britsnake

Polish visitor
Without meaning any offence, by reading your posts and looking at the words you use and the way your sentences are constructed, any native english speaker could tell that english is not your first language.

In the company I used to work in, one of my work collegues was from eastern europe. He was my friend, and used to ask me to help him improve his english. I was happy to do this.

Though he was highly skilled and more qualified than me, as a native english speaker, with an advanced mastery of the english language, I had an advantage over him.

As for those you refer to as clowns, I am greatful to them. They have been a great help to me and my family. Many of them are inteligent and thoughtful people. They recognise that the history of Canada is closely tied to that of the UK.

My wife loves the french accent (of france). I admit, I used to be a bit jealous of this, but I never called her a clown. There is a old saying 'You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar'

canadaimmigrant

I've found this to and I've concluded that there seems to be biased or predjuiced against those with no canadian experience - even though the worker is highly qualified with plenty of experience, software skills and problem solving - it all seems to go by the board.

I've also heard that doctors for example end up being taxi drivers, etc.

The Canadian Immigration has been very supportive of me and my application for PR because of my skills as IT is one of the skills they need, so they say. I have 12 years of experience.

Yet what it the point in bringing in all these new immigrants (myself included) with their skills if they are not even employable when they settle in Canada???

I've not had any success not even an interview in Toronto where I've settled. Apart from one telephone call from HR in Toronto whom was quite rude and patronising explaining that my resume was crap. However, I've had more interest in the Maritime provinces with telephone interviews and they were really nice people. But nothing has come if it yet. I think the maritime provinces would be better for me. So employers in the Maritimes are more open and genuine than else where?

Before I applied for PR, I worked on a Work Permit in 2007 for a employer in Toronto and it was the wost experience ever - just plain weird! Everyone was so elitist and treated others terrible - not all but most. I left because of this when the 12 month rent lease ended and returned to the UK.

Shame on you Canada! Or is it just Toronto and Ontario giving Canada a bad name?

Novocastrian

hrt2fnd

hi all,

I agree that english skills are quite critical otherwise there might be some misunderstandings (the best example I guess is what we've seen on page 1)..

However, language skills are not the main driving success factor to get a job in canada.
As you can tell I'm not a native english speaker but managed to get a job within approx. 2 months after landing in toronto in 11/2009 - without a pay cut compared to my previous job in germany (net is pretty much the same).

When I came here I had no contacts at all. I got to admit I was lucky but I think I also did some things quite right.
I'd recommend to be very pro-active and consult headhunters rather than applying directly to companies (many recruiters simply ignore CVs that were not channeled through either 'their' external recruiting companies or were recommended by someone within the firm). Don't waste too much time on fine-tuning your resume, spend more time on networking instead (e.g. try meetup.com, internations.org or do some volunteering). networking even within the brit community might be helpful to get your first interviews.
networking, networking, networking.
these are the rules. welcome to canada!

cheers
andy

polishvisitor

I rather go south than go through all these hardship to find a job.
Volunteering? what? I have only 1 life, in the name of what ? to get a job, get a life , seems to me like most of you left UK and good jobs for all these hard times and harsh winters, well good luck I can be fool only once and it did happen 20 years ago

hrt2fnd

@polishvisitor:
have fun in the states then...

LandC

I hate to break it to people that think that getting an IT job in the UK is easy, its not. Anyone following the news lately will realise the size of the cuts the government is making and one of those areas that is being hit the most is IT and its working its way down through to local councils. Normal avenues for IT jobs, council, NHS and big business have dried up over the last few years. Graduate recruitment has all but stopped especially in Scotland, i smuggled myself into several university recruitment days over the last year or so and while companies would be proclaiming how good they where to work for many admitted they weren't taking people on.

I have some contacts in Canada (Ontario to be precise) and they say there is work to be found if you know the right people. I can't speak for the US but it might be better for work there.

L and C

rubberduckofdeath

I'm guessing from what you've written that you are a recent graduate yourself. If that's the case, I can understand why you're finding it hard to find work. Lack of working experience will hinder you at a time when there are people out there with working experience who are also looking for jobs. I'd always take experience an personality over additional education when looking to hire. If you're not a recent graduate I guess this doesn't apply!

I receive probably 50 cv's for every one person I hire at the moment.

Good luck either way

Zoe Bell

I have two colleagues at work who are looking for jobs in other fields ( nothing to do with working with me I would like to add )

They are both native born Canadians and are having the exact same problems , that I encountered and that other people describe here , the lack of response from recruiters 99% of jobs not being advertsised , not hearing back after interviews.

Therefore I don't believe that these problems have anything to do with being an immigrant

ozzoon

I will later compare which country would be easier for me to get a job.
As I am Korean, have a work-permit and am eligible to work in the UK(and Ireland as well), I found it was easy for me to get a job in the UK.
I couldn't worry about British experiences nor networks with someone else.
Companies who offered a job was interested in my skills only after reasonable communication being interviews.

Now, I got my Canadian Permanent residence and is landing in Toronto on July 1.
I will very soon find out if what people here have said is true or not.
So far, it seems true as I applied for tons of positions on the Internet with my new Toronto address and new cell phone number.

Anyway... I'll see what will happen

LandC

I have had several years of experience doing systems support and web development, but after not having luck with getting work i went back to university to get some accreditation (now MCSA messaging and almost CCNP)while i continued to search. Having a blank spot in my CV would look worse so have kept myself busy, I've also done some work for a friend in Canada which i hope will help as well.

Zoe Bell

One trick I found to get that all important Canadian work history on your resume was to do some volunteer work and then list it on your resume along with all your other previous jobs.

When asked at interview I'd happily say that it was volunteer work but it seemed to get you over that no Canadian experience initial hurdle

rubberduckofdeath

Good idea, karma!

rubberduckofdeath

<yawn>

rubberduckofdeath

Or a lack of intellect coupled with greed.