IT Manager

[jamesbond]

Congrats man.
As all the others I am curious what position you got?

Thanks.

 

[erikvirgo]

Congrats Isysys... very encouraging.

 

[idas]

and I landed a good job... Above average salary, good benefits, good company and is one of Alberta's Top 50 Employers
my Canadian dream is starting to realize :-*

my wife and I cried when we first read this post. Looking back, this thread made us stronger

Congrats isysy on landing a good job in exactly less then three months. ;D ;D ;D I hope the job is on your trac (IT).

I hope we all get lucky as u did.

Please share the job hunting experience, in that way we might learn something new.

TC

 

[ruka]

and I landed a good job... Above average salary, good benefits, good company and is one of Alberta's Top 50 Employers
my Canadian dream is starting to realize :-*

my wife and I cried when we first read this post. Looking back, this thread made us stronger

That's great !!!!!!!!

Congratulations bro !!!!!!!1

Please share your job hunting experience. Had you had any Canadian experience or Qualifications.

Please let us know. This would be very beneficial for people like us.

Thanks in advance

 

[isysy]

@jnathan: I'm on Quality Assurance
- I do Softare Quality Assurance... test designing, test planning, creating test cases, executing the tests, reporting, basically everything in terms of QA.

@ankit_20

I wont call it mistakes, coz before coming here I did study it very well... and it paid of. Here's what I can say in terms of mental preparation and priority.

1. There is no such thing as "Need for Canadian Experience", please tell me if you find any online career page that says so. There is no such thing here. There are a lot of people who says "you need to have Canadian experience" because that's what they thought of when they come. It's not true. This is not just applicable to me, but also to my wife, and shes's into Banking. She got the same (99%) job what she had before in the Philippines and the same position. its just the title... from being "Cash Management Officer" to "Cash Management Specialist". In my case, I was a QA Manager when I left, but that's not applicable to me coz R&D's here already have QA Managers, however I still landed in QA

You do NOT need to work as a cashier in Tim Hortons (coffee shop) or McDonalds just to gain experience. You have experience! Why would you come here to Canada if you don't have it with you, right? and if you don't... then why come!??

2. Take days/weeks in polishing your resumes. It took me 1 month and a half to be confident with my resume. It was 4 pages long, which was supposedly 6 pages long. Information Technology resumes has too many stuff to put in, it is expected for IT to have 4-5 pages which is considered as moderate.

3. For interviews, there is this book... "60 Seconds and You're Hired" by Robin Ryan... I borrowed that from the library, its a short 60 pages small pocket book and you'll practice it from there. Use the technique, its really amazing!

4. And oh! even if they said something about Educational Requirements, that's not even true. I did not finish college at all, yet a lot of companies which offered me a job and says its not a requirement. (even if they posted this on their websites)

5. Everyone knows that "Hiring Manager" are the ones really in the production right? But who does the posting of jobs? Its human resources... Like for example, in my case, the Jod Descriptions are pretty "too junior" and "not challenging" perhaps, but I realized that it must be the Human Resources who wrote this one, and sure enough, after the interview, I told myself "BINGO" this is the perfect job for me to start, and it was not even close as what was advertised online.

6. Give yourself 3-4 months to look for a good job, even if you get a job offer, if you think that is small... then move on, look for another. I turned down at least 3 job offers because it was too far from the "core city" where I want to live and where we are sharing a place with... and the salary was not that fair, plus the company is not that big... luckily, I got my 4th job offer by some company listed in Alberta's Top 50 Employer. I did not bother to know what's in the job offer,... I just took it full heartidly, and fair enough, it is an above average starting salary for my position.


My qualifications in Quality Assurance for 4 years (2 and 1/2 years as a QA Manager) paid off very well... I am very comfortable and happy with my current job.

I hope you guys have more encouragement. Be confident, don't let others poison you!

 

[rhmanalili]

hi isysy,

it is very comforting to be hearing success stories as yours. i myself am into quality assurance at this time. is there any particular training that's worth pursuing while here to get some leverage? I have around 15years of IT background with me (started out as programmer and eventually landed a Department manager OIC job) and would like to see if there's any aspect I need to strengthen on my resume to get things rolling.

hope you could share your insights.

rich

 

[ankit_20]

@ ankit_20

I hope you guys have more encouragement. Be confident, don't let others poison you!

Thanks isys

This is forst hand account from some one whom we seen so closely on forum is really heartning and encouraging. Thanks for taking time out and creating this write up.

I am gad your dream was realized in no time after landing and pray that every one can be ucky enough

Can you please share some resume tips, as you have aready spend around 50 days poishing it

Thanks again and three cheers for your success
-Ankit

 

[malu08]

@ jnathan: I'm on Quality Assurance
- I do Softare Quality Assurance... test designing, test planning, creating test cases, executing the tests, reporting, basically everything in terms of QA.

@ ankit_20

I wont call it mistakes, coz before coming here I did study it very well... and it paid of. Here's what I can say in terms of mental preparation and priority.

