Career Musings

If you’re a new immigrant to Canada, you understand, only too well, what the phrase “No Canadian Experience” means as you conduct your daily job search. Regardless of the international experience you have; how highly skilled you are, and the many years’ experience you have in your field, it’s the same story – No Canadian experience. It is my hope that employers will look beyond the fact that you don’t have Canadian experience, and look at what you are bringing to the table and at the asset you’ll be to their organization once you get that opportunity.

With that in mind, I began several months ago to write a book on job search strategies for new immigrants to Canada. The book’s title is No Canadian Experience, Eh? – A Career Survival Guide for New Immigrants. The finished product will primarily provide strategies to overcome employment barriers, but also will include comments from other immigrants who have succeeded against all odds; some who are planning to return to their home countries, and some who are still struggling to get the proverbial “Canadian Experience”.

If you’d like to share your story, please send an email to info@thewrightcareer.com. In the meantime, stay tuned.

I started to create a list of career buzzwords over the past several months. These have come from newspapers, ezines, newsletters, and other sources on the Internet, so I do not claim the authorships, but where known, I have included the sources. I hope you’ll be able to add another word or two to your vocabulary.

Knowledge Nomads: highly mobile workers who move frequently from employer to employer.

Stealth Hiring: When companies quietly recruit, interview and hire staff without announcing their hiring plans. It’s one way of hiding their plans from their competitors. (Arizona Republic)

Dry Hiring: When a company takes a candidate all the way through the interview stages without hiring them. Companies usually do this to assess the talent pool that’s available. (Arizona Republic)

X-Ray Vision: A technique used to target several companies, but instead of submitting your resume to the HR department, you find an employee who works for the company and start to cultivate a relationship (Otis Collier)

Learning Executive/ Chief Learning Officer: participating in management discussions regarding organizational productivity and bottom-line results.

Servant Leadership: Companies implementing programs to help their employees and the rest of the community. By doing so managers can help improve their company’s image and boost company profits. (Chicago Tribune)

Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs): The stock-price gain over a period of time. [Not to be mistaken for the healthcare - SARS - crisis we had a couple of years ago]

Speed Mentoring: a relatively new concept in facilitated networking. Half the participants are job seekers looking for advice on how to break into certain fields. The other half are successful professionals who have accumulated experience in their areas of expertise and volunteer to share some of their insights.

Social Entrepreneur: A group of businesspeople who combine nonprofit organizations with the latest management strategies.

Technocheaters: academic shortcuts – those who use technology to cheat.

Franchise Entrepreneurs: a growing number of business school grads who operate franchises. This gives them the chance to become entrepreneurs, while enjoying the support of an established company to help them keep their business operations running smoothly.