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Papa Bomboy said:
@ David and Handsup,

I can't say 'don't come' but its just bad times at the moment. Lots of uncertainties in the economy at the moment (falling canadian dollar and oil prices). I wish you here before 2008. It was way easier than now. Even people at work are discussing potential layoffs if the price of oil keeps falling, especially for those of us in Alberta.

Its not just Immigrants, even among Canadians (some still have to network) it is not easy to get a job, although they stand a better chance than an Immigrant.

You can move but make sure your financial game is strong. Understand you can easily be sitting at home for 6 months to a year depending on where you are. So be ready to take care of yourself if there is no Job. And your first opportunity might not necessarily be something in your field so don't turn it down. Its a foot by the door.

Prepare for the worst but hope for the best type of deal.

Thank you so much for the good words. I worst case if I do not find job of my field for say a year max, wont it be bad impact on my cv on being one year away from job?
 
Just how bad things are over there, I wonder?
We have very slow economy in US, wages are stagnating or declining, many part time jobs in service industry replace full time and well paying jobs, and it takes about two or three months to land any job after an intensive seach (though, if you are lucky, you can land a job much sooner). Admittedly, it's very tough, it's not like it used to be, but if we send out our resumes we DO get call backs and we DO get interviews. We can't pick and choose the job like many people could in 90's, we have to put up with a lot more stress at work, but we are employed full time. And , despite this "networK" hype rapidly spreading throughout the US (just as it does everywhere else), we were able to find and land our jobs through internet. It was terrible to send 10's of resumes into a "Black Hole", but at least there was some traction whenever we tried.
I wonder how much more difficult it is to find a job in Canada than it is in the US?
Everything we have sent so far didn't yield any results for us. And we are about to start it all over, this time expanding to Ottawa, ON and Alberta job markets.
 
P.S. By job I mean professional job. Not menial/survival jobs.
 
You are likely to start your professional life in one of those rural provinces where competition is not high. I spent almost two years on survival jobs in Montreal and eventually had to sacrifice my life style and apply for jobs in the North. I got a professional job and moved away. However, I am nowhere close to being happy. The place where I live looks like a giant farm. It is -29C and I cannot go anywhere on weekends because of insufficient public transit. Dining facilities are limited to american junk food. Cultural events are limited to cowboy festivals and aboriginal dance. When I finish work, I get home, close shades (now I do not even need to close them as it gets dark at 3 pm) and try to forget that I am where I am.
Most immigrants have a huge dilemma - stay in prime locations like Montreal/Toronto/Vancouver on menial jobs or move to rural areas on professional jobs (and these are more and more rare). None of these makes one happy.

david1697 said:
P.S. By job I mean professional job. Not menial/survival jobs.
 
handsup said:
Thank you so much for the good words. I worst case if I do not find job of my field for say a year max, wont it be bad impact on my cv on being one year away from job?

To be honest HandsUP , I don't think you will ever get that crystal perfect piece of advise you are looking for. I can only give you my best opinion based on my experience. So am far from a professional.

I remember when a lot of us started in 2004, there were no forums we could easily discuss our problems and to have this forum is a blessing.

I remember we used to be scared to hell about making mistakes, so I kinda understand where you are coming from. The only way most of us did it, was to press on and hope for the best.

So HandsUp, If you get an interview after a year of being out of your field, kindly explain your situation to your potential employer. Tell them there were no companies willingly to take you in so you had to press on instead of sitting Idle. That's how I would handle that scenario.

It might not be the response you were expecting. But that't my opinion. Press On.
 
Re: "Pressing On", I believe at certain age and time of your life it's more acceptable than at others.
I can guarantee that if we were 20 some old now, we would not think twice and would just go and look for an adventure.
When you are single or when you just met someone and you are both young, with no children, no responsibilities at all, the world seems to be one big adventure and it's easy to try and fail. After all, you are still very young, full of overwhelming energy and boundless optimism, and you have no kids that depend on you. It's a bit different when you are mature, adult person with growing kids of your own.
You don't feel like you want to run a marathon for the fun and excitement of it. If you will put some great effort you want to have probabilities in your side, so you don't feel like a complete looser if you don't make it. And , most importantly, you don't want to uproot your children and endanger their life (yes, if we failed to establish ourselves and squandered our savings we would end up homeless on the street, and that would be putting the lives of our children at great risk). You no longer can afford to be reckless and irresponsible.
You still have a courage,but it is not one to be confused with foolishness.
That's how we feel.

