Immigrant’s Experience with Finding The Perfect Job

Leaving your home country and moving to Canada is probably the biggest challenge you will under take, unless you have previously moved to other countries. Most people immigrate for a better life, unless you are moving to Canada to be with family or to be with a loved one.

A better life usually means a better job and a better standard of living. For me moving from Britain six years ago I wanted to quit the rat race and be a stay at home mom. I was moving from a town of 180,000 people where my three mile commute to work took 40 minutes each way on a good day. I had worked as a Human Resources Project Manager for a global Financial Services company for 16 years. The first six years had been fantastic, we were a successful company with good pay and benefits. When the recession set in every project I undertook aimed at cutting  compensation and benefits for our 10,000 British employees. Employees were expected to do more and more for less and less reward. The fabric of family life in Britain was declining, housing costs were exorbitant and crime was rampant, my elderly mother had tackled burglars who broke in to her home twice already.

I was moving to a rural community of 20,000 people in Saskatchewan and I was looking forward to a  totally new life, spending more time with my family. My family were overcome with how friendly and helpful people were in Canada compared to Britain. When I first arrived I wrote newspaper articles for the local paper free lance. My first article was about the Swindon Wildcats (my hometown ice hockey team) and how the manager who was from my new town in Saskatchewan had recruited three young players from rural Saskatchewan. I even had a photograph  published in the newspaper of myself, my daughter and the Saskatchewan manager and players.

My dream job when I was at school was to be a journalist, but I did not follow it though and always regretted it. My first job in Britain was in a bank and I hated it. On the strength of the newspaper articles I was offered a job as a reporter. I turned the job down, as it was made clear it would be 50 hours a week and a  lot of weekend work and little chance to take any time off. After all I wanted to spend more time with my family.

After living in Canada a few months my financial situation declined, the house I had listed for sale in England still had not sold and we were having problems paying the bills on that house plus rent and car loans in Canada. So I had to get a job and this is when I found out, as Bernard mentioned in his article Tips and resources for new immigrants to Canada, “ finding a job is fairly easy, finding and landing a good job can be more difficult.”

I “knocked on doors” to find a job. I went to the local Credit Union and gave my resume to a Human Resource administrator, but she was very unfriendly and unhelpful.

First Job
I got a job working as an assistant for a Financial Adviser. He told me he was uncertain about giving me the job as I was more qualified than him, I begged him to give me the job as I was desperate for money. The job only lasted seven weeks. The boss never came into the office, the phone never rang, the only visitors were the mail man and the courier service, I had nothing to do. The Financial Adviser was struggling to get business. So when Head Office called me to shut down the office I was neither surprised or upset, in fact that was the day I actually did some work closing down the office.

Second Job
I had previously talked to another  Financial Adviser, who had offered me work but less hours, so I called her and got on working with her right away. However as Bernard says “one of the major hurdles for the immigrant is getting his or her skills recognized “ and unfortunately the Financial Adviser did not use my skills at all. This job consisted of getting people on the phone for her to talk to, calling investment fund companies for information, filing and photo copying. This job lasted five months.

Third Job
What you will find in Canada, especially in a smaller community, knowing the right people can be the key to getting the  job you want.  Seven months earlier I had applied for a job as an assistant at an art gallery. The curator (who went to the same church as me) called me and told me the job was posted again and that I should apply. I did not think there was any point as I had not got an interview seven months earlier, but the curator encouraged me to apply and interviewed me with his boss. His boss was uncertain about giving me the job as I was overqualified, but I still got the job. I did not like the job because everything was so disorganized and last minute and when I tried to change things for the better my superiors did not support the changes.

Fourth Job
The local Credit Union advertised for a Human Resource Manager and I got an interview. The job went to the unfriendly, unhelpful Human Resource administrator, who I had met a year earlier when I was “knocking on doors”. But I was undeterred and applied for a job as a teller at that Credit Union and got the job. I did not want to be doing bank work again but I saw that it could lead to something better if I could get into that organization. I made good progress working as a Bank Teller and my supervisor complimented my attitude and good customer service.

Within two months, two jobs came up in the Human Resource department and I applied for both as I had the skills and experience to do either role. But when I did not get an interview I questioned the unfriendly, unhelpful Human Resource administrator, who was now the manager. She said she did not have to give me a reason for not getting an interview.

Two weeks later I suffered the humiliation of being fired by the unfriendly, unhelpful Human Resource administrator. It was almost the end of my probation period and again when I questioned why she said she did not have to give me a reason. I checked this out with the Saskatchewan Labour Board and you can be fired within your probation period without a reason.

Fifth Job
I was horrified, I had worked a job in Britain for 16 years and now I was on my fifth job in two years. I became a Financial Adviser at one of the big banks. I even got a Canadian qualification, “Investment Funds in Canada” sponsored by the Institute of Canadian Bankers” which licensed me to sell investments.

When you come to Canada, you may find, like me that you are working in a field you don’t want to be in. I had started off in Britain in a bank and did not want to end my working life in a bank. But never give up on your dreams and you will end up living the life you always imagined.

Finally
I worked in the bank for three years and left for my dream job, I had a baby. So now I work from home and enjoy looking after my baby and spending more time with my family.

by Jackie Pitman CFO evo-go