I am pleased to congratulate you on obtaining your PR. Finding work, on the other hand, won’t be as “easy” for you.
You see, in order to obtain your PR, you were required to fill out a few forms, make a small financial contribution, and then your prior work experience and education did the rest of the heavy lifting. You were granted permanent resident status thanks to the clear-cut procedures followed by the Canadian government (as well as some good fortune).
However, the government does not influence one’s ability to find employment. Their job was to secure favourable press coverage for you. They have finished their part. It is now up to you to persuade hiring managers at private companies to hire you rather than anyone else who has applied for the same job, including citizens and PR holders.
And in addition to that, there is one thing that long-term PR holders and experienced citizens have that you do not- experience
Canadian experience
Canadian network with a local focus
Despite this, it is not necessarily the case that you will be unable to find employment in Canada.
It merely indicates that you will need to exert an even greater amount of effort in your pursuit of employment.
Quite a few years ago, I was here at this location. I spent an entire year conducting research on how to conduct a job search utilising strategies that the vast majority of people do not follow.
I was aware that in order to triumph over these two challenges and triumph over my rival for that job, I would need to put in the necessary amount of work and effort to make it happen.
Guess what? it worked!
Even though I had no previous experience in Canada and no connections in the area, I was able to get a job offer within three weeks of landing in the country. The offer was from one of the largest telecommunications companies in Canada, and it paid forty percent more than I had anticipated earning in my first job.
It does sound simple, doesn’t it?
No, if you take into account the fact that I had to work at Starbucks for two hours every morning, from six to eight in the morning, for an entire year before I could move to Canada. This preliminary work made it appear to be simple.
But if you’ll allow me, I’ll make an effort to make things simpler for you and share what I’ve picked up along the way.
If you are reading this response, there are two possible classifications for you to fall into:
- You have a PR but are currently living outside of Canada while you wait to make the big move.
- You have recently arrived in Canada with your permanent resident card and are looking for your first job.
If you are currently residing in a country other than Canada. Do not bother submitting applications for jobs until you are one to two months away from the date you plan to land.
To pass the time until then, you can connect with Canadians working in your professional industry on LinkedIn, start online conversations with them, and update your LinkedIn profile details to include Canada.
Ensure that these are individuals who possess the power and authority to hire you in some capacity.
Not recruiters!
This is because People who are available to start working immediately are desirable to recruiters. On the other hand, those in charge of hiring are aware of the positions they will have available several months in advance.
Things to do
- Make sure you are on their radar, and maintain consistent communication with them.
- You should start applying for jobs when you have one to two months until the event.
- First things first, get a contact number in Canada that is virtual. Do a search on Google for services that offer these.
I recently assisted a recent immigrant to Canada with his job search by speaking with him about my experiences here. He claimed that as soon as he updated his contact information on his resume to include a local number, he began receiving phone calls.
what happens next?
After you have arrived at your destination, you will be able to get a real number and revise your resume. If you have recently arrived in the country and are looking for your first job, You will find the following advice regarding your job search to be helpful. In terms of my job search, they were without a doubt extremely helpful.
#1 Do not give the reader the impression that you are a foreigner in any way.
The phrase “Canadian PR Holder” appears on a significant number of the resumes I review. They claim to have international experience in a variety of countries all over the world, particularly in Asia and Africa.
The truth of the matter is that human resources professionals do not know or care about the specifics of your immigration history. They have no idea what the term “PR” even stands for.
When I was watching the news yesterday about how the PR renewal process is being delayed because of COVID, I was brought back to this topic. The reporter was actually explaining that “a PR card is a little plastic card that new immigrants use to prove their residency in Canada.” This prompted me to think about this topic once again. The fact that it had to be explained in such a manner struck me as rather amusing.
NOTE
You do not need to make your status as an immigrant so obvious to the person reading your resume, even though it may eventually become public knowledge that you are an immigrant.
And the international experience you gained while working in those countries won’t count for anything in the eyes of the hiring manager in Canada. I was fortunate enough to work in some of the most fascinating countries in Europe and Africa, but I quickly realised that such experiences would be completely meaningless to the people back home.
In this location, you will only interact with people who are from Canada. Experience gained in Canada is more valuable than experience gained elsewhere. Therefore, you should avoid focusing on it.
It’s possible that it gives you a sense of pride. But I quickly realised that the accomplishments in my work history that I was most pleased with did not amount to a hill of beans. This brings me to the second point I wanted to make.
#2 Eliminate some items from your application materials.
If you prioritise what the hiring manager is looking for first, it will make your job search a lot easier. This may come as a surprise to you, as you may be shocked to read that you need to take things away from your resume. However, I found that this is the case.
Pay attention to the requirements listed for the job that is currently being advertised. You just need to put in a little bit of effort and do some research to find out what the current job market in Canada requires from your position.
Make changes to your resume so that it focuses on the things that are being asked for and removes the things that aren’t being asked for.
I am aware that it will be a trying experience. However, if you prioritise what the employer is looking for rather than what you’ve done in the past, your job search will be much less difficult overall.
#3 Make direct contact with the hiring managers.
When applying for a job, you will likely encounter situations in which there is a “preferred candidate” for the role.
Those citizens and people who have had their PR for a long period of time that I mentioned earlier are your competitors.
You are going to fall behind the other candidates if, to the person in charge of hiring, you are nothing more than a piece of paper (your resume).
Making direct contact with the person in charge of hiring can tip the scales in your favour. If you do this, you will have a significantly higher possibility of being invited for an interview for the job.
Because of this one simple piece of advice, I was able to land three job offers within just three weeks of arriving in Canada.
You want to know how to get in touch with the hiring manager, don’t you?
- You can find their email address by searching Google.
- Conduct a search for them on LinkedIn using the appropriate filters.
- You can find their office address on Google Maps and then physically post your resume there (yes, I did this!).
- Engage your imaginative and investigative side.
#4. Make a recording of yourself responding to standard interview questions.
When I coach people who hold PRs on how to ace job interviews, the question “Tell me about yourself” is the one that trips them up the most frequently.
Yes!
They botch the very first question that is asked of them during the job interview.
And in most cases, it has something to do with the structure of the answer, but more than anything else, it has to do with the way that they answer.
I always record the response, then play it back to the person(s) concerned.
They are completely taken aback when they hear how they come across to me because of how they sound. “I really don’t come across as confident at all. Am I really going on and on this much?
The best thing you can do for yourself is to find a place where you can be alone and quiet, activate the recording app on your phone, and then respond to the question “Tell me about yourself.”
Make adjustments and give it some practise until you reach a point where the response is second nature to you and exactly how you want it to sound.
Recently, I was in need of someone to fill a role, and the person who ended up getting the job did exactly this.
How do I know? Because he conducted three rounds of interviews with various groups of people, and I participated in each and every one of those interviews. And each and every time he was questioned about it, he consistently responded in the same manner.
The employer decided to hire him. Easily.
#5 Tailor each of your cover letters to the job.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret that helps me write killer cover letters.
It’s called a T-Type cover letter for obvious reasons.
Insert a table with two columns into the body of your cover letter at a point that is roughly in the middle.
The heading for the column on the left is labelled “Your Requirements,” and the heading for the column on the right is labelled “My Qualifications.”
On the left, you should copy and paste the most important requirements from the job description; on the right, you should speak to those requirements very briefly.
*Poof* – an easily customizable cover letter that will blow the reader’s mind in the most positive way possible.
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