Ziaul Hasan, Toronto
Canada-a country that caters equality, humanity and fellow feeling, has always been a dreamland for many Bangladeshis. However, only a fraction of them ever gets a chance to visit or to settle down in this great nation. And in their struggle to set a strong foot on this new soil, some individuals thrive, some wither away. For those who succeed in this struggle, Canada is a land of opportunity while to those who failed, it is a merely booby-trap for skilled professionals.
Whenever it comes to immigrating to a new country, Canada always comes first to Bangladeshi applicants. In recent years Canada's initiation's of the faster Express Entry system has resulted in an influx of large number of immigrants from all over the globe, and the Bangladeshis are not lagging behind. Increasing number of Bangladeshis including doctors, engineers, accountants, bankers and even government service holders are migrating to Canada these days.
Many of these newcomers are doing very good. They are getting very good white collar jobs within only a few months of their arrival. However, unfortunately, there are some who end up in surviving chores like restaurant jobs and these are the people who blame Canada as a pitfall for immigrants and curse themselves to have migrated in this country. It is to mention that no job noble as each of the professions, no matter what it is, contributes to the society in different extents and level. Still would not be wrong for a high official in Bangladesh to expect a white collar job in Canada and when he fails to land such a job, he tends to curse the Canada and its system.
But cursing the system would not and the best an applicant can do is to update himself to the requirements of Canadian employers. I am also a new immigrant and I have struggling to cope with the new environment and also to decent a good job, and in this venture I have learnt a few things from my experience and also form those who have succeed. These strategies are no guarantee to a job but at least they can help.
The very first task a new immigrant should be to update their resume as per Canadian standard. The resume provides the very first impression of an applicant to the employer thus it is to be taken seriously, and must be customized according to the requirement of each new job application.
Secondly, resume should not be distributed arbitrarily rather in a planned and organized manner. One has to keep it in mind that a wrong placement of a resume could block the applicant for months from placing a new application for other job within the organization.
Canadian companies generally use software to shortlist potential resumes and only very relevant resumes get sorted out. Therefore, each job application should be preplanned, organized and customized according to the job requirements.
Cover letters are very important in Canada and they should be precise and to the point narrating the applicant's skills in contrast to the responsibilities of the job. An applicant should make it a habit to write cover letter to each of the jobs whether it asks for a cover letter or not.
When a job application demands resume and cover letter to be sent by email, an applicant click the send button in first hour of the day preferably from 8:45am to 9:00am so that the HR administrator gets the resume first when he sits at his desk for resume sort out.
Getting and also keeping a job in Canada always unpredictable and one can lose a job at any moment, and better to be sporty in this regard, and should not be taken a job into granted that it would last forever. The last of all, never to lose hope in Canada, a country of immense possibilities. Canada could best country for professionals but all they need to do how things get done here and to assimilate themselves accordingly.
