I think the time has come for me to contribute to Canadian Desi.
I was active in my early membership time mainly to find out what information is available for a prospective immigrant. Now that I have landed and spent a good 10 months, its time to share what I have learned.
I am in fashion industry. I used work for a big brand in Germany and another production house in Thailand before deciding to coming to Canada. On the educational level I have a MBA and two Bachelor’s degrees, all in marketing.

Simply speaking Canada is way too small country in my field. In Europe I used to deal with European common market, EU (300 million consumers), and in Thailand with Asean (350 Million consumers) markets. In comparison Canada has a mere 33 million. Also for the big corporations, the marketing is done by their US offices.
I did some extensive market research before landing and acted on them. I found out the best bet for me is working in operations for a fashion company. I landed on May 24, 05. Met a great family through “Canadian Desi” and stayed at their basement in Scarborough. I picked 3 companies to work and went to their head offices with my resume. I got job offer from all 3 of them.
1. Tip top tailor: they offered me a full time sales person position. The downside was minimum wage + commission
2. Eddie Bauer: they offered me a manager position for Fairview mall, Scarborough. Salary was 35000 + benefits.
3. INC: They offered me a manager position for Barrie, ON. Salary was 30000. No benefits for 6 months.

I went through all three contracts, and accepted the offer from INC and stared after 3 weeks from my date of landing. The reason behind picking INC: is a Canadian based company and is expanding. I found out by talking with other managers and HR that if I perform, will likely to move up to the ladder.
Today as I write, I am promoted after 8 months in Barrie, Salary now is 40,000 and in charge of a giant factory outlet in Hamilton. But it wasn’t easy on my part. I had to work really hard. I put out more hours than I suppose to. Used all my previous experiences and proud to say that when I left Barrie my store posted a 12% sales increase, I trained and promoted my assistant manager at that time and today he is doing a great job too.
The company has already sent a VP to talk to me in regards to a future job they have in mind for me. I am looking forward to that in January 2007.

Success story???

Not really. In Germany I used to earn yearly about 48,000 DM (24,000 Euro). In Thailand I made 36000 CAD yearly. I used to have a jet setting, five star hotel dining life. Here I am limited to Jack Astor’s, Wendy’s and Tim Horton’s. In Germany I used to drive a Passat, in Thailand a BMW and CIVIC, here a Chevrolet cavalier.

Why Canada:

I could have immigrated to Australia or New Zealand or Germany too. But I picked Canada over all those places. In Australia and NZ the job market is tougher than in Canada and in Germany the unemployment is a serious issue. The general population on those countries has a very negative view towards immigrants, at least to my group, a Muslim. Besides NO GOVERNMENT, I repeat no government will put money and efforts to welcome and train new immigrants like Canada does.

My reason to move to Canada is mainly because of I want to have the Canadian passport. The unfortunate recent world events made it virtually impossible for me to travel with my present passport. With my present passport I need visas for all major countries and even with visas was stopped, searched by over reacted immigration officers again and again.

My plan is to go back to Asia in 2009 and setting up my own event-marketing company. But before I leave Canada I want to see myself in a Director position at my present company, that’s a challenge I took and sure will achieve.

My Suggestions to new comers or prospective immigrants:

1. Have a goal. Find out why you want to immigrate. Just don’t immigrate because the guys next door are talking about it, or it’s cool to live in North America. It is always challenging to move to a different country, this is coming from me (who have traveled in 38 different countries and lived in 5 different ones). Please do a research. You have to find out “what is out there for you”, before taking any actions. Don’t put yourself or your family in misery. Just make sure you know what to expect when you land.

2. Be open minded: Lucky me I got a job as a manager. I could have ended working as a sales person or worse. Who cares? At present I have a part time staff, who, is in school for commercial pilot license, another will be out of university in advertisement field and her dad is a millionaire, who cares? Please leave your outdated egos behind. Have the courage to start afresh. If you don’t have the courage, don’t take the risk. Stick to your comfort zone.

3. Improve your skills, English. I, myself got British accent, so I go slowly and did adjustments in picking the right words. You too have to make your English Canadians enough for general understanding. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Please put all the efforts, read other forums. There are some brilliant suggestions on how to improve your English.

4. This is something personal. Be optimist. Sometime its hard, sometime you may feel the world is against you, sometime you even want to just give up, believe me once you have an accomplishment or even sense of accomplishment, you will feel rewarded. Having an open mind will only help you reaching to your goal.


I’d like to welcome all prospective immigrants to Canada. It’s a liberal country, scenic, people are generally friendly and you have every right to be a part of it.
You may find it’s difficult at the beginning, but hey that could be any places on earth. So I go back to my previous statement: “please…. please have a goal and do some researches before you decide”