Applying with PhD for non-/alt-academic careers with little work experience.

[torsal]

Dear all,
I'm an EU citizen currently studying in the US interested in immigrating to Canada. What I'm trying to figure out is whether this is feasible or not. Different websites and people I've talked to give drastically different responses, so I was hoping to find people on here with a similar background to mine to share their experiences.

I have an MA in a Humanities field, and I am working towards a PhD in the same field. However, I have no intention to become an academic or do anything directly related to my degree. Instead, I would like to find employment in something related to international education (preferably university services) or communications. I am flexible and could eg leverage my skills for cultural heritage/CRM jobs, but again, my degree isn't IN cultural heritage, just a related field. I have a lot of "soft skills", am familiar with the world of international education and am currently doing an unpaid internship in communications; I do NOT have specialized skillsets or extensive work experience (a little teaching, translation, and retail jobs).

Is moving to Canada a complete pipe dream? Short of getting a completely new degree in something more specialized, is there something I could do to improve my chances? Can I somehow leverage my PhD even if I don't want to go for tenure-track or university teaching jobs? I feel pretty confident about my employability in general but not within the LMIA system - I have many useful skills and experiences, but not ones no Canadian would have.

Thank you in advance! I'd really appreciate hearing your experiences, whether negative or positive!

 

[scylla]

Do you have at least one year of full time work experience in a skilled occupation (i.e. NOC skill level A, B or 0)? That's a requirement for immigrating. Unfortunately your unpaid internship doesn't count. The experience must be paid. And unless the retail job was managerial - this won't count either.

The only way to directly leverage your PhD would be to transfer your studies to a university in Canada and complete your degree here instead as an international student.

Depending where you are from and how old you are, you could look into applying for a Working Holiday Visa / IEC once your studies are completed to come to Canada temporarily to work. This certainly won't guarantee PR. But it will give you an opportunity to obtain skilled work experience in Canada without needing to obtain an LMIA first.

 

[torsal]

Thank you, scylla! That's really helpful! I don't have enough work experience in any one skilled occupation. I've worked as a TA (20 hrs a week for 8 months total), a substitute teacher (for short stints), a translator (really difficult to estimate, but something like 18 months working anywhere between 0-40 hrs/week), and a paid internship at a museum (5 months, full time) and university administration (1 month, 10 hrs/week). These *total* to a year of full-time, but I don't think that's going to help my cause.

I'll look into Working Holidays. Other options might be to try to stay in the US and get some experience - perhaps with a company/organization that also has a branch in Canada, in hopes of a transfer.

Thank you again!