WHERE TO SEARCH FOR LEGAL SUPPORT JOBS IN CANADA?

[david1697]

Our family was granted PR status and had landed in Canada. We all have PR status in Canada.

We are currently living in US and have a limited period of time left before we can enter Canada without breach of RO.

As of this moment , as I type this post, we are still trying to find a job and move to Canada.


But we already realize that we may not be able to move there at all,and will loose our PR status in Canada, due to lack of opportunities for us in current Canadian job market.

My spouse and myself are looking for jobs in our respective fields.

My spouse has much more impressive resume than mine, and so far she had absolutely no luck in getting any response whatsoever from Canadian employers she applied to.

As to myself, I was luckier and met some great people who were genuinely willing to help me find a job, but with my background in Legal Support the prospects I was offered could not materialize.


So, I want to ask all the board members who may visit this thread and read my post:

Are there any Legal Support positions in Canada I can apply for with meaningful chances to be employed? If so, what part of Canada I should gear my searches towards?

In addition to 4 year college education I have Paralegal Certificate (graduated with honors, 3.75 program GPA) and I have experience working for law firm and financial service industry in the US. Please NOTE that Paralegal profession in the US is not a Regulated field (as it is in Ontario) and I do not have what you would consider an equivalent of the Paralegal license in Canada.

My main area of interest is an Immigration Law, so I would most of all desire to work for an Immigration law Firm.
I could also be happy to work for wide area of Civil and Criminal defense law.

Is there anyone you know who recently landed as Canadian PR', and who had successfully searched and found a legal support job in Canada?

Is there any place/province/cities I should look for when searching for legal support jobs?

My general idea is to stay away from places like Toronto, ON and other big hubs/cities that attract overwhelming majority of immigrants and desperate job seekers,. Where I live in US now it's a total disaster , with lots of highly educated and overqualified people hired to do jobs that would normally require high school degree or even less. I believe it's due to extremely high concentration of overqualified and educated population pouring here in search of jobs.
If I don't move to Canada soon, I know we will be moving out of this area to other parts of US, with better job market ,and I certainly wouldn't want to move to a similar area in Canada (as far as job market competition is concerned).

At the same time, I can't go to just any place and look for a job in a legal field, for understandable reasons. I realize that I might be limited to certain areas of the country with higher concentration of law firms or legal support jobs to have any chances of finding a position in the field I am interested in.

What would you recommend , short of just moving up and then starting a search for a job from the scratch or altogether giving up any hopes of finding a job in Canada and never going to Canada?


Thanks!

 

[FSW_Applicant]

David. I'm guessing that you have already exhausted your search online and hence have reached out to this forum for leads. Have you tried getting in touch with the parent company of this forum, or some competitors offering immigration legal services yet?

I'm not an expert in your field but have you tried to explore beyond the obvious? Legal firms offer legal services, and I understand that you would want to be a part of their practice. But a lot of other companies also have similar practices in their organisations - Banks, large IT firms etc. If you have to offer 'legal support' skills, can you apply in some of the leading banks in Canada?

As I mentioned earlier, I am not an expert in your field, but sometimes, as subject matter experts, we fail to see beyond the obvious and hence my 2 cents.

Good luck in your search!

 

[david1697]

Thank you for your suggestions FSW Applicant.

I am searching everywhere, not just online or on this forum. So far we had literally zero response form all the employers we have applied to.
To have greater chances of overcoming competition I decided to focus specifically in the area where I have strong skills (Legal Support) and where I can apply those skills right away , without much training.

It's not a matter of me being open to explore other opportunities, as a matter of fact someone from this forum reached out to me in person and even helped me to have informational interview with one of the hiring managers in one of the leading commercial industries in Canada. But, once we met it became clear that they had no position to match my skills.
So, it was an unproductive expenditure of time, for both parties, something I would prefer to avoid. Therefore I decided that I would like to concentrate my search in the field I am strongest and most skillful in.

On a side note, I am starting to think that FSW program is a program that is not sufficiently well thought out and, as a result, it brings in a huge number of immigrants into Canada with no prospect of meaningful employment.
We love Canada, we think it's a great country, unfortunately it's economy is struggling lately and doesn't have much to offer for many of newly landed Permanent Residents. They should be cutting the intake and not waste the processing fees of aspiring immigrants, instead we see increasing numbers of immigrants brought into Canada. Note: I am an Immigrant myself, I don't speak from restrictionist or anti-immigrant point of view, I am just trying to be rational. How are all these new immigrants going to assimilate and find means to live in Canada if there are such scarcity of jobs that hundreds of people apply for each vacant position ? How one will compete in a job market where receptionists are required to have Bachelors' of Science degrees and doctors are driving taxis? May be I am missing something, but given current economy , such an large influx of immigrants and such scarcity of jobs, I wonder if we are practically employable as PR's.

And back to my question in OP:
Are there any Legal Support positions in Canada I can apply for with meaningful chances to be employed? If so, what part of Canada I should gear my searches towards?

 

[scylla]

The only advice I can offer is if you are looking to work in a legal support position (especially if you're looking to work in immigration), you should in fact be aiming for the larger cities (Toronto, Vacouver, Montreal, Calgary, etc.) since this is where you'll find the greatest number of legal firms (per capital) and also a concentration of immigrants. Otherwise this unfortunately isn't my field and I can't offer any real help.

You did mention experience in financial services. If you're looking to continue in this field - Toronto would be your best target once again as the big five are headquartered here.

