LOOKING FOR A JOB

 JOB SEARCH / METHODS IN CANADA

This chapter was written to help you in your goal to find a job in Canada, and it is part of THE PLAN described in Chapter 8, which this book suggests to follow in the best way, to achieve your job, psychological, and financial stability in your new country. In this chapter I will describe the most common job search techniques, the recommended actions to undertake and a broad collection of recruitment companies, agencies and organizations  you may find useful

- OVERALL CONSIDERATIONS

Finding a good job in Canada is the base of your and your family’s  welfare state. Your lifestyle will depend, to a great extent, on the type of job you find and the salary earned. On the other hand, a good job according to your personal expectations, experience and education will be the key to your sense of achievement or frustration in your new life, both for you and for your family members.

Just finding “a job” isn’t enough – what is important is to find and achieve A GOOD JOB. May you find a job with a decent salary, where you use your own knowledge and experience, where you can learn the Canadian way of working, where you can improve your command of the technical English in connection with your specialisation. In other words, a job allowing you for a good economical position and a sound professional development in Canada.

To achieve this goal we recommend you to study every point developed in this book in detail, especially the actions recommended in THE PLAN – Chapter 15. The most important part for you in your immigration project is to get ready, look for, and find A GOOD JOB, focusing all your effort on it, and undertake the recommended actions as best as possible.

Many people come to Canada trying to find a job. Most of them are immigrants from many different parts of the world with a good command of English and a broad job experience. Others were born in Canada, with a Canadian education and experience and no language constrains. The latter, moreover, count on the training and the support of the government for them to enter again the job market.

Being a newcomer, it is just logical feeling as the last in the queue. The good piece of news is that you can also get trained and learn the necessary techniques in job search. The key for a newcomer is to get rained in these techniques and be competitive, not only in his /her profession or craft, but also in those techniques, including aspects such as resume and cover letter writing, interview practice, job search in the hidden market, etc.

- JOB SEARCH TRAINING COURSES

Those courses may take a day, several days or weeks or even months. They focus on educated and experienced newcomers or people who look for a job and are supported by the Federal or Provincial or by the  Municipal Government in Toronto. They aim at training participants in suitable job search techniques.

The advantages of taking those courses are many, especially the following:

● They will help you determine what your transferable technical and job skills are, according to the Canadian job market.

● With the help of experts, you will find the bests way of writing your resume, scripts, cover letters, thanks letters, etc. According to the Canadian parameters.

● You will meet people from different cultures and countries in a similar situation to yours in connection with your expectations and hope. At the same time you will understand that the stage of looking for a job in Canada is just normal within the immigration process to this country and that it is very much the same for thousands of professionals and skilled workers who arrive in Canada every year to settle down.

● You will have the opportunity to get trained in facing INTERVIEWS with personnel who will advice you regarding vocabulary, body language, techniques, speech, possible questions according to your specialisation, etc. For you to be ready for a real interview and improve your possibilities to get the job.

● It’s the best opportunity to improve your listening, writing, and speaking skills in English. Moreover, you will have the opportunity to speak before an audience, among people who will support to one another..

● During those courses and some weeks after, you will have the opportunity to count with the permanent advice of people who know on the subject and you will also have free access to the use of a computer, INTERNET books, newspapers, telephone, etc, apart from receiving printed materials about that valuable course. 

● You will be busy, which will prevent you from worrying too much for not having a job or an income, which you may have not experience since long ago. At the same time, the course will help you improve your command of English and increase your self-confidence.

Depending on the duration of every course, the student will learn and practice some interview techniques, which are in the end, the key to getting a job.

There are different courses, 1 day long, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks and even 2 months long.

