The Job Scene

Offer him coffee or food. Most probably he's hungry. 

On being asked: "How can someone help a struggling immigrant?"


That answer sums up the struggles of immigrants in Canada.

I will be very frank: for every immigrant that REALLY makes it big, nine do not. Well, it also depends on how we define success or making it big. That's the reason I had the word "Really" in upper case.

Job's the key here. I mean, a well paying job is the key in Canada. Well paying would generally be more than 4000 CAD (after taxes) per month or something like that.

To put things into perspective,

If you earn 75,000 CAD/year in Toronto, after taxes it is around 56,000 CAD.

56,000/12 = 4666 CAD.

How easy it is to get a well paying job in Canada? VERY HARD.

There are various reasons to it and due to a lot of myths, lies and overconfidence the reality, for a better word is hidden.

First things first: Canada is not US. Canada is largely a welfare state with abundance of natural resources which had helped it till the Alberta boom of the 2000s. Post-which Canada has changed dramatically, ably aided by globalization. Canada owes a lot to its proximity to the US. If you remove Canada from North America and put it next Sweden or Russia, you will understand what I am trying to say. In fact, had it not been for its proximity to the US, English would not be the most spoken language here. A lot of people, especially from the political field do not understand that Canada needs US, US does not need Canada.

So there are less white-collar jobs here as compared to US or UK. Hence the competition is just too tough. If you have transferable skills, things are pretty easy as an immigrant, else it all boils down to your strategy, networking and off course luck.

Transferable skills are Programming, Testing, oil & natural gas engineer, marine engineer etc.

Sales, management, PhDs, Accountancy etc. are not transferable skills.
Medicine and Teaching fall into a unique bracket of extra-ordinary skills but unemployable due to licensing issues.

Coming back to the job scene, Canada has always been unlucky to get second-strings of immigrants. The cream moves to the US and to a smaller extent UK. Being more or less a socialist state, coupled with a small population does not create that many opportunities.

The whole Canadian experience myth is crap. What does Canadian experience mean actually? If you have transferable skills, the Canadian experience barrier will not affect you, even if your command over the English language is strictly average.

The Canadian experience factor comes into picture only when you have non-transferable skills. But the comedy part is: how will working at 7-Eleven enhance my skills? The fact is: it does not add any value to your resume.

Y.C. Yamraaj

"I traveled the mountains and the seas in the hope of finding the eternal truth, conveniently forgetting that I saw into it everyday."

- Anonymous 

I live by this quote. Truth is YOU in the mirror.

Let me introduce myself. My name is, well, how does it matter? If it does, let me call myself Yamraaj.

Y.C. Yamraaj.
Ethically Indian. Mumbai. 
Business Analyst. 
Toronto.

Why did I start this blog?
To let everyone know that Truth has many different versions of it. I will let you know my version, I mean, my opinion.


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- Y.C.