Brutal Winter and a Jobless Immigrant family

[HakikiKanada]

Where do you guys think a good urban place to settle down as an experienced mechanical (automotive) engineer?

 

[Jaxon911]

Where do you guys think a good urban place to settle down as an experienced mechanical (automotive) engineer?

Good question. I'd also like to know, especially for those with IT / programming and English skills (so Quebec is out of equation)!

 

[deepee86]

I am highly demotivated after reading this thread!! Now I am in second thoughts , in my country my job role and pay is superb. I dont want to get into a situation.

Having said that,, at back of my mind i really do want to chase my Canada dream.

Any idea friends...on searching jobs in Canada from your home country .. does that work?
So that you dont land up in mess

 

[Jaxon911]

I am highly demotivated after reading this thread!! Now I am in second thoughts , in my country my job role and pay is superb. I dont want to get into a situation.

Having said that,, at back of my mind i really do want to chase my Canada dream.

Any idea friends...on searching jobs in Canada from your home country .. does that work?
So that you dont land up in mess

Don't be demotivated. Don't assume everything is bad in Canada, and finding jobs isn't impossible. This is exactly what I've been trying to say here.

Only thing is that you've to be smart. Keep plan B ready, that is keep an option open to go back to your home country. Be ready to invest time and money if you want to migrate to Canada. First visit Canada for a three to four weeks once you get visa, and if applicable / possible with your spouse, and apply for few jobs and meet few recruiters to find out what kind of response are you getting.

If you do decide to migrate then leave your family behind and keep terms with your present employer clear. That is you are going to Canada to check out what's on offer, if you don't like it there, you'd like to come back. And if you do come back, you'd like to get your job back if your employer is happy to have you back!

That's the best thing you can do!

 

[deepee86]

Don't be demotivated. Don't assume everything is bad in Canada, and finding jobs isn't impossible. This is exactly what I've been trying to say here.

Only thing is that you've to be smart. Keep plan B ready, that is keep an option open to go back to your home country. Be ready to invest time and money if you want to migrate to Canada. First visit Canada for a three to four weeks once you get visa, and if applicable / possible with your spouse, and apply for few jobs and meet few recruiters to find out what kind of response are you getting.

If you do decide to migrate then leave your family behind and keep terms with your present employer clear. That is you are going to Canada to check out what's on offer, if you don't like it there, you'd like to come back. And if you do come back, you'd like to get your job back if your employer is happy to have you back!

That's the best thing you can do!

Thanks Jason!!

 

[Theo123]

You just need to be prepared to be jobless for a year or more if your native language is not English AND if you work in an occupation currently not in demand in Canada. In addition, you will need to prepare yourself for the cultural shock. Getting a good English score in IELTS is not a sufficient requirement to obtain a reasonable job in Canada.

This is the experience of many people. That was why many university graduates chose to leave Canada.

i have a question. english is my second language and i am fluent in it, my culture is quite similar to canada (or a bit US-centric). does that give me higher chances to land a job in canada similar to what i have in my native country?

also, how do you check if your occupation is in demand at this moment for a certain canadian location?

my real concern is im bringing my life savings to canada and to be honest i would not want to spend it as much as possible so 1 year or even 6 months unemployment is quite unacceptable. id rather go blue-collar than see my life saving slowly going down the drain. that's not my canadian dream. there were others who tell me to go get a diploma or certificate once im already in canada and i think that is such a scam especially when canada has officially recognized your education as an equivalent to a canadian bachelor's degree. enrolling for the same exact degree to get a canadian diploma/certificate so you can have higher chances of employment quite feels exploitative to "foreigners" who simply want a better life for themselves in canada. it feels like canada is leeching off desperate third world people. maybe that's why canadian visa is so fast and easy to get, because it is a hollow endeavor.

and i can already feel it as im preparing the works. i was just asked to complete my job profile but the news said that job matching in the job bank does not yet function as it should be.

