Internationally Trained Accountant Moving to Canada!

[fazeel5306]

Hi There,

I am a Canadian Citizen residing and working in Fiji. I am planning to move to Canada early next year (2019). I have obtained a bachelors degree in Accounting from Central Queensland University (CQU), Australia and have gained 3 years experience as an Accountant and Senior Finance officer role.

I would like to know the processes of getting a job in the accountant or finance field once or before I move to Canada. Any information will be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[canuck78]

It will be very hard to find a job while not in Canada. Accounting jobs or jobs in the finance field are very competitive. Are you a licensed CA? CFA would be even better. Getting a senior role with only 3 years experience is not typical for Canadian finance or accounting positions. I would start reaching out to any contacts you may have in the industry or try to make contacts and network. If you were planning on settling in Canada why did you not study in Canada? The transition to Canadian employment would be much easier with a Canadian degree.

 

[Naheulbeuck]

Hi There,

I am a Canadian Citizen residing and working in Fiji. I am planning to move to Canada early next year (2019). I have obtained a bachelors degree in Accounting from Central Queensland University (CQU), Australia and have gained 3 years experience as an Accountant and Senior Finance officer role.

I would like to know the processes of getting a job in the accountant or finance field once or before I move to Canada. Any information will be appreciated.

Thank you.

The equivalency is quite strong between Australia and Canada in accounting. If you had gotten your CPA Australia, it would be recognized here. Your experience and degree should be recognized without much difficulty, the problem you will encounter is more the fact that you seem to be in that mid range which means that you have experience and would probably not look for an entry level position in a bigger company (which would know that the accounting system is comparable) and smaller companies may not consider you because they are not familiar and like Canuck said above they have other candidates with similar profiles (or even less interesting profiles) that they are more familiar with and won't take any risk.

Again, it will also depend on your experience (if global company that will help, if one of the big four, it will be recognized without any issue).

 

[BC4life]

The equivalency is quite strong between Australia and Canada in accounting. If you had gotten your CPA Australia, it would be recognized here. Your experience and degree should be recognized without much difficulty, the problem you will encounter is more the fact that you seem to be in that mid range which means that you have experience and would probably not look for an entry level position in a bigger company (which would know that the accounting system is comparable) and smaller companies may not consider you because they are not familiar and like Canuck said above they have other candidates with similar profiles (or even less interesting profiles) that they are more familiar with and won't take any risk.

Again, it will also depend on your experience (if global company that will help, if one of the big four, it will be recognized without any issue).

Agreed. I am a CPA Australia designated accountant and was able to obtain the CPA, CGA qualifications in Canada without any exam, other than taking a CPA Ontario tax and law course. So if you have any option to obtain this designation this would be something you should get started on while preparing to move here.