Been in Canada 3 months now info inside

MurfM3

This thread should be renamed NEGATIVITY !

armadillo86

MurfM3 wrote: »

This thread should be renamed NEGATIVITY !

Or REALITY

I've been in Canada for 6 weeks and I have to agree with a lot of the posters here, it ain't all sunshine and lollipops like what gets portrayed in the media back home.

MurfM3

Karbolt wrote: »

Or REALITY

I've been in Canada for 6 weeks and I have to agree with a lot of the posters here, it ain't all sunshine and lollipops like what gets portrayed in the media back home.

I know apologies, i jumped the gun on that one, I've never been to canada I just find it hard to read the cons outweighing the pros

Where are you based ?

goingitalone

See the issue is is people that are delusioned . Expecting to walk into there dream job etc . For me.I'll be happy if I get a one that just covers the rent . I'm not looking for a career job over there . But on the off chance That happens all well and good . Ive a engineering and it background so while I do stand a good chance I'll be applying for everything and anything.

krudler

goingitalone wrote: »

See the issue is is people that are delusioned . Expecting to walk into there dream job etc . For me.I'll be happy if I get a one that just covers the rent . I'm not looking for a career job over there . But on the off chance That happens all well and good . Ive a engineering and it background so while I do stand a good chance I'll be applying for everything and anything.

Same really, I'm going for experience, to scratch a travelling bug and to see some of the world, I'm not going to go for 2years and sit in the same office in a nice stable paycheck job, I can do that here. Long as I'm not totally struggling for money and get to see some of the country I'll be happy, not doing the going out partying all the time thing either but a good balance would be nice.

GrumPy

For people saying they struggled to find work with "10 years experience" and "good qualifications" what is it exactly your experience and qualifications are?

It's all well and good having a degree and a decade of experience, but if there is no work in that particular area, then of course you're gonna struggle to find work.
Hopefully it will help if you have a useful degree, and have experience working for global-known companies that already employ alot of people in Canada, for example.
I've worked for 3 companies since I graduated, all of which have offices across Canada, I'm hoping that stands for me!
Although, in an ideal world, I'd love to find a cool place to live, and have enough money saved to explore for 4-6 weeks before settling into a job. Even then, I'll be "working to live" & not living to work.

davey boy

GrumPy wrote: »

For people saying they struggled to find work with "10 years experience" and "good qualifications" what is it exactly your experience and qualifications are?

It's all well and good having a degree and a decade of experience, but if there is no work in that particular area, then of course you're gonna struggle to find work.
Hopefully it will help if you have a useful degree, and have experience working for global-known companies that already employ alot of people in Canada, for example.
I've worked for 3 companies since I graduated, all of which have offices across Canada, I'm hoping that stands for me!
Although, in an ideal world, I'd love to find a cool place to live, and have enough money saved to explore for 4-6 weeks before settling into a job. Even then, I'll be "working to live" & not living to work.

I only had four years of experience after college so I never expected to walk into a good job over here and was happy to start in a lower position. My qualification is in engineering but my work experience was in a technical service and repair role with a multinational. I would recommend anyone with a technical background or qualification to look at going to Alberta. There seems to be lots of good jobs advertised there.

I think the frustrating thing is seeing lots of jobs advertised that I am qualified for and not getting any response from employers. I think my earlier post was a bit negative but I just want people to realize that working a low paid job in Vancouver will probably not cover your living expenses unless you can get overtime which I was lucky enough to get from my employer.

I think your plan to go travelling for a few weeks is a good idea. I regret not travelling around Canada a bit when I got here but visas were only one year back then so I jumped straight into work with the plan to get residency.

Lollipops23

One of my mates went out to Ottawa a few weeks ago and says the jobs market isn't great...I think he might be being a tad fussy (he hasn't looked into any shops/bar jobs yet). I'm prepared to take anything I can get when I land in Toronto, just to get myself started.

Cream Bun

EI-DOR wrote: »

The people working in Construction / Engineering will be the people with an excellent quality of life after they have worked for a few years in Alberta. I know one guy who's over there I'd say 12 years, he's now a millionaire and owns various properties back here in Ireland.

It depends what area of work you go into and as you said the money is in Construction / Engineering / Heavy Machinery ect. I will have work lined up before going over in the same area of work.

