: Too many people depend on their "professional" qualifications -- when we
hire it is as much based on personality, etc. than it is the degree to
hang on the wall.
Answer: More accurately: image. Job seeker must learn to put up an image that they
can do the job. Since this image differ from place to place (a cultural
thing), newcomer have to learn how to put up this image in Canada.
Question: Fluency in English --- it has become apparent that fluency means
different things to different people.
Answer: Definitely. A person will unlikely get a job if the interviewer cannot
understand what the person say.
Question: I did meet with a professional career counsellor who told me that only
about 10% (can't remember the exact number) of jobs are filled through
postings.
Answer: Good fact anyway. Basically: don't depend on publicly available job!
Question: So, I decided to get aggressive. From August - October I proactively
contacted (many I showed up without an appointment) approximately 50
different companies -- each one I did some quick research and modified my
CV to match the company and what I thought might be a fit.
Answer: I think it is one good way, but
may I ask how you can get appointment?
Question: However, one of the people I did meet called and referred me to someone
they knew at their old employer -- I met with them and was hired after
the second interview -- a great job!
Answer: More accurately: networking. In fact, all newcomer I know that find job in
their field find it through networking. So it is important to go meet
people, and be able to talk to anybody.
Question: Think about it -- if you were hiring and posted a job, and received 100
applications -- 99 with Canadian experience and 1 without, which ones
would you call? I don't think that is exclusive to Canada -- I think
you would find the same almost anywhere.d
Answer: No, not really. I believe some european country have similar requirement.
For the rest of the world, I don't think businesses value the experience
in their own country much more special than outside their country. They do
value experience in institution they know higher. So an experience big
multinational company will regarded higher than experience in small
unknown company. They will value when the supervisor / boss can and
willing to talk directly about that experience. However, in Canada
experience in small unknown company in Canada can be regarded higher that
experience in a branch outside Canada of a big multinational company. This
is ridiculous.
Moreover, in most country, businesses usually use same measurement for
whether a person are qualified or not (underqualified), and for whether a
person is overqualified. Therefore there is a 'space' between
underqualified and overqualified. If there is a job in that space, the
person can get it!
In Canada, businesses have completely contradictive measurement for
overqualified and underqualified: to measure qualified or not
(underqualified), they do not regard the experience outside Canada, but to
measure overqualified, they regard ALL experience. For many newcomer 'the
range of underqualified' intersect 'the range of overqualified': there
some job where the person both underqualified and overqualified at the
same time! Therefore there are no space for jobs which the newcomer
qualified! A cunning strategy is needed to overcome this contradiction
(including misrepresentation).
