A small, proactive and constructive gift to not yet Canadian desi's from Canadian desi's.

Your contributions and experiences invited to the dialogue: how can we best leverage skills against the inevitable 'lack of canadian experience' concern from employers.

Here are a few learnings from me on how you can leverage your skills and whether local experience is important:

- whether you agree or disagree with the employers concerns for no local experience, it does not matter, accept it. even if you are a technology person with relevant experience, every culture and country has its own way of doing things, to be effective you need to learn these 'soft skills' to work effectively and more importantly to get work out of others. You are not a desi anymore, you are a Canadian desi now.

- every experience is important, record it, learn from it. the fact that people are not breaking red lights is important, they do not honk to get way, they wait patiently in a queue without starting to complain after 5 minutes is important, they like to laugh and be light hearted is different, they don't invite you to their home is odd - all experiences at home, work, in the mall are important - recognize them, learn from them, remember them, evolve and change - You are not a desi anymore, you are a Canadian desi now. Correct, eh?

- no job is too menial. this country respects labour, atleast does not berate it. you happen to drive a taxi to make ends meet, no shame in it. you started off as a grocery store clerk, don't duck under the counter if you see your chacha's family coming over. more importantly, don't let your children think there is anything wrong with doing hard work, have high aspirations for them, but there is nothing wrong in delivering newspapers. You are not a desi anymore, you are a Canadian desi now.

- you are not running a 100 meter dash, think of it as a marathon. a slow start does not mean you will lose the race. instead of starting in a new profession, start at a way lower level within your profession or atleast in a company that has opportunities in your profession. learn the basics again and see how they are different than what you are used to. be critical of your own work and see how the work and process can be improved (if you are experienced this cannot be extremely difficult), then find an appropriate opportunity to recommend changes. most reasonable people will listen, if not in the current employment then a great point for the next interview.

- don't be afraid of authority. in our world the CEO was a demi-god, only the foolish, extremely courageous or chaploos would talk the to bosses, bosses, boss. here it is no big deal. you call him by his first name (he expects you to) and exchange pleasantries. looking for a job, instead of wasting time with HR or some line manager, call up the CEO and ask him if there are opportunities for your skills in his organization (call before 8:00 a.m. or after 5:00 p.m.), if you are pleasant and direct he/she will give you 60 seconds and not slam his phone down.

- Canadian desi's please add your gifts below...