Job search in Canada during covid

[venkat51286]

Hi all, I am on H1b in IT and trying to move to Toronto. I recently went through online interview (2 rounds) at a Canada bank and then HR is not responding. AFAIK I did the second round well and it isn't technical as well. This got me wondering me being present in US is a blocker for them ? How is it working for people trying to secure a job offer in Canada from USA. I want to get full time only in these uncertain covid conditions. I also don't want to quit my current H1 job until I get a job offer from Toronto. Please let me know your thought process about it. Any ideas/tips are appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[canuck78]

Hi all, I am on H1b in IT and trying to move to Toronto. I recently went through online interview (2 rounds) at a Canada bank and then HR is not responding. AFAIK I did the second round well and it isn't technical as well. This got me wondering me being present in US is a blocker for them ? How is it working for people trying to secure a job offer in Canada from USA. I want to get full time only in these uncertain covid conditions. I also don't want to quit my current H1 job until I get a job offer from Toronto. Please let me know your thought process about it. Any ideas/tips are appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Assume many are delaying hiring until Ontario is back to full operations and they reassess. Assume the banks will look at scaling back wherever possible.

 

[venkat51286]

Thanks @canuck78 I will wait for the market to improve and apply again. My 3rd year will complete by next year May. How serious is the 2 in 5 years condition to renew PR. If we miss it by a month or 2 and living in Canada (paying taxes) will they consider it.

 

[harirajmohan]

Thanks @canuck78
1. I will wait for the market to improve and apply again. My 3rd year will complete by next year May.
2. How serious is the 2 in 5 years condition to renew PR. If we miss it by a month or 2 and living in Canada (paying taxes) will they consider it.

1. I think that you should never give up. If they dont offer who cares. YOu get the experience in handling Canadian employers. Even after knowing that you are a US resident they proceeded with the interview stages hence you should just continue as many wont have problem due to US being close for you to move in days. What if you get through some decent job and you can move without pain moving without any job.
its not easy to handle jobless situation during these times and that too in a new country where you dont know the market(and not having any referrals). You should continue.
2. Govt rules are not a joke. They just need exact 730 days out of 5 years. If some officer is doubtful on it while crossing the border then you need to meet judge to prove your case within 30 days(i think) - if not proven then you lose your PR. Dont even try this.
If officer did not care then you are good but one cannot trust this kind of chances unless on had no chances in life to enter Canada on time.

 

[DEEPCUR]

It is not due to being in US or market conditions.. it means they are still in the process of interviewing other people and will take a final decision after interviewing everyone for whom they scheduled interviews.

This is how Canadian companies operate for hiring.. they shortlist the resumes from the large pool (they get tons and tons of resumes due to lot of PR holders entering the country) of resumes they get, and then schedule a batch of interviews to a bunch of people. They finish interviewing every single person for whom they scheduled interview and pick the best among the lot.

so you’ll have wait for at least 2 more weeks to know your final results.

Also ignore the advise on market pick up etc. tech has very low unemployment rate and I know at least two people who got full time jobs in Canada applying from US. Only certain sectors like travel and tourism have had deep impact., other sectors are just doing fine and some sectors are even needing more people than they needed before pandemic to transition to digital mode

 

[scylla]

Hi all, I am on H1b in IT and trying to move to Toronto. I recently went through online interview (2 rounds) at a Canada bank and then HR is not responding. AFAIK I did the second round well and it isn't technical as well. This got me wondering me being present in US is a blocker for them ? How is it working for people trying to secure a job offer in Canada from USA. I want to get full time only in these uncertain covid conditions. I also don't want to quit my current H1 job until I get a job offer from Toronto. Please let me know your thought process about it. Any ideas/tips are appreciated. Thanks in advance!

The big Canadian banks all have freezes on hiring right now and/or you are required to obtain exceptions to fill open roles. Additionally, many have temporarily changed their practices to permit the hiring of internal candidates only as a further cost saving measure.

I don't think this has anything to do with you being in the U.S. but instead is due to temporary changes to internal hiring policies due to COVID-19.