If it was up to me personally, I would at this time stay here in US. I like Canada a lot, but US is where my home is now.
I like the fact that we have rights here. I can say anything I want to anyone I want at any time I want, and it includes any figure of authority, no matter how high up he or she is. My rights and freedoms are protected in this country to an extent that I don't believe any other country in the world can match.

But I am a big fan of civility and courtesy, and I think I would feel better or cosier in Canada which seems to be a country of gentler people. I am OK in US environment where you have to constantly struggle and show how tough you are, but deep inside I would much prefer to have it gentle way, with more harmony inside and less strife outside. I feel US is somewhat teenagish in certain ways and you reach a point in your life when you grow out of your teens. How would it feel if others didn't? Also, I am not a huge fan of uber high dynamics. I am a guy who generally likes to relax, even hybernate while contemplating a lot over something, not kind of a guy who wants to run around non stop, jump up and down and make impulsive decisions on the go.
So, there are reasons why I liked it in Canada.
However, on the balance of scales, I think if it was up to me I would stay.

My wife, however, thinks difefrently, and she has valid points too. She really wants to move to Canada and feels genuinely sad at a thought that we may blow it and loose the LPR we tried so hard to qualify for.

At this point, it feels like if we get professional job offers before we hit the deadline we will accept and move. If not, then risk will be just too high to rationally accept. And we will be forced to give up. We will see.
Whatever will be let it be.

I will take time off from this board and go work on job searching and doing what some of the posters here advised us to so.
If anything works out I will return and update everyone.

This is a great discussion board. Very helpful and productive. Glad that I came here to ask your advise.

Wishing the very best to all of you!
 
Papa Bomboy said:
To be honest HandsUP , I don't think you will ever get that crystal perfect piece of advise you are looking for. I can only give you my best opinion based on my experience. So am far from a professional.

I remember when a lot of us started in 2004, there were no forums we could easily discuss our problems and to have this forum is a blessing.

I remember we used to be scared to hell about making mistakes, so I kinda understand where you are coming from. The only way most of us did it, was to press on and hope for the best.

So HandsUp, If you get an interview after a year of being out of your field, kindly explain your situation to your potential employer. Tell them there were no companies willingly to take you in so you had to press on instead of sitting Idle. That's how I would handle that scenario.

It might not be the response you were expecting. But that't my opinion. Press On.

You know what I like in your post? You do not give false hopes and show The Clear picture of the situation. On is the positivity of your nature and personality and I like such people so much who have positive energies but are realistic too. By your experience and the CA job market trend I am now very much prepared for the real time scenario and have clear pic in my mind.
Yes this forum is a blessing, my brother in law who got PR in late 90's and you can imagine the issues he might had faced, no internet no forum nothing like the facilities we now have, he had.
As I am IT professional so I have advantage to work online, so oDesk will be a blessing for me and I recommend all ho may work online to start doing it rather waiting and wasting time by sitting idle.
Thank you so much again and keep in touch :)
 
handsup said:
You know what I like in your post? You do not give false hopes and show The Clear picture of the situation. On is the positivity of your nature and personality and I like such people so much who have positive energies but are realistic too. By your experience and the CA job market trend I am now very much prepared for the real time scenario and have clear pic in my mind.
Yes this forum is a blessing, my brother in law who got PR in late 90's and you can imagine the issues he might had faced, no internet no forum nothing like the facilities we now have, he had.
As I am IT professional so I have advantage to work online, so oDesk will be a blessing for me and I recommend all ho may work online to start doing it rather waiting and wasting time by sitting idle.
Thank you so much again and keep in touch :)

Thanks Handsup,
Longtime, I haven't heard from you. Hope you are holding on tight.
 
Papa Bomboy said:
Thanks Handsup,
Longtime, I haven't heard from you. Hope you are holding on tight.

Still trying :(
You tell whats up