Does anyone have experience in survival jobs? When you came to Canada and couldn't find a job, what did you do as a survival job? and how did you get it? I would like to hear some suggestions, as I need to pay the bills. I have been unemployed for 3 months, and I struggle to find a job.
Survival jobs
- Thread starter CaBeaver
- Start date
Unfortunately finding a job can often take quite a while for all employees but especially for new graduates. Survival jobs all depend on what your skills are and what you are willing to do. Unfortunately there were a lot of seasonal jobs you could have picked up over the holidays. In Canada there isn't a ton of hiring between mid-November to mid-January. Things tend to pick up a bit after that but some industries don't do a lot of hiring in the middle winter.
Survival jobs usually require lower skill base. Have you ever worked in a restaurant? Have you worked in a store? Do you have experience in construction? If there are multiple candidates , employers will always take the one with experience. You can contact temp agencies or manpower company. Sure the information is available online or you can try your local government job help centre.
try personal agencies. There you do not need much of work experience. But do not await much, just the basic minimum manual jobs (like if they need some additional workforce).
Yes they should ask for SIN although realistically I realize there is a cash economy.
No one knows what you can do..only you can. Maybe pump some gas? Work as a cleaner? Stocking shelves at Walmart?
You knew about this BEFORE you came to Canada. In order to pay bills, ANY job is better than no job at all.
Actually, I didn't know before I come. I would have chosen another destination. And why no one knows about survival jobs? I thought people who have done them can share what they have done to see if I would like doing that.
What would you like to do? What can you do? What are you good at? As I said before, YOU should know. We cannot tell you what you like. A bit of initiative is the secret to success, be active in applying for jobs that suit your abilities.
Low skill jobs as other pointed out are big box store job to stock shelves, fast chain restaurants that provide some basic training, general labour on construction sites (you don't need skill but you need to handle physical work and some needs to be outside in the cold).
All of them needs SIN. If you don't have a valid work permit or a valid status to work in Canada, it's not going to be easy to find any job. And it will impact your application to become a PR or getting other visa in Canada.
Assuming you have valid SIN, one possibility is to look for survival jobs at places that you already visited the last few months. (restaurant, store, services) Some of the people who work there may already recognize you as a customer and they may let you join them.
Last edited:
Don't YOU worry- there is loads of survival jobs for every type and size of human here(atleast in Toronto). As long as you're ready to work, you can put food on the table.
Last edited:
It is not just recent graduates that have to do survival jobs. I worked for 27 years at a job, one day, laid off. I slung freight onto freighters at Fedex for 6 months. Was it my dream job ? No. Did it help keep the wolves away from the door ? Yes. Sometimes in life you gotta do things you particularly do not want to do, until the right job comes along.