Enchanted by the Canadian dream, Eric had worked hard and saved some money in his Oracle DBA job with a Shanghai based manufacturing company. His dream was to immigrate to Canada for a better life and explore new opportunities for a more fulfilling career. Eric was successful in his PR interview and landed as an immigrant in November 2003 in Toronto.
Unfortunately Eric arrived in Toronto at the worst possible time. The beginning of the holiday season in North America results in a slowdown in the hiring process during the months of November and December. In addition, the economy had started going south since 2002, and this had an adverse, cascading effect on the job market. To make matters worse, all Canadian employers require the candidates to have a Canadian experience.
This last requirement often proves a catch-22 situation for the candidates since a new immigrant obviously doesn’t have Canadian experience. As a result Eric found all doors closed for him.
After working for 3 years in small survival jobs, Eric came across the zavesti.com solution. By then, he was at the end of his patience and was simply waiting to confirm his Canadian citizenship before leaving Canada to search for a career elsewhere in the world.
The zavesti.com solution first of all guided Eric in supplementing his technical knowledge with Canadian industry trends and job market characteristics. In addition, the zavesti.com Career Development Toolkit helped Eric in finding a recruiter with a Lead DBA job opportunity at a Fortune 500 company in Mississauga. With the help of the zavesti.com Career Development Toolkit, Eric made a thorough analysis of his past life’s work experience, carefully documenting every relevant detail. He discovered that the past three years he had spent in Toronto – in apparently insignificant jobs – actually had elements of DBA work. This understanding helped Eric to highlight his past experience in Canada – coupled with his experience in Shanghai – as relevant for a Lead DBA role.
However, Eric needed to surmount yet another problem. The job for which he was applying required the candidate to have some work experience in a company which had a quality assurance certification and knowledge of the relevant audit processes. Again, guided by the zavesti.com Career Development Toolkit which outlined solutions to such issues, Eric discovered that one of his previous companies in Shanghai actually had been in the process of qualifying for this quality assurance certification since they were suppliers to north American companies. The North American companies like Walmart not only undergo the different regulatory certifications themselves but also require their suppliers to conform to those same certifications which the federal government mandates for north American companies. When Eric presented his experience with this perspective, it proved to be acceptable by both the recruiter and the prospective employer.
In addition to redesigning his resume, Eric learned how to quickly prepare for an interview in Canada and what to expect.
Soon Eric landed the job. His only regret is that if he had used the zavesti.com solution sooner, he could have saved three years of his life.
“For years in Canada, I had worked in all sorts of odd jobs – just to survive. When I had almost given up hope, I registered with zavesti.com against my wishes, persuaded by my wife. Within 5 weeks, I had a job in my own field – as an Oracle DBA! zavesti.com brought back my smile!” – Eric Liu, Toronto
