Is Canadian work experience important? If you're in Canada-share your experience

[Canadian Career Coach]

Lately, I've noticed A LOT of discussion about the importance of Canadian work experience.

I think many on this forum are just trying to share their personal experiences and wisdom.

It's not meant to sound discouraging -- but it's important to understand the actual realities -- not what the government says - but from immigrants who have already landed and gone through this experience firsthand.  They are living the issues every day, so they have some inside knowledge.

I think it would be a HUGE benefit to those who've not landed yet to hear firsthand experience from those who've experienced this issue once landing in Canada.

If you've already landed in Canada, share your personal experiences (both positive and negative) about the challenges you faced about not having Canadian work experience.  What did you do?  Was retraining involved and did you eventually land in your previous work area?

[martha marita]

Not really it depends with your field of work.  If you require a licence to practice then that has to be sorted out in order to practice mostly pharmacist, nurses, docotrs engineers. 

If you fall on the category of administration, managerial or skilled work by hand there are so many many programs the goverment have like placement to get the canadian experience.  Some skills are transferable so dont worry mostly accounting, admin etc.  So there is a rule of thumb if you are an admin person you could do any clerical job in any dept.

[zero]

Can you please tell me, how Danish education and  10 years work experience is viewed in Canada? In the accounting and Finance sector? And also SAP Finance experience from Denmark? Should I need to evulated under Canadien experience or Education requirments? And updated my degree over there??
 Thanks

[martha marita]

Most public sectors use SAP system to do their finances so that would be a very great bonus for you.  In regards to Accounting and Finance - these jobs usually have transferable skills.  The only short come in Accounting and Finance you might face hardness in getting a hire post in specialised posts like taxation or law and regulating accounting in canada  thats where your certification will need to get certified and then you could work on getting the CGA.  Anyway this is not my field am mostly in HR  but that the bit I know.

All in all you have skills to do the job so you will just look for work like anybody else.

[zero]

Thanks Martha and I got hope about SAP. Having achieved many goals in my career as an experienced Controller in the Danish job market with around 4+ Years of SAP FI/CO, SAP BW experience including one Implementation test and support, I am currently interested to move in to Canada. I am seeking new challenges in the area of Financial Managementor SAP/IT.
I am interested on management and financial reporting, budgeting, internal control, and analysis of financial reporting  or Project management or Management job. So I hope so without CGA certificate. may be I can continue my Career, because I have MBA from here! Thanks agin for your feedback.

[martha marita]

Yes thats the moto.  You could try Comdev and Navtech when you arrive if they will be closer to you.  Another this is to register yourself and find a career councellor who will help you with job finding.

[zero]

Thanks Martha. I want to land in Toronto and do you know where I should need to go for find a Career Counciler? Is it in Jobcenter???

[AllisonVSC]

Lately, I've noticed A LOT of discussion about the importance of Canadian work experience.

I think many on this forum are just trying to share their personal experiences and wisdom.

It's not meant to sound discouraging -- but it's important to understand the actual realities -- not what the government says - but from immigrants who have already landed and gone through this experience firsthand.  They are living the issues every day, so they have some inside knowledge.

I think it would be a HUGE benefit to those who've not landed yet to hear firsthand experience from those who've experienced this issue once landing in Canada.

If you've already landed in Canada, share your personal experiences (both positive and negative) about the challenges you faced about not having Canadian work experience.  What did you do?  Was retraining involved and did you eventually land in your previous work area?

Thanks for asking the question Canadian Career Coach...
I landed in Nov 2009 and still haven't found work (now to be fair I don't have to take a survival job as my partner can support us both). I did not move to Canada for a "better life/opportunity" or anything like that and I didn't come through the skilled worker program. I came through Family Class after years of hoping my partner would find work where I live (He's in telecom). It became clear that one of us would have to make a career sacrifice if we were to ever live together. Given the choices, our career paths, and earnings potential, it made the most sense for me to move here. Given that, I thought I would encounter some transition issues, but I did not think I would really and truly have to start over!

I'm from the US and have a BS and Masters degree with 20 years work experience mostly in private school teaching high school mathematics, but I have also been the VP of a for profit consulting firm and the Associate Director of a national non-profit organization. I have accessed all kinds of newcomer services, temporary employment agencies, etc (in addition to networking and sending resumes for job postings on my own) in an attempt to find a job. Most of these services are oriented to helping those who have less skills (esp communication, but also job search skills) and I have been told more than once that I would not be well-served by the programs offered. It's flattering but disheartening to hear "you are too well-qualified" and "you should have no problems finding work"...it makes me want to scream "But I am having problems finding work! Where can I go for help?"

