Computer programmer
 

Dear Sir,

I have got an interview date in Nov.,my question is,
I have applied as a Computer Programmer now at the time of interview will they test my programming knowledge by asking some coding or procedures in my expertise areas ? do they test any specific skills like computer/database programming or they ask general questions about canada,current work professions, emplyoment history, financial status etc....your quick answers will be appreacited.

Re: Computer programmer
 

I never had any interview with CIC but my advice to you is to write down your role/responsibilities somewhere and be specific. Its not a job interview so you dont have claim expertise in over hundred skills.
Before coming to US , my friend and I went to US embassy for interview . They asked me about my role and I specifically told them about my programming skills. Officer did'nt know much about about my area of expertise but he asked general questions about programming and Web Development. After that my friend showed up and did'nt bother providing them detailed information about his job role. They started asking him stuff that he had no clue about. He was also a programmer+ database administrator and they started asking him questions about Unix OS. and other things like that. Obviusly I am talking about US Consulate not Canadian but its just an advice to you. Instead of just going there and saying I can do all type of stuff , you better be focused and specifically talk about your past experience. They are not technical people but they have lots of experience handling this type of cases and in most of the case they do ask questions about employment. So dont think interviewer is dumb and would get impressed that easily.

Re: Computer programmer
 

In most cases, the visa officer won't test how good you really are in your field of expertise but rather test your ability on how you are going to establish yourself economically in Canada. Common issues usually tackled during the interview are present job and past employments. Each case is unique so expect the unexpected to happen.

Re: Computer programmer
 

They actually placed me in front of a Computer terminal, and asked me to write a program in C++ and then compile it. It had to be all functional, or I was going to fail. After 3 hours of coding, I was sweating bullets. It was a program that had to calculate the correlation of forceful overthrows of governments in Africa with the spread of AIDS in those countries. It was a very vague problem, but I finally had a working model(about 400 lines of code), and they were somewhat satisfied with it.

I wish you good luck though.