simiolu1:


The thing with IT is it's quite very wide and a lot of people do not know where to start from. A lot of people visit Google looking for information about the IT industry and end up being more confused than before. It happened to me.

So, I think the starting point for most people is to look for that point where their current job or something they would like to do in the future intersects with IT. That way, it is easily relatable and narrowed down. For example, someone interested in programming should first ask the language used to write that HR software they use at work; someone interested in the web should ask the languages used to develop websites. Someone interested in networking should ask himself or herself who the leading manufacturers of routers are before taking any classes.

Another misconception a lot of people have is that IT all about programming. This is not true as there are many jobs in the IT industry that do not involve writing a single line of code.

vcole:
you can change to usd via pta services from the bank as well as the bdc operators. Keep the receipts just in case. Then carry the cash. This was what we did. There was a form we filled to declare the cash we came with when we landed. The immigration officer stamped and signed d form n gave it back to us.

eclectic139:
Good day all,

Thank you for all your contributions.

Please do they confiscate Indomie Noodles at Canadian airport?

lilyandie:

Thank you so much

kazchick:

Thank you so much. This is invaluable info

klexycole:


Thanks for the great insight, Simiolu.

At bolded, could you please mention a few of them? Thank you!

simiolu1:


Below are roles in IT that combine disciplines from different fields. There are

a. Project managers
b. Product managers
c. Community managers
d. UX/UI designers
e. Human resource (abi IT companies no dey recruit?)
f. Sales
g. Marketing
h. Finance
h. Legal (especially intellectual property)
i. PR
j. Business development (Nigerian companies have so much bastardised this term that a lot of people now associate it with marketing! It is not!!!)

But looking at core IT

i. System administrator (PC and Servers)
ii. Software QA tester (manual testers do not require coding experience but automation testers do)
iii. Data analyst
iv. SEO specialist
v. Support (support is quite large so I'm lumping them together. For instance, Amazon Web Services has over 19 core products grouped by functionality [https://aws.amazon.com/products/] with each having its own support team. I know because I use AWS)

There are other fields but I can't possibly list them all. I am attaching links so that you can see the kinds of roles tech companies currently have vacancies for. These may not be Canadian companies but by going through their current job openings, you can have a general idea of how large IT really is.

Cheers!!!

https://discordapp.com/jobs

https://www.messagebird.com/en/careers

https://www.twilio.com/company/jobs

Thanks for the prompt response Simiolu. Your explanation is indeed helpful. I am very sure other people looking for an answer in this area will appreciate your input as well.

I'll checkout the links. Thanks once again.

simiolu1:


The thing with IT is it's quite very wide and a lot of people do not know where to start from. A lot of people visit Google looking for information about the IT industry and end up being more confused than before. It happened to me.

So, I think the starting point for most people is to look for that point where their current job or something they would like to do in the future intersects with IT. That way, it is easily relatable and narrowed down. For example, someone interested in programming should first ask the language used to write that HR software they use at work; someone interested in the web should ask the languages used to develop websites. Someone interested in networking should ask himself or herself who the leading manufacturers of routers are before taking any classes.

Another misconception a lot of people have is that IT all about programming. This is not true as there are many jobs in the IT industry that do not involve writing a single line of code.

A555:


I swapped my UK driving license for an Alberta license, and no driving experience letter was required. I simply walked into the registry gave them my UK license, paid the fees, did an eye test and that was it.

For Ontario I found the following link: https://www.ontario.ca/page/exchange-out-province-drivers-licence

If it is a UK driving license, the issue date is on it, so I don't see why a further driving experience letter will be required.

einsteino:
[url="https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-darker-sides-of-living-in-Canada"]What are some darker sides of living in Canada?[/url]

Answered by
Sam Boulos, Lived in Canada for 13 years.
Updated Mar 15, 2017


-The weather is not made for human beings but for polar bears.

czaratwork:


If we can do some time travel back (like 10 years), we would see that IT has evolved the way things are done and when you decide to risk doing it forward, you are not even sure if you will still have your job in the next 10 years. i was shocked when i watched a robot that can open doors on linkedin video. One can't just sit on the fence when it comes to IT. IT has come to disrupt things. Do you know AI experts have joined the league of highest paid people? They are paid to design machines that will replace human beings in the offices and human beings are not bothered.

IT has been opening up job opportunities. With this new GDPR in EURO zone which is taking effect in May 2018. All companies that operate within that zone or handle data of EU citizens must comply or pay fine of 4% of their worldwide revenue or 20million euro whichever is higher. This has just created job for 28,000 Chief Data Officers so you can imagine if one was already available in the market with such skills. Canadian companies operating in the Euro zone would have need to employ CDOs to take care of their data. Even the regulatory body would also need subject matter experts that would test compliance of organisations with the new regulation.

Like you said a lot of them dont require coding or scripting. Some are compliance, risk management or even governance related. Don't be too scared to cross over to IT because it is not rocket science. some will employ you to just be doing research and poll (likes of GARTNER) Just make a decision on which area of IT that interests you and go for it. I read the Bio of a lady that wrote an article in our ISACA journal and found out she is a wounded veteran who could not continue her service and then switched to IT. Now she is an authority in IT security. In the US, they train these veterans free of charge in the area of IT Security and absorb them to work for government. (You know Russians are giving US sleepless nights in the area of hacking) I have also seen a lot of auditors who switch to IT audit and from there to IT security and IT risk.

Good enough in this part of the clime nobody is bothered about your age when it comes to education/personal development. Your starting point could be joining an IT professional body and attending their seminars, webinars, conferences etc. I believe that will grow your knowledge base.

einsteino:




I think I have to remind some commentators on my answer that the original question was not about evaluating life in Canada in general (the good Vs the bad) or comparing Canada to other countries. If you ask what is a negative thing about a Mercedes Benz I would definitely say “The price”. That does not make Mercedes an inferior car.

einsteino:
[url="https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-darker-sides-of-living-in-Canada"]What are some darker sides of living in Canada?[/url]

Answered by
Sam Boulos, Lived in Canada for 13 years.
Updated Mar 15, 2017

I am glad you asked that question because while Canada presents itself to the World and to prospective immigrants as the perfect place to live, the best country in the World with the best life standards, very little if any is mentioned about the disadvantages. People go with very high expectations and after a while a lot feel disappointed and/or misinformed.

-I agree with the person who said that Canadians are polite but politeness is not equal to friendliness. Saying sorry when they step on your toe is one thing and being approachable is another thing. Canadians are private. Waaay too private. Especially in big cities, people approaching each other and talking to each other in a public place is so freakin’ unusual. For someone to strike a conversation with you in the bus or subway they must be abnormal or mentally sick. You would probably feel more scared than entertained when and if it happens. I used to live in an apartment building where people would not even say hi or smile at each other in the elevator, and they weren’t total strangers. They were neighbours!

-The country is too big for its population which makes everything costly. Shipping, transportation, building roads, telecommunication networks, transmission lines..etc. If Canada were this size of France it would have worked a lot better.

-I think Canadians are not united or harmonious enough as I would expect people from the same country to be. People from outside Toronto hate Toronto dearly. Quebeckers don’t like the rest of Canada and don’t feel belonging. They have a special mutual hatred with Albertans though. These two are always bickering and calling each other names, and generally speaking provinces are always fighting over money, over their share of the federal budget or aid, over conflicting interests. You will find a province that is pro-oil, another is totally anti-oil and wishes to shut down the whole industry, and this pattern repeats…. Add to that the language wars between Anglophones and Francophones and you will start to see a darker side

-The economy is small. Job creation is weak and jobs are hard to find except for a couple of places that are booming, and those places change over time. When a city or a province is going through a boom phase lots of people will flock to it from the rest of Canada to find work. At one point Calgary was one of these centers. The influx of people from other areas was crazy. The housing and infrastructure could not keep up with all the newcomers. Now with the oil prices so low Calgary is losing population so fast. Canadians seem to be in a perpetual state of moving for work. It is very normal to have to move to another city or province to find a job, any job. I am not talking about a big promotion or a fantastic offer. Some people move hoping to find an entry level job or even a job in retail or fast food. Some places are worse than others. Montreal is probably one of the worst job markets on Earth. It is not uncommon in Montreal to be jobless and searching for work for a year or two. I know many people who kept looking for that long.
What adds salt to injury is the infamous lie that new immigrants are told, that they cannot find a job mainly because they lack the ”Canadian Experience”. The poor fellows actually believe it and think there is something wrong with them just because they acquired their skills outside Canada and then a decade or so later they get to realize that this is just an excuse, a cover up for the slow job market. Been there, done that. In reality though, when there is a strong demand for a certain field everyone gets hired, and the first person through the door gets a job offer, having the so called Canadian Experience or not.

-Canadians find their identity in their diversity and multiculturalism and they are happy and proud about it but for me it sounds like an oxymoron. It is like saying “what we all have in common is that we are all different” I think that the country does not have a special flavor or distinct culture. It feels to me more like a shelter where people come from all over the world seeking to escape poverty, conflict or improve their lives in a way or another and they just live together and co-exist but nothing really unites them other than, like I said, diversity. There isn’t really that much sense of nationalism or patriotism, there isn’t really such thing as a national food unless you consider Poutine to be one, or a national costume unless you expect a Hockey Jersey to be one

-The country is not so ambitious. They don’t seek the first place economically, technologically, in the military, in politics, arts, education or anything, and it isn’t known or famous for anything. Not even for something as small as Cheese like France, Chocolate like Belgium or Flowers like the Netherlands. They are perfectly happy with 10 medals or so in the Olympics while a country like Australia with less population usually reaps more than double that number. They are perfectly happy and proud that University of Toronto is ranked #32 in the world but will never seek to be in the top 10 or God forbid top 3. Most of the ambitious and excellent Dentists, Doctors, Lawyers and Engineers end up moving to the states or somewhere else not only because of the money but because they cannot keep up with the mediocrity.

-The weather is not made for human beings but for polar bears.

Footnote:

I think I have to remind some commentators on my answer that the original question was not about evaluating life in Canada in general (the good Vs the bad) or comparing Canada to other countries. If you ask what is a negative thing about a Mercedes Benz I would definitely say “The price”. That does not make Mercedes an inferior car.

Aig84:

einsteino:
[url="https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-darker-sides-of-living-in-Canada"]What are some darker sides of living in Canada?[/url]

Answered by
Sam Boulos, Lived in Canada for 13 years.
Updated Mar 15, 2017

I am glad you asked that question because while Canada presents itself to the World and to prospective immigrants as the perfect place to live, the best country in the World with the best life standards, very little if any is mentioned about the disadvantages. People go with very high expectations and after a while a lot feel disappointed and/or misinformed. I agree...All immigrants should set realistic expectations regardless of the destination country

-I agree with the person who said that Canadians are polite but politeness is not equal to friendliness. Saying sorry when they step on your toe is one thing and being approachable is another thing. Canadians are private. Waaay too private. Especially in big cities, people approaching each other and talking to each other in a public place is so freakin’ unusual. For someone to strike a conversation with you in the bus or subway they must be abnormal or mentally sick. You would probably feel more scared than entertained when and if it happens. I used to live in an apartment building where people would not even say hi or smile at each other in the elevator, and they weren’t total strangers. They were neighbours! This is a common way of life in the West and is strange to those of us who were raised in collectivistic societies, where everyone is in everyone's business. I remember traveling alone to several EU countries on vacation in 2014 and I found that I was able to relate more with other tourists than the locals. It is a situation that most immigrants from Africa for example, will need to mentally adjust to. To interact with people from similar culture/origin societies, it is safe to say that an immigrant will have to be part of social/religious organisations to meet such people.