1. There is no such thing as "Need for Canadian Experience", please tell me if you find any online career page that says so. There is no such thing here. There are a lot of people who says "you need to have Canadian experience" because that's what they thought of when they come. It's not true. This is not just applicable to me, but also to my wife, and shes's into Banking. She got the same (99%) job what she had before in the Philippines and the same position. its just the title... from being "Cash Management Officer" to "Cash Management Specialist". In my case, I was a QA Manager when I left, but that's not applicable to me coz R&D's here already have QA Managers, however I still landed in QA

Thanks for detail and gr8 stuff over here. It will surly help others . I always believe at least in IT need of Canadian exp is a bit hyped. IT every where is same India,US,UK,Canada. If you know the stuff they are looking for you are hired.

 

[isysy]

@rhmanalili: CSTE certifications and commercial QA automation tools. Its a challenge to find a company who are not using commercial ones. I used to build our own automation framework and test scripts back home and luckily I joined a company that does the same too (but using a different language, now I'm adjusting from my limited C# knowledge to C++)

@ankit_20: I've used:
http://alis.alberta.ca/hotline
http://www.careercruising.com
and a bunch of other stuff from the Internet. There's no determination if the resume is Good enough, but if you're comfortable that you can sell yourself well with your resume, then that should be it.

Oh and one more tip:

*Recruitment Agencies and Staffing (inside Canada) - there are a lot of staffing agencies in your destination cities/province. Days/weeks before coming here, I do suggest to make an appointment with their recruitment agents/managers and talk to them about your skills and career goals. If they will be interested, they'll ask you for a 30-45 minute meeting. These staffing agencies are "talent manager" and will scout for work for you. They don't use online scouting, but these agencies already have clients that they'll just call and say "I have someone here who knows this and that" and if you're lucky enough, you'll have work in no time. Problem is, these are temporary position, you don't get benefits but in terms of compensation, these are competent as well. But it if you get lucky in a 6-months term, their client usually end up hiring you full time and will just pay a lump sum money to your staffing agency and you're then a free-agent for them.

I've met probably 5-6 recruiters in a span of 2-3 weeks and I've used them a lot because I practice talking to them (practice as if I'm on a job interview) and they also scruitinize and improve your resume (coz they want it nice as they will submit this to their clients). I had 4 offers via agencies so far, one I've turned down due to salary, two due to proximity and the last one which was supposedly nice... did not go through because my recruiter started to introduce me as a QA Technician, but after a good interview their client changed it to Lead QA Analyst and did not change the salary offer, my recruiter thought of asking me about raising the bar higher, I said "go ahead!", (who would'nt?? It was about 5 dollars per hour more) but the hiring managers (their client) got mad and told the recruiter that they really want me but since we were asking a higher salary then they have to postpone it till January. So I cancelled... applied to another company (their competitor) and I got a full time job which even pays better.

 

[ankit_20]

Thanks isysy

Is it possibe to contact Recruitment Agencies and Staffing before landing. Like via phone or Internet or is it only possible after you land. Is it possible for you to share some info on these recruitment agencies

 

[isysy]

yes, of course it is possible.
Just google it like "Employment agencies Toronto" or "staffing agencies Vancouver", etc... then drill down to each website and look for their IT equivalent. If you have relatives or friends in where you wish to land initially, tell them to go over the Yellow Pages and pull any information on those pages for staffing agencies that handles IT.

You may check, Kelley services, Robert Half Canada, SiSystems, Randstad (for non-IT), Sapphire (its IT equivalent) and many others. I did not mention the other one who broke my heart

 

[ankit_20]

Thanks isysy

 

[rhmanalili]

hi isysy,

thanks for the tip. was trying to look into trainings available here in Manila related to CSTE but can't seem to find any. For QA automation tools, would HP Quality Center training be a good tool to focus on?

rich

@ rhmanalili: CSTE certifications and commercial QA automation tools. Its a challenge to find a company who are not using commercial ones. I used to build our own automation framework and test scripts back home and luckily I joined a company that does the same too (but using a different language, now I'm adjusting from my limited C# knowledge to C++)

 

[isysy]

there's no good training for CSTE in our country or anywhere. I would say its rather effective to do self study coupled with group study.
anyways, HP QC is "D" tool here! a lot of QA jobs (check monster.ca and workopolis.ca starting this coming January) and you'll see that those two are ON DEMAND.

by the way, for people who are job searching these days... dont get it wrong.. its almost the end of the year. companies rarely do hiring or open new projects. I for once did not hire anyone during fourth quarter.

 

[rhmanalili]

thanks for the tip isysy....

then my HPQC experience in my current company would come in handy.
need to explore the functions of this tool and master it

there's no good training for CSTE in our country or anywhere. I would say its rather effective to do self study coupled with group study.
anyways, HP QC is "D" tool here! a lot of QA jobs (check monster.ca and workopolis.ca starting this coming January) and you'll see that those two are ON DEMAND.

by the way, for people who are job searching these days... dont get it wrong.. its almost the end of the year. companies rarely do hiring or open new projects. I for once did not hire anyone during fourth quarter.