 

[harirajmohan]

The big Canadian banks all have freezes on hiring right now and/or you are required to obtain exceptions to fill open roles. Additionally, many have temporarily changed their practices to permit the hiring of internal candidates only as a further cost saving measure.

I don't think this has anything to do with you being in the U.S. but instead is due to temporary changes to internal hiring policies due to COVID-19.

Correct, Same here in US too as far as i see.

1. so you’ll have wait for at least 2 more weeks to know your final results.

2. Also ignore the advise on market pick up etc. tech has very low unemployment rate and I know at least two people who got full time jobs in Canada applying from US. Only certain sectors like travel and tourism have had deep impact., other sectors are just doing fine and some sectors are even needing more people than they needed before pandemic to transition to digital mode

1. Correct.
2. I agree but now situation is actually changing from low level employment to middle to high level employment. Now we see the office level jobs too moving from being furloughed to permanent layoffs.
As scylla said, there is extreme cost savings measures by most companies to fill a position which i dont know it will change this year. its only accelerating and now hitting all levels of positions.
I can see that permanent layoffs being announced even in tech companies along with of course other industries which has started from this month which we have not seen in Apr/May.
To me, things are only getting from bad to worse or at least becoming more bad.

 

[scylla]

Correct, Same here in US too as far as i see.


1. Correct.
2. I agree but now situation is actually changing from low level employment to middle to high level employment. Now we see the office level jobs too moving from being furloughed to permanent layoffs.
As scylla said, there is extreme cost savings measures by most companies to fill a position which i dont know it will change this year. its only accelerating and now hitting all levels of positions.
I can see that permanent layoffs being announced even in tech companies along with of course other industries which has started from this month which we have not seen in Apr/May.
To me, things are only getting from bad to worse or at least becoming more bad.

Agreed with this.

And just to make it clear, what I've said about the big banks in Canada aren't guesses. I know first hand these things are happening.

 

[venkat51286]

Thanks a ton @harirajmohan @scylla and @DEEPCUR for your valuable inputs. As you said, I will be more patient for hearing their feedback, applying new roles and covid related hiring trends. Even in our company here (banking) hiring is low even though we didn't get impacted directly like hotel industry. Will keep my eyes open

 

[DEEPCUR]

Thanks a ton @harirajmohan @scylla and @DEEPCUR for your valuable inputs. As you said, I will be more patient for hearing their feedback, applying new roles and covid related hiring trends. Even in our company here (banking) hiring is low even though we didn't get impacted directly like hotel industry. Will keep my eyes open

Just curious... what is your skill set?

 

[venkat51286]

Just curious... what is your skill set?

Working as Sr DevOps Engineer with 8 yoe (AWS, Terraform, CI/CD, Chef/Ansible, Kubernetes setup. Had Linux systems administration experience before) working as fte for current company close to 2 years.

 

[venkat51286]

Working as Sr DevOps Engineer with 8 yoe (AWS, Terraform, CI/CD, Chef/Ansible, Kubernetes setup. Had Linux systems administration experience before) working as fte for current company close to 2 years.

My original idea was to get FTE in Detroit area so that I can keep my H1 and commute to Widsor daily as many do. But don't have proper channels/referrals to do that. If you guys have any, really appreciate it.

 

[DEEPCUR]

My original idea was to get FTE in Detroit area so that I can keep my H1 and commute to Widsor daily as many do. But don't have proper channels/referrals to do that. If you guys have any, really appreciate it.

you also look for full time remote jobs, rent a house in Detroit and provide that as address for H1 filing.. if your job lets you login outside USA, you just commute once in 30 days as a formality.. if not just commute daily, go to that house and work during the day. that's another option if you don't get something directly in Detroit..

 

[venkat51286]

you also look for full time remote jobs, rent a house in Detroit and provide that as address for H1 filing.. if your job lets you login outside USA, you just commute once in 30 days as a formality.. if not just commute daily, go to that house and work during the day. that's another option if you don't get something directly in Detroit..

Thanks for your inputs @DEEPCUR Will try that way as well.

 

[venkat51286]

Did you move to Canada?

No @RajKannan I am still in US.