Linda Ryan; Employment Liaison Specialist for BCCA-IN
If knowledge is power then local (industry, credentials, networking and employment) knowledge is the catalyst for extremely successful Canadian careers. This is the single biggest truth for newcomers to Canada and in the past they/we had to learn it the hard way.
Thankfully Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has received and responded to this feedback. Programs like BCCA-Integrating Newcomers (BCCA-IN) are now funded to provide FREE pre-arrival employment information, resources and career counselling so that newcomers have the knowledge and power to build effective strategies before setting foot on Canadian soil. This not only helps newcomers find success faster, it has an enhanced return on investment for the community and economy they settle in.
You’ll find a complete list of pre-arrival employment and settlement services on the Canada.ca website. I can’t recommend them enough!
As a newcomer who arrived in Canada in 2010 when settlement services were not as sophisticated as they are today and pre-arrival services either didn’t exist, or I didn’t know about them, I struggled to integrate into employment.
Yes, I had a solid educational background, a great career in my home country, and a management track record to be proud of. I also came to Canada as a skilled immigrant, so I had jumped significant hurdles to get here including background checks, medicals, education evaluations and experience assessments. Although Canada had confirmed that it ‘wanted me', it still felt like it wasn’t enough.
Until I learned (by making lots of mistakes) how to effectively network the Canadian way, present my experience and credentials in a relevant manner, understand how to leverage local labour market and volunteering opportunities, and strategically compete against ‘Canadian experienced’ job-hunters, I was never going to get a look in.
If I had been pre-warned and pre-armed; if I had someone in-the-know to ask specific questions of; and if I had invested only 10 hours of my time pre-arrival to prepare strategically for employment success, I could have saved myself 100 hours of self-doubt and self-defeating job-hunting activities.
Ten years on, I’m so passionate about helping others build their careers, not only am I working as a consultant and career coach, I’m also dedicating my time to ensure newcomers avoid some of the mistakes I made! Here is some info. about what I do now as an Employment Liaison Specialist for BCCA-IN.
BCCA-Integrating Newcomers, one of several pre-arrival services, is unique because it is the only pre-arrival, Canada-wide service focused on helping high-skilled newcomers explore and build construction careers across the country. Whether you’re an engineer, architect, project manager, estimator, technician or tradesperson looking to continue your career in Canada, or if you are a business, IT, HR, marketing, procurement or finance professional looking to explore how you can move into a high-demand industry, BCCA-IN can help.
The program has evolved and now extends services to spouses or partners of clients, whether or not construction is their primary industry focus. The wisdom being-if you support spouses/partners pre-arrival, you significantly increase the combined success rate of settlement, integration and employment!
The range of services offered by our team includes one-on-one career counselling; tailored resume, cover letter, LinkedIn advice; and an in-depth skills and education assessment designed to help you focus on the best (and most practical) career, credentials and connections activities. Our international team not only has multi-industry experience newcomers can benefit from, we’re also immigrants who have transitioned careers successfully to Canada. So we get it!
If I could depart three pearls of wisdom to newcomers to this country, it would read like this:
To find success faster
- talk to those in the know,
- access free employment and settlement services
- do it before you land in Canada
There is a world of opportunity in this country but you’ve got to know where to look and how to equip yourself in order to access it.
You can learn more about the program I work for here www.bccassn.com/IN. And don’t be fooled by our name, British Columbia Construction Association! Our program, Integrating Newcomers, is a Canada-wide service. We continuously build local labour market knowledge and connections across all provinces and territories.
Best of luck!