What is your Job Profession out of curiosity?

Hi, my job profession is Science. I was lucky to get a good job here this month after months of working in retail.
I don't think I'm being negative.. I'm just saying it as it is. Im loving my experience here, i would not change it that I came here, its a great experience and we did travel for a couple of months before settling. We saw the Rockies, and Alaska, and whistler. But I just want people to know how your money just goes once you arrive. I originally had the idea, Ill arrive and do some travel (which i did) and then Ill travel to a different place and work in a coffee shop and then illl move to a new place again and work in a coffee shop there,,, but it just doesnt work like that.. When you get to a new place, you have to pay alot of money on rent and food (all expensive) so you actually cant afford to do activities, cause these are all so expensive.. And by the time you do get a job, your so broke that the money you earn is just enough to pay for rent and food, so your not really able to make the most and experience it then..
Its great now cause im working in a real job with real money, but then your not free to travel very far cause you working (which is fine with me for now!)
So its just hard to survive if you are in a minimum wage job, no matter how good at budgeting you are. If you get sick of hostels, and want an apartment you need to remember you have to have 1 months rent plus the deposit so about 1-2k upfront. Its not all bad, im happy here now and skiing and making the most of the weekends! looking forward to summer! but just good to hear other opinions too!!

GrumPy

@Cream Bun: Where are you based?

CBCB2

GrumPy wrote: »

For people saying they struggled to find work with "10 years experience" and "good qualifications" what is it exactly your experience and qualifications are?

It's all well and good having a degree and a decade of experience, but if there is no work in that particular area, then of course you're gonna struggle to find work.
Hopefully it will help if you have a useful degree, and have experience working for global-known companies that already employ alot of people in Canada, for example.
I've worked for 3 companies since I graduated, all of which have offices across Canada, I'm hoping that stands for me!
Although, in an ideal world, I'd love to find a cool place to live, and have enough money saved to explore for 4-6 weeks before settling into a job. Even then, I'll be "working to live" & not living to work.

I'm a chartered accountant, I've got my Canadian ca in addition to my Irish one. I've a 1st class degree & masters in Accounting (masters seem to be a big deal here!!).

I trained at one of the big 4, then worked at a plc, both should be recognisable. I also worked in a private US owned company.

So I've pretty solid qualifications/experience. But I'm being treated like I qualified yesterday. It's like one of the other posters said you apply & apply for jobs, literally hundreds go up every day that I'd get a call for, for sure at home. But here it's nothing. That's the hard bit the waiting & wondering.

Recruitment agents are the same. They barely return calls & when they do they discredit my experience & encourage me to aim for a lower level job.

A friend of mine at home is a recruitment agent, I got her to help me with resume & cover letters for specific job adverts. Still nothing.

I don't mean to be negative it's just my experience so far. And I guess I just wish I realised how difficult it would be.

I've basically gone from an assistant financial controller to a 'copy & paste clerk'. It just gets to me sometimes!

Then as everyone else has said it's just so expensive to live here, so the drop in pay really doesn't leave anything at the end of the month.

But as I've said before I'm in a bit of a unique situation & I'm not in one of the big cities so that does make a difference. Everyone's experience is different. Hope you enjoy yours! :-)

Sunshine87

CBCB2 wrote: »

I'm a chartered accountant, I've got my Canadian ca in addition to my Irish one. I've a 1st class degree & masters in Accounting (masters seem to be a big deal here!!).

I trained at one of the big 4, then worked at a plc, both should be recognisable. I also worked in a private US owned company.

So I've pretty solid qualifications/experience. But I'm being treated like I qualified yesterday. It's like one of the other posters said you apply & apply for jobs, literally hundreds go up every day that I'd get a call for, for sure at home. But here it's nothing. That's the hard bit the waiting & wondering.

Recruitment agents are the same. They barely return calls & when they do they discredit my experience & encourage me to aim for a lower level job.

A friend of mine at home is a recruitment agent, I got her to help me with resume & cover letters for specific job adverts. Still nothing.

I don't mean to be negative it's just my experience so far. And I guess I just wish I realised how difficult it would be.

I've basically gone from an assistant financial controller to a 'copy & paste clerk'. It just gets to me sometimes!

Then as everyone else has said it's just so expensive to live here, so the drop in pay really doesn't leave anything at the end of the month.

