Hello everyone,
As I can see, there are still some people waiting for PPR. What a journey has it been for all of us!
First, I'd like to apologize for abandoning the forum like this, as well as for not updating the spreadsheet anymore. Things were so rushed during my last few months before moving, and I had to focus on finishing everything I had still open on my job. Funny as it is, I was able to finish it on the night before traveling to Canada (on April 19). At 1 am! Arriving home, I still had to finish packing some stuff. Went to bed at 3 am, only to wake up at 6 and face a 2-hour car trip to the airport, followed by another 14 combined hours of flight, with 2 5-hour layovers. To make things worse, I sat next to one of those people that just can't keep their elbows inside their seat area, and only got about 2 hours' sleep out of the 10-hour flight from Sao Paulo to Toronto. When we arrived at the Airbnb (it was around 2 pm), we still had to go to a grocery store if we wanted to have something to eat. Then, we just pushed all our 13 bags inside, went to the nearest one, bought a few stuff for the dinner and next morning's breakfast, had our baths (after 2 days!), ate dinner, and fainted over the beds! That was our first, "wonderful", day in Halifax!
Soon, we got a place to rent and started the job hunting process. Our kids started going to school after 2 weeks, I got my driver license, bought a car, we started making friends. So, after about a month, everything seemed to be in place. Except, of course, for the jobs.
And it wasn't easy! Even though I have an engineering background, with over 20 years' experience, and there were quite a few openings available for me (not as many as IT, but still above the average), I wasn't successful in getting a single interview during my first month. Got 3 during the next, but still no luck in landing a job. Did everything possible to improve my resume, cover letter, was doing well on the (few) interviews, but started collecting a series of disappointments. Then, summer came, jobs disappeared, not a single call for interviews, and the money still flowing out.
After Labour Day, at least things started improving again, with new jobs posted, a few calls for interviews (5 in a 2-week span!), my wife actually got a job before me, even though she wanted to go back to school first. It's part-time, retail, and she makes barely above minimum, but at least we were starting to make some money. As for my interviews, all of them turned into disappointments, and soon all opportunities in my area started to disappear too. After 6 months, I started to get desperate and began applying to survival jobs as well. At least my wife moved to full-time and was doing well on her job, despite the busy schedule, including evenings and weekends.
But, when things were starting to look dire, I finally got a job. And a very nice one, doing the exact type of work that I wanted, the salary is on pair with my experience, not to mention that the office is on Bedford Highway, overlooking the basin!
I wanted to share my experience with those who are in a similar situation, so they don't give up on their dreams. Sometimes it's really hard, things get complicated, money starts getting tight, but you must keep the faith, either on your own beliefs (for those who are religious), or at least in yourselves, as it's not like that suddenly you became stupid, incompetent and all your previous years of experience are worth nothing. You just need to find the right job, in the right place, and then find a way of showing them that you are capable of doing the same as any other competitor, Canadian or not! There are people who are really afraid of hiring immigrants, for whatever reason they have, and especially in the Maritimes! But there are still a lot of open-minded people. Just keep looking and do your best to prove yourselves!
