Newcomers know from experience the challenges that you will face when you arrive and begin job searching in Canada. But, based on their journeys, you can gain from their wisdom. Here are five things that newcomers wish they knew or did differently related to their job search efforts.
Linda Ryanis the National Program Manager with BCCA-Integrating Newcomers, a government funded, Canada-wide, pre-arrival career coaching service for high skilled construction professionals immigrating to Canada (*BCCA-IN). A career and certified performance coach, she and the BCCA-IN team specialise in helping newcomers plan for, and achieve, employment success, no matter what city or province they are moving to.
When it comes to job searching in Canada, Ryan works closely with newcomers who are eager to continue their careers in Canada. Ryan shares what some of the most common issues are that they face and how to overcome them.
5 Things to Know and Do When Job Searching in Canada
1. Get to Know Your Industry
Ryan states that the best way to spend your time is to research your industry and the roles within it. When job searching in Canada, it’s vital to know the industry trends and challenges. When you invest time to research the industry, it helps you to plan job search activities and shape your career in Canada. For example, in addition to identifying trends, it’s also helpful to know:
What professional development options exist (current and future)
How your skills and education compare to Canadian standards, and
How relevant licensing bodies, industry or professional associations can help you with job searching in Canada.
When you know this information it will help you to focus your career-building activities and get the best out of your efforts.
2.Benefit from the Value of Networking
The thing to know here is that “networking is as important as job hunting” says Ryan. She adds that blindly sending out resumes when you first arrive in Canada is not all that effective. Newcomers are often surprised at how important networking is, especially when building an early career in Canada.
Ryan suggests helpful tips such as joining newsfeeds or discussion groups on LinkedIn and:
Connecting with other professionals in your industry
Attending relevant industry and association events
Reaching out authentically to learn about others.
Ryan advises against sending connection requests on LinkedIn for the purpose of ‘asking for a job’. Because as she explains Canadians like to get to know you, your track record and even a little of your life story. It’s the same in the business world, and when people know you, they get to know what you know!
Join Canada’s Construction Workforce | BCCA
Do you want one-on-one coaching to help you continue your construction career in Canada before you arrive?
The Integrating Newcomers program is for you if you’re a technical professional e.g. tradesperson, engineer (in any discipline), architect, technician, technologist, project manager, estimator, or analyst. This Canada-wide service can help you get started!
Another thing that Ryan hears is how newcomers wished they had expanded their communities beyond their friends and family when they arrived. So what exactly does this look like? Well, Ryan shares that newcomers often wished they had spent time getting more ‘Canadian experience’ through:
Training
Volunteering, and
Acquiring/challenging credentials.
These are all important ways to help your job search in Canada.
They also wished that they took more time to look for the right work that they truly wanted as opposed to taking work that paid ‘survival’ money. If they had, they would have invested better in their long-term success.
Watch now to get engineering and licensing tips for newcomers:
4. Improve Your English Skills
Newcomers often tell Ryan that they should have invested more time using free or low-cost online English as a Second Language (ESL) training and tools.“I couldn’t agree more!” says Ryan. Before you arrive in Canada, it’s important to improve your English language skills. Doing so will dramatically increase your confidence and how you authentically connect with communities and professionals. When you’re confident, it will lead to greater success when job searching in Canada.
5. Plan and Balance Your Job Searching Time
Job searching is stressful. Added to that stress, as a newcomer, you’re busy when you first land in Canada. Searching for work, finding accommodation, navigating transit, setting up basics, and adapting to life in Canada are all time-consuming. Ryan’s advice is to plan your time like a pro. She says, “your best approach is to think of this time in your life as strategic project management. For example, assign an hour each day to job search and research, an hour to logistics and getting settled, and an hour connecting with settlement, professional associations, and employment support services. After that, get out, explore your community and meet people. After all, you came to Canada for a new life. It’s important to make sure it’s as balanced as possible!”
Learn More about BCCA-IN
*The BCCA-Integrating Newcomers program is a free, pre-arrival, Canada-wide service, focused on helping high-skilled newcomers explore and build successful construction careers. Services include one-on-one career guidance, tailored resume, cover letter, LinkedIn advice, and an in-depth skills and education assessment to help newcomers focus on the best career, credentials and connections activities. The Integrating Newcomers team not only has multi-industry experience but are also immigrants who have built successful careers in Canada.
WRITTEN BY
Corinna Frattini
Senior Editor, Prepare for Canada
Corinna Frattini is the Senior Editor and Content Director for Prepare for Canada. She contributes articles to help newcomers achieve their goals in key areas related to living, working, and settling in Canada. With an extensive background in human resources and leadership development, her articles focus on what Canadian employers seek and how newcomers can continue their careers in Canada.
We use cookies to enhance your experience, analyze site traffic, and support marketing. Some are essential, while others are optional. By clicking "Allow All," you consent to all cookies. You can "Disable All" or adjust your choices in "Cookie Settings." Update preferences anytime in our Privacy Policy.
We and our partners use information collected through cookies and similar technologies to improve your experience on our site, analyse how you use it and for marketing purposes. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. In some cases, data obtained from cookies is shared with third parties for analytics or marketing reasons. You can exercise your right to opt-out of that sharing at any time by disabling cookies.
These cookies and scripts are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, suchas setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block oralert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
Analytics
These cookies and scripts allow us to count visits and traffic sources, so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies and scripts, we will not know when you have visited our site.
Embedded Videos
These cookies and scripts may be set through our site by external video hosting services likeYouTube or Vimeo. They may be used to deliver video content on our website. It’s possible for the video provider to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on this or other websites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies or scripts it is possible that embedded video will not function as expected.
Google Fonts
Google Fonts is a font embedding service library. Google Fonts are stored on Google's CDN. The Google Fonts API is designed to limit the collection, storage, and use of end-user data to only what is needed to serve fonts efficiently. Use of Google Fonts API is unauthenticated. No cookies are sent by website visitors to the Google Fonts API. Requests to the Google Fonts API are made to resource-specific domains, such as fonts.googleapis.com or fonts.gstatic.com. This means your font requests are separate from and don't contain any credentials you send to google.com while using other Google services that are authenticated, such as Gmail.
Marketing
These cookies and scripts may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies and scripts, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Facebook Advanced Matching
Facebook Advanced Matching can improve ads attribution and conversion tracking. It can help us reach better-targeted custom audiences through our ads. When possible, we will share with Facebook hashed information like your name, phone, email, or address.
Facebook CAPI
Facebook Conversion API Events (CAPI) help us better understand how you interact with our websites. They allow us to measure the impact of our ads on the website's conversions and they improve ads targeting through custom audiences. When possible, we might share with Facebook information like name, email, phone, address.