Today I thought Ill write something about settling in Canada. Like many other immigrants I landed along with my family in Toronto on a sunny evening (yes evenings are sunny during long summers days) in May2012. My plan was a short stay of 3 weeks during which I had a list of things to complete. We stayed at a very close relatives house during this time and we are so thankful for their support during this initial days.
In the first couple of days it was so exciting, why not? We had long dreamed to come here and we were here finally. As the excitement of the first days started fading with the realities I started getting into action. I had come here with a plan, a target to complete certain things before we exit in 3 weeks time.
The things completed were...
-Applying for SIN cards
-Got a G-1 driving license
-Me and my wife both appeared for a CLB test and got a high scores ( this test is free for new immigrants, can be taken at YMCA.
-Activation of bank account
-The most important thing I achieved was getting registered for 4-week full time bridging program( IWES) for new immigrants. A pre-requisite of this program was CLB with a high score. It was good in a way that I got a chance to experience my first interview in Canada for admission into this program. Once confirmed I deferred it for six months as I had no plans to stay beyond three weeks.
-Took an appointment and visited a few recruiters who gave me a first cut feedback on my resume - I consider this to be very critical, as a new immigrant we don't know very well how to prepared our resumes are to focus on job market in Canada. Usually when you sit with a recruiter who will go through your resume and ask you a small questions about your skills and previous experience to build his understanding on how to project you with the employers. S/he may also suggest you to make changes to your resume. If they don't, never hesitate to politely ask them if they think that you should be making some changes to your resume? They will be happy to give you suggestions. And if they say to make changes and email it back to them, always make sure to thank them for their time and suggestions/feedback and send them back within agreed time which can be EOD, next day etc...
-I would suggest to visit YMCA as they have lots of information which can help us, just browsing through their shelf of brochures and picking up a few and giving random calls to a few recruiters to book appointment will help a lot.. These initial steps are small but will help you focus and those little interactions will boost your confidence by helping you with your communication skills.
-My wife being a dentist we made sure to book an appointment to visited HealthForce Ontario to get more details about her dental licensing process. Although we had gathered tons of information about it even before coming but it doesn't bother to always have a one-to-one interaction.
-Apart from above we had an exiting time visit Niagara Falls, CN Tower, lake shore and lots of places in Toronto
It was end of three weeks and I would say it was very satisfying for me to have completed all them we had planned during this short visit.
Contd...
Posted on 6 April'2014
I returned back to India as I was still working with a MNC so didn't wanted to be in a haste to quit, now that I had some experience of being in Canada and meeting people I wanted to carry it forward and started applying for jobs while I was in India. I applied for a lot of jobs and got many responses but as I mentioned that I was not in Canada so obviously and as expected I was out of the race. Later At the end of October I returned back alone seeing that the response was good and it was worth taking a risk by quitting my job.
In my first week after returning and starting from where I left I passed G-2 driving license road test and followed it up by joining the IWES bridging program where I was already accepted during my previous visit. To give a background about IWES program, it supports new immigrants by providing them first hand information about Canada. Topics such as Canadian work culture and a range of activities such as resume workshops, mock up interviews, encouraging participants to do presentations on different topics are covered. Successful immigrants are invited to share their success stories and practices they followed which was quite interesting, during one such interaction an HR executive from an organization was invited to provide information about Canadian labor laws and hiring process which was another interesting aspect of this program. As it was a full day program it gives a first hand opportunity of interacting with different people which is very helpful as we can share our experiences with each other and learn from others too. One activity which was outstanding I thought was mock up panel interviews which were video recorded and shared with the candidates. It gave a very good insight on our ability to project ourselves during an interview.
A key thing to learn about the interviews is to always keep in mind S.T.A.R - Situation, Task, Action, Result. Recall your previous successes stories at work and write your own small stories based on STAR. It will help you during interviews. Interviewers love it when you narrate your story against a question based on STAR. I would say write it as it will remain with you and will always help you to quickly go through it before an interview call.
Here, I must also add that some people with whom I discussed about this program gave a discouraging view saying things like "those programs are only a waste of time" or "it is just a way of showing that you are not left alone after arriving in Canada and it doesn't help at all". Listening to such views was quite disheartening but if you stay focused on your goals such talk should never bothers you, it didn't bother me at least as I knew I have to keep my eyes wide open and secondly learning anything new is never a waste of time.
