Hi I laid off in December. My company gave me package which covers upto March. I have applied EI. I came to Canada as Computer programmer but in 1 years i didnt get any IT job .I was doing security and worked in mcdonald.

Finally I found office job as audit support in auditing company where i used my IT skills in MS Access. I couldn't promote because I didn't have accounting background. After 5 years of working they laid me off. Now I want go back to my IT field. I didnt upgrade because I had to feed in backhome to my parents. Now I want to do Data warehouse in business intelligence.

Can anybody suggest can I go back to my IT as second career. is it possible ? if yes what should i do i have have 3 kids and wife.

Adnan,
Sorry to hear of your layoff.
Second career offers you a career study of your choice and $ 28,000 of free money to be spread over 3 years max. Just go to your nearest community centre and apploy for the same. processing time is around 6 to 9 months so hang on tight.

Apply for EI and start working in cash. If money is tight, please visit your nearest food bank to get food. Many of the food banks have extra food that is thrown in to the garbage every week and so it will help you anyways.

Try to get a cash job and build up your savings. I would recommend a community college course rather than our desi run courses which is just to rob you of your second career course. One Desi offered me a computer for taking the second career in his institute and just robbed me of quality education. He has a number of other job less immigrant as a tutor. They teach 4 hours on saturday and but take money from the govt .for teaching 40 hours a week. Stay away from them. Career colleges are slow and steady.

All the very best.

Murali The Krishna

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

Why do you call it a second career, as your background is in IT itself.

DW/BI is a flourishing area in IT. My advise however, is try to get into Application Support, or Business Analyst first to ease the transition. For the former, you do not need any training. Just try to redirect your experience to Support, i.e. supported office applications. I am sure you might already have a required IT aptitude. There's no programming involved and pay is at par with programmer (this is open to discussion to some). I have seen the App Support guys in my company making $45-$80/hr. (contract).

Another area is to get into Business System Analysis. Another flourishing and well paid area in IT.

Take one tiny step at a time and you'll do good.

Another alternative is to get a formal DW/BI training from a reputed (that majority of employers are also aware of) institution. Might involve some upfront investment and time. Your first focus is to get into IT as soon as possible. Once in, you can always diversify based upon your interest and aggression.

Another option: If you really want to get back into IT, then my advise is to try applying for jobs throughout the country. Relocate to wherever you land up the opportunity. Once you have an experience of about 2 years, you will always have an option to settle in the City you want to live long term. Broaden your perspective and you will attain success. Trust me, it works.

Do an online course from India for $350 over the next month and a half . Practice and learn the technology during this time and the proceeding couple of months.

Start applying for jobs of BA / QA in the said Technology assuming you are comfortable with it .. most likely you should click .... After a couple of projects , you can move on to Development.

In the mean time if your 2nd career option comes up do the same course from a reputed Institute which you can show in your resume after a couple of years ...

If you plan to claim past experience , do not show your course completion certificate now ... maybe a couple of years down the line you can show it on your resume.

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Fido.

No need to hide any money for second career as no check will be performed.

Second career is a name given to those who have their first career the same but without Canadian experience and then you study in Canada in the second career to restart your original career in Canada.

Note : Second career is a very slow process. It may take atleast 2 years from start to finish. If you are in a hurry, try other options. But second career will ensure that you live comfortably during the study. This is a great option for people who want to explore Canada and live happlily while doing second career.

Murali The Krishna.

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

Quote:

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Originally posted by febpreet

Why do you call it a second career, as your background is in IT itself.

DW/BI is a flourishing area in IT. My advise however, is try to get into Application Support, or Business Analyst first to ease the transition. For the former, you do not need any training. Just try to redirect your experience to Support, i.e. supported office applications. I am sure you might already have a required IT aptitude. There's no programming involved and pay is at par with programmer (this is open to discussion to some). I have seen the App Support guys in my company making $45-$80/hr. (contract).

Another area is to get into Business System Analysis. Another flourishing and well paid area in IT.

Take one tiny step at a time and you'll do good.

Another alternative is to get a formal DW/BI training from a reputed (that majority of employers are also aware of) institution. Might involve some upfront investment and time. Your first focus is to get into IT as soon as possible. Once in, you can always diversify based upon your interest and aggression.

Another option: If you really want to get back into IT, then my advise is to try applying for jobs throughout the country. Relocate to wherever you land up the opportunity. Once you have an experience of about 2 years, you will always have an option to settle in the City you want to live long term. Broaden your perspective and you will attain success. Trust me, it works.

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Sure Kulb. Yes, I am in IT.

Here are some of the areas that are a good alternative to Programming and get your foot in the door:

QA (Software Testing)
IT Application/Production Support
Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence/Analytics
ERP (Oracle Applications, SAP, JDEdwards, PeopleSoft, etc.)
Business System Analysis
Project Coordination/Management (Requires PMP training/certification)

As I said in my earlier post, if you're looking to get a foothold in IT without any experience/aptitude, start low, i.e. IT Support and then move up the ladder. Many a times, I have seen people in IT Support get promotion within the company by virtue of getting to know the Business and by the sheer contacts. Another relatively easy area to get in is Application/Production Support.

For certifications, it entirely depends what area you would like to get into. If you have a vast Business experience, I would recommend you to look into 'Business Analysis'. As the name suggests, the focus is primarily on Business side of things and less on IT. However, you will still be working closely with IT so there could be a possibility of transition to the IT role. From my experience in IT, I have seen people transitioning from Support to QA to Development and back to Support, depending upon the nature of the Project. There are no hard and fast rules here.

Try to familiarize yourself with the emerging technologies and the databases (MS-SQL and/or Oracle). GTA has some good institutes where you can get a required training, if need be.

Drop me a line (pm) if further questions are warranted.