The most advisable courses  for newcomers (professionals and skilled workers) in Canada, are the ones longer than 3 weeks, in the following organisations:

● SKILLS FOR CHANGE OF METRO TORONTO
791 St. Clair Avenue West
Toronto, Ontario M6C 1B7
Web site: www.skillsforchange.org

Mentoring for Employment Program (International Trained Professional Newcomers)
Telephone: 416.658.3101
Fax: 416.658.6292
E-mail: sfc@skillsforchange.org
Information Line 416.658.7090

● COSTI

Toronto Central (Bathurst St-College St)

Web site: www.costi.org

Employment Programs for Newcomers and Internationally Trained Individuals

Address: 100 Lippincott St, Toronto, ON, M5S 2P1

Office Phone:  416-922-6688

E-mail: reception@costi.org

● NOW PROGRAM -(The Newcomer Opportunities for Work)

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

Tel: (416) 393-0350

E-mail: now@tdsb.on.ca

● ADULT LEARNING CENTRE

Curso: JOB OPTIONS BASIC SKILLS (JOBS)

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

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

Tel: (416) 686 – 8426

E-mail: ptpjobs@interlog.com

Other short courses in the city of Toronto are taught in the following locations:

● Welcome Centre – Immigrant Services

-          http://www.welcomecentre.ca/

-          9100 Jane St - Building H - Vaughan, ON  ( Intersection Rutherford Rd - Julliard Dr)

-          info@welcomecentre.ca

-          View MapQuest Map

● KENNEDY EMPLOYMENT RESOURCE CENTRE

Curso: JOB SHOP for FOREIGN TRAINED PROFESSIONALS

(A one week intensive program on Canadian Employment Techniques – for Newcomers only)

Web Site: www.tcet.com/ercs

Address: 2425 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 300 –Scarborough - Ontario

Tel: (416) 285-9180

● LAWRENCE SQUARE EMPLOYMENT RESOURCE CENTRE

Address: 700 Lawrence Ave. West, Suite 435 (In Lawrence Square Shopping Centre)

North York, Ontario

● SAINT CLAIR WEST EMPLOYMENT RESOURCE CENTRE

Address: 1345 St. Clair Ave. W, 2nd floor

Toronto, Ontario

● DUFFERIN MALL EMPLOYMENT RESOURCE CENTRE

Address: 900 Dufferin Street, Suite 101, Toronto, Ontario

Web Site: dufferin-erc.cnd.com

● CHESSWOOD EMPLOYMENT RESOURCE CENTRE

Address: 3701 Chesswood Drive, Suite #100

Tel 416 – 395 – 42 80

North York, Ontario

Para obtener más información, consulte HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT CANADA y el TORONTO DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD

 - JOB SEARCH METHODS IN CANADA

The methods used for job searches in Canada by newcomer professionals and skilled workers are:

● NEWSPAPER AND INTERNET ANNOUNCEMENTS

● EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES

● CONTACTACTING COMPANIES

● THROUGH RELATIVES AND ACQUAINTANCES – NETWORKING

From the vacant jobs the may exist in a field, it is estimated that at least 75% are not announced in mass media such as newspapers, Internet, etc. In other words, when you look for a job in the newspapers, on Internet,  or via employment agencies you may be covering just a 25% of the total amount of possible jobs available. Those types of jobs that are never advertised in mass media are known as the hidden job market.

- SEARCH IN THE ADVERTISED JOB MARKET

This is the traditional search in newspapers, specialised web sites and employment /recruitment agencies. They are the most common ways of looking for a job among newcomers to Canada. You will find announcements asking for personnel at different levels and occupations.

The problem is that, as they are used for so many people, the possibilities are minimum, because of the great amount of responses an announcement may get. Even having a good résumé, meeting the requirements and with a well written COVER LETTER, the possibilities of being called to an interview are low, usually between  5% and a 10%. In other words, in the best of cases you will have to send between 10 and 20 resumes to newspaper announcements or internet web sites to get at least one interview.

The other negative aspect is that just between a 5% and a 10% of the job market is announced by those means (newspapers, internet, etc.). Moreover, the best positions, whichever may be your idea of “best”, are not usually announced in newspapers or Internet.

The positive thing is that by means of Internet, you can look for a job and have many opportunities. For example, apart from looking for those positions in newspapers and job portals, you can easily reach a great amount of EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES and the MAIN COMPANIES web sites, where you can apply for the existing vacancies or send your résumé offering your job services.

- SEARCH IN THE HIDDEN JOB MARKET

More 80% of all the job positions are met without announcements in mass media. Those are the ones fulfilled, and sometimes created for, candidates who employers know through the contact with the applicant, by recommendations by other employees, recruitment agencies, or somebody who is close to the employer and knows a possible good candidate.

