cheeky_monkey

I think alot comes down to what kind of work you do..your skills set and experience and the demand for those skills in the area that you live.

Next problem is that as am immigrant you are not Canadian so you are up against Canadians with similar skills and experience who know the local market and can bring contacts and an existing network of potential clients and work leads with them.

Its not easy for anyone no matter how successful you were back in the UK.

snowdogs

I found the post helpful and informative. The job market sounds identical to the building trade in uk, jobs never advertised no security . I hope things work out for you.

zRichi

I know - from a million posts on here that finding a job in Vancouver is panning for gold....Is this the same case for Toronto?

If anyone could share there views it would be tres helpful

P.S I've applied for nearish 1000 jobs(thats not a joke)..first when job hunted in Jan and then after I got a job (not keen on my current work place) in February. I've heard back from 20-30 jobs this year and I live in the home counties. God knows what it's like up north. I'm actually so used to not hearing back it's shocking. I feel sorry for graduates that dont have experience.

dboy

I agree that planning, research etc are vital to one's success. However, luck, timing etc certainly play a role. Arrive when the economy is good...or when it gone for a tank.

paolosmythe

I hope i was not seen to be 'slamming'. i acknowledge that the OP's experience and opinion is as valid as anybody else's.

Then maybe poor judgement and decision making was a down fall? Perhaps dumb luck plays a role? Or perhaps it is more a case of dogged determination? Maybe i have been far luckier than i realise? Perhaps i am on the verge of absolute disaster? Either way, i am not about to conclude that the universe is conspiring against me.

A point of logic i accepted from the very beginning: if i cannot find work in my preferred field, i would have to find something else. Adapt or die.

It seemed to me that just the finding of work (aka the employability of the individual) is central to what irks the OP. Afterall, if gainful and sustained employment were secured, then it wouldn't matter that all applications are not responded to, or that the cost of living in a major city was high. (whodafunkit!?)

I know this. thank you for allowing me a chance to emphasise that i stated my experiences are personal only to me. I also stated that successful migration provides no entitlement (guarantee) to anything.

some would say that you have to be good to be lucky

my post was only with regard to my own personal state of affairs, just as they were for the OP; two sides to the coin. A thread of balance was all i had aspired to.

ExKiwilass

I guess I'm lucky that I come from a "Who you know not what you know" country so I have never felt let down by Canada.

having said that, I got my last 2 jobs not through networks, but through 1. an agency and 2. craigslist. So it is possible.

HPJOS

True in Calgary also, Canadian employers are, in general very conservative about who they hire and there is definitely an "old boys" club in my company, not to mention "oh you're in the same fraternity as me so have a job" brigade too.

I will say from my experience though I lucked out big time with my job. Fresh off the plane (literally) I walked into Robert Half Accountancy agency, there was a sort-of suitable job that they put me forward for an interview and the chap interviewing was a British expat himself who recognized all of my qualifications and pretty much hired me on the spot. I doubt I would have had the same response if I had met someone else but my company is a multi-national and people, especially the more senior managers are generally very mobile so hiring overseas people is not unusual, so long as you have what they consider the basic (and I mean degree + one other) qualifications to start with.

More than 3 years later I've been promoted a couple of times and doubt I could match salary & benefits to what I was on back in the UK.

Helen

helcat12

I don't think anyone would want to slam you for posting your experience, canadian_critic - you are entitled to your opinion and the facts you state are pretty much true in many cases. Your post is just so negative ( and that is not a criticism, just a fact) that you will naturally attract posters who want to balance that with a more positive view of their experiences in Canada.
My OH is working in your area as we speak and we wouldn't have dreamt of going over there without a job, any more than we would relocate in the UK without one. We just couldn't afford to.
I have heard and met some people with a rose-tinted spectacles iew about Canada and they are probably the ones who need the wake-up call your post gives them, but not all of us are deluded about what is on offer.
You are clearly bitter about your experiences and I am sorry that you have had a bad time, but "one man's meat is another man's poison", as they say and it is not impossible to get a job in Canada or the Vancouver area specifically and be very happy there.

snowdogs

If an immigrant has a negative experience since moving to canada then they are going to be negative when sharing their experience, Just as someone who has landed on their feet are going to have positive things to say.

If only positive posts are acceptable then people researching on here are going to get an imbalanced view.imo you can research till the cows come home and things can still go tits up and it may not be your fault.I would be a bit miffed too if this happened and I was left considerably out of pocket.

It still doesn't put me off and it won't stop me being pi**ed if it doesn't work out

iaink

You would think, but previous experience would tend to prove otherwise Im afraid.


Going with a job, and retaining and or replacing a job if necessary are two different things.

People need to be aware of the lay of the land even if they come with a job. Its very unusual for anyone to go through life now without experiencing a layoff, redundancy, downsizing or an "its just not working out".

Alan2005

I agree completely. This is a common bias that people have - people blame the situation when it happens to them, but when it happens to others they blame the people themselves.

