My Experience with landing a job with CareerEdge

[ammenla]

Hi Menka2822,

I don't have any information regarding Canada Job market and I am asking for the advice/suggestions in this forum.

Regards,
Ammenla

 

[KoRnnn]

can we apply for internship thru careeredge (inour home country) before we move permanently to canada? assuming that COPR is already in hand..It would be better for us to secure a job before we move permanently, thanks

 

[Menka2822]

Thank you for your help Ammenla

 

[nthompson]

Hi Nthompson,

Hope all is well!

I read your comments and thanks a lot for your suggestions/advice for new immigrants. I got my PR and planning to land in Toronto in couple of months. Initially, when I read the comments posted in this block I was disappointed as if I did a mistake in applying for PR under FSWP program as I see lot of negative comments and after reading your comments now I feel confident and happy that I made a right decision.

Currently, I am working as a Tax Senior in Big 4 having 8+ years of experience in US Taxation. Recently, I did certification in SAP FI and would like to make career in SAP. I have couple of questions before leaving home country.

1) I am planning to settle in Toronto since it has a big market and chances of getting job is high
2) How are the job opportunities for freshers in SAP in Canada? I am ready to start from scratch.
3) when is the best time to land in Canada? I learned that companies hire only twice in a year. Is it true or they will hire through out the year?

Again, thanks a lot for your suggestions.

waiting for your response. Thanks a lot in advance.

Regards,
Ammenla

Hello Ammenla,

I'm really glad that after reading negatives comments and then reading mine it gave you confidence, because sadly their is a lot of negative comments on here

1) Toronto is a great place, a lot of development and growth here but it is still challenging to land a job but it's possible

2) SAP is being used by a lot of companies so you won't have a problem searching for a company that uses SAP. Check Rogers, City Hall, IBM etc. Just an example

3) I would say anything between May and July is a great time or January. But honestly there is not not a best time but from my experience I have seen a lot of hiring around that time but I believe in being at the right place at the right time. You could come in October and land a great job it's completely random. And it depends on your field.

 

[nthompson]

can we apply for internship thru careeredge (inour home country) before we move permanently to canada? assuming that COPR is already in hand..It would be better for us to secure a job before we move permanently, thanks

Kornn,

I would highly go against applying through careeredge if your not even in the country. You won't even qualify because you need to be a landed permanent resident. It would be great if you could land a job before moving over but if you read the forums there are people who are already landed and are having a hard time landing a job. So getting a position while not landed in Canada is low.

I honestly applied like crazy while I was living in the UK, and out of all the 50+ jobs I applied to I had one phone call and the recruiter was highly interested but said the position starts in 2 weeks and the interviews are in 3 days.

Wait till you land, start working on your resumes from now, have a list of recruiters you wish to contact once you land.

 

[ammenla]

Thanks Nthompson. That was really helpful

 

[KK80]

Thanks Vish. I just want people to feel motivated what I have experience. If it was not for my wife motivating me and keeping me on my toes I honestly doubt I be were I am.

If you have any questions or anything feel free to ask and I do my best I can. While working here I have met at least 12 interns who recently moved to Canada and all got hired after their contract ended.

The position is nice. One thing I can say Canadians don't work as hard as us immigrants. I love the Canadians but their very laid back
Hello KK80,

I would not recmmend applying from outside of Canada until you land as they will not be interested because most of these jobs are instant.

Please don't ruin your chances and apply now because they will just put your application in the Not interested pile. Wait till you land then apply.

I'm thinking of posting a template of a Resume and cover letter to help people with getting interviews. I'm not an expert but I have learned how to customize my resume.

Hi nthompson,

Thank you so much for your advice.

 

[nthompson]

Thanks Nthompson. That was really helpful

Hi nthompson,

Thank you so much for your advice.

Hi nthompson,

Thank you so much for your advice.

No problem

 

[favoured1]

Hi nthompson and everyone,
I am a new comer here and I have read so much about the need for Canadian education in order enhance the chances of immigrant professionals. Although you have given valuable information on how we can tilt the tide little in our favour, I have been wondering for some time on a possible solution. I need your though and suggestion on this before I proceed.

I am an electrical engineer in Nigeria with over 8yrs experience and I work for shell. I know you said experience and pedigree of the company we work also matters alot, but I still like to turn things in my favour as much as possible.