-The country is too big for its population which makes everything costly. Shipping, transportation, building roads, telecommunication networks, transmission lines..etc. If Canada were this size of France it would have worked a lot better. This is just basic arithmetic really; the more people I am able to provide my services to within a smaller geographical area, the lesser the cost.

-I think Canadians are not united or harmonious enough as I would expect people from the same country to be. People from outside Toronto hate Toronto dearly. Quebeckers don’t like the rest of Canada and don’t feel belonging. They have a special mutual hatred with Albertans though. These two are always bickering and calling each other names, and generally speaking provinces are always fighting over money, over their share of the federal budget or aid, over conflicting interests. You will find a province that is pro-oil, another is totally anti-oil and wishes to shut down the whole industry, and this pattern repeats…. Add to that the language wars between Anglophones and Francophones and you will start to see a darker side This has a lot to do with the history of Canada. This is a problem common to Federal states and is not peculiar to Canada alone. Like the USA, canada is a federal union of different regions (with different beliefs and cultures). I remember a friend from North Carolina telling me that it is a taboo for someone from that state to marry someone from a certain state within the US. Like the Kurds in the Middle East, the Catalans in Spain, the Basque region in France and the Ibos in Nigeria, the Quebec region continues to pursue its autonomy (and to a lesser extent, independence) from the rest of Canada. What makes Canada's case unique is the Anglophone and Francophone dichotomy (Trust me, the differences in the beliefs and cultures are huge). This is why such states/regions enjoy substantial autonomy to keep the separatists at bay!

-The economy is small. Job creation is weak and jobs are hard to find except for a couple of places that are booming, and those places change over time. When a city or a province is going through a boom phase lots of people will flock to it from the rest of Canada to find work. At one point Calgary was one of these centers. The influx of people from other areas was crazy. The housing and infrastructure could not keep up with all the newcomers. Now with the oil prices so low Calgary is losing population so fast. Canadians seem to be in a perpetual state of moving for work. It is very normal to have to move to another city or province to find a job, any job. I am not talking about a big promotion or a fantastic offer. Some people move hoping to find an entry level job or even a job in retail or fast food. Some places are worse than others. Montreal is probably one of the worst job markets on Earth. It is not uncommon in Montreal to be jobless and searching for work for a year or two. I know many people who kept looking for that long. Personally, Canada needs to seek FDI to bolster the economy at the same time as skilled immigrants. They are already doing that though (with the trade agreement signed with the EU a while back) but there is room for improvement.
What adds salt to injury is the infamous lie that new immigrants are told, that they cannot find a job mainly because they lack the ”Canadian Experience”. The poor fellows actually believe it and think there is something wrong with them just because they acquired their skills outside Canada and then a decade or so later they get to realize that this is just an excuse, a cover up for the slow job market. Been there, done that. In reality though, when there is a strong demand for a certain field everyone gets hired, and the first person through the door gets a job offer, having the so called Canadian Experience or not. I believe there are huge misconceptions about the issue of Canadian experience which has been tackled from subjective standpoints on different online forums like Quora. I think all prospective and newly landed immigrants should continue to avail themselves of the available information

-Canadians find their identity in their diversity and multiculturalism and they are happy and proud about it but for me it sounds like an oxymoron. It is like saying “what we all have in common is that we are all different” I think that the country does not have a special flavor or distinct culture. It feels to me more like a shelter where people come from all over the world seeking to escape poverty, conflict or improve their lives in a way or another and they just live together and co-exist but nothing really unites them other than, like I said, diversity. There isn’t really that much sense of nationalism or patriotism, there isn’t really such thing as a national food unless you consider Poutine to be one, or a national costume unless you expect a Hockey Jersey to be one This is a subjective opinion, someone else might disagree

