How I Got a Full-time Job in Canada

I have been very blessed and of course extremely lucky to have secured a full-time job 3 days before landing in Canada and to add a cherry on top, this job is the same job I have been doing for 8.5 years.

It was not easy. I tried applying for jobs even before entering the Express Entry hoping that a Canadian company will take notice of my resume and hopefully offer me a job which will boost up my points. It did not happen until 3 days before our flight.

Before entering the Express Entry, I prepared my resume, the same old resume that got me jobs not just in the Philippines but also in Singapore. At that time, I had great faith that this resume will outshine other applicants in a job I am applying for and will land me a job in Canada but it didn’t. What I usually get, if I’m lucky, is a reply from a job application stating, “We have considered your skills and we regret to inform you that we decided to pursue other candidates blah blah blah.” Seriously, I always stop reading after the “regret” word and wished that they didn’t reply at all, just so I have that tiny hope that they are going through my resume and they are just thinking how much salary to offer me. I was quite hopeful during those times.

My personal statistics is out of 10 applications, 1 will give me the “regret” reply, 9 of them will just ignore me. So after months of applying, a year in fact, I convinced myself that I won’t get a job unless I’m already in Canada, or so I thought.

Two months before landing in Canada, I reached out to a firm called JVS Toronto (https://www.jvstoronto.org/pre-arrival/canprep/) for their CanPrep program. Just a disclaimer, this is not in any way an advertisement for them, but they did help me a lot. This is a free service for soon-to-be migrants to help them get a job through a series of trainings and one on one meetings with a career coach. One thing that helped me a lot is the training in resume building. So yes, the secret, if you want to call it that, is your resume.

It turned out that my resume is not tailor-made for the Canadian job market even though it looked very good for the Asian market. You can check google on how to create one and I’ll be showing you an excerpt of my before and after resume.

I am in the IT industry doing software automated testing. Before, my resume looks like this:

After taking the online training and doing some research, it now looks like this:

What I did basically was to let the hiring manager know what I can offer in ten seconds by simplifying my resume. All my accomplishments, education and professional experience are just supporting details. I also put my Canada address and a Canadian mobile number. I used Spikko’s (https://secure.spikko.com/) services for this one.

As soon as I did the changes,  my stats became 1 interview request per 20 applications. For me, it is not bad since I’ve spent almost 1 year of countless hours looking at job boards and more than 200 applications for possible jobs without getting any interview requests. Getting at least 5% chance securing an interview is already heart warming.

I’m not an expert in job hunting nor creating a sellable resume, but based on my experience, the points below worked for me.

• Tailor made your resume to the Canadian job market (if possible, per company and job description). Don’t lie about any of the content.
• Look hard enough for job openings and you must be willing to spend at least an hour weekly to browse through different online job boards (if you have network in Canada, try to connect with them, most job openings are not posted online and can be applied through referrals)
• Most importantly, pray. It makes the difference.

 

Things to Do on the First Few Weeks

After 1.5 years of planning and preparation, we’re here in Canada and it’s really cold. Coming from a very hot summer in the Philippines, you’ll feel the coldness to your bones and it’s not even negative yet. We have to prepare for winter, it’s all that I can think of at that time.

We arrived on a Saturday night and spent the whole Sunday resting if you can call it that because we were already awake at 4 in the morning. The first thing to do is to get accustomed to the time difference. Jet lag is REAL. We needed at least two weeks to adjust. Tip, try not to sleep (including your baby) during the day and try to sleep early at night. That worked for us, adjusting our sleep and wake up time an hour per day.

With my work starting two weeks from our arrival day, we thought we have time to tour around but it’s really hard and expensive if you don’t have a car. Also, it’s very cold so most of the time we just stayed at home. Good thing my cousin and her family as well as a brother from The Feast Singapore and his family were gracious enough to tour us around and check up and help us from time to time.

The first Monday, we secured our Social Insurance Number (SIN) from a nearby Service Canada. You just have to bring your Certificate of Permanent Residency (COPR) to the office, give them your address, ensure that your name is correct and they will issue your SIN in a printed paper with your details on it (they don’t issue the card anymore). It will only take you at most 30 minutes, because yes, just like in Singapore, they are very efficient.

We also opened a bank account the same day. Most of the Banks in Toronto/Canada have programs for new residents. We were looking at Scotia Bank, TD, RBC and CIBC. All of these banks have almost the same offerings. In the end, we settled with Scotia Bank, because it’s the nearest bank near the subway station. 😀

Bring your COPR, SIN and Passport when applying for a bank account. Having a COPR will make you eligible for an unsecured credit card with a limit of $2000 (each bank may differ). Yes, you need “credit” here to build your credit score. Unless you have an awful lot of cash, you won’t be able to afford most of the necessities here without a decent credit score.

You can also start doing the following:

1. Look for work if you have none yet, hopefully it will be easier now that you’ve landed.
2. Look for a permanent house and buy a car if you need it (easier if you already have a job)
3. Apply for Canada Child Tax Benefit (http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/cctb/)
4. Apply for OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan, http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/public/programs/ohip/),  but you will only be covered after three months of stay in Ontario (other province has different length of stay requirement to be eligible)
5. Apply for a Driving License (https://www.ontario.ca/page/get-g-drivers-licence-new-drivers)
6. Get a Private Health Insurance (if you want to have coverage while waiting for OHIP)

This is can also be a very good resource for new comers: http://settlement.org/downloads/First_Days_Guide_EN.pdf

So to sum everything up, you need to adjust to the cold weather, jet lag exists, try to stay awake during the day and sleep at night and most importantly, prepare yourself because you have a lot of adjusting, researching and applying to do.

Until next post.