So I am thinking since I do not have a Canadian education, and I got my degree in Nigeria, I am thinking of taking some online certificate or diploma course offered by a reputable Canadian school. But I do not want to waste my time or money if this does not count as Canadian education. So the question is does have a certificate/diploma from a Canadian school helps if such training/course was offered online?

Thanks in advance

 

[katoch_sunny]

Hi,

I am a network engineer and I have close to 3 years of experience in IT. Since I have come to Canada in June end, I have been applying for jobs almost everywhere.
Also I did alot of research before coming here and have been following the procedures defined on govt websites and other too.
I have been involved with CareerEdge and have applied in two internships and still waiting for a reply.
Can Nthompson or anyone guide me further related to my job search, if someone has some reference in some company then please let me know.
Any kind of help and guidance will be highly appreciated.

 

[Virleen]

Hi
Need advice..!
My husband has a work experience of 4.5 yrs in the field of Quality, Lean & Six sigma in a Multi national bank.
He is an accredited ISO 9001:2008 Lead Auditor (Quality council of India), certified Six Sigma Green belt and is planning to do Six Sigma black belt certification from ASQ. We plan to immigrate to Canada by Jan'16.

Kindly advise
- Will the black belt certification be useful in canadian market? Is is worth doing?
- What are the job prospects of such a role in toronto?

 

[salmanahm]

Mark my words.
If he can get lean six sigma black belt he will be successful.

PIC Groupm LINAMAR and Magna need certified quality auditors nothing else.
Certification is more important than a Phd degree here.

Hi
Need advice..!
My husband has a work experience of 4.5 yrs in the field of Quality, Lean & Six sigma in a Multi national bank.
He is an accredited ISO 9001:2008 Lead Auditor (Quality council of India), certified Six Sigma Green belt and is planning to do Six Sigma black belt certification from ASQ. We plan to immigrate to Canada by Jan'16.

Kindly advise
- Will the black belt certification be useful in canadian market? Is is worth doing?
- What are the job prospects of such a role in toronto?

 

[Gems2511]

Hello everyone,

It has been a while since I posted on here, I'm a new immigrant as well to Canada and I have been here for 2 months now. I would like to share my person advice and experience while I have been here and how I had few job offers and landed a good job.

Things to do once you land.
1) I opened a bank account with scotia and immediately got a credit card to pay for things instead of cash and just transfer the money over to my credit card on a regular basis. Also if you do go with scotia make sure you get a scene card as you collect points and can go see movies at the cinema for free. You can join TD or any other bank if you wish.

2) Health card. People will tell you that you need to go and apply for it as soon as you land as it takes 3 months to receive it, well you don't exactly need to collect it on the same day you can even go a month later because regardless of the day you go the health card starts the 3 month period from the day you land and not the day you walk in to register.

3) Exchange your drivers license to get a Canadian as I just gave them mine and they gave me a G license as alot of jobs will ask if you have your license.

To me these things above where my most important things I got done as soon as I landed.

Resume and cover letters
If you have applied to multiple jobs and are not getting any replies back then you need to think about making sure that you totally customize your resume and cover letter according to the job as a lot of companies use a scanning system which scans all the resumes and picks out the keywords of them to be the closest match to the job. I know theres a lot of you that have crazy qualifications and experience but if your resume is not even getting acknowledged in the resume screening then your resume is getting lost in the pile.

It personal took me like 1-2 hours to customize each resume and I even changed my job title to match theres as their system could also been scanning the titles an apparently its ok to change your previous job title to match theirs as if the job is identical to what you done back home but a different name then there is nothing wrong with changing it to get noticed.

My first week in Canada I had 2 interviews with two recruiters and 2 job interviews the following week. You need to bare in mind like if you want to settle in Toronto then you need to make sure the jobs are not to far from where you live are just go for the closest ones, because the traffic on the 401 will kill you as it can become a nightmare if your work place is a hour drive away but in traffic its 3 hours. So with the positions I had offered I was picky and did not take either of them because the pay was not really what I was looking for and the companies was not too great so the benefits were pretty rubbish. Main thing I noticed about Canada is don't look at the pay but look at the benefits as things like health and medical benefits can save you thousands and most of them include family medical which care which is a MUST

Inteview Tips
It was also amazing to have had interviews as I have not had any interviews since like 16 years ago so I was nervous but what I realized is that Canadians are very laid back and friendly so they make you feel relaxed and calm. My personal advice is that in the interviews I sold myself to them as if I was talking like I already had the job with questions that I asked " We can work together and make this project work" or "What are your deadlines?" etc I then noticed that the interview did not no longer feel like a interview and it felt more like a senior management meeting from then you have pretty much sold yourself and out of the 7 interviews I had in the first 4 weeks of being here I had 6 offers.

