LOOK FOR A JOB - PLAN IN CANADA

Once you have settled down in Ontario or in any Canadian province, you have 2 alternatives to start defining your professional future:

     -    ALTERNATIVE #1. Start your Job Search.

This first option is only advisable if you have a sound education and technical experience, and also a suitable level of English. If this is your case, you may decide that you are ready to face a job search.

In this case you should start you course of action by enrolling on a Job Search Course (see section 17.2 – Training Courses for Newcomers), an English course to improve your level and, at the same time, do the necessary errands to get your certification or professional license. Having your transferable skills, abilities, experience, and job profile well defined will allow you to face the job search process confidently.

-          ALTERNATIVE #2.  Start a Specialisation, Upgrade or Training Course.

You should consider this option if you found out that you are not updated enough when you assessed your technical knowledge, skills, and experience, or if they are nor transferable to the Canadian job market.

In this case, it is highly recommended to find a university, college or technical educational institution offering programs or specialisation in your career and that accepts your academic credentials. You may also start training in any area of your interest. This is an alternative if you owe the funds or the economical support to pay for those courses of studies and get by in the meantime. Another good possibility is to get an educational loan from the OSAP

● START TO GO ON YOUR ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES.

If you consider that you know enough English, do courses to improve you English accent and expand your vocabulary. There is always a way to improve a second language.

 ● TAKE THE BEST COURSE TO LEARN TO LOOK FOR A JOB

Newcomers need to be competitive not only in their profession, but also in their job search techniques, which includes aspects like resume /cover letter preparation, interview practice, hidden job market searches, etc. There are several courses where you can learn job search techniques, taught by qualified personnel and focused on the educated and experience newcomer ’s needs. It is very important for you to enrol on a good course and learn these techniques, with the assistance and advice of experienced and qualified people.

The courses for newcomers or for those who look for a job are supported by the Federal, Provincial Government or by the city of Toronto, and their aim is to help them enter the job market. There are different courses, of different duration and depth: some take just a few days, and others may imply several days or weeks.

The courses we recommend (of more than two weeks), are taught at the following organisations:

● SKILLS FOR CHANGE OF METRO TORONTO

Mentoring for Employment Program (International Trained Professional Newcomers)
791 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto, Ontario M6C 1B7
Web site: www.skillsforchange.org
Telephone 416.658.3101
E-mail: sfc@skillsforchange.org

● COSTI

Employment Programs for Newcomers and Internationally Trained Individuals

Address :  100 Lippincott St, Toronto, ON, M5S 2P1 Toronto Central (Bathurst St-College St)

Office Phone:  416-922-6688

E-mail: reception@costi.org

Web site: www.costi.org

●  NOW PROGRAM (The Newcomer Opportunities for Work)

E-mail: now@tdsb.on.ca

Address: 777 Bloor Street West –Room 120 – Toronto Ontario, M6G 1L6

Tel (416) 393-0350

●  ADULT LEARNING CENTRE

Curso: JOB OPTIONS BASIC SKILLS (JOBS)

 (Job search assistance to job seekers with literacy and English difficulties)

E-mail: ptpjobs@interlog.com

Address: 2944 Danforth Avenue – Room 32 –Toronto, Ontario

Tel (416) 686 – 8426

● ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS ASSESSMENT

Professionals and skilled workers need, in most cases, an assessment of the level and content of their courses of studies (in their own countries) for them to be recognised and validated in Canada. The credentials assessment (certificates, diplomas or academic degrees) is performed for Job, Academic, Professional License or Immigration purposes. It is essential to get the necessary recognition of your profession and be admitted into the professional organisations.

In order to do that, the first step is to have your educational certifications and degrees translated by a certified Translator. To get one in Ontario, you can contact the Association of Interpreters and Translators of Ontario.

These are some of the organisations assessing academic credentials for job or academic purposes:

- ONTARIO COMPARATIVE EDUCATION SERVICE

- WORD EDUCATION SERVICES

-  canada@wes.org

-  Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials – CICIC.

This institution assists people who want to know how the evaluation process to apply for the recognition of professional credentials is.

●  GET TECHNICALLY TRAINED AND UPGRADED (Canadian Market)

The government of Ontario supports economically special projects for foreign professionals from different areas who come to live to Canada. Their aim is to assist them in their job and professional settlement. Some programs include the necessary training leading to the professional licensing in Ontario.

For further information, consult OPENING DOORS for INTERNATIONALLY TRAINED INDIVIDUALS

●  MAKE YOUR JOB SEARCH A FULL TIME JOB

If you decide to start looking for a job in your area, you must devote yourself full time to the preparation and search for a good job.

As stated in previous paragraphs, the prime priority of your arrival is to get a good job. Just finding “a job” isn’t enough, what is important is to get A GOOD JOB. A job where you could have a decent salary, where you are able to use your knowledge and experience, where you can learn the Canadian way of working, where you will be improving your command of Technical English related to your field.  And to get  a “good” job (at least with a medium salary, see Chap. # 7 – (MEDIUM SALARY JOBS) you will need to get ready and wait for this opportunity to arise.

Most skilled and professional newcomers who arrive in Canada with no knowledge of the environment, are usually advised by other immigrants. Many may have come without a good preparation or education and have survived form job to job, unable neither to exert their profession nor to enter the job market successfully. What they learn is how to repeat the same mistakes with different elements, which eventually leads them to get and keep low paid jobs, below their capacities and expectations, with a permanent frustration deep inside.

