When To Start Job Hunting

friends who are planning to migrate here often ask me when they should start job hunting.

some would say start as early as you can. some would advise to put it off till you get your visa. and still others would say to wait till you get to canada. different people. different careers. different experiences.

i can only tell you what worked for us. and this is what worked for us -

we started scanning the job market soon after applying for the immigrant visa. no, we did not apply yet. we just scanned.

we checked out the job search engines and then checked how many openings are posted for our field of work. doing this gave us an idea of whether our job was in demand or not.

it also helped us decide which part of canada to go to. at the time of the application, we really didn't know where to go yet. we were choosing between vancouver and toronto. after checking out various job search engines, we found out that most of the work for my husband's career is in toronto. and so, toronto it is.

after the initial scanning of the job market during the application period, we didn't bother researching further. we applied for the visa. searched the job market. went on with our daily lives. and then worked on it again after we had our medical.

it was only after knowing that the medical results were ok that my husband actively searched for work. this is the time when he started fixing up his resume. researching on canadian resume formats. contacting his friend here who happened to have some friends who are in the same field.

and it was only two months prior to leaving for canada that he actually forwarded his resume. as i have mentioned previously, this worked well for him because one month prior to leaving for canada, he got a call on his cellphone from one of the major companies here in canada asking him to give them a call immediately upon landing. he's been working for them since then.

if you want to scan the job market or start applying for one, you may want to start out with the following major job search engines -

Monster
Workopolis

you may also try the following search engines -

Jobs in Canada
CanadaJobs
Job Bank
Best Jobs Canada
All Star Jobs
Eluta

there are also industry-related job engines which you can try like Cool Jobs Canada which is the largest site for tourism or hospitality jobs in canada. or you may also opt to check out job agencies.

good luck!