harryg7

Hey everyone,

Sorry this post will be irrelevant to nearly all of you, but if you never ask then you'll never know, eh? (Canadianism's kicking in already )

So I'm in tech, and live in a suburb of Ottawa called Kanata (regarded as the tech hub of Canada). I moved here in November, and recently got my work permit – so I have been applying for jobs (a good handful) for the last 3 weeks or so.

Job wise, I’m a Product Manager of 4 years in software development. I’m bursting with eagerness to dig my teeth into a job here and make my mark. However, I’ve not been having much luck with responses and so on – in the U.K. (lived in Reading) if I applied for 3 jobs I’d usually hear back from at least 2 within a week!

Is it just me or is it the norm to be slow off the mark with recruitment? Can anyone in Ottawa or in tech over give me any advice?

Also, if anyone could share any good recruitment or general contacts then that would be fabulous.

Thanks all in advance.

P.s. This forum is great, nice to see us Brits helping each other out

pdarwin

I live in Kanata and have worked in IT in Ottawa for the past many years. It does look like the market is a bit slow at the moment. It's not always predictable, but summer is a slow time anyway.
You would do well to sign up with some agencies - at least to get you going. Some are better than others, so PM me and I'll give a few pointers.

dbd33

By people in Kanata.

harryg7

Thanks Peter, PM'd you!

DBD33 - maybe so! But I'm just saying what I've heard

scilly

are you just emailing people, or making personal contact.

Have you updated your cv to Canadian format?

harryg7

LinkedIn, emailing, met a few recruiters etc..

Yes I've updated my CV to a resume, and had plenty of advice formatting it.

raindropsandroses

Have you tried applying for more junior positions?

harryg7

There aren't many in my area of expertise. However, I only apply to roles in which I fit within the criteria (experience wise mainly).

raindropsandroses

It sounds like you need to start at a more junior level, even in a slightly tangent sort of role to get some Canadian experience and references etc and work your way back up.
My husband was fortunate enough to be offered a job straight away which was a promotion for him, but he has an extremely niche scientific job and some very unique experience which the company wanted but which it was almost impossible to find in Canada. Had there been people with Canadian experience and similar skills I think he would have had a lot tougher time of it.
After working for them for a couple of months and making a name for himself he started getting headhunted, and I've heard before that once you get some Canadian experience under your belt and make a good name it opens the floodgates career wise.

Failing that, I can do my job from anywhere in the world with a laptop and internet connection, which suits me perfectly and fits in with being a stay at home mum. Is your job something you could do remotely? Could you broaden your job search in that way?

BritCanadaNewbie

so is the phrase "you can only get a job in Ottowa if you speak French" just a myth then?

harryg7

Thanks, I've actually had some luck today and have got an interview somewhere. Like you say, I just want to get in somewhere so I can start to make a name for myself, but I really want to carry on my career in Product Management, so I'm going to wait it out for a while until some luck comes my way.

I could do it remotely yes, but it would be very hard to get a role over candidates who are willing to work in the office .

I think one of the best things I can do is build contacts where I can. So if anyone knows of any good contacts, you know what to do!

Souvy

Yes and no.

The chances are greatly improved if the job is with the federal government, or any outfit that is even remotely public sector (because such places in Ottawa are officially bilingual). It would be much less of an issue in the private sector but you'd still be competing against people that are "bilingual". In a toss up between two similarly qualified candidates, the bilingual one will win every time.

Ebonhawke

Not unusual in Canada/USA for there to be a long delay between application and response. A number of companies will post a position, and then collect resumes for up to a month before going through the applications. If you didn't make the cut, you generally won't hear back at all.

DandNHill

I agree. I applied for one of my current jobs in December and was called for an interview in April. It's not that they had recruited and it didn't work out. It just took them that long to interview. Lol