Canadian Citizen with university degree from abroad

[groovebuster]

Hi,

I am just curious, because my wife (Canadian citizen by birth) and I (German) plan to move to Canada some time, I already heard that I will probably have a hard time to find a job as an immigrant. Bu how would it be for my wife?

She finished high school in Canada but studied in Germany (History and North American Studies) and got her Magister diploma here. She is working right now as a Quality Manager in a company here in Germany.

Will she run into the same problems as the average immigrant finding a job in Canada? Any experiences out there you could share?

Thanks in advance.

Chris

 

[clubcanada]

it's hard to tell. In general terms, it kind of depends on your profession. I'd say you as an immigrant might even get a job much quicker than your wife. having gained her degree from abroad and no work experience (yes, canadian experience also refers to Canadians), she most likely will get through the same trouble as you - unless she can leverage her network of friends and relatives. I met a lawyer from the GTA who gained her degree in the states and worked in Frankfurt/Main right after graduation. She had a hard time to find a job in Ontario due to lack of Canadian experience. Based on her experience she would have been better off if she'd at least attended college in Canada...

 

[groovebuster]

Yay... :

 

[mrbeachman]

Yes, she will.

Considering that most of Canadian degrees are useless in Canada, foreign degrees are beyond useless. This is just a cold hard fact.

 

[groovebuster]

Wow, what a great country Canada seems to be.

 

[NetMecca]

I do not agree with the negativity.

I think finding a job in Canada is not that hard. Having a foreign degree only provides challenges if the job requires a Canadian specific licensing, which can be overcome somewhat.

If your wife has status (citizen) in Canada, then there is also no reason why she cannot pursue a job in Canada over the phone to start with.

I did. Took some work, but it worked (even without having status).

Cheers...

 

[groovebuster]

Finally some positivity in here...

 

[clubcanada]

I think finding a job in Canada is not that hard.

I definitely would not sign on this one unless you mean some kind of 'survival job', which I wouldn't recommend the poster. It really depends on your profession and also region you're targeting. People from European/western countries tend to find employment a bit quicker due to cultural similarities compared to folks from Asian countries. But in most cases their expectation is much higher and the willingness to downgrading is by far lower. That's at least my observation.

 

[newtone]

Whether positive or negative facts are facts and facts are best experienced by yourself. Your best option will be to come here and experience it. There is no point sharing positive or negative experiences otherwise you'll have a preconceived notion of what its like here. If people say positive things your level of expectation of Canada will increase and once you are here and see thats not the case you'll be disappointed. If people say negative things and upon your arrival to Canada your experience is everything by negative you'll call them overqualified immigrants who are lazy, dont want to work, expect a lot from the system, expect a job served to them on a silver platter, anything less will make them bitter and angry.

So bottom line is "Just get on the plane and come here, experience will speak for itself". There is no replacement for real life experience by "YOURSELF"

 

[groovebuster]

So bottom line is "Just get on the plane and come here, experience will speak for itself". There is no replacement for real life experience by "YOURSELF"

I know Canada pretty well, since we are visiting family every year. (Family is huge over there, my wife is french-canadian and I have an uncle there as well.) I just never had to bother finding a job over there.

My uncle lives in Toronto since 40 years and was VP at CIBC. He knows our life situation in Germany pretty well too. After he learned about our plan to move to Canada, he had some serious talk to me that we should rethink our plan very thoroughly. He also told us why. It is just interesting that actually everything he told me about the problems immigrants are facing when coming to Canada was confirmed on different levels by people here in the forum, but also by other sources.

Maybe everything will be fine, when we are moving to Canada. Maybe. But after what I learned the last few weeks about the hard time that foreigners have on the Canadian job market, there is a certain probability that we are facing the same fate.

You need to understand, that we don't have any economical pressure to leave Germany. We are giving up a lot here actually. We also have two daughters we are responsible for. There is no we just sit in the plane and just try. The price could be way too high. Literally. If we do it, we need maximum certainty of what is going to happen. And it turns out that it will be way harder to find adequate work in Canada than expected.

And no, I couldn't know that before, because all people we know over there are well established (e.g. the family of my wife on both sides goes back to the first settlers in Canada and some First Nation) and therefore never had the same problems as immigrants. And also why would people tell me things like that, if we didn't have the plan to move to Canada before anyway? My uncle knew about the issues (as VP he was also responsible for many hirings), but also never had a reason to talk about it until he learned about our plan.