If your from a IT background like me please please please don't be the typical boring IT guy and say stuff like " I can do everything, I can even programme and there is nothing that I can not do" Do you know 3 of the interviews told me that I'm the first IT person they have ever interviewed that did not say I can do everything, yes I researched the company and job description and high lighted that I can do the main things in the job but other things that did not involve in the job description I told them that honestly my knowledge is average in that area but I'm very keen and willing to learn as technology is always developing.

Career Edge Experience
I honestly think this company is AMAZING. I will walk you through the process as I noticed people asked questions and questions never got answered.

Well firstly when you apply to them online apply as if your applying for a job as they will look at your resume and experience and see if it is relevant to the job positions they have at that current time. Once you get a phone call or a email saying that they would like to have a pre-screening interview be prepared to have a skype interview, its basically to see how good your communication is as I think having a British accent is for sure golden in Canada everyone loves you. Be very prepared for this pre-screening as they will ask you to have hand picked a job description from their website and ask you questions regarding the position like as if your in a actual interview.

Once you pass the pre-screening you will know immediately as they will tell you there and then. You will receive a email saying that you have been approved and have access to intern job postings.

I saw alot of REALLY good companies on the listing and some amazing job postings, I applied to a few and got a reply back from one of the jobs I really liked which is project Management. Once you get a reply you are then called in for a actual interview for the job. Luckily I got the job and after getting really close with the managers they told me they had 16 candidates from careeredge interview but none of them took charge of the interview and just sat back and answered the questions. Key to it is ask questions make them feel like your already part of the team and for god sake SMILE.

On my 4th week which was last week they offered me a full time permanent position which is 3 times the pay career edge pays you, so if your wondering that is it possible to get employed before your internship is up it is possible as the only thing is they would of lost the lump some of money they sent to careeredge to pay you with and its bi-weekly pay.

If you do manage to get a intern job you will be treated like a normal colleague and expected to do things with minimal help and advice as careeredge programme is International Qualified Professionals as that means your qualified in your home country and your just here to seek experience in Canada, not like the co-op students intern as they will be monitored and guided through step by step.

If I have missed out anything and you have questions please feel free to ask I do wish you all luck and success in your future in Canada.

Don't give up be positive and keep trying!

Thank you so much for sharing so much information and insight in your posts - it's refreshing to read positive posts about experiences in Canada! Il be landing in Vancouver in Spring next year from the UK and I can't wait to start my new life. Hopefully il be able to continue in my career as a marketing manager. Like many of us I'm sure it all feels very overwhelming at times with so much to do both before I fly out and even more so when I land. So posts like yours nthompson are simply gold dust. Thank you.

 

[nthompson]

Hello everyone,

I'm VERY VERY SORRY for such a late reply and I guess you may have already found your answers. I've been so busy with work and trying to settling in.

I'd love to share some great news with your all. I just landed a position which is beyond my dream position in the Government and stepped up into more of a senior role. CareerEdge is for sure one of the best choices I've ever made in my life, honestly it is sucha great way to launch your career. I've contacted them to update them on such a great system they have.

Guys if your thinking twice about it, trust me don't hesitate and even if you have applied and not heard back, continue to apply to positions they have on their website as they might already have people who are more qualified for the position in mind etc.

I'm so so excited and I know a few people have been contacted and offered temporary positions in the Government. I hope a few of you on here have had that chance because I may et to meet you as I've been offered to be a part of the panel in meeting the new ITI and to share my experience and advice.

Good luck everyone I do wish each and one of you the best of luck!

 

[stalingard]

Thanks Nthompson. That was really helpful

ammenla, can you comment on your current situation?

Im sailing in same boat as you were, I plan to fly and re-locate to Toronto. Few attempts, specifically 3, made to obtaining a job didn't work in my favour.
Look forward to hear from you.

All the very best.

Cheers,