julius smith

Hello guys! Well, after all that hassle, I am finally here in good ol' Toronto! I am here to find myself a job which I know I should land pretty soon. I have given myself around 2 months to 10 weeks and I think with my experience and qualifications, I will do it! I am going to have to be very flexible, as I know that the job situation here is not like what we have in the UK, so I will be open to offers of reasonable positions. I mean, that doesn't mean that I will be accepting street cleaning or janitorial jobs, of course! That's not to say there's anything wrong with them, as somenone has to do them, but I am going to try to fit in to my field if I can, that is quality assurance. If anyone out there has any ideas where I can start, any support will be most appreciated! If anyone else needs any help, I will pass on what I can also.

iaink

Hi Julius, Good luck, I was a quality engineer in Automotive for a while, there seem to be a few contract positions out there for troubleshooters to come in and clean up problems, One thing employers look for is PEO membership, and there is now a category for qualified candidates without Canadian Experience, so I would definatley look into that if you havent. What is your background?

Iain

ray1968

Try a couple of employment agencies that specialise in your field ...what type of QA do you do ?


Ray

Mapboy

You've probably done this already, but Workopolis has a ton of QA related jobs listed in the GTA, both permanent and contract. Good luck.

julius smith

Hi and thanks for your help, Iain. My background in QA goes back a long way--I started way back in 1984 working with the Ministry of Defence who were doing some military projects with Royal Air Force, so that got me some experience with DEF-STAN etc. Then I moved on to commercial work, doing ISO 9002 procedure writing, proving, internal auditing (process audits etc), customer actions requests (CARs), and lately continuous improvement, Kaizen, a little Six Sigma and finally Lean Manufacture. Whew! Thats where I stand at the moment. By the way, and forgive me for my ignorance, but what does PEO stand for, as I haven't heard of that term before? Any further help would be much appreciated.

julius smith

Hi, Ray and thank you too for your help! I have tried to sum up my details in the reply to Iain on this thread--please feel free to read what I have done so far. I am not going to rely on Defence orientated jobs--these have become virtually non-existent these days, so I will consider moving onto any field where QA is a prime concern.

julius smith

Hi and thank you for your input, Mapboy! Yes, you're quite right--I have looked at Workopolis! I have posted my details with them, and I am ringing around agencies the length and breadth of the local Toronto area as well! Let's see what transpires as they say, in the next few weeks or days! By the way, what do you think about rumours I have been hearing from people here about Mississauga becoming to crowded and built up? I was told that the best place to set down roots would be Milton, as it's quite close to civilisation but has loads of empty space. Is that so or what other places would you suggest? I am not looking to be too far away from schools and shopping etc.

iaink

Sounds like you have a good broad background, only thing against you is lack of canadian expperience. Automotive industry is the biggest employer around, so the more you can find out about Ford and GM TQM systems the better. PEO is Professional Engineers of Ontario. See http://www.peo.on.ca
or for a wider view http://www.peng.ca

I will ask a few freinds in the industry if they can recommend any particular agencies.

Iain

julius smith

Many thanks once again, Iain for your help! I would be most obliged for any further info you can glean from your mates. I will get genned up on auto industry systems asap. By the way, what area of engineering are you in now yourself?

iaink

I started as a materials engineer (electrical ceramics), but now seem to cover process, design, quality, manufacturing, safety, maintainence, you name it! "Product engineer". The joys of working for a small company!

Is any of your experience in the automotive segment? Its a big help with the agencies if it is, but I was able to make a sideways move, probably through knowing someone at the company from my previous job.

Iain

wizzard

If you drive around Toronto along the higways past all the industrial areas where all the companies and factories are etc. you will see a large majority of them have giant banners advertising their ISO certifications, so it seems that maybe QA is quite popular in most Canadian industries.

Drew

julius smith

Yes, thats quite interesting, Iain. I have covered a liitle of what you describe at my last place of work in the UK. Funny thing is, I went to some agencies and also the local equivalent of job centres here in Mississauga, and they all say that I will have to start at a lower level in the beginning! And most of my qualifications have to be assessed by some board of engineers or something. However, it's looking ok so far--I've only been here a couple of days!! By the way, there was even an offer of a part-time job as a shipping/receiving documentation handler earlier this week, so it cant be that bad for jobs! One thing though, and you can probably say with qualification having been here a while, is the cold here that bad that you are only safe outside for a few minutes etc? I cant believe its that bad........!!

iaink

Welcome to the canadian experience trap. Having your qualifications assesed has probably been done as part of the immigration process, but if you can meet the new PEO requirements for the new newcommer clasification it will open a few doors I am sure

Not very often, but there are the odd days. Last winter there were a few days (and more nights) around -27°C, but with a strong wind the windchill was in the low -30s. Thats pretty damn cold if you arent dressed appropriately, or even if you are! Usually mid winter temps are -teens, but its the wind you need to watch out for. -15, no wind, sun shining is OK (which is the norm), -15, wind blowing, not nice.

Enjoy the "summer" while its still here. this year has not been representative though, its usually a lot better.

Still waiting to hear about the agencies by the way.