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Contents 1 Introduction 2 The Canadian Experience barrier 3 Lack of appreciation 4 Exit strategies 5 How other expats have coped 6 Other sources of information

[edit] Introduction

The purpose of this article is to address the challenges that British expats sometimes experience in the Canadian workplace.

[edit] The Canadian Experience barrier

• You can go at least some way towards minimizing the potential "Canadian experience" barrier by researching in advance how your individual skill set might be received in Canada and, more particularly, how it might be received in specific regions of Canada.

• If, in spite of your research, you do bump up against this obstacle, you have a few options.
  • You initially can accept a more junior position than the one you really want and work your way up the ladder.
  • You can keep looking in the hopes that you'll find a position that's a better fit.
  • You can expand your search to include other regions of Canada.
  • You can switch to another field of endeavour altogether.

[edit] Lack of appreciation

• Even if you do manage to find a job, you may find yourself under-appreciated in that job.

• Recognize that you are the new kid on the block. If you're going to establish a new life in Canada, you're going to have to adjust to Canadians and their way of doing things.

• One of the ingredients that is required for Canadian colleagues' acceptance of you is simply time. Once you've been in Canada for a while, you and your Canadian colleagues will have had some collective experiences. For example, you'll have been through a couple of winters together. These shared experiences will give you things to talk about.

• But you may want to speed up your integration and not rely only on time.

• A strategy that has been suggested is one of "divide and conquer." That is, do not attempt to persuade the whole gang to respect you or trust you or find you credible all at once. Rather, work on each member of the team as an individual. Take this person out for lunch. Invite that person and his/her family to your house for a meal. Go on a camping weekend with still another person and his/her family. Play squash (or whatever) with yet another person. As you become friendly with all of these people on an individual basis, you eventually will achieve a "critical mass," and the entire crew will come to view you as a member of the team.

• It is specially helpful if you can find one or two people who are willing to act as mentors. They can fill you in on the company's history and culture, the boss's idiosyncrasies, the best way to elicit cooperation from So And So, etc.

• If you establish relationships with mentors, be careful not to turn your conversations into gossip sessions. Try to maintain a constructive agenda. Establish the goal of making the team as effective as possible.

• Consider too that, while your Canadian colleagues may be discounting your experience and wisdom, you also may be discounting theirs. Maybe there is a sound reason for doing things as they do them.

• Regardless of whether or not there is any sense to the way they do things at work, if you get to know some of your colleagues outside of work, you'll come to see them as multi-dimensional people. You'll see that they have families, pets, hobbies, etc., and there is much more depth to them than you're able to see in the workplace alone.

• Similarly, they will come to see that you have a family, pets, hobbies, etc., and that there is more depth to you than they're able to see in the workplace alone.

[edit] Exit strategies

• Sometimes your efforts to "fit in" eventually will pay off, and sometimes they won't.

• What do you do if your attempts to integrate are unsuccessful?

• Try not to do anything rash, like walking into your boss's office and resigning on the spur of the moment.

• Discuss the situation with your spouse, and kick around different ideas together.

• Difficult as it may be to do under the circumstances, try to look after yourself. Try to eat healthily, sleep properly, exercise, and have some fun outside of work.

• Write a list of the job's good and bad points.

• Look at each good point, and identify ways of making that aspect of the job even better.

• Look at each bad point, and identify ways of improving that element of the job.

• Whenever you identify a measure that you could implement, write it down.

• Take each goal and break it down into smaller tasks and steps. Assign a date for the completion of each one.

• Examples of goals might include exploring the possibility of a transfer to another department, taking courses that would advance you in this job or help you switch to another field altogether, seeking out someone who might be able to give you constructive advice, etc.

• While you implement your strategy (or strategies), try not to focus too much on relatively minor things that you don't like about your job. Try to focus on the aspects of your situation that you do have control over and accept the situations over which you have no control.

• It helps to look at your glass as being half full rather than half empty. Try to acknowledge the things that are going well. For example, if you have a job that makes it feasible to feed your family and keep a roof over their heads, that is something to be thankful for.

• Some expats who have gone through dark times in their careers have reported that humour has helped them to survive.

• Try to avoid looking at things in either/or terms. When you're suffering, there can be a tendency to see things in black and white. You may see only two choices: (1) I move back to the great job that I had in the UK, or (2) I stay in this ghastly job in Canada. Try to expand your outlook, use your creativity, and identify potential solutions beyond those two narrow choices.

[edit] How other expats have coped

• After an initial job that was less than ideal, many expats later have gone on to better jobs for better pay at better companies.

• Another strategy that some expats have used, when they have obtained some Canadian experience, has been to start their own business.

• Still another strategy that some expats have employed has been to study part-time and retrain for another field.

• Some expats have developed a second stream of income besides their job. This has taken a variety of forms -- real estate investments (e.g., renting out property), stock market investments, starting a business on the side, etc.

• Some expats have ended up returning to their home countries.

[edit] Other sources of information

• The information in this article used to be a section in a larger Wiki article called Relocation Strategies.

• That article addressed several challenges that were related to immigration, including Culture Shock.

• However, the Relocation Strategies article grew too long, and the information in it had to be split up.