Anya121

Hello. I read this website a lot, but haven't posted for awhile. I'm a Canadian who has lived in the UK for 17 years with my British husband and children. I was made redundant from my job and have decided to take the opportunity to move back to Ontario near my family. (My husband has no family here anymore.)

I've been applying for a lot of jobs that I am more than well qualified for, but never even get an interview. I went to Ontario last summer for 6 weeks to try to network and be 'in situ', but that didn't work either. (I work at universities and they are not on full staff in summer, but I have to be here to do school runs/tea during the rest of the year as my husband works till 8.30pm.) My sister suggested I give her Ontario address as my address on my CV so it looks like I live there, but that seems deceptive and they'd know when I suddenly had to fly there for an interview. Recently I removed my address and just gave my email and website, but it looks a bit anonymous so I'm not sure if that was a good idea.

I'd like some advice please, if anyone can help: What did you do to get a job in Canada while you were in the UK? Do you have any tips that might help?

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it.

dbd33

Isn't the issue with the administrative side of universities that they hire graduates from that university in extreme preference to anyone else? If, for example, you want to program the computers at University of Guelph, you should first get a degree in cowshit maintenance, or whatever, from that school.

This suggests that the first line of attack would be your school and the societies for graduates.

Pulaski

I had similar issues relocating to the US (it's my wife who is the US Citizen, and I am not in education), but I was getting zero interest while I was across the pond. I found a very well connected recruitment agent to line up interviews for me, then I flew over for an intensive week of interviews.

I would recommend using a local address and registering a VoIP phone number in Canada which will ring on your phone in the UK. I know some people will disagree, but at the moment you are facing a 100% rejection rate based on on your application, you don't even get a chance to explain. .... That said you will have to be prepared to make arrangements with your family so that you can fly over at short notice for an interview.

Snowy560

Do you use this website?

https://www.universityaffairs.ca/search-job/

Not saying it'll help you any better. Just wondered if you used it.

You may have to actually move to Canada and get a different job to the one you want in the first instance while you look for the job you really want/build up Canadian work experience. You may also have to consider additional (Canadian) qualifications/ retraining / working in a different field.

Phaedru5

Hi, having just arrived in Canada having secured a job before I left England, I can only tell you what I did.

Firstly I employed the help of a designer friend to create me a unique single page Resume which stood out against the sea of MS Word documents that others usually have. I paid her 25GBP for her time and a bunch of flowers.

I also taught myself how to make a website and made a personal website for myself with details of my employment history on one page, some case studies of projects I have worked on, a little bit about me, etc, I bought the domain www.<myfullname>.com for about 12GBP for 2yrs. At the bottom of my resume I had a tag line which read something like 'for more information please find me on linkedin (with the linkedin logo) or see <insert web address>.

I then signed on and saved searches for the kind of thing I was looking for on various sites; 'Indeed' seemed to have the most accurate matches, and applied to everything that suited my abilities. After applying I then sent follow up emails to the companies with my resume attached. Things move slowly over here in recruitment I am told so I wouldnt expect to hear back for a couple of months. Be sure to state at the top of the resume what nationality you are and what visa(s) you hold. For example mine read "British Citizen and Canadian Permanent Resident".

I also researched all the companies in similar fields (for me it was specifically power generation so I also searched construction equipment companies, rental companies, etc, anyone that did anything with mechanical or electrical machinery) and sent them personalised emails, not a generic copy and paste, along with my resume. Dont go into too much information about your relocation if you have Citizenship or PR anyway they dont need to know if or why you're moving, just come across confident that you will be there on xx date and will be ready to start work. If anything it might pique their interest.

I also contacted all my contacts in my industry in the UK and asked if they knew anyone or any companies in BC. One of them did and that actually got me a phone interview in a matter of days. Our requirements didnt match but it did help in negotiations with the job I did get that I was able to talk intimately about a competitor company, name drop people there and the work theyre doing etc so they knew I wasnt bluffing - so it all helped in the end.

Lastly, remember not to be too picky. You want to move here so just get a job to get you here and then you can always move once you're here. Luckily I actually found exactly what I was looking for as the company was looking to expand into BC and I found them at just the right time! I would add of all my applications I think I only heard back from about 3, including the one I got, so keep at it; its alot of hard work but oh so worth it in the end!

It took me about a year from starting to apply, to having a confirmed job offer (after much negotiation). Good luck!

Snowy560

Phaedru!

