CanadaJimmy

Interesting the mention of whether Canada is behind or ahead. I mean I personally think Vancouver is a very futuristic looking city, and being able to get off at the airport and hop on a nice brand new shiny Canada line train probably reinforces this "futuristic" appeal to many visitors. That being said in terms of selection of products and number of companies, I would say here is behind, but more in a "still growing" sense than an old fashioned sense.

Anyway back to the topic, like others have said, give it more of a chance. You said you gave up good jobs in the UK, well remember changing country requires you to start often from the bottom up. If it was easy it wouldn't be as exciting! So just see it as a challenge, a chance to freshen up your life. Even if you don't get paid as well as you did before, if you can start enjoying yourself it's really not that important.

Good luck and I hope you become more comfortable in Canada.

Poppit

Hi

Take whatever jobs you can to bring some money in. It also might help towards networking, you never know what might come your way. We arrived in Canada 4 weeks ago, both have jobs (mine's minimum wage, but it pays the bills). With help from others, our resumes have been canadianised and circulated in the field of work we are looking for and we are trying to network as much as possible. It could take us a couple of years to get our dream jobs but we'll just keep 'chipping away'.

Emigrating is an emotional rollercoaster, stick with it, you'll get there eventually.

Goodluck and keep smiling.

Poppit

cheeky_monkey

well i hate to say it..but you should have done your research thoroughly before arriving rather than taking the word of agencies and other people.

Agency will tell you anything because you are a commodity to sell so your are potential money for them..if they cant sell your experience and talents they wont want to know you no matter how many times you call.

I orginally thought about going to halifax but quickly realised the opportunites for career growth were not there for me. I visited both Ontario and Alberta before picking Alberta as it had more to offer me than anywhere else.

Had i gone to Halifax i wouldnt have had the opportunites i had here...i turned down 3 job offers before accepting my current position..all within 6 weeks of arriving...however i planned for at least a year with no work as i knew that getting employment is not as cut and dried as people lead you to believe.

Always plan for worse case scenario then anything else is a bonus...this is what my advise would be to anyone comming to live in Canada without a job offer.

Almost Canadian

I wasn`t talking about comments made by employers but comments made on this board. I appreciate that attitude is very important but suggesting to posters that that it is their fault rather than the draconian hiring practices of Canadian employers is ludicrous.

I am an employer too. I have signed up clients that my Canadian competitors haven`t simply because I did not take an age to return their enquiries and do not have a "You must do as I say" attitude.

I arrived during the boom time in Calgary. Allegedly, employers were struggling to recruit staff and (if one believed what was stated in the local papers) there were no employees anywhere. However, the employers I approached rarely called/wrote back and I believed that I was not the correct employee for the positions they were advertising. I shared similar stories with lots and lots of newly arrived immigrants.

With the ease of hiring and firing in Canada, I am amazed that more employers don`t take a punt on someone without the sacred "canadian experience" knowing full well that, if is doesn`t work out, they can fire the new person easily.

I found my first position purely by chance and one of the employers that I had contacted, finally contacted me 9 months later. They hired me and I stayed with them until I left to set up my own shop.

I had no intention of becoming self employed when I first came to Canada but, after seeing the draconian (not by comparison to anything I experienced in England but by any meritocratic (sp?) measure) way that promotion and advancement is proferred in Canada (s/he that has been there longest will be promoted no matter how crap they are) decided that I could no longer stand it and left.

Aviator

When I moved over my European experience was a distinct advantage and it is what got me the job.

As an employer, I have never really given much thought to where experience was gained. Experience in a job is just that, experience. If I can benefit from it I will hire.

Souvy

You're not really representative though, are you? You're a bloody commercial pilot (or were).

Aviator

It can still be a disadvantage, depends where you come from and the level of training. Go the other way, North America to the UK and it is much harder to get a job.

Just talking to a friend who is an instructor. An student came from India to Canada, got their license (200 hours or so) then an air carrier in India took them and and gave them a job at the front end of an Airbus You'd need 3000 hours+ this side of the water before getting a look in.

tracys

Me too, I've copied and pasted to word and printed it out for future reference!

Nicola N-A

Networking is the best thing - the more people you can mix with, the better. Volunteering is a great idea, evening classes/further study is another. I agree with the other comments that say that experience and qualifications are needed, but if you don't have the right attitude, you're sunk.

Be happy, be positive and learn from each step. NS is definitely a 'people place', if you can get on with people....you will get on.

I am local to you - so pm if you want, I'll help if I can.

Howefamily

This is a very useful thread. We are hoping to be in NS next year and I have been told very positively (on our recce)that I will find a job within a few months by a recruitment agency in Halifax (I am an accountant) and I have also seen some really good jobs come up on careerbeacon. However, the jobs look great but I have no idea at all how many people are applying for those roles, and these are just the ones that manage to hit the website....

I can see how it would get to the point where you would feel incredibly frustrated by the system and the way its all done. But, currently we are waiting on our letter of Identification and its been ages and sometimes that drives me nuts but maybe its all good training for whats to come.

I think its a good chance for us to get into the mindset that its not rudeness and its normal to wait and not get a response as fast as we are used to expecting..

transatlantic

I had all kinds of positive feedback from agents.... I even had a job offer from a company I met on a recce. Long story short, everything went wrong after landing! Now living happily in small town Ontario.

nikki dreaming

I agree with a lot of the previous comments, I am just about to offer a position to somebody that first sent their resume 2 mths ago. The red tape that companies here seem to instill in the recruitment process is very long winded and quite frustrating as a manager trying to hire someone. Canadian experience is also very relevent aswell as being licensed for what you do in my field.

The wiki article on job hunting is very relevent for NS in my opinion re networking etc.

Good luck to the OP, if NS is truly where you want to be then try and stick with it , what field of work are you in?

Hope you are able to move forward soon

Almost Canadian

I have also found that Canadians don`t like to say "No". I don`t know whether this is due to their non confrontational nature but, whereas a Brit would say "You have no chance" I find Canadians will say "Yes" when they really mean "No".

Souvy

That post should be made sticky and be required reading for every newbie. It is very, very true.

ireland2canada

I'll third this. I've noticed that Canadians tend to use favourable, positive language. You can be discussing a job and they are all "awesome" "perfect" "sounds good". Practically gushing by UK standards, when in fact they wouldn't hire you if you were the last person on earth.

I would recommend taking this positivity with a pinch of salt. It may be pleasant to your ears, but it all means nothing until you are sitting in their workplace with their pay cheque hitting your account.

And one last thing, all this positivity is contagious. Only this morning I responded to some mundane news with "That's brilliant!". It's not brilliant, it's so unimportant I have barely enough emotion to recall what it is. I feel dirty.