I am currently re-training in a co-op accounting program (I'm getting High School credit for it too) learning Simply Accounting and all but one of my classmates are immigrants. Almost all have university degrees and work experiences in our home countries but have had little or no success finding permanent work in their respective fields here (and so many of them have accounting degrees and/or experience). I was quite surprised to find how difficult it is for all of us to break into the market here.

The one thing I've noticed is that no one will come out and say "You have no Canadian experience"  (probably because it is a violation of the Canadian Human Rights Charter or some such titled document); you just don't get a call for an interview. When you don't get that call 100s of times for positions you are well or overly qualified for, you start to wonder if that lack of experience is the real reason...

Hopefully, through my co-op placement, which is a 6 week unpaid internship in a Canadian company, I will acquire a letter of reference and enough Can work experience to supplement my resume and find a permanent entry-level accounting position. I suspect that once through the door, finding work will be a easier. We shall see; I'm trying my best to remain positive.  Allison

[abelkwh]

Hi Allison VSC, may i know which city are u residing as it seems u do not get all these rejections outright.

I am also a double masters degree holder from the States and i also experienced the same situation where i have gone to all the help that was supposely granted to new immigrants and they have also mentioned the same things as what they have told u.

However, i am a little luckier in that i have managed to find a call center banking job within 3 weeks of sending my resume out. This is probably just a start as a survival job and i will also be re-training soon later this yr in a completely new field in Engineering cause i am pretty sure, there is no way, my previous experience is of any value in this land where they do not recognize any of my previous experience as an Associate director, VP of numerous firms and banks in countries other than Canada.

[AllisonVSC]

Hi abelkwh, I live in Mississauga Ontario, just west of Toronto.

[David_TVO]

From the interviews I did with recent skilled immigrants, they overwhelmingly seem to say the Canadian work experience is absolutely necessary.  Some even expressed difficulties in finding volunteer placement without "Canadian" experience.

Voices of New Canadians Series - Finding Work
http://www.tvo.org/TVO/WebObjects/TVO.woa?videoid?760336315001


David Erwin, The Agenda with Steve Paikin
Voices of New Canadians Web Series
http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda/index.cfm?page_id=3&action=blog&subaction=viewPost&post_id=14150&blog_id=323

[newtone]

that's a +1 from me, I agree Canadian experience is important

[chefchopra7]

So far here is my True Canadian Experience What I understand and understood after an year and a half as new Canadian beside other sweet and sour experience.

Candian Experience

I applied hundereds of jobs matching my profile but No reference no job
Death of Hunger of Learning as No Value Addition in your professsional life at work.
In most of the job you will be processed in the process
Learn Hiring and firing if you get a chance to work as manager and learning how canadian currency looks like - cent dime nickle......

Each New canadian is Under Employed
you will be end up upgrading your education and going to school again.
Yes there is a racism in society but each govt/ para  official will treat you very nicely but you will be spending more time with society.

There are great gov. benefits which you will come to know only through your new immigrants. 

I wish I would have known before becoming a canadian, I tried to come to canada while i my PR process was on to explore But you will never be given visa to explore , as I was refused Visa even with Canadian Invitation and enough funds.

there is a another good side of your canadian life and will end up with half happy and half sad thinking of going back to ur country every other day.and you will end up neither here nor there.

i hope this might help you to take decision on becoming Canadian

sunder chopra 
 
 
 

[newtone]

So what do you think? is it important to have Canadian work experience or not?

[clubcanada]

From my point of view there's no such thing as ‘Canadian experience'.  Either you fit in or you don't. If someone rejects your application due to lack of canadian ex that is probably because there was no fit (over-/underqualified, cultural gap, language gap, lousy interview performance, better candidate available, etc.).
Some jobs require having experience on the canadian/local market. A strong network within the local industry/market is of significant importance for management positions. A sales person or a VP/director without work experience in Canada will mostly likely fail in their position.
If you have sufficient language skills, have work experience that is applicable to the position you've applied for and you possess a skill set/profession that is difficult to fill with locals, you soon or later will get a job. HOWEVER, things like heavy accent, language issues, huge cultural gaps, lack of willingness to adopt local procedures, etc. can be show-stoppers. In addition, if you apply for positions that are far below your last job you probably won't have a chance either.