Anya121

Wow, thank you everyone for these very helpful posts with lots of great ideas in them! I really appreciate the time you've taken to help me out (including Phaedru; wow, thank you!). Lots of these are new ideas that I will certainly use. And for the ones I am already doing, it's good to know I'm on the right track. So thank you all very much!

I'm definitely going to explore a lot of these ideas, including societies at my old Uni, using a Canadian address and phone number (I never thought of re-directing; great idea!) (although it might seem a little underhand to give a Canadian address, as you say it may well stop that initial sifting-out due to distance), using a recruitment agent to get interviews lined up and, probably most importantly, leaning more on my Canadian contacts for networking. This latter is something I really hate doing, but I do think it's the most successful way to get a job; it's who you know, isn't it. I hate imposing on my friends, and even worse is swallowing my pride to ask for help, but it very likely is my best option. There are a lot of other great ideas here too that will definitely help. Thank you!

Snowy, thank you for that. I do use that website actually, and I'm applying for loads of non-university jobs too using indeed and the govt job website and have cast my net very wide. I've been thinking the same; if I can just get something to get us moved, then I can get a better job once we're settled. I haven't had problems finding job openings actually (unlike here in the NE where it's cuts, cuts, cuts). I just feel like I'm being sifted out because I'm too far away to bother about. I can't move there until I have a job (my husband just won't go for that, though I've tried to persuade him!), so I think it's a matter of somehow looking like I'm there without actually lying about it!

Anyway, thank you so much for all of these tips! I really appreciate it.

Anya121

Just wanted to add, Phaedru, that I'm now going through and doing everything you mentioned. So many helpful tips; thank you!

aerivona

I have found the job search from the UK so difficult. I only managed to get an interview through an employee referral in the end. It's true that in Canada it seems to be all about who you know. Fingers crossed I get this job so I can finally move

Anya121

Aerivona, wow, fingers crossed for you. Can I ask how you got the employee referral? Was it a friend you knew already in the company, or some other method? Thanks.

aerivona

Thanks, I asked a family friend who works at a global company whether she could speak to the hiring manager and ask them to consider my cv. I literally had to search my LinkedIn contacts and be like who can put me in touch with someone in Canada.

bgpz

I applied for a job online while I was still in the UK, but we had a moving date set and everything - so mentioned that in the cover letter. Good thing I did, as they were interviewing that week, so I had my interview two days after we landed. Was asked to come in for an informal shadowing half-day with someone after that (which was effectively a second interview, as it turned out) and was offered the post the next morning.

To be fair, the job itself was fairly niche, I'd actually been doing something very similar in the UK immediately before we left - and any differences existed between the UK/EU stuff and the Canadian counterparts was something of a moot point as the devil would be in the detail, so to speak, for any given specific project - and the more general stuff is specialized, but highly transferable within its niche.

So it *is* possible, but depends if you can offer a niche that's hard to fill. I think it would have been a very different story had I not been lucky enough for such a position to be advertised with such good timing.

Anya121

Thanks for that BGPZ. Sounds like you were very lucky. It's good to hear that so many people managed it successfully, so it shouldn't be impossible.

I feel like my cv is very strong (PhD and a decade of experience), and I do re-write each cv to gear it to each job, plus I have widened my remit hugely but still jobs that I'm well-qualified for, so I'm not sure why I'm finding it so difficult. I just have this nagging suspicion that the address on the top of my cv and my contact details are weeding me out because perhaps I don't look like a likely candidate being so far away. I applied to a job on Friday and gave my sister's address in Canada on it, but when I told my husband he said it's deceiving a company and they won't look kindly on it when they find out. In fact he was shocked that I lied on a cv. Honestly, I just don't know what to do. Feeling like I've tried everything.

I have been trying a few of my contacts in Canada, like Phaedru suggested, but I feel terrible leaning on friends in this way. Should be able to stand on my own two feet. Any other suggestions would definitely be appreciated. Thank you for all of your help!!

Phaedru5

I didn’t have my address on my cv at all. And on my cover letters I stated a ‘correspondence address’ of my mother-in-laws address in BC, so not being deceitful at all

Anya121

Phaedru, thank you. Okay, that's very reassuring to hear, thank you. I did try to word it vaguely too so it wasn't exactly a lie, and I just completely removed the address section from the top of my cv, replacing it with my website and email address, so sounds like I'm on the right track after all.

I just received an email saying that one of the jobs I applied to had 295 applicants. !!!!! Well, that might be why I'm not hearing anything back!

Thanks again. It's reassuring to hear others did the same.