Lorelai

Hi I was wondering if anyone could help. So I moved to Canada on spousal sponsorship in March. Things are going well apart from one aspect....the job hunting. I had just finished university in the UK so have no experience. Is it me or does it seem that you need loads of experience and qualifications for everything here?! I have a legal degree which is pretty much useless here and have been told I would need to do another 3 years of law school to be able to take the Ontario Bar.
I am in Ottawa and thought I would use BE for some 'networking'. Would greatly appreciate any help/contacts/advice.

Thanks

Lorelai

scrubbedexpat091

Its an employers job market out there right now, so employers can and are being picky and upping the requirements for positions since there are so many out of work.

I was laid off in December and haven't had an interview in 5 months now, despite going out daily to apply as well as online.

I dont live in a huge city (70k people) and our unemployment is higher then average (12%) so a larger city should be a little easier.

You may have to take lower positions to get your foot into the door and work up from there until the job market improves.

Batfink

Hi

I've been here in Kanata since Feb 09 and I'm finding it really difficult to get an Admin type job! Am hanging in there tho' and keeping everything crossed - failing that there's always Tim Horton's!!!

clynnog

Have you tried the school boards.....it isn't great money, but they need admin positions going between various schools...not sure if that is your cup of tea....if you go with the english catholic or public school boards there is no french requirement and you would have your summers free...works well for moms with school age children.

Batfink

Hi Clynnog,

It's absolutely my cup of tea - i'm off to look at the website now! Thanks for the info.

Mel

clynnog

For the OCDSB don't believe the info about needing to have the 1st aid certification...that can get done once you are approved.

Do you have children in a school in Kanata?

Any clue as to where I got my user name for BE?

hopeful2

Its very difficult to get jobs in Ottawa unless you are bilingual- jobs of any quality that is.

cousinsandra

Hi
We too are hoping to go to Ottawa in about 12-18 months. I have A level standard French and my husband has pub standard!! (deux bierres s'il vous plait...) Do you think they would expect high working French for office jobs? What do you think for chef jobs? I have tried emailing a couple of agencies but (understandably) had no response. I am going to phone a couple this week when I'm feeling brave...

clynnog

Depends on the office job....downtown many firms require a level of french and with the federal government you likely have to be both a Cdn citizen and bi-lingual (Souvenir can chime in on that one).....out in the western burbs you rarely hear the language of love (and even then, the french is so grating to listen to with the Gatineau joual thrown in)....

Not sure about chef jobs....

Keith

I have lived in Ottawa for 46 years and have never had the need to use french in any of the 3 companies I worked for.

The federal civil service has attempted over the years to increase the number of bilingual employees, but have not been that successful. Many who took the courses (including my son) never became proficient enough to qualify.
There are very few French only speakers in Ottawa most are bilingual.

Office staff in the downtown area are preferred to be bilingual but it's not mandatory. There is always an attempt to hire bilingual office staff but I believe Ottawa is less bilingual than when I first arrived here. Arabic is rapidly becoming the most widely heard language after English.

Souvenir

There is an interesting conversation going on today of the front page of the Ottawa Citizen website. It's about language training and what people really think of it. It reinforces what I already believed regarding the meaning of 'bilingual'.

clynnog

Yeah, I read it and it makes me glad I have never worked for the federal government. My children are relatively bi-lingual through school (starting at SK level to Grade 3 and 7 (current grades)) and they put me to shame in french after about a year or so of their schooling. Thankfully, it appears they are learning parisian rather than thurso french.

Souvenir

I'll second that one. The cabinet maker we've been using is from up that way.

I cannot understand more than 10% of what he says.

cousinsandra

we currently live in Swansea and there is a big public effort to get more people speaking Welsh. Many public sector jobs express a preference for Welsh speakers and children are taught it in school from Nursery up. It seems to be more to increase its profile and hopefully speaker numbers, but as you mention there don't seem to be many people who follow it through to any sort of proficiency - for example, many students drop it before GCSE. I have tried to investigate re. French in Ottawa but aside from official statistics, can't seem to get much info. I wonder if it's the same as the Welsh here - technically many people can speak some of the language, but practically it is not much used and rarely is the only language spoken?

clynnog

Depends where you go in the greater Ottawa area...basically on the QC side it would be required for any job and is very useful in day to day dialogue with your neighbours and in shops...many people can speak english on the QC side (especially in Aylmer, Chelsea, Wakefield and Buckingham) but french would definately help.

In Ontario, drawing a line from about Gloucester to Cornwall, areas north of that line are quite french in day to day social and employment interaction. Places like Casselman, Hawkesbury, Alfred, Plantagenant are very french.