Working In Canada: A 5-Step Approach
Working in Canada will require a well thought out approach. And our five-step framework recommends an approach to help you achieve your career goals in Canada.
This framework will provide the tools and information you need to successfully continue your career when you arrive in Canada.
Step 1: Know Yourself
Assess your accomplishments, skills, interests, and values to gain an accurate assessment of yourself
When you increase your self-awareness and know your strengths you can achieve your full career potential. So it’s important to take the time to identify your skills, strengths, and work values. Because this will help you to find a career that matches your interests and personality. In other words, know your strengths.
Self-awareness will help you to:
- Define what’s important to you
- Identify jobs that best suit you
- Create a career plan
- Find the right career.
So to understand your strengths you can complete an assessment to identify:
- the type of work you prefer
- how you communicate, and
- how you make decisions.
This is an essential step to move your career in the right direction. The good news is that you can complete our free Drake P3® Assessment. And when you complete it, you’ll get a report with helpful insights to help with your job search activities. For example, when you understand your strengths, you can highlight this information on your resume and discuss them in job interviews. It's common for interviewers to ask you what your strengths are.
So you can use the assessment results to identify your strengths. Also, you can complete the Drake P3® profiling process in less than fifteen minutes.
Step 2: Know Your Environment
Understand the Canadian job market, industry trends, labour market trends, and salary trends for your profession in Canada.
It’s important to research the job market for your profession to understand what’s happening in Canada. And your research will help you to:
- analyze how your industry is doing
- identify the jobs that are in demand, and
- identify job prospects for your profession in Canada.
Some important questions to consider include:
- What trends are happening in my industry in Canada?
- What trends are happening in my functional area? (For example, IT, Human Resources, Marketing, Legal, Finance)
- What’s the labour market like for my industry and job title in Canada? (For example, construction, engineering, accounting)
- Where is there a demand for my occupation in Canada? (For example, what cities have a demand for teachers?)
- What is the average salary for my profession in Canada? (For example, what's an average salary for teaching, accounting, engineering, or construction jobs in Canada?
And with this insight, you’ll know the key issues, trends, and opportunities to work in Canada.
Career Pathways: Understand How to Work in Canada
You can research industry and labour market trends on social media, LinkedIn, trade, and government publications. As well, you can download our free Career Pathways e-books. Our Career Pathways ebooks will put you in a great position to work in Canada and achieve your career goals.
Career Pathways e-books provide information related to six critical areas:
- Pre-arrival Activities: find out about job search activities you can do before you arrive in Canada
- Skills Development: get helpful information about how to upgrade your skills, access training programs, and colleges and universities in Canada.
- Canadian Workplaces: gain an understanding of the Canadian workplace through volunteering, internships, and mentoring.
- Job Finding Techniques: find out about Immigrant Settlement Agencies and job search services that they provide to newcomers.
- Professional Associations: find out about professional associations in Canada. Professional associations can provide you with specific information about how to work in your profession in Canada.
- Employment Resources: Get information about the National Occupational Classification (NOC) for your profession. And you'll gain information about job descriptions, and other labour market information.
Career Pathways e-books provide a roadmap for more than 20 occupations in Canada.
Select Your Profession
Medical Laboratory Technologist
Medical. Radiation Technologist
Step 3: Know What’s Required to Work in Canada
Identify what skills, experience, education, certificates, and language skill you require to work in your profession in Canada.
It's important to know what skills, experience, and education you need to work in Canada. For example: is your profession regulated or non-regulated in Canada? Because if your profession is regulated, you will require a license or certification to work in Canada.
And if your profession is not regulated you want to know what skills, education, and experience you require. Because this will help you to assess what skills you have, and what skills you may need to develop or gain.
One way that you can learn what you require is to browse job postings in Canada. While it may not be practical to apply for jobs from your home country, you can find out what skills and experience Canadian employers require. You can also learn about:
- Key responsibilities of the job
- License, certificate, or designation you require for the job.
And with this information, you can assess if you have the background and experience. Or, you may identify the skills that you need to develop.
Step 4: Create a Plan to Work in Canada
Create a plan of action and identify other steps to work in Canada.
Based on the information you gather in steps one to three, use this insight to create a plan of action. Or you may also decide to do more research.
When you create your action plan, you can think about these questions:
- Do I need to gather more information?
- What skills do I need to develop or gain to work in Canada?
- Do I need to improve my language skills to work in my profession in Canada?
- Do I require specific designations to work in my profession in Canada?
- What activities can I begin before I arrive in Canada?
With the answers to these questions, you can set priorities and a timeline to complete the activities. And, you can find the answers to many of these questions in our Career Pathways ebooks!
Recommended Posts:
Build Your Professional Network Before You Arrive in Canada
Why Communication Skills are Important
Step 5: Get Support to Work in Canada
Identify pre- and post-arrival services to get help with your job search, network with others in your field, and prepare for interviews.
You can take advantage of many pre- and post-arrival settlement services. Settlement agencies provide services to newcomers such as one-to-one job counselling. And they can identify the skills and licenses that you need to work in Canada.
Also, settlement specialists can advise you on how to obtain job experience or certificates. And if you can begin the process while still in your home country, you may save time and money. It may even reduce the length of your job search when you arrive in Canada.
In summary, when you follow the 5-step framework, you'll be in a great place to work in Canada and resume your career. And for more information about working in Canada, visit our site.