Big Canadian cities are full of people who could never start working in the fields they were trained for in their own countries. To compensate their low salaries, these people have can only resort to having more than one job, and a lot of restrictions. From them, newcomers also learn the general idea and the fear that “things are not easy in Canada”... and it is actually not the case. Unless you lack the necessary preparation.

Many newcomers are lead by the fear, uneasiness and anxiety passed to them from other immigrants who have hardly survived in Canada or years. As a result, next week, they usually accept the job they are offered “to make sure”, any occupation with a low salary. For example in Wendy’s, Mc Donald’s, Tim Hortons, cleaning companies or as workers in manufacturing companies and industries. That is the way of “making sure” of staying for ever in a difficult and uncertain environment.

The main reasons for not taking a full time job as soon as a newcomer arrives in Canada are:

1.      You will lose the opportunity to get trained in job search techniques, taught to newcomers and useful in the future when you need to look for a job again

2.      You will lose the opportunity to study English and then start working from a better level. Once you are busy with your job it will be more difficult to study, due to time constrains. In the courses for newcomers, it is quite often to find people who have lived and worked for 10 years or more in Canada, who haven’t had the time to take those courses just because they have been working since their arrival.

3.      You will be busy during the day, which will stop you from the possibility to look for a “good job”. This limitation will prevent you from finding good opportunities in your field, with a higher salary, the opportunity to attend interviews, send lots of resumes, deal with recruitments, attend job fairs, etc.

4.      You will be more and more busy. Before the possibility of a low  salary and increasing expenditure (car, car insurance, rent, utilities, etc.), the most probable resort is to get a second job to support those financial responsibilities.

IMPORTANT: To get a decent job or a job position in your field, you need to get rained and devote full time, with all your energies to your job search. According to statistics, newcomer skilled workers spend an average of  5 or 6 months to get a job in their fields. 

It is a good alternative for engineers, architects, and professionals related to industry to look for a job in their field in medium technical positions, as inspectors, laboratorists, metrologists, quality control agents, etc. In these cases there are afternoon /night shifts that will allow you to have spare time in the mornings, and you will meet people related to that field at the same time, as you acquire some experience in Canada. To see how you should write your resume with a technical profile to get one of those positions, see Section FUNCTIONAL RESUME.

By our own experience, we have seen that newcomer professionals and skilled workers to whom getting a job takes most (5-7 months), are the ones who get the best positions in the end, compared to other immigrants who get employed in a shorter term. There may be a number of reasons:

-          They are more selective. When somebody is self-assured of his /her own personal skills, has a good command of English, and counts on enough resources, he / she has the aim to look for positions that keep up to their educational level and experience, which usually takes more time.

-          They will know the job market in a better way.

-          They will start with a higher level of English.  After 4 or more months immerse in the Canadian environment and studying the language with devotion, the level of English improves to a great extent, especially in listening comprehension and conversation.

-          They will be more skilful, both in job search techniques and in the knowledge of the job market itself. Moreover, after several interviews, they get more confident to sell their own personal and professional image.

-          They will already have a network. The best way to get a professional job is meeting lots of people, especially in the same job field.

-          They have more possibilities. It is just normal that  after the three first months you have sent 100 or more resumes to companies, recruitment, classified ads, etc. and still have a whole lot of outstanding places where to send your resume. The more people know you “exist” in Canada, the higher you opportunities will be.

● EXPAND YOUR  NETWORK (Friends and Acquaintances)

NETWORKING is the web of people who know you and who could be in contact with the contacts of possible employers. NETWORKING is the key to get  a job in the hidden job market, that is to say, in those job positions in companies and organisations that are never advertised in mass media. Estimates show that a 75% of available positions in an area are never advertised in newspapers or Internet.

The lack of a NETWORK is a disadvantage of all those who start a new life in Canada. You should start building your own networking, meeting more people, enrolling on courses and diverse activities, knowing your community and joining sport, cultural, or professional groups, etc.

In a job search, a NETWORK is an advantage for both the Canadian and the veteran immigrants, most probably educated here, with relatives and local  experience.

More information regarding this subject in Chapter 7.6.3 NETWORKING 

● CONTACT RECRUITMENTS AND HEADHUNTERS

Recruitments and Head-hunters can be of great help in your job search, especially if you have a sound education and a broad experience in certain specific field. Recruitment agencies are private companies that find and select people to work in other companies. They provide them with different classes of services such as temporary or permanent workers, employees in different areas, and with different skills, and other qualified members of staff.

Some specialise in recruiting personnel in certain specific fields, such as technology, computers, communications, engineering, oil, or accounts.

The best way to start your relationship with them starts by the agency’s assessment of your resume and skills and, according with your job profile, they will try to place you in a company on temporal or permanent bases, for a commission or a minimum percentage of your salary (that is paid to the agency by the company). The advantage is that these recruitment companies know the “hidden job market”, those positions that are not advertised neither in newspapers not in any other media. Moreover, most of the time, companies resort to recruitments to get highly qualified skilled workers or professionals who suit certain requirements, and then pay for agencies to make a selection for them. The company who will pay makes the final choice of the new employee among a few candidates the agency refers.

For that reason, it is a good idea to contact those recruitments face to face, for them to take your RESUME into account. Moreover, the interviews with them, will help you to improve your communication skills and performance little by little.

Once you are registered with an agency, you must call quite often to know what jobs are available and make sure they take you into account as a candidate.

● SEARCH - SEARCH - SEARCH

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