ashwooddream
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A lot of conceptual rhetoric being thrown around here, but still mostly civilized... so I thought I'd share my experience.
I arrived here in Canada in 2012 as an IT business analyst with just 7 years experience, no certifications and absolutely no technical skills. I am a product of the Philippine IT approach of mass-producing under-skilled IT consultants, but did have some shining moments with some pretty decent companies and projects. Anyway, when I got here, I heard the same thing from long-time residents and citizens we met in church, that I have to look for a survival job right away, and that no one in Canada should stay idle (aka unemployed). Soooo, after spending 3 weeks mass-submitting generic resumes to job postings on Kijiji, Monster and Indeed, I applied for and took a job at Home Hardware as a truck loader.
Lasted only 2 days.
Some of you will say pride. Yes, part of it was pride. If you had 5 years of college education and 7 years of professional experience, your mind would revolt against the fact that you are not working for what you should be.
But it's not pride. It's sensibility.
The knee-jerk approach is to starting earning right away via survival job. Very short-sighted. Canada requires the proof of funds for a reason; you were approved as a FSW because based on their research on the job market, there is a shortage of labourers with your type of skills. So what do you need to do? To each his own, but this is what I did.
- quit the survival job. You have $11k-ish, you do not need the survival job (yet).
- simplify your lifestyle. Live as if you are back in your homeland. If you managed with $500 a month (outside of rent) try to do so. Remember, the focus is to bag the right job, not yet live the Canadian dream.
- make job search a full-time job. I cannot stress this enough. After quitting my survival job, I spent 12 hours a day on job searches, creating CUSTOM RESUMES and COVER LETTERS for each job posting. Research on each company you apply for to be as intelligent in each interview as possible. Job search is effort, preparation and luck; the first two is under your control, so take control!
- if your funds hit below 20% the original value, then you can consider a survival job, but never NEVER lose focus from your job search.
I understand the pessimism of some people on this thread, but do not approve of it. If you feel that our cases are the exceptions, and that job search difficulty is the rule, I respect your opinion, but do realize that informed optimism is a better motivator than uninformed pessimism. Do not 'settle', that is what I kept telling myself. This is not ARROGANCE or PRIDE, this is SENSIBILITY and CALCULATED RISK.
Again to each his own. I am pretty sure someone here will try and refute each point in my post. All I can say is, I am trying to help. Perhaps other people can ask if they are doing the same.
I arrived here in Canada in 2012 as an IT business analyst with just 7 years experience, no certifications and absolutely no technical skills. I am a product of the Philippine IT approach of mass-producing under-skilled IT consultants, but did have some shining moments with some pretty decent companies and projects. Anyway, when I got here, I heard the same thing from long-time residents and citizens we met in church, that I have to look for a survival job right away, and that no one in Canada should stay idle (aka unemployed). Soooo, after spending 3 weeks mass-submitting generic resumes to job postings on Kijiji, Monster and Indeed, I applied for and took a job at Home Hardware as a truck loader.
Lasted only 2 days.
Some of you will say pride. Yes, part of it was pride. If you had 5 years of college education and 7 years of professional experience, your mind would revolt against the fact that you are not working for what you should be.
But it's not pride. It's sensibility.
The knee-jerk approach is to starting earning right away via survival job. Very short-sighted. Canada requires the proof of funds for a reason; you were approved as a FSW because based on their research on the job market, there is a shortage of labourers with your type of skills. So what do you need to do? To each his own, but this is what I did.
- quit the survival job. You have $11k-ish, you do not need the survival job (yet).
- simplify your lifestyle. Live as if you are back in your homeland. If you managed with $500 a month (outside of rent) try to do so. Remember, the focus is to bag the right job, not yet live the Canadian dream.
- make job search a full-time job. I cannot stress this enough. After quitting my survival job, I spent 12 hours a day on job searches, creating CUSTOM RESUMES and COVER LETTERS for each job posting. Research on each company you apply for to be as intelligent in each interview as possible. Job search is effort, preparation and luck; the first two is under your control, so take control!
- if your funds hit below 20% the original value, then you can consider a survival job, but never NEVER lose focus from your job search.
I understand the pessimism of some people on this thread, but do not approve of it. If you feel that our cases are the exceptions, and that job search difficulty is the rule, I respect your opinion, but do realize that informed optimism is a better motivator than uninformed pessimism. Do not 'settle', that is what I kept telling myself. This is not ARROGANCE or PRIDE, this is SENSIBILITY and CALCULATED RISK.
Again to each his own. I am pretty sure someone here will try and refute each point in my post. All I can say is, I am trying to help. Perhaps other people can ask if they are doing the same.
