Serene Zawaydeh: January 2014

By: Serene Zawaydeh, MBA. January 11, 2014

Hire Immigrants in Canada Group held its second meeting on January 9, 2014. It was an impressive gathering for 12 professionals having great experience built on strong educational background. The highlight of the meeting was resume review and critique by a resume writer and career coach. Attendees included a mentor for immigrants; a banking professional who worked at HSBC for 17 years; and a Wealth Management Professional who worked at Citi for 9 years.

Job Hunting in Canada...
Immigrants move to Canada after applying for immigration, and getting approved. In order to get approved, they submit information about their academic achievements, grades, credentials and their professional experience. The information gets reviewed by Canadian immigration. When they get approved, they get approved according to Canadian Standards. Why do they find it difficult to find a job, after moving to Canada? Are Canadian employment standards, different than Canadian immigration standards? Even if they have experience working with an international organization outside Canada, they find it difficult to find a job with the same firm in Canada.

Focusing on experience from international and emerging countries, is not enough. Companies need local experience. Immigrants compete with locals as well as people with international experience.

Immigrants move to Canada, in order to build on their success in their home countries. With their professional experience, and educational background, they are fully capable of working. By working, they can contribute to the Canadian Economy, through paying taxes, in addition to spending. Staying for a longer period of time out of the job market, means loss of productivity.

Sending out resumes on its own does not work. Networking without a preset strategy, is more of a luck game. You might meet someone somewhere, who knows someone who works somewhere you are interested in working at. Meeting this person who referred you to another, was unplanned.

If sending out resumes is not working, what is wrong with the resume, and why isn't it working? Getting the resume reviewed by several people, results in conflicting opinions, so you go back to changing the resume. You could get some interviews, but the interviews don’t get you the job. So what is happening? What are the reasons? Can you keep on waiting month after month? Or is it time to change this cycle? How can you change the way you deliver your message to your interviewer, in order to succeed in getting the job that you want, and keep on progressing in your career? If you get a contract job, time passes, and you end up looking for another job.

Hire Immigrants in Canada’s Meeting: January 9, 2014

Serene Zawaydeh, MBA voluntarily organized Hire Immigrants in Canada’s second meeting. The meeting was announced online, and was free to attend for up to 20 people. Eventbrite was used to communicate with the attendees.

The guest speaker at the meeting was Roman Pawlowsky, Career Coach and Resume Writer. With 30 years of experience in Human Resources in the Canadian market, Roman provides individual attention to his clients. He helps them develop a job search strategy, and prepares them for the interviews. He helped job seekers, including immigrants, secure the jobs they wanted in Canada. He focuses on the need for behavioural change, and the need to develop a targeted job search strategy, in order to achieve your career goals.

Attendees introduced themselves to Roman, while he took a look at their resumes. Roman provided every attendee with attention; listening carefully to what they said; provided constructive criticism to their resume; the way they introduced themselves. He asked industry specific questions.

The meeting was interesting, full of enthusiasm and questions. Time was a limiting factor. Some questions remained unanswered.

Following are some take aways from the meeting, including comments on resumes

You need to catch the interest of the listener while introducing yourself. Don’t talk too much by going into the details of your work experience especially if the audience is from another industry.

A targeted job search strategy is needed. Your resume needs to get into the right hands at the company you are interested in joining. It is not enough to send your resume when applying for job applications. Your resume will be one of thousands received.
You need to build your confidence, reach out to the right people, in order to get their attention.

Having international experience, working with international companies, and knowing languages is a strength that attendees highlighted. However, a lot of professionals in Canada have international experience, know more than one language, and worked with multinational firms. Human resources are used to hearing that.