 

[fkl]

May be certain stuff I wrote didn't came out correctly. I was expecting this that's why at the end I mentioned that my point is that "To an extent it is an unrealistic picture". Unrealistic in the sense that people know certain things before coming to Canada, criticizing Canada for the known reasons is unrealistic. For example, original post concludes by saying "Every day I look at the snow, I just feel I made worst decision of my life"

In my opinion, that's unrealistic. I didn't mean say he himself is at fault in full. Sure I haven't landed in Canada so I could be wrong, but I know that if I go to Canada, I'll see snow for 4 months a year. Of course it won't be there everyday but it'll be there during winter and I have myself to blame if I don't like the snow still I'm living in that country, it'd be unrealistic to blame Canada or criticize it.

But these are just my thoughts from what I've observed so far in my journey in to migrate to UK. I could be wrong, as I've never been to Canada!

That is a far better way to objectively discuss things. I certainly do not down play the mentioning of snow.

But here is just another argument.

KNOWING something vs experiencing it for a while - there is hell of a difference. Let me put it this way. Pick a random lot of 100 people who came to Canada. Every one KNEW before coming here how the winter is (it is often longer than 4 months by the way depending upon where you are). But one would easily find a good number of those people DISCOVERED that it is not just the coldness. It also causes depression for some people. I know quite a few relatives who visited Canada in winter and vowed never to live here again.

That is of course not a generic picture and plenty of people live here and love that (myself included) but the point is, there is a lot of difference between KNOWING things before coming here vs LIVING through them. There is a limit to the number of things you can learn without experience.

And when you are having a hard time - not finding jobs and thinking, one might have subconsciously looked at snow and feel more depressed. That was a feeling of OP, i can relate to that though i fully agree that winter in itself is not the core problem.

But i can also bet, no one who hasn't lived here yet would know or feel the depth of depression it can cause. Personally, i am perfectly okay and thankfully my family is too. But i have seen enough examples around to put that as a possibility. Still that is not a generalization.

So the point is - i haven't seen people going back in general. Some struggle for a while (a couple years may be) waste their life savings, but ultimately build a career. If they are lucky, they would make it back to white collar jobs - ideally the same they worked previously. Otherwise they adopt to other careers say trucking. Not as attractive to do physically but there is good money.

After that struggle phase - it is worth it - every penny of it.

So there is no intent of demotivating people from coming here. But by God - there are problems that you won't foresee and there would be times here where you would regret coming here for a while - specially if you were doing very well in the prior home country. Almost no one realizes that before coming.

Plus i feel qualified to say that - because i came here already employed in a highly skilled area. And my situation is probably among say the top few percents of immigrants in that respect. Still i have faced problems that i didn't foresee - some of those i was just unlucky and won't generalize. Others - are just part of this system - that take time getting used to.

Moral of the story - if you are coming here prepared to face all this, POSSIBLY have to start from scratch - the proof of funds that you bring is actually yours that you can spend, god forbidden if you are unemployed for a long time, and like many others have said here, have a plan B to go back, then there is no way you cannot ultimately succeed here.

The problem only is - these things are far easier said than done. "Have a plan to go back if things do not work out". Tell that to some one who has a family. I am sure they were able to plan it just like i wrote here.

Some of the smartest people (in terms of being prepared for all this) did that but again they are far fewer in number.

I have a friend (actually a senior in career and from my Alma mater) who didn't leave his job in another country, visited Canada for almost 3-4 times over the course of 1.5 years - a few months each time, until he got a job he would accept and only then he moved.

But i take that it is not easy for every one to do that.

 

[fkl]

Good question. I'd also like to know, especially for those with IT / programming and English skills (so Quebec is out of equation)!

I won't say Quebec is out of equation. It is actually better IF YOU KNOW FRENCH. Because cost of living is lower. Pays are too. But again if you are really skilled, you would ultimately negotiate your way up.

My opinion might be biased because i came already employed to Quebec. But after having worked here for a while, i routinely get contacted for jobs even when i am not interested. And this is still when i know zero french. English is not my first language either, but lets just say that i am fluent. But my area of experience is pretty specialized in IT. Embedded / C / Protocols / multicore network processors. So i won't try generalizing things.

But if quebec pays less in terms of salaries, it is the cheapest to live in Canada as well.

But in general the best IT markets in Canada are Ottawa, Waterloo region and Vancouver BC area.

 

[GARJ]

It's called seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. The poster clearly has a bad case of it, hoping now that Spring has sprung his mood is lifted. Cheer up buddy, Winter is over. Every immigrant hates Canada during Winter (For every potential immigrant out there, Winter here is terrible and lasts a long time, no exaggeration), but once the weather gets warmer, we all fall in love with Canada again Can't wait for summer here in Toronto.

 

[fkl]

It's called seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. The poster clearly has a bad case of it, hoping now that Spring has sprung his mood is lifted. Cheer up buddy, Winter is over. Every immigrant hates Canada during Winter (For every potential immigrant out there, Winter here is terrible and lasts a long time, no exaggeration), but once the weather gets warmer, we all fall in love with Canada again Can't wait for summer here in Toronto.

Couldn't say it better +1

 

[fkl]

For every one else. Please don't be demotivated to come here. But you should really reconsider if you don't want to possibly face having to spend savings or having to accept blue collar / low wage jobs (the context is different here - many jobs pay good, but are extremely challenging physically e.g. trucking. And it is a huge struggle to get a trucking license too).

If you are coming prepared to possibly struggle for a while, accept whatever work you can do and in the very worst case have some kind of way to go back, then it is very likely that you would succeed ULTIMATELY. Plus if you are really good in a domain in which there aren't many skilled Canadians, you would probably be much better off.

Some dreaded professions are Accountants, HR, Doctors (basically any regulated profession that is really tough and unpredictable to get a license here to practice).

I am not saying that you cannot make a career in above in Canada.

But

a) There are already plenty of skilled Canadians in these
b) These require knowledge of local laws and practices - and every foreigner no matter how skilled at least needs to do a few courses to even start with those professions here
c) Any thing involving public dealing in Canada will always have preference for locals who are more accustomed to emmm every thing. So these are harder to get.
d) Federal government jobs certainly are lucrative but all of earlier factors play a role, PLUS the requirement of bilingualism

 

[Marlee]

In terms of the weather: I totally agree. There are parts of Canada (like Vancouver) where it doesn't really get that cold. However, living in Montréal, I can tell you that things are quite different over here. I was aware of that and moved here regardless because I don't mind the cold. The winter lasts about 6 months here and the temperatures drop down to -45°C in February with terrible wind chill. But as I always say "there is no 'too cold' - there only is wrong gear". Yes, you will have to invest in some proper clothes (especially if you are from a country with a rather warm climate and the warmest piece in your closet is a long-sleeve shirt. I spent $100 on proper boots and $750 on a Canada Goose coat - never froze once.

In the end, you are rewarded with a nice and sunny summer. I agree that if you are originally from Africa or the Caribbean, you will rather raise an eyebrow at this point but if you are from Germany (or a country with a similar climate) like me, where the weather is like in the UK - pretty much 12°C with rain, rain and more rain all year long - you will really appreciate the hours of sun here. Florida-like summers (hot and humid) with lots and lots of sunshine really make up for 6 months of blistering cold! 8)

 

[mf4361]

Where do you guys think a good urban place to settle down as an experienced mechanical (automotive) engineer?

I can tell you almost all of the major car manufacturing happens in southern Ontario. GM in Ingersoll, Honda in Aurora, Toyota in Cambridge/Woodstock, Ford in Oakville.

If you are in automotive design/manufacturing (Not car mechanics) I suppose you might want to look at these places.

 

[zardoz]

It's called seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. The poster clearly has a bad case of it, hoping now that Spring has sprung his mood is lifted. Cheer up buddy, Winter is over. Every immigrant hates Canada during Winter (For every potential immigrant out there, Winter here is terrible and lasts a long time, no exaggeration), but once the weather gets warmer, we all fall in love with Canada again Can't wait for summer here in Toronto.

Not ALL immigrants. Personally, I prefer the winter to the summer. Now that the snow is beginning to melt, it looks untidy.

 

[Theo123]

what do you think would be an ideal URBAN place to settle and job prospects for immigrants with IT background? (not programming, just general IT)