 

[Jkal]

Have you thought about moving to Canada first and then search a job.
IMHO, there could be 2 things blocking your way to your goal:-
1) you are searching for a job in Canada from outside.
2) You don't have the license of the regulated profession.

I have no idea of your field but i still want to help.

How about catching some job agencies??

 

[FSW_Applicant]

All great points David.

but right now, we have two options.
1. Brood over the flawed immigration system and wonder why so many immigrants land and are not able to find a job OR
2. Help you find a job

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am not aware of the many things that you would undertake as a 'legal support' professional, but if the following job description interests you, I can direct you to the company that is hiring for the position. I do not work in HR and am not a recruiter, but depending on your job keywords, I might be able to find you some roles to apply for in a large FI. Please PM me for more details.

JD:
Directs a team of legal support personnel in the accomplishment of office and department goals.
Monitors, measures and provides feedback on individual and team objectives, increases the effectiveness of the department and improves individual performance of team members through training, coaching, development and motivation.
Conducts performance appraisals for assigned personnel; identifies performance problems and counsels employees to achieve maximum improvement.
Coordinates technical and procedural training for support personnel and procedural training for timekeepers (lawyers, law clerks, articling students).
Assists Legal Office Manager to develop and document office and department procedures and learning aides.

 

[david1697]

The only advice I can offer is if you are looking to work in a legal support position (especially if you're looking to work in immigration), you should in fact be aiming for the larger cities (Toronto, Vacouver, Montreal, Calgary, etc.) since this is where you'll find the greatest number of legal firms (per capital) and also a concentration of immigrants. Otherwise this unfortunately isn't my field and I can't offer any real help.

You did mention experience in financial services. If you're looking to continue in this field - Toronto would be your best target once again as the big five are headquartered here.

Thanks scylla.
I agree, considering the field and concentration of law firms in larger cities you mentioned I may not have much of a choice where to look for the job openings.

 

[david1697]

All great points David.

but right now, we have two options.
1. Brood over the flawed immigration system and wonder why so many immigrants land and are not able to find a job OR
2. Help you find a job

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am not aware of the many things that you would undertake as a 'legal support' professional, but if the following job description interests you, I can direct you to the company that is hiring for the position. I do not work in HR and am not a recruiter, but depending on your job keywords, I might be able to find you some roles to apply for in a large FI. Please PM me for more details.

JD:
Directs a team of legal support personnel in the accomplishment of office and department goals.
Monitors, measures and provides feedback on individual and team objectives, increases the effectiveness of the department and improves individual performance of team members through training, coaching, development and motivation.
Conducts performance appraisals for assigned personnel; identifies performance problems and counsels employees to achieve maximum improvement.
Coordinates technical and procedural training for support personnel and procedural training for timekeepers (lawyers, law clerks, articling students).
Assists Legal Office Manager to develop and document office and department procedures and learning aides.

Thanks FSW Applicant. I will PM you.

 

[david1697]

This is the kind of canned response that many of you who applied for jobs online are probably familiar with:

It starts with something like "Due to the large volume of interest..................." and ends with "We will let you know if....." , and "do not reply to this email".

It basically means "We have too many desperate job seekers so we can't even take a look at majority of resumes we receive. Don't bother us again."

I wonder if I search for the jobs in right places? Or is it just because jobs are too scarce and disproportionately high number of desperate job seekers are running all over like a squirrel in a wheel?

I use indeed.ca and Canadian job bank for overwhelming majority of the job searches. Day doesn't go by without me searching and finding 4-5 jobs I apply for.
At best I get the canned response like one described above , and NEVER any follow up (expect for occasional "You were not the successful candidate" or "we selected a candidate for this position already" type of 'courtesy follow ups').

 

[david1697]

bump

 

[scylla]

Two pieces of advice:

1. Apply for jobs directly through company career web sites rather than third party sites. Yes - this is more work.
2. Make sure it's clear in your resume that you are a PR. People may think you are a foreign worker based on your address. Not enough to include this in your cover letter - those don't always get read. I would put this right at the top of your resume somewhere, e.g. "Experienced Canadian permanent resident temporarily located in the US seeking a permanent relocation back to Canada."

 

[FSW_Applicant]

Great point!

... "Experienced Canadian permanent resident temporarily located in the US seeking a permanent relocation back to Canada."

 

[david1697]

Thanks scylla for a great suggestion (2) .

I will note though that while my resume had my US address (clearly my mistake), my spouse always submitted hers with our Toronto, ON mailing address, and included a cover letter explaining she is currently (temporarily) residing in US and would need 2 weeks notice before leaving her current position if offered a job. Still, zero responses...
I will follow your advise and specifically note on top of my CV that I am a Canadian PR looking to permanently relocate back to Canada.

Re: (1) I always try to apply directly with hiring companies, through their own website. Sometimes it's impossible, since they don't provide the details/links on a page that lists the job, but I apply directly whenever I can.

 

[david1697]

Submitted 216 resumes in the past week. Lately typing Canadian mailing address on top of my resume and add the line "Permanently relocating back to Canada".
Let's see what happens, will update on board of any progress.

FSW, got your PM. Will do. Thanks!

 

[david1697]

UPDATE: Still no replies on any of the resumes submitted :-[

Question: Are there any representatives of Canadian firms in US or any Canadians in US I could approach in an informal atmosphere? Do Canadians in US have any website where they gather, post jobs or ads?

I am not going to give up until 3 year anniversary of Landing in Canada ,at which time I will consider our R lost and will stop any further attempts to find a job in Canada, but I am nearly certain now that there are neither jobs awaiting us in Canada, nor any prospects that we will find any anytime before validity of our PR status had expired.