It is important to differentiate yourself from everybody else, and to be able to highlight to the employer, how your skills can add value to the organization. Why would they hire you, and not hire another person who has the same credentials and designations?
The resume should highlight key words that are specifically related to the industry, in order to pass the ATS scanning phase. You should score 80%-90% in the scanning phase. However, you cannot just copy key words that you find in the job description, into your resume. This way your resume will be rejected right away.
Your previous senior or executive title could scare away potential employers, who might be thinking… I can’t afford you!
Skills and abilities are the key differentiator that employers seek to identify in their potential employees. You also need to use industry specific keywords when you talk about yourself.
The first three lines in your resume need to provide the information the employer is looking for. If it doesn’t attract their attention, they go to the next resume.
Employers look for your accomplishments. The title of your previous job, is not enough to make you stand out. A lot of other people held these titles. Job titles can be different from one country to another.
The way you deliver you message to the employer, is important. Soften the message, convincing them that you know what to do, in order for the company to succeed.
Your message should convey the key words of the industry, how you serve the clients, generate revenues, and reduce costs.
Your conversation should be engaging during the interview.
Leaders create the plan, while managers deliver it.
If you have 5 years experience, your resume should be 2 pages. If you have 5 to 10 years of experience, the resume should be 3 pages. If you have 10 to 15 years of experience, your resume would be longer.
Online communication is not enough. You should have 5 meetings per week.
Don’t wait for the company to call you.
Having the resume prepared professionally is not enough on its own. If you can’t talk about what is in the resume, you will lose the interview.
There is no need for pictures on resumes in Canada. The term CV is not used in Canada - It’s “Resume”.

Veronica Seeto, mentor for IT immigrants, mentioned her experience in reading resumes individually for one job that was posted online for one week. Out of about 70 resumes received, about 60 resumes did not have the required qualifications mentioned in the job description. She spent 4-5 minutes per resume, and had a point system for rating qualifications.

Finding a job takes at least 6 months for a newcomer, and could take a year. Once a contract ends, the job search starts again.
Searching for your next job, should start the first day you start your new job.
You need to keep a journal of your achievements while you are working.
You should not apply for “any” job that you see. This would be a waste of time.
If the job requires a specific role, do not send your resume applying for another role.
You need to keep upgrading your job search strategy throughout your career. You need to create your own career path.
Don’t send out resumes blindly.
Grammar and spelling mistakes in resumes and cover letters are a main reason why resumes get rejected. This is often heard, and it is a well known fact. However, this actually happens sometimes, when you least expect it!

Every individual has their own skills, and abilities, and they need to highlight these skills to the employer. The key to finding a job in Canada is to convey the message, in the correct way, to the right person, at the right organization. Learning what needs to be changed, and how to change needs direction from someone knowledgeable in the Canadian market and Communication.

This was a professional meeting, and the attendees made it a successful one.

Attendees who accepted to have their information included in this article:

1. Roman Pawlowsky, Career Coach, Resume Writer, Human Resources Professional

ca.linkedin.com/pub/roman-pawlowsky/4/867/116

2. Veronica Seeto, Mentor, IT Skilled Immigrants

ca.linkedin.com/in/veronicaseeto

3. Mona Massaoud, Banking Professional | HSBC Experience

ca.linkedin.com/in/monamassoud

4. Anil Jaspal - Wealth Management Professional | Citi Experience
ca.linkedin.com/in/aniljaspal

5. Event Organizer: Serene Zawaydeh

ca.linkedin.com/in/serenezawaydeh/

Please do not hesitate to contact the attendees for potential opportunities.

Serene Zawaydeh, MBA, Electrical Engineer
Research Professional | Telecom Markets, Equities, Technology Transfer
serene.zawaydeh@gmail.com
ca.linkedin.com/in/serenezawaydeh/

Twitter: @SereneZawaydeh
Blog: http://serenezawaydeh.blogspot.ca/
Hire Immigrants in Canada LinkedIn Group:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=4151762&trk=anet_ug_hm

Serene Zawaydeh

Saturday, 11 January 2014

“How can you differentiate yourself in Canada’s multinational, multilingual, competitive job market?” Seeking answers and solutions, and sharing lessons learned from “Hire Immigrants in Canada” Group Meeting.

Saturday, 4 January 2014

Hire Immigrants in Canada Group Meeting. January 9, 2014 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm