Hi everyone, I came to Canada as a PR last year through my mother's marriage. I was an outland applicant and finished my Bachelors in my home country. I understood that it would difficult to join the workforce here without any Canadian Experience so I went into retail to start. Though I'm in retail I hope to go into my desired field that correlated with my studies. I would love any advice from other immigrants with who came in a similar situation. With my now retail experience is it enough to move upward, or will my degree still hinder me? I would love to know as I'm low-key stressing about it, especially with the tight job market nowadays. I have no problem going back to school of it's a must, I'm still young so if needs be, I will.
Permanent Resident with foreign degree
- Thread starter F@ntasy
- Start date
Your degree isn't hindering you unless you are in a regulated profession. What's your line of work?
My degree is in Management Studies and I'm currently in retail but still applying nonetheless
I figured, though that it is very expensive right now though, including the accreditation of my degree and such.
I'm a C-level professional with no management degree. Had my Canadian job 2 years before even landing here. Context to why the degree no longer matters - we used to hire entry-level MBAs decades ago to enforce simpler operational management. The requirement of it was just someone's who is smart enough and sticks to the business goals. They've since long been replaced by IC-type managers who have exceptional/moderately deep skills. For example, we are actively phasing out "General Marketing Management" positions since the 2005's across the industry and instead replacing them with channel marketers who can delivery 10x the results. Similarly for sales, product, ops, etc.
Remember, anyone with a portfolio >>>> degree. With that being said, what type of jobs you are currently applying to?
Whoa, okay that's good information, thank you so much. I've been applying to a mix roles such as of Banking, Marketing and Project/Admin Assistant roles.
Admin Assistant roles have a discoverability issue where skill-based differentiation is non-existent. You can land these roles, but they are pretty much a 0.01%-0.1% job application-> interview call rate category. They don't care about your MBA and will hire anyone for a position.
Don't know much about banking and the type of banking roles you've been applying for.
But for marketing - I personally reject resumes in marketing, product, sales, etc of people who have done nothing that's relevant to the job. Most college grads that we hired earlier this year had some form of a marketing porfolio or skill. For example, hired a young lady who built her own Shopify store and ran ads+did email marketing. Her store wasn't a success, but it was a start. Relevance and knowing something is the key here.
Very helpful, thank you so much for responding. What do you think I should do going forward? My mindset was just apply and take any job that would lead me closer to corporate such as admin or bank roles (Bank teller/Client Associate). Maybe attend some networking events to get myself out there and meet people.
About what you should do moving forward - see what level of stamina you've got! If you can laser focus on landing a job, create a portfolio around it.
>My mindset was just apply and take any job that would lead me closer to corporate such as admin or bank roles (Bank teller/Client Associate)
I would caution here. Bank Tellers are becoming increasing irrelevant today and their jobs are shrinking. The chance of a better career here are pretty low. It will be a start, but a trap in the long run. If you are young, invest in your career and avoid making these jobs a career. Work them for money, but always plan a better exit.
>Maybe attend some networking events to get myself out there and meet people.
Don't try to meet people as a blank slate. Build out career discovery goals and then decide what you would want out of each and every interaction. Iterate as you go. You'll get less help if you ask "what should you do", but you'll get a lot more help if you say "I tried X, Y and Z - nothing is working, what should I try next?".
Oh I’m sorry you’re right, I’ve tried editing every resume based on Job description, I bought and completed a certification on Coursera for Digital Marketing offered by google, haven’t gotten much luck with that either. I am young too (23) so I hope to go back to school in the future. I’ll continue to look into ways to that will assist me though.
I'd suggest something. A school will cost you $10-30k/yr. Network with people, pay for their time, invite them for a coffee chat - that'll cost you $3k max over a year and has a higher chance of you landing a job or moving forward with clarity. See what you would want to do. I'd highly recommend talking to people before investing money in a school. You might get the same job after 3-4 months of networking that you'll land after 2 years of school + the same wait time.