And fwiw, dumb luck is why I'm where I am. Being in the right place at the right time has helped me a lot - I consider myself lucky.

helcat12

So true. All views are acceptable, because they are all valid experiences. Having a positive outlook doesn't necessarily mean it will work out and being pessimistic doesn't mean you will fail. OH and me are in this for the experience of another way of life. It may be great and it may be pants, but either way we will have tried it and we believe experience enriches you and is an achievement in itself.
There are no guarantees, but we all hope our lives and our choices will work out and it is really sad if it doesn't. It isn't necessarily anyone's fault - these things just happen sometimes and letting go of the bitterness and moving on to a place that is better for you is all you can do.

JonboyE

Nice. Sorry not to oblige. I could always say something along the lines that if you post something on a public forum you have to expect responses. If you don't want them then set up your own blog.

As a shit stirrer (thanks for that, I always find gratuitous insults strengthen an argument), and as your opening post purports to be for the benefit of potential migrants, I think a little balance is in order.

Get a job before you move

In an ideal world I agree. For some people with in-demand skills this is possible. Nursing is one example I can think of. Some trades as well, though not so much at the moment. For most other people it is not going to happen. They are going to have to find work once they get here. Job hunting in not a lot of fun, but if they are not prepared to do it then they have to think seriously about the idea of emigrating.

The job market is different

Seeing as shit seems to be an acceptable word on this thread I have to say "no shit Sherlock". It is almost as if it were a foreign country.

One morning I flew from Tokyo to Hong Kong. I had a coffee at Narita airport. When I paid for it the the waitress smiled, bowed deeply, and presented my change and my receipt on a plate held in front of her with both hands. I also had a coffee at Kai Tak airport when I arrived. When I paid the waitress she hesitated to see if I would walk away without my change, then dropped it on the table in mid conversation with her friend without looking at me. I could have demanded that she handed me my change on a plate. I would still be there now - without my change.

Different countries have different ways. You can make value judgments about which it better. (I am not. I think it is a pretty pointless exercise.) The hire and fire working culture is an example. It means you have less job security, but also more job opportunity. You can certainly make a judgment about which one suits you better. No one can argue with that. However, if you are going to be a successful immigrant you have to accept the differences for what they are. Canada is not going to change the way it does things to suit an immigrant. Immigrants chose to move to Canada so the onus is on them to adapt.

Of course, once you are working, if your ideas really are that much better then you have the opportunity to change things. Many posters say that Canadians have an "if it ain't broke don't fix it" attitude. This may be true but it is not something I have particularly noticed. Making change happen is difficult. This is true in the UK and it is true in Canada. The important staring point to making change happen successfully is to understand what is being done now, and why it is being done this way. It is an awful lot easier to do this from the inside.

I don't think we have met. All I can go on is your persona on this forum and I accept you may be a different person in real life. However, on this forum you express yourself as being an intensely negative and inflexible. Yet you say you are a creative business marketing consultant. If even a part of your on-line personality is part of your real-life working persona I can readily understand why you are finding things difficult.

Maybe you and Canada just don't "fit". It happens, and it is no-one's fault. If this is the case then the best thing you can do is move on or move back . With all the job opportunities available to you in the UK the cost shouldn't be a problem. Are you doing anyone any favours by staying in a place you are miserable and underemployed?

Who you know, not what you know

There is no denying that referrals play an important part of job hunting and career advancement. I think you are being naive if you believe they don't have a role in the UK as well. I also think that if you have been here five years and don't have professional and personal contacts and acquaintances then you haven't really been trying very hard.

Getting a job is like selling. Every sales training course will tell the student to focus on benefits, not features. It is not about the product, it is what the product can do for the buyer. A resume or CV tells a company about a candidate but a referral tells a company what the candidate can do for them. I believe that if a new job seeker concentrates on communicating what they can do for a potential employer rather than relying on the strength of their resume they can overcome a great deal of the disadvantages of being fresh off the boat.

Yes, salaries are rarely advertised. But, come on, a half-hour chat with a recruitment consultant or even with a couple of people in the business and you can learn everything you need to know about the salary ranges for the kinds of jobs and responsibilities you are seeking.

In contrast to you, I found a job within a week of first looking from an advert in the classified section of the Vancouver Sun. This was in 1999 and since then I have had three days when I didn't have paid work when I wanted it. Maybe I have been lucky. As you say in your OP you are only describing your experiences. Others (and I guess the majority) have different ones.

ducktastic

You go girl!

Sorry got carried away, I know you are not a girl....but you get the sentiment...

CanadaJimmy

+1. Superb Post from JonboyE there.

Only thing I'd like to add, in regards to that last point, is that networking is pretty much the only way of getting a job in certain industries in the UK too, particularity media related ones. It may appear frustrating but I myself would just see it as an interesting challenge, how does one get into that network? It's all about how you perceive these differences in my opinion. Some things aren't easy but they're rarely impossible to overcome with a bit of effort.