Dear Friends,


I have been following the CD forums for a while now and posted few thoughts of mine. Here is my story of immigration and the achievement of more than 150% growth in employment.


I chose Canada as my destination for immigration in the year of 1999. I was inspired by my uncle, who is a retired professor. He came to Canada in 1969 and he had to suffer a lot to get due recognition. Anyway, back in India, I had the experience in manufacturing technology and I had the opportunity to design machines, tools and auto parts to meet both European and North American standards. Once I have decided to immigrate to Canada, I started looking for the right launching platform that would let me use my skills as a design engineer in the manufacturing industry and would also let me to get a strong footing in Canada. In order to get the same job in Canada, I would require a Master's degree there. So I started browsing the net and found my platform. I joined a private training institution in Hyderabad to learn SAP R/3 as a specialist in Materials Management and Production Planning, control. Most of my colleagues left to USA for green bucks on H1B. I have continued my journey to get experience in SAP and have landed contracts with GMIL and Arvind Mills.


Then I was confident enough to use my skills in Canada. I landed here in June,1999 and within a month had four offers in hand. Finally I decided to join one big corp. in Toronto. I have promised to my interviewers then that I would get a big raise in my basic before I leave them. I started with them at $62k basic. I lived up to their Promise. Within two years of my employment with them, I received four raises and left the company happily with about $77k basic and a consistent performance bonus of 12% and cash rewards worth $8k over those two years. I joined a company in Montreal as their senior most SAP specialist with a basic of around $ 85k and was their world wide manager in Six months for SAP implementation with a basic of $92k. I was chosen as the successor for their Director and left them after more than three years with a basic of $110k with a bonus of 22%. Now I am back in Ontario with a raising star company with a basic of more than $130k and a bonus of 32% variable, as their world wide SAP implementation Manager.


The above story may be talking about figures. The summary is that you need a driving vision and enablers to reach that. Once you have it, the locations and companies are trivial matters. What matters is that do you have the self-confidence in you to challenge the President of a Fortune 100 company and can you say that what they do sucks? That confidence comes out of your practical experience. So I don't necessarily agree with anybody who talks about luck for landing jobs. If you are looking for a job, you may get it. If you came here for a career, you better prepare for it. I have managed more than 450 people in a company for a project here.

Luck has no meaning there in that situation. You just need to live up to your own expectations, before living up to somebody else's expectations. Thanks.

Regards
Jay