But as I've said before I'm in a bit of a unique situation & I'm not in one of the big cities so that does make a difference. Everyone's experience is different. Hope you enjoy yours! :-)

give it time, you can jump the ranks quicker here than Ireland imo. the thing is your up against alot of Canadians with the same qualifications/experience. Having Canadian experience is a big advantage, they Dont seem to care what you did back home. im not trying to discredit any international experience you have but thats how i see it when it comes to recruitment agencies.

GrumPy

CBCB2 wrote: »

I'm a chartered accountant...etc.

Where are you living out of interest?

CBCB2

GrumPy wrote: »

Where are you living out of interest?

Niagara Falls currently working in St Catharines. I'd work anywhere in the Niagara Region and have been applying for anywhere in the Region and up as far as Hamilton, Burlington & Oakville.

GrumPy

CBCB2 wrote: »

Niagara Falls currently working in St Catharines. I'd work anywhere in the Niagara Region and have been applying for anywhere in the Region and up as far as Hamilton, Burlington & Oakville.

Hmmm... I wonder if you would have had a more positive experience in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver or Calgary?
I'm not too familiar with the area, but I'd assume bigger city = more jobs (That also translates to more competition, too I guess!)

CBCB2

GrumPy wrote: »

Hmmm... I wonder if you would have had a more positive experience in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver or Calgary?
I'm not too familiar with the area, but I'd assume bigger city = more jobs (That also translates to more competition, too I guess!)

Probably, as I've said before I'm in a bit of a unique situation, my bf is Canadian and from this area, which is why we moved here rather than to one of the cities.

I think it just depends on the city. I'm sure there would be more to do and more going on in the city in comparison to nothing out here. So it might be easier to meet people. Same for jobs I'm sure there's more, but if you look at linked in for example, the jobs in TO get 200-300 applicants. So I would imagine the competition is tough up there.

Whoever posted that Alberta is booming not Canada is correct. I guess that's the bottom line Canada isn't as booming as it's presented to be.

I currently work for the Provincial government, they're running a huge deficit, so are cutting staff benefits to reduce the deficit. So the staff in here voted for strike action last week....

There's a high level of personal debt here too, I've met many people who survive on debt to support their lifestyle and many people who are depending on property appreciation to pay off this debt in later years.

I guess my point is there's a lot of the problems that Ireland has but it's harder to get a job and you get paid less for said job. Which is the opposite of what I expected coming here. Plus the cost of living makes living in Dublin 2005-2010 (which I did) look cheap!!

Agro Head

CBCB2 wrote: »

I'm a chartered accountant, I've got my Canadian ca in addition to my Irish one. I've a 1st class degree & masters in Accounting (masters seem to be a big deal here!!).

I trained at one of the big 4, then worked at a plc, both should be recognisable. I also worked in a private US owned company.

So I've pretty solid qualifications/experience. But I'm being treated like I qualified yesterday. It's like one of the other posters said you apply & apply for jobs, literally hundreds go up every day that I'd get a call for, for sure at home. But here it's nothing. That's the hard bit the waiting & wondering.

Recruitment agents are the same. They barely return calls & when they do they discredit my experience & encourage me to aim for a lower level job.

A friend of mine at home is a recruitment agent, I got her to help me with resume & cover letters for specific job adverts. Still nothing.

I don't mean to be negative it's just my experience so far. And I guess I just wish I realised how difficult it would be.

I've basically gone from an assistant financial controller to a 'copy & paste clerk'. It just gets to me sometimes!

Then as everyone else has said it's just so expensive to live here, so the drop in pay really doesn't leave anything at the end of the month.

But as I've said before I'm in a bit of a unique situation & I'm not in one of the big cities so that does make a difference. Everyone's experience is different. Hope you enjoy yours! :-)

Major issue for us out here is the visa situation. I have bags of qualifications/experience also but companies are slow to hire people on temp visas. They don't want to invest time into someone who will potentially leave in a year or two.

I was advised by recruiters here to only apply for contract jobs. I worked on a contract basis for Scotia and BMO before getting a full time job elsewhere. The banks are always hiring. Some of the jobs there are rubbish but you can get handy ones.

The contract gigs are well worth looking at if people aren't having any luck with permanent jobs.

ciaran67

Canada does seem to be in some sort of denial about the levels of unemployment and new job creation.