So we will probably try to find jobs before the move from Germany. No jobs -> no move. Otherwise we would risk too much.

Chris

 

[newtone]

You need to understand, that we don't have any economical pressure to leave Germany. We are giving up a lot here actually. We also have two daughters we are responsible for. There is no we just sit in the plane and just try. The price could be way too high. Literally. If we do it, we need maximum certainty of what is going to happen. And it turns out that it will be way harder to find adequate work in Canada than expected.


So we will probably try to find jobs before the move from Germany. No jobs -> no move. Otherwise we would risk too much.

I understand but thats a risk most immigrants take, as you mentioned since you dont have any economical pressure I think you are better off in Germany than moving to Canada.

 

[buliwyf]

Being a recent Canadian immigrant and having been able to travel to Germany before, I will say I like Germany better haha. Perhaps because I was just a tourist? I dunno but it seemed far more developed and people were more "relaxed."

 

[mrbeachman]

Why do you want to leave Germany? I have been in Canada 20 years, have a Canadian degree, know 2 languages (lived both in Montreal and Toronto). All I was ever able to get are menial jobs with my "Canadian" degree. Next time when you come to Canada just go to Shoppers Drugmart, McDonalds and other fine establishment and you will see for yourself how many native University educated Canadians work there.

I got so sick of Canada that I have moved to Thailand to have a better standard of living. Yes, I know this is hard to believe, but here they actually value education.

One more thing. My Thai girlfriend works for Siemens here in Bangkok. They are a very good company with a lot of integrity even in this Third World Country. Don't expect any Canadian employer to treat you as well as German employers do. In Canada getting ahead means having strong relationship with whoever the boss in the company is. Social skills are valued more than hard work. By social skills I mean how well you get along with top brass. In Montreal that meant sleeping around to get promoted. It is a little different in Toronto, but still.....

I am literally not joking about this. Be careful.

 

[corazon3]

Why do you want to leave Germany? I have been in Canada 20 years, have a Canadian degree, know 2 languages (lived both in Montreal and Toronto). All I was ever able to get are menial jobs with my "Canadian" degree. Next time when you come to Canada just go to Shoppers Drugmart, McDonalds and other fine establishment and you will see for yourself how many native University educated Canadians work there.

I got so sick of Canada that I have moved to Thailand to have a better standard of living. Yes, I know this is hard to believe, but here they actually value education.

One more thing. My Thai girlfriend works for Siemens here in Bangkok. They are a very good company with a lot of integrity even in this Third World Country. Don't expect any Canadian employer to treat you as well as German employers do. In Canada getting ahead means having strong relationship with whoever the boss in the company is. Social skills are valued more than hard work. By social skills I mean how well you get along with top brass. In Montreal that meant sleeping around to get promoted. It is a little different in Toronto, but still.....

I am literally not joking about this. Be careful.

+1. Nothing but truth. Posts like this are quickly deleted by moderators here, so quickly save it for yourself!

 

[Bargeld]

If you've ever browsed the post-landing sections of Canada, you'll find many negative comments because people move to Canada expecting it to be a utopia, and we live in an age of entitlement where people believe even if they have foreign experience and education they should be handed a job. No surprise once they've stupidly emptied their savings and expect to be granted success, they get pissed off and blame other people for their own short-sightedness.

The Canadian market is very competitive. As an American with an American business degree with accounting minor I found it tough at first until I moved into a market that more valued my experience and education -- Calgary (and Alberta in general) has the oil/gas industry which is great for making a huge amount of money in almost every major field.

On the other hand, if you're from Germany, I don't see a reason to move. For far different reasons than the negative nancy's here. Many European countries (especially in the north/central) have a strong sense of identity and culture, and are more into spending money on friends/people and not on "things" -- some of us actually like going out and spending time socializing outside instead of being locked in a castle all year around. While it's a rising problem in Europe, it's not nearly as bad with these entitled minorities bringing their Middle Eastern (or MENA) and South Asian gutter culture expecting the west to give them things for immigrating. (a reason I would never move to the UK where gutter cultures have far more freedoms and an exaggerated sense of entitlement along with excessively liberal views allowing that kind of attitude to propagate)