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My post landing experience of Canada
By:

Friends,
This is my first message on my post landing experience in Toronto last month. The last 4 weeks have been full of surprises and I’d like to share some of my 2 cents from a different perspective.

The first big surprise was at the first immigration counter when the immigration officer said to me “Welcome to Canada, your new home..eh”. I cannot describe the feeling, every country that I have been to in the past I was asked at the immigration “When do you plan to leave?” The next immigration officer turned out to be a lady of indian origin, she took my picture for PR and did not even bother to check my landing funds, even when I insisted on showing ( I spent $10 in getting the drafts made and no one even looked at it )Then I was given a welcome package with vital info for new immigrants. This booklet holds info on the wealth of resources in local areas in Canada. Every resource listed in this booklet should be explored, to my surprise I found many new immigrants giving up too soon on the resources mentioned. The whole process from stepping out of aircraft to clearing customs took not more than 40 minutes.
Outside the airport I was greeted by one of the coldest days of the season with -31C and winds. I was happy I landed on the coldest day because every other days seemed like spring even it was -5 outside.

The next day after applying for my SIN card I attended a seminar in a nearby new comer information center (NIC). There were about 20-25 other new immigrants at this seminar and it gave a wealth of info for a new comer ranging from local info on GTA to how to prepare and look for jobs. These NIC’s also have one on one counselors to help every new comer target the jobs in his own field. Like NICs, there are many such centers and organizations all across canada and what surprised me that how much the Govt is doing to help the new immigrants settle in and get into the mainstream. In the 4 other countries where I have lived and worked before no such help was available, I had to struggle and find out things by myself.
We formed a group of 8-10 new immigrants when we met at NIC and it proved to be a great support structure, to be able to share your experiences and views with people in similar situations is a great help in itself. I took every opportunity to talk to every desi or immigrant I came across at bus stops at trains etc, getting different perspectives was a great learning experience in itself.

I’d like to differ with those who present a very negative image and say that only labor jobs are given to desis. I found a few major trends in immigrants which I feel is also contributing to the miseries of new immigrants. I may be wrong but the general trends which I was was quite disturbing
1. Many desis try to land a job as soon as possible within the first 2 weeks. $1=Rs30 factor and also the fear of spending from the settlement funds drives this trend but I’d suggest if one has to do labor jobs, do it after 3-4 months when one has tried every other avenue to get a break in their own field. Also many come with families and kids which will make things even worse in the beginning. Unless one is very well funded bringing families should be a big NO NO.
2. Many desis try to in the comfort zone of GTA. GTA is an industrial area Esp mississauga and west and most employment agencies there will give only labor and factory jobs, even if you hold an MBBS. I met very well qualified people doing labor jobs and were feeling happy that they are earning more than what they did in india. I was stupefied by one guy(B.E, MBA) who said he is doing day and night shifts at a factory just to accumulate 900 hours so that he can get unemployment insurance from the govt.
I don’t blame the govt. of canada for his miseries, if that is what his goals are then that is what he will get. Many of us don’t aim high enough.
We all have to struggle. the choice of where to struggle is ours. Whether to struggle really hard to re-qualify( if needed) and get into our own field or to keep struggling in menial jobs. The choice is really ours.

3. Not many desis make use of the Co-op and other employment programs offered by the govt. The down side of these programs is that one does not get paid for 5-6 months while one gets to work in firms in ones own field. 85% of those who participate in these programs get gainfully employed. Also,not many desis join french courses. I am not sure of the details, but I am told Govt of Quebec gives $500 a month to everyone who enrolls for a french learning class. A family of 4 grown ups could make $2000 a month for just attending french classes everyday for 4 hrs a day!! And one could then do other jobs as well to support. What do we gain by learning french? A whole new world of govt jobs will open to us besides the money and knowledge of another language. Think about it. It will take time but all good things take time.

4. Lastly and most importantly all new desis must work on communication and presentation before coming. That is the key for everything in Canada. I met a senior college prof from India with a PhD, he was complaining about lack of jobs. There are indians in senior positions in Canadian universities with less qualifications than him but what was the difference. The difference I felt was that this person despite his qualification could not even pronounce his name right “Sassi Kumar” for Shashi Kumar in a bihari/UP accent. No offence to Bihari’s please, I am a bihari too. To top it off he had strong sented “chameli ka tel” and drooping 70’s moustache … I wonder how could he clear any interview.