To get a job in this hidden market, the candidate doesn’t need to know the employer. It is just necessary to be recommended by somebody who knows the employer.

The net of all these people who may facilitate this goal is known as NETWORKING.  In other words, it is all about having contacts who may be in contact with the employers’ contacts. NETWORKING is the key to a job in the Hidden Job Market, where most available jobs are.

How to Reach the Hidden Job Market. The main tested techniques by experience of many people are the following:

1.     NETWORKING

2.     COLD CALLS

3.     INTERNET

The entrance to the Hidden Job Market may be via a phone call, an email, chatting with a neighbour, the encounter with a person of your same country in the bus, or the visit to an acquaintance. Your contacts and those you reach through their contacts may help you to know about the positions, projects or needs the will never be announced in news papers or on the Internet.

- NETWORKING

As explained above, NETWORKING is the net of people who know you and may be in contact with the contacts of your possible employers. NETWORKING is the key to find a job in the Hidden Job Market  and it’s also the most effective way – and the less stressing – of getting a job.

As a newcomer, you will have to start your own NETWORKING. That is a disadvantage of those who start a new life in Canada. In a job search it is an advantage that the Canadian and the veteran immigrants already have, with their relatives, a local job experience and their Canadian education.

NETWORKING is  a powerful tool to build relationships in your profession. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal in 2004, the 94% of successful employees reported to have got their jobs thanks to NETWORKING.

A newcomer’s NETWORKING must be built daily, constantly. It is really important to meet a lot of people, especially among the ones speaking your own language and those related to your same job field. You must make it know to everyone that you’re looking for a job, and bout your experience, profession, and specifically what you are looking for. Give the most accurate information as possible, for your acquaintances to be aware of it and be able to give you suitable contacts.

As many of us have been newcomers and have went through the same initial stages on our arrival in Canada, it is just normal to find some help and valuable advise from other people. That is a solidarity ring where those who have received valuable assistance in the past will pass it on to you, and then you will eventually pass it on to the following newcomers. PEOPLE ARE HAPPY WHEN THEY CAN HELP OTHERS.

HOW TO START YOUR NETWORKING

● Make contact with and take part in organisations of your interest, such as church, sports, culture academic, people from your country of origin, etc.

● Try to meet as much as people as possible. Be friendly, sincere and kind.

● Don’t miss the opportunity to meet new people and talk to them. For example your neighbours, in the shops, the gym, doctor’s office, etc., and even with people you don’t know (shop attendants, in the bus, bureau, etc.) Sometimes, the important help or the key data for a job come from the person you expect less!!

● Enrol on English and training courses.

TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE YOUR NETWORKING

The techniques used to make people know who you are and that you have the possibility to be assisted are:

1.      Personal Card:

2.      Commercial Personal o Script

Personal Cards: You can do them on your computer and then print them on a suitable paper. Basically, they must contain abridged information on the position you want to achieve, your experience, the type of industry, academic level, and main skills, along with any other relevant information. See the following example of a personal card for somebody who is looking for a job:

NOTE: This card is just an example to be used as a reference. Don’t forget to write your own 3 or 4 personal abilities (soft skills). Make sure the card presentation is impeccable.

-  PERSONAL ADVERTISEMENT

 (YOUR 20-SECOND ADVERTISEMENT OR SCRIPT)

It’s a brief account of your education and experience (background) you should write it in order to offer your services to possible employers or to tell the people you know in your networking. It has two main aims. The first one is to raise interest in your abilities and experience, and secondly, it will help you show your communication skills in English.

This short summary should contain the main points you want to make. If your education is not to remarkable, focus on your experience. If you lack of experience, put the emphasis on your education and personal abilities. A PERSONAL ADVERTISEMENT or SCRIPT must contain the following information:

● A few starting words describing your job objective

● A brief description of:

-          Education (qualifications)

-          Experience (in the field)

-          Soft skills

-          Personal aims

● Any achievement remarkable in your experience.

● Mention of the field of your interest.

The following is an example of SCRIP:

Once you have set your script. Read it and practice it the necessary times until you know it by heart and are able to express it naturally. This way you will make the best impression, regarding your level of English.

Bare in mind that this script is the one you will have to repeat many times in your job interviews, and your basic tool to persuade the employer. Being employed or not may well depend on your good script  writing and practice.

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