More to come.... 8)
In the first couple of days it was so exciting, why not? We had long dreamed to come here and we were here finally. As the excitement of the first days started fading with the realities I started getting into action. I had come here with a plan, a target to complete certain things before we exit in 3 weeks time.
The things completed were...
-Applying for SIN cards
-Got a G-1 driving license
-Me and my wife both appeared for a CLB test and got a high scores ( this test is free for new immigrants, can be taken at YMCA.
-Activation of bank account
-The most important thing I achieved was getting registered for 4-week full time bridging program( IWES) for new immigrants. A pre-requisite of this program was CLB with a high score. It was good in a way that I got a chance to experience my first interview in Canada for admission into this program. Once confirmed I deferred it for six months as I had no plans to stay beyond three weeks.
-Took an appointment and visited a few recruiters who gave me a first cut feedback on my resume - I consider this to be very critical, as a new immigrant we don't know very well how to prepared our resumes are to focus on job market in Canada. Usually when you sit with a recruiter who will go through your resume and ask you a small questions about your skills and previous experience to build his understanding on how to project you with the employers. S/he may also suggest you to make changes to your resume. If they don't, never hesitate to politely ask them if they think that you should be making some changes to your resume? They will be happy to give you suggestions. And if they say to make changes and email it back to them, always make sure to thank them for their time and suggestions/feedback and send them back within agreed time which can be EOD, next day etc...
-I would suggest to visit YMCA as they have lots of information which can help us, just browsing through their shelf of brochures and picking up a few and giving random calls to a few recruiters to book appointment will help a lot.. These initial steps are small but will help you focus and those little interactions will boost your confidence by helping you with your communication skills.
-My wife being a dentist we made sure to book an appointment to visited HealthForce Ontario to get more details about her dental licensing process. Although we had gathered tons of information about it even before coming but it doesn't bother to always have a one-to-one interaction.
-Apart from above we had an exiting time visit Niagara Falls, CN Tower, lake shore and lots of places in Toronto
It was end of three weeks and I would say it was very satisfying for me to have completed all them we had planned during this short visit.
Contd...
Posted on 6 April'2014
I returned back to India as I was still working with a MNC so didn't wanted to be in a haste to quit, now that I had some experience of being in Canada and meeting people I wanted to carry it forward and started applying for jobs while I was in India. I applied for a lot of jobs and got many responses but as I mentioned that I was not in Canada so obviously and as expected I was out of the race. Later At the end of October I returned back alone seeing that the response was good and it was worth taking a risk by quitting my job.
In my first week after returning and starting from where I left I passed G-2 driving license road test and followed it up by joining the IWES bridging program where I was already accepted during my previous visit. To give a background about IWES program, it supports new immigrants by providing them first hand information about Canada. Topics such as Canadian work culture and a range of activities such as resume workshops, mock up interviews, encouraging participants to do presentations on different topics are covered. Successful immigrants are invited to share their success stories and practices they followed which was quite interesting, during one such interaction an HR executive from an organization was invited to provide information about Canadian labor laws and hiring process which was another interesting aspect of this program. As it was a full day program it gives a first hand opportunity of interacting with different people which is very helpful as we can share our experiences with each other and learn from others too. One activity which was outstanding I thought was mock up panel interviews which were video recorded and shared with the candidates. It gave a very good insight on our ability to project ourselves during an interview.
A key thing to learn about the interviews is to always keep in mind S.T.A.R - Situation, Task, Action, Result. Recall your previous successes stories at work and write your own small stories based on STAR. It will help you during interviews. Interviewers love it when you narrate your story against a question based on STAR. I would say write it as it will remain with you and will always help you to quickly go through it before an interview call.
Here, I must also add that some people with whom I discussed about this program gave a discouraging view saying things like "those programs are only a waste of time" or "it is just a way of showing that you are not left alone after arriving in Canada and it doesn't help at all". Listening to such views was quite disheartening but if you stay focused on your goals such talk should never bothers you, it didn't bother me at least as I knew I have to keep my eyes wide open and secondly learning anything new is never a waste of time.
More to come.... 8)