There are plenty of opportunities in Canada. To get to those we have to work hard to get local licencures and qualifications and canadianize ourselves with a positive outlook. And jobs and opportunities will follow in with time. Otherwise we will just working hard on menial jobs with no hopes for future.
There are very few places in the world which offer so many opportunities to new immigrants to settle down, we need find out about them to make full use of it to succeed.

Gook luck to all.

article.php?id=64

SUDHISH
Member since: Nov 03

Posts: 169
Location: Mississauga
Post ID: #PID

Posted on: 03-03-04 22:15:14

Dear Mishter India,

At the outset, my heartiest congrats on landing the assignment.

When I read your email/s and those posted by our CD friends, it reminded me of my case. I landed here in Sept 2003 and within a span of fifteen days I landed three offers. In the next couple of weeks another two offers came by, but I still kept looking out for that \"pot of gold\" at the end of the rainbow and I was positive in my approach, i aimed high and kept myself motivated to put in more than 12- 13 hrs of searching, application writing and acclimiatising myself. And finally, I did get the job I wanted and to tell you the truth it has been more than three months on the job and I feel a lot better than what I felt in India. The going is splendid and I have been able to get into the system ( I am keeping my fingers crossed).

I wish to tell my friends here at CD that I have been glancing through this website often, reading and writing one liners - emails etc. This one delighted me.

My experience - whatever little I have prompts me to state that

perseverance,
a suave and cool composure,
focus,
discipline and etiquette,
Right attitude and
adaptability play a very imp role in getting the right break.

Of course I also believe in helping others, luck and God. I firmly believe that what goes around comes around.

Wish you all the best in your future endeavours - Mishter India.

Let's party guys for the Mishter India and lot many Mishter India's who have and not written on this website and also to the future Mishter Indias !!

best of luck!!!

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What goes around comes around...
----------------------------------------
A CANADIAN INDIAN

jake3d
Member since: Sep 03

Posts: 2962
Location: Montreal
Post ID: #PID

Posted on: 03-03-04 22:43:07

Sudhish,
Nice post from you too...even if the posts are far and few in between. Hope you can find the time to stay involved in our discussions.

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Tuk Tuk
Member since: Feb 04

Posts: 94
Location: Brampton, ON
Post ID: #PID

Posted on: 03-03-04 23:37:39

Hi ! Mishtar India,

My last post Canadiandesi ko bhool mat Jana ( Just Kiddin', man ), We all know you will never. You have been great contributor & will continue doin' that.

Wishing you all the very best for Future

Regards,

Tuk Tuk

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Some people make Things happen, Some watch Things happen, While others wonder what has happened.............

Maharaj
Member since: Oct 02

Posts: 1721
Location: Brampton
Post ID: #PID

Posted on: 04-03-04 01:46:39

Quote:
Orginally posted by sanjeevm
Mishtar bhai, "POT" hum le aayenge, aap to sirf thoda sa "LUCK" le aana humare liye

Ho Jaaye to phir. Lage haatho thoda hum bhi khush ho lete hai.

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Mumbai Maazi Ladki ...

reachme
Member since: Feb 04

Posts: 63
Location: Bangalore, India
Post ID: #PID

Posted on: 04-03-04 02:39:31

Hey Mishtar,
Your post was the one that sort of got me writing when i first did..its kind of difficult to keep switching betn windows and reading all the posts when at work!! which is what has kept me from getting totally addicted.have to juggle pretending to work and reading CD.

So, Congratulations! Its amazing what great attitude can do and it was very informative too.
Incidentally, i just got the following fwd mail (as usual I went 'yaaawn', when i saw 'fwd' but thankfully did not delete it!) yesterday which made a lot of sense. Many of you must have read it but here it is for the benefit of those who havent.....

Why do some people get all the luck while others never get the
breaks they deserve? A psychologist says he has discovered the answer. Ten years ago, I set out to examine luck. I wanted to know why some people are always in the right place at the right time,> while others consistently experience ill fortune.

I placed advertisements in national newspapers asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me. Hundreds of extraordinary men and women volunteered for my research and, over the years, I have interviewed them, monitored their lives and had them take part in experiments.

The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behaviour are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune.

Take the case of seemingly chance opportunities. Lucky people consistently encounter such opportunities, whereas unlucky people do not. I carried out a simple experiment to discover whether this was due to differences in their ability to spot such opportunities. I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. I had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying: \"Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win ?250.\" This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it.

Unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this
anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected. As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends.

They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs. Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.

My research eventually revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four principles.
They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities,
make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create
self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt
a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

Towards the end of the work, I wondered whether these principles could be used to create good luck. I asked a group of volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person.

