Cana­dian Flag on Par­lia­ment Hill

Wel­come to the “How To… Find A Job In Canada” series!

Say­ing that last year wasn’t great eco­nom­i­cally speak­ing is an under­state­ment. Pretty much all coun­tries world­wide suf­fered from the global eco­nomic down­turn and Canada was no excep­tion. Yet, a lot of peo­ple are still con­sid­er­ing mov­ing to Canada, while oth­ers are already in the process and are prob­a­bly wor­ried about whether they will get a job at all.

There is no easy answer when it comes to employ­ment. You know the story… a bit of patience, a bit of skills, a bit of luck.

I’m not a job coun­selor, and I’m not an expert. But I do know how it works in Canada and I’m hop­ing to pass along some infor­ma­tions that may not be obvi­ous to every­one. A post will be pub­lished every Sat­ur­day… enjoy!

There are usu­ally three ways to look for a job: going through a staffing agency, check­ing out ads or tap­ping into the “invis­i­ble job mar­ket”.

Staffing Agen­cies

Staffing agen­cies, also known as employ­ment agen­cies or place­ment agen­cies are plen­ti­ful. They aim to match employ­ers and job seek­ers in the job mar­ket.

Job seek­ers do not have to pay for these agen­cies’ ser­vices: the employ­ers pay the fees. Most agen­cies require you to reg­is­ter online (all the biggest ones have a web­site) and sub­mit your resume. You will then be called for an appoint­ment: bring another copy of your resume and ref­er­ences, and han­dle the meet­ing the same way you would han­dle any job inter­view.

Staffing agen­cies typ­i­cally test can­di­dates on-site. Your com­puter skills, lan­guage skills etc. will likely be assessed: this could take a few hours. Then, you may be con­tacted for var­i­ous job oppor­tu­ni­ties, rang­ing from very short term con­tract to per­ma­nent posi­tions.

Staffing agen­cies can be a great way for new­com­ers to solve the “Cana­dian expe­ri­ence catch 22″. A lot of employ­ers will pre­fer can­di­dates who already have work expe­ri­ence in Canada, but to gain expe­ri­ence in Canada, you have to start some­where. Agen­cies are used to deal with new­com­ers and as long as you have the skills, they will usu­ally be less picky about your lack of Cana­dian ref­er­ences or expe­ri­ence.

Note that agen­cies usu­ally spe­cial­ize in a cer­tain field: con­struc­tion, admin­is­tra­tive sup­port, bank­ing, IT etc. Select the ones rel­e­vant to your work field.

Use­ful links:

• Find employ­ment agen­cies through­out Canada
• Cana­dian net­work of job agencies

Cana­dian Job Web­sites

Each province, even some­times each city had var­i­ous web­sites with many job ads. Job Bank is prob­a­bly the biggest ones, with thou­sands of ads from the pri­vate sec­tor. You can find a pretty com­pre­hen­sive list of rel­e­vant web­sites by province and by field on the British Expats Wiki.

Jobs in the fed­eral gov­ern­ment are adver­tised on the Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­mis­sion of Canada. You need to cre­ate a pro­file and apply for posi­tions from your pro­file. Be aware that the recruit­ment process for posi­tions in the pub­lic sec­tor is noto­ri­ously long (usu­ally months!) and that it is extremely dif­fi­cult to get a job if you are not a Cana­dian cit­i­zen.

Local news­pa­pers are also a great way to find job oppor­tu­ni­ties. A long list of ads is usu­ally pub­lished on Sat­ur­days and job offers are very cur­rent.

Tap­ping into the invis­i­ble job mar­ket

It is often said that at least 50% of posi­tions are never adver­tised: this is the famous “invis­i­ble job mar­ket”, and prob­a­bly new­com­ers’ biggest chal­lenge.

Indeed, a lot of com­pa­nies don’t adver­tise vacant posi­tions: either they hope to fill them from within, either they are hir­ing from a spe­cific net­work. This is one of the rea­sons why net­work­ing is so impor­tant in North Amer­ica!

It is always good to send a few resumes and cover let­ters to com­pa­nies you are dream­ing to work for. A lot of them will keep your resume for a while and will let you know if a posi­tions match­ing your skills is avail­able. I often joke that in Ottawa, half of the peo­ple are in “pools”, wait­ing for dream jobs, usu­ally at the fed­eral gov­ern­ment!

It’s a good idea to carry busi­ness cards with you and to give them when­ever you get the chance. Don’t be shy to talk about your skills and what you are hop­ing to do: I got quite a few oppor­tu­ni­ties this way. And don’t for­get net­work­ing is a two-ways street: it’s not about using peo­ple but rather help­ing each other.

Related posts:

1. How To Find A Job In Canada (7÷10)
2. 5 Cana­dian Work Cul­ture Tips (9÷10)
3. Canada’s Hir­ing Cul­ture (5÷10)
4. 3 Poten­tial Career Chal­lenges (8÷10)
5. Devel­op­ing Inter­view Skills (6÷10)