Work Experience for Professional Musician? Any advice welcome!

[ksweddle]

Hi all,

I'm trying to figure out how to put my work experience in to ensure no problems with an EE profile. My last EE profile was deemed ineligible, though the questionnaire and everything I had applied for said I was. (I also think this may have been because of a glitch with user error, as my first profile was originally deemed eligible, but I decided to update everything, just in case.)

Regardless, I want to make this as strong as it can be. I'm 24 years old, US citizen, graduated in 2018 with a bachelor's degree (already verified via WES), and recently took my IELTS and received good results). For work experience, I know I can't claim my self-employed musician status for any CRS points, and I'll apply that to personal history upon being invited to apply. I don't have a solidified job offer, but intend to move to Nova Scotia and perform professionally with my duo partner (who lives in NS already).

Many of my professional jobs have been contracts, most recently with Norwegian Cruise Lines (up until the pandemic). Most of these contracts are back to back with a month or two break in between each. Should I include just these contracts for my work experience? I also have additional experience in teaching, retail experience (part-time while in college) and nannying (due to the pandemic, and this has become my full-time emergency job at the moment). Though I know those would not go towards the 5133 Musicians and Singers NOC code.

Any advice is so welcome. I just want to do this the right way. Thank you so much in advance!

 

[scylla]

Hi all,

I'm trying to figure out how to put my work experience in to ensure no problems with an EE profile. My last EE profile was deemed ineligible, though the questionnaire and everything I had applied for said I was. (I also think this may have been because of a glitch with user error, as my first profile was originally deemed eligible, but I decided to update everything, just in case.)

Regardless, I want to make this as strong as it can be. I'm 24 years old, US citizen, graduated in 2018 with a bachelor's degree (already verified via WES), and recently took my IELTS and received good results). For work experience, I know I can't claim my self-employed musician status for any CRS points, and I'll apply that to personal history upon being invited to apply. I don't have a solidified job offer, but intend to move to Nova Scotia and perform professionally with my duo partner (who lives in NS already).

Many of my professional jobs have been contracts, most recently with Norwegian Cruise Lines (up until the pandemic). Most of these contracts are back to back with a month or two break in between each. Should I include just these contracts for my work experience? I also have additional experience in teaching, retail experience (part-time while in college) and nannying (due to the pandemic, and this has become my full-time emergency job at the moment). Though I know those would not go towards the 5133 Musicians and Singers NOC code.

Any advice is so welcome. I just want to do this the right way. Thank you so much in advance!

Were any of the individual contracts with the cruise line at least one year in length?

The retail and nanny experience won't count towards EE.

You are most likely going to fall short of the 470 or so points required to be selected out of the EE pool.

 

[ksweddle]

Were any of the individual contracts with the cruise line at least one year in length?

The retail and nanny experience won't count towards EE.

You are most likely going to fall short of the 470 or so points required to be selected out of the EE pool.

Hi! Thank you so much for responding.

As a professional musician, I went from one contract to another (multiple companies, but steady work), pretty back to back. I was technically signed through August of 2020 with an entertainment company for NCL, but obviously with the pandemic, I wasn't physically able to board and play. Though I did sign through then. Not sure if this would count.

I also have multiple years of substitute teaching, on an as-need basis. But multiple years worth! Would it be a better option to apply under a secondary teacher NOC instead of the musician NOC? And then explain the self-employed musician work in the personal details page if given an ITA? I don't really know how to go about this to ensure a better chance of success. Whatever anyone would think is best.

 

[Naturgrl]

Hi! Thank you so much for responding.

As a professional musician, I went from one contract to another (multiple companies, but steady work), pretty back to back. I was technically signed through August of 2020 with an entertainment company for NCL, but obviously with the pandemic, I wasn't physically able to board and play. Though I did sign through then. Not sure if this would count.

I also have multiple years of substitute teaching, on an as-need basis. But multiple years worth! Would it be a better option to apply under a secondary teacher NOC instead of the musician NOC? And then explain the self-employed musician work in the personal details page if given an ITA? I don't really know how to go about this to ensure a better chance of success. Whatever anyone would think is best.

Honestly you are not going to get an ITA with only a bachelors unless you become fluent in French. To be eligible for EE, you need one year continuous skilled experience in one NOC or two years part-time. Do you have this to even be eligible? Given your age have you considered a masters program or post graduate program that shows career progression?

 

[scylla]

Hi! Thank you so much for responding.

As a professional musician, I went from one contract to another (multiple companies, but steady work), pretty back to back. I was technically signed through August of 2020 with an entertainment company for NCL, but obviously with the pandemic, I wasn't physically able to board and play. Though I did sign through then. Not sure if this would count.

I also have multiple years of substitute teaching, on an as-need basis. But multiple years worth! Would it be a better option to apply under a secondary teacher NOC instead of the musician NOC? And then explain the self-employed musician work in the personal details page if given an ITA? I don't really know how to go about this to ensure a better chance of success. Whatever anyone would think is best.

You need to be able to prove that you have at least one year of continuous and full time work experience (or equivalent part time) in a single NOC and that's what you would then want to select as your primary NOC. The key things here are that the work experience must be continuous (i.e. without breaks). I don't know what you mean by "pretty back to back". Your work experience literally needs to be back to back (i.e. you finish one contract Friday and start the next one Monday). If you had few weeks or a few months between contracts, that will be regarded as a break and makes this non-continuous. You'll need to sit down and look at all of your work experience, dates, hour

The contract you signed with NCL where you didn't actually work will not count. You didn't actually work. You can't count this.