Brodel

Hi,

I have a two year work/holiday visa that expires in May 2018. I visited Toronto earlier this year and would like to look at a more long term move there. My work experience is in graphic design (mainly digital with some product and packaging design using photoshop and illustrator) however I'm not having much luck looking for opportunities online.

There don't seem to be many recruitment agencies, I've been checking websites like indeed, simply hired, canadian creatives, creative niche etc but there aren't many junior designer jobs and those that exist seem more focused on back end development.

I have emailed a few design agencies regarding work opportunities or advice that they might have and not had a single reply.

I understand it's easier to look for work once you are there, but it'd be nice to have some reassurance beforehand. I noticed on my trip that the cost of living isn't cheap in Toronto and a lot of places to rent through padmapper seem to have a 12 month minimum lease which could get expensive if I can't make things work whilst I'm there.

I'd appreciate any advice. Maybe I shouldn't be looking for work related to my career whilst I'm there and should just go and find whatever pays the bills and travel around/enjoy the experience... I can't decide.

Oakvillian

You might want to have a read of the Wiki article on looking for work in Canada. As a general rule, conversations in person are the way to go, phone might be OK, email will be filtered straight to junk. If you can swing another trip out before you commit to kicking off the WHV, then spend some time on the phone with target agencies beforehand - "I'll be in town between XX and YY dates, I'd love to meet with you on the Wednesday afternoon at 3.00 if that would work for you" kind of thing. Ask for a discussion meeting, don't ask for a job!

I don't work in the design field, but in the marketing space there are agencies that specialise in short-term contract and freelance placement work (marketers on demand is one such, I don't know if they have a graphic design section but it might be a good place to start a search). It also may help to tap the careers office at somewhere like OCAD-U. They may not be able to offer direct help to a non-alumnus, but might have a couple of pointers or a list of agencies (design and/recruitment) to talk to.

JamesM

There is a tonne of work in digital design.

You will need to be here though before people consider you.

Make sure you have a decent digital portfolio (url) to show people. Most won't care too much about your resume but more your aesthetic sense.

I think you might be better messaging people on LinkedIn and sending your URL vs email unless your email is going to a specific individual.

Brodel

Thanks for the replies. I noticed quite a lot of digital design work that was advertised was looking for people who can code, which I can't. I have been including a link to my website as well as attaching my resume, so hopefully some people have at least looked at it. I will give LinkedIn a try as I haven't really explored that yet and consider making another trip over. It's juts a bit costly at the moment so it would be nice to at least get a reply from someone beforehand, even if they have nothing to offer.

JamesM

There are tools that let you track email such as YesWare.

For free they'd give you so many per month. You'd be able to see what was opened and what link was clicked on.

I use Streak at work.

That might give you some piece of mind.