GrumPy

ciaran67 wrote: »

Canada does seem to be in some sort of denial about the levels of unemployment and new job creation.

There is probably an element of "if candidates are similar; one an Irish visa holder, the other a permanent Canadian citizen...."
They are usually gonna try employ their own realistically.

ciaran67

GrumPy wrote: »

There is probably an element of "if candidates are similar; one an Irish visa holder, the other a permanent Canadian citizen...."
They are usually gonna try employ their own realistically.

Never try and work out what a Canadian is thinking

Lollipops23

My mate who's in Ottawa reckons there's going to be a lot of shocked people heading over in the next year, he's having a hard time finding anything at all.

This is very worrying to me, I won't be in a position to be not working for a long stretch!

GrumPy

Lollipops23 wrote: »

My mate who's in Ottawa reckons there's going to be a lot of shocked people heading over in the next year, he's having a hard time finding anything at all.

This is very worrying to me, I won't be in a position to be not working for a long stretch!

Frugal, frugal frugal until you leave. I'm talking no alcohol, tesco value noodles. :pac: You'll be fine, once ya save save save! What does your friend do/ qualifications and experience any good?

Lollipops23

GrumPy wrote: »

Frugal, frugal frugal until you leave. I'm talking no alcohol, tesco value noodles. :pac: You'll be fine, once ya save save save! What does your friend do/ qualifications and experience any good?

He doesn't have qualifications, but was in the civil service for some years til he got voluntary redundancy. So he has some good experience.

Yeah, even with frugal spending between this and then I'll only have a a couple of grand behind me. I'll be willing to take whatever I can get though, and job hunt will priority as soon as I land!!

GrumPy

Lollipops23 wrote: »

He doesn't have qualifications, but was in the civil service for some years til he got voluntary redundancy. So he has some good experience.

Yeah, even with frugal spending between this and then I'll only have a a couple of grand behind me. I'll be willing to take whatever I can get though, and job hunt will priority as soon as I land!!

When do you intend to land?

Lollipops23

GrumPy wrote: »

When do you intend to land?

Early September!

GrumPy

Lollipops23 wrote: »

Early September!

Loadsa time to squeeze pennies!

goingitalone

Lollipops23 wrote: »

He doesn't have qualifications, but was in the civil service for some years til he got voluntary redundancy. So he has some good experience.

Yeah, even with frugal spending between this and then I'll only have a a couple of grand behind me. I'll be willing to take whatever I can get though, and job hunt will priority as soon as I land!!

His lack of qualifications don't help him either. His experience maybe good here but the issue is he's no Canadian experience and then no actual qualfcations to fall back on. It be people with no experience and no qualfcations . Or people who just saved up there dole for a year . That I think will have the biggest issue getting work .

jozi

Anyone in the architecture business on here who can share their experiences?

Sunshine87

goingitalone wrote: »

His lack of qualifications don't help him either. His experience maybe good here but the issue is he's no Canadian experience and then no actual qualfcations to fall back on. It be people with no experience and no qualfcations . Or people who just saved up there dole for a year . That I think will have the biggest issue getting work .

exactly. if you have no qualifications/trade you will really really struggle to find an average paying job. on top of that employers here prefer people who have Canadian work experience. in my job they were more interested in making sure my degree was recognized in Canada before i started even though i have 3 years exp in my field

CBCB2

Lollipops23 wrote: »

job hunt will priority as soon as I land!!

If you know where you'll be living or have an idea of where you'd like to work if you could at all start applying before you get here. If you're going out to your friend and can use his address & number all the better.

I had an address before I moved and started applying 6 weeks or so before I left. The job I'm in now I had applied for before I left Ireland but they took so long to get back (things can be slow here) I was already in Canada.

The Federal government is located in Ottawa. Tell your friend to look up the Federal and Ontario governements and the municipality, City of Ottawa. There's the 3 levels of government here so he might get lucky with the civil service. I'm working in an Ontario government department, the government can discriminate when they hire, so I think that's the only reason I got the job here and I'm not hearing back from others. Although I do have qualifications too.

http://www.gojobs.gov.on.ca/jobs.aspx

That's the Ontario government jobs portal. All the government jobs are posted on government sites only.