Hi all,
I hope you are all doing well. After a long time I decided to log on as we celebrate our 1 year anniversary of landing in Canada today. So far below are my experiences:
Is Canada all we expected as a family? Yes
Are we happy? Yes
Is there room for improvement? Oh yes.
I am one of those fortunate immigrant to land in Canada with a job offer in my hands. We arrived on the 19th September 2012 after a very tiring flight from South Africa. We took Emirates, from Capetown to Dubai, Dubai to Toronto and from Toronto to Winnipeg. By the time we were on our connecting flight to Winnipeg we were so tired that kids could not even eat. My wife literarily passed out because she was tired. The following day we got up to get our SIN card, health card, open account etc. Managed to get kids into school with the help of our friend. One thing I must commend here is the public transportation here in Winnipeg. Even without a car you can still move around very well though might not be convenient sometimes but still better than nothing.
Resumed my new job four days after landing and met with the new team. I will spend sometime to explain about the working culture in Canada. I'm sure you have heard people talking about Canadian experience....but I guess the right word should have been Canadian working culture. Boy oh boy....if you are not from Europe or North America this can actually be a challenge. Firstly, your accent might be a problem. Don't get me wrong I speak very good English (So I thought) but it is very frustrating to keep repeating yourself when in a meeting and sometimes people will not tell you to your face but then they begin to form opinion especially (especially) if the people up high in the company like you and the work you do. It is almost impossible not to shine especially when you take a job a little lower than where you used to be.
For example I took a job like one step below my position back home (Although after converting from dollar to Rand) earning a little more than home without considering cost of living. Cost of living was lower back home than here. Basically I stopped converting after a month to avoid depression because what you earn is what you spend. Don't bother what they are saying just keeping working hard and be focus. In Canada privacy is a big issue so know how to use the information you are privy to have access to. When possible get a job that is unionized because you are somehow protected against unfairly dismissal. Remember I said if possible as immigrant you don't have much choice when you just landed. But there is no harm asking them ask the interview. The reason why I said this because you don't need any kind of instability in your life as a new immigrant.
Anyway I met not too friendly people in my first job but as God will have it got a higher position within the same organization few months after I started and by now have about 10 people reporting to me. Even with MBA I went for few other certifications in IT again in order to be marketable. I was lucky that I was sponsored by my company to attend the training and also attended a conference in the USA (I am in IT).
Depending on your situation try and rent a condo rather than a house. We rented a house from agency and were paying too much and the agency were not helping matters as well. When ever we complained about repairs they usually wont fix it so after 7 months we bought our own house.
What I will have done differently:
Rented a condo rather than a house.
Not shipping any of our old belongings at all other than come with our bags of clothes.
Will have asked my wife to look into going to school rather than seeking employment in administration which is where her strength is, to make her more marketable.
Don't rely only on what people are saying but find information yourself.
Come with an open mind and keep believing. Don't despair live one day at a time. More importantly if you are married get to discuss with your partner more often. I wish you all the best.