Madmac

Just had an interview for a lecturing post at Conestoga college today. I mistakenly thought that when you asked a prospective for an interview, you had a job to offer (at least to someone)??

All went well, in for over an hour. Interviewer was impressed and took copies of relevant qualifications, CV and references.

Then the knockout blow - We want you but we won't be filling the post until the Spring!!!! What the.....??

I'll either be dead, in another job or scratching my a**e back in Scotland by then. Chalk it up to new experience and move on. I ask you.....mumble, mumble, bleugh.

Daedra

Agh, it's horrible going to an interview and find out its a waste of time, I feel for you!

I guess the only thing for it is to use this as a learning experience and find out/ask the time frame for the post prior to going for the interview.

Human Resources/Recruitment is often handled in-house by large companies in Canada and due to this, the HR staff usually prepare well in advance of a post opening up with as many potential candidates as possible in their system.

Don't know how it works for education but sounds like, from your experience, it could be along the same lines.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are lots of job with a reasonably quick start time too, hopefully you'll come across some of these on your job hunt. Good luck to you, hope you get a fab job

Madmac

Thanks Daedra. Shipping containers just arrived so I'll leave off the job search until tomorrow.

Have a feeling that I'll end up picking potatoes.

J

sinope

Ahh, but they'll be Canadian potatoes.

Tiffin Tease

That's ok, when your done picking potatoes you can come join me in MacDonalds and i'll fry them for you

Guess who's also worried about not getting a professional job out there? :scared:

Madmac

Professional. Hmmm.

Think it will be a long time before I can consider myself that again.

Good luck in any case.

Daedra

Well if any of you have completed and gotten a diploma or certificate (I'm talking either graduating from collegial studies or university) you'll have an advantage over the average Canadian applicant... probably betraying my countrymen by saying so but yeah, you'll be fine. At the very least, you could always apply for posts that would find your accent intruiging such as hotel/tourism type of work, you'll come across more well travelled then a Canadian greeting them eh?

Daedra

Failing that... I'll have a Big Mac trio with a Sprite and supersize that please

Oh that reminds me KI, a heads up for when you arrive in Canada... they aren't called "meal/meal deal" in Canada, they're called "Trios", and if you ask for "lemonade" you'll get the old fashioned lemon juice concoction, not 7up or Sprite.

Confused the heck out of our local McD's cashier first time I asked for a trio in the UK and stared at her blankly when she asked "fizzy or still?". Looked like a right dunce tee hee!!

Madmac

Does my spelling certificate from primary 4 count???

I may just roll up my degree and diplomas and hit recruiters over the head until they submit and give me a job out of overwhelming pity.

What you looking for Daedra?

Daedra

Madmac: I've 5 years experience in Finance (Credit Control) a high school diploma and a whole year of college (yippee) so not exactly on the highly skilled list. My partner however has GCSE's in English French & German as well as Uni degrees in Electronical Engineering & Audio/Video technology... he'lll probaby do better then I will with pay/opportunities then I will if/when we shift back to Canada.

I'm a NZ born, Canadian citizen who emmigrated to the UK to be with above mentioned partner, been living together over 2 years here now. I came across this site when I was doing some research as to what kinds of things he may expect to go through if he does ship butt back to Canada with me once we're ready to start a family.

I'm not against doing the marriage & kids thing here in the UK so long as I raise my kids in Canada from their early(ish) years on... just feel Canada is a safer enviroment to raise kids in, may be wrong but *shrug*

So to answer your question, unless a Canadian company offers me $60,000 CDN/yr and pays our expenses to move there, I doubt I'll be moving to Canada within the next year

Madmac

Ah, no worries then. They're giving away $60K pa jobs in the petrol forecourts over here with every $20 of gas! I turned down 2 yesterday in fact. I'd rather have the crappy tire points.

You'll be here before you know it. I'll ask for a job for you when they give me the $100K pa one. Sorted!

Daedra

DEAL! How do I spell your last name? *lol*

Madmac

D - E - S - P - E - R - A - T - E.

Daedra

LOL!! Hang in there, you'll make it.. just keep your searches as broad as possible & narrow them down based on response/desirability.... ok that may not help but here's something that helped me when I was looking for my first desk job when I was 24 (looon time ago!)... this is what I did.

Get the local paper, try and get the biggest in print in your area. Go the the Classifieds section... look at all the expensive photo ads... even if its not for your position/career path, the company obviously has money to spend on big photo adds in the largest paper in your area so obviously have some $$$ extra to spend & are doing relatively well!

Get a really spiffy version of your CV properly printed out (no photocopies, unless its perfect and there is NO detectable trace of it being a photocopy) so that it appears you prepared & printed your CV special for this/these companies. OK may cost you a couple of $$ but trust me, the results are worth the input of money...

Now prepare a nice introductory cover letter as to how impressed you were with said company and how you feel you might be the perfect candidate they are or will be looking for and how honoured you would be to work for such a fantastic company with the same proffesional ideals as you (blah dee blah.. kiss arse basically). Wrap up tidily with a "my exprience is largely in ______, however, I would be willing to consider any positions you have now or in the near future which you feel my exprience & skills would be suited for"

Get their mailing address... call the phone number in the add (so long as its not chargeable like 1-900 or 1-976 numbers!!), email the address on the newspaper ad, whatever you need to do to get an actual office address. If you don't know who to address it to, send it to the attention of Human Resources, even if the company doesn't have an official HR department (highly unlikely if they could afford large photo ads in the paper!), they will atleast be competent enough to know whom should be recieving HR related post!

Lastly... spend some money on proper A4 (think its called Letter size in Canada, memory's getting foggy) envelopes so that you can slip your CV into it without folding it over... it's a small thing, but your attention to detail in presenting a proffesional front will have an impact on the initial person recieving your letter & it's less likely to be thrown in the wastebin.

Hope this helps, you may already know all this but figured I'd share some tips... that was how I landed my first office job for a large company even though I had only previously worked at a small baker's as a dishwasher

silver birch

Hang in there! It took a year for me to get my job, from first enquiry back in May last year (05), an informal visit in August, interview in October, another visit in January then a few more hoops to go through around funding. I finally got the nod in July and start in January :scared: .

I found a couple of websites for lecturing jobs while doing my (endless) researching

University Affairs

and

Academic Careers online

There were also a few on workopolis but in the end I found the job I got through browsing the websites of individual universities.

Good luck