Dramatic results: These exercises helped them spot chance
opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck.

One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had
happened. The results were dramatic: 80% of people were now
happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most
important of all, luckier.

The lucky people had become even luckier and the unlucky had
become lucky.
Finally, I had found the elusive \"luck factor\". Here are my four
top tips for becoming lucky:

Listen to your gut instincts - they are normally right

Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine

Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well

Visualise yourself being lucky before an important meeting or

telephone call.

Luck is very often a self-fulfilling prophecy..

jake3d
Member since: Sep 03

Posts: 2962
Location: Montreal
Post ID: #PID

Posted on: 04-03-04 11:06:48

Though I consider myself an extremely lucky person, the last post was relevant to me and helped me regain some perspective of a few things I was unconciously chosing to forget (we are all human after all). So many thanks reachme!

Since I alway like to relate personal examples to prove a point:
I have a friend(who I know from India), who has been in Canada for 9 yrs now. This guy was in the extremely unlucky position of being laid off 3 times from his job in the past 4 yrs. The good part is that this guy...who is just a b.com from India (no knowledge of French) managed to find another job within a cpl of months all the three times... in french Quebec. These jobs are were not at the lower end either and paid atleast 55k/yr each. I did play a direct role in helping him into 2 of those jobs but that is beside the point I am making.

Since I was helping him tide through the tough times mentally too, we were recently discussing the issue and we realised that...not ONCE in all those layoffs did the guy or me blame Canada. The focus was always on how to deal with the situation at hand and solve it. Not once did we talk about how India was and how Canada is not. We then came to the realisation the both of us had completely accepted Canada as our home. The issue of looking back did not occur even once. Looking at Mishtars case one can see that Mishtar had whole heartedly embraced Canada since his first post. In my experience this is a common trait for most of the people who have succeeded in being happy in this country. They made it the right place for them, compromises/solutions and all.

Maybe there is something in this for all newcomers?

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Mishtar India
Member since: Nov 03

Posts: 668
Location: Toronto
Post ID: #PID

Posted on: 04-03-04 11:46:46

Quote:
Orginally posted by jake3d

Mishtar,
Once Again
Congrats!!! Now get the wife here pronto!

Jake,
that is the next item on priority list for me to get her here....i am getting married in may this yr.
I will invite you all to another party when she arrives in Canada !!

it is nice of you all to appreciate my views but i would not like to call myself as a "positive " or a successful person ...i am just a regular guy with many flaws and a lot to learn and i do get very negative and critical at times, as my fiancee can confirm .

... .biharis do come with lots of flaws ....(whats with this bihari thing ?!!)
with whatever little experience i have i can say one thing ....i have been very unlucky at times and have been thru rough patches in life, but looking back at those times now, i think i still enjoyed those experiences and grew stronger by it ...as for being lucky ...i have gotten many lucky breaks right from school days and it is wierd that when i look at inow, all those lucky breaks came from a tiny unintended initiative....all the biggest successes in my life came when i was not trying too hard for it ...right from getting into engg college to gettng first job with a Tata company to getting overseas assignments and promotions and coming to usa and to where i am now ...all these times i got a break only when i was not too focussed on getting a break ....sounds wierd isint it? ...i call it luck and God's blessings ..i am sure it is true for many of you as well ...the new job which i just got is also a result of one such unintended conversation with with a person who just happenned to be connected with my new company....in retrospect i think, that had i not taken the initiative to break a conversation with this person ...i would still be job hunting.!!

i agree with Jake and Reachme and all others that being open and receptive of one's present situation always helps in gettng lucky breaks ... i can say it from first hand experience

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What can be imagined, can be achieved.

Contributors: Mishtar India(22) jake3d(22) biomed(13) BlueLobster(8) Maharaj(6) Chris(5) sanjeevm(4) sunilshr(3) Tuk Tuk(3) reachme(3) vijeshjain(3) chandresh(3) DesiTiger(2) abisangi(2) Manan Gupta(2) bharat.sharma(2) kjyoti26(2) hestonuk(2) Kap(1) amitbakhshi(1) SUDHISH(1) mslall(1) erebello(1) bumbaya(1) smiss(1) nishitno1(1) ayaskant(1) Manjeet(1) xxx(1) peacock1(1) AnilKG(1) parmarkn(1) HARJIT6244(1) riiishi(1) NorthAlberta(1) anujark(1) Vel1(1) deepcb(1)

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My post landing experience

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