-The country is not so ambitious. They don’t seek the first place economically, technologically, in the military, in politics, arts, education or anything, and it isn’t known or famous for anything. Not even for something as small as Cheese like France, Chocolate like Belgium or Flowers like the Netherlands. They are perfectly happy with 10 medals or so in the Olympics while a country like Australia with less population usually reaps more than double that number. They are perfectly happy and proud that University of Toronto is ranked #32 in the world but will never seek to be in the top 10 or God forbid top 3. Most of the ambitious and excellent Dentists, Doctors, Lawyers and Engineers end up moving to the states or somewhere else not only because of the money but because they cannot keep up with the mediocrity. Ambition is relative; what I consider ambitious may be perceived as inconsequential by another

-The weather is not made for human beings but for polar bears. Well, this is one of the issues I have with Canada. The available opportunities should be commensurate with the sacrifice required to adjust to the weather. Most immigrants migrate from tropical climes and it is natural for them to feel discouraged if the available opportunities are few and far between.

Footnote:

I think I have to remind some commentators on my answer that the original question was not about evaluating life in Canada in general (the good Vs the bad) or comparing Canada to other countries. If you ask what is a negative thing about a Mercedes Benz I would definitely say “The price”. That does not make Mercedes an inferior car. Fact!

Claire40:
Congrats, enjoy Canada. I'm still far behind in the process but expecting ITA hopefully by next week. Do you know if there is any whats app group for foreign trained lawyers in Canada? we might be able to get more information and tips from there

kazchick:
Please I have been reading about the importance of updating your resume as well as inputting some key words covering essential skills according to the job you are applying for? How do you go about this?

Yooku:
Choi!!! This thread has grown in one month oh...Will need some days to catch up...Canada has been good so far since landing 6 weeks ago. Need to start from Pg 0 for a refresher

Yooku:
Choi!!! This thread has grown in one month oh...Will need some days to catch up...Canada has been good so far since landing 6 weeks ago. Need to start from Pg 0 for a refresher

caon:
honey86 , Salford.pls I need detailed information Manitoba and Alberta.I have been considering both provinces seriously.I studied accounting n working in a financial institution not as an accountant though but hope to pursing accounting profession when there in the near future.I kind of like manitoba because I read that it has the lowest unemployment rate.also drawn to Alberta because of its boom economy.I need advice on both provinces based on job prospects.
thank you

salford1:

There is no boom in Alberta at the moment, but that does not mean you can't get a job. There are still lots of job especially if you are open to relocating within the province. 3 friends just left calgary in the past 2 to 3 months to take up jobs in Grand Prairie, engineering and technical roles though. There have been a demand for accounting related professionals recently in Alberta and Sask because of the tax season. I cant say much for Manitoba. Not stayed there long enough to know the situation of jobs over there. Honey86 may be able to help you with that.

Wura27:
Okay cool! Anyone interested in the Whatsapp group exclusively for [/b] Landed Calgarians [b] should please send me a PM....

Sharp sharp before Seun blocks me loll

salford1:


Spot-on...

My thoughts from my experience so far:

Canada's diversity is sort of limited to large urban centres though. Alot of smaller cities are still very white except for a few philipinos here and there.

Not sure about Montreal being one of the worst job market in the world. Alot of large industries are located in Quebec, I mean world large not Canadian large... There are professionals in Calgary that have being underemployed/unemployed for over two years cos of the downturn, but this doesn't make it one of the worst place on earth to get jobs in the world. Jobs only became more competitive.

Provinces do engage in dispute alot. Alberta and BC are not in good terms at the moment. Just last week, BC would not allow a pipeline from Alberta to run through it to access the coast. Alberta retaliates by banning importation of wine from BC. Suprisingly, both provinces are governed by NDP. 2 or 3 weeks before that. Alberta work vehicles were not allowed on Sask construction sites and vice versa. Quebec would rather buy crude from Saudi instead of letting Alberta run a pipe to their province, yet they get the largest share of the equalization payment lol.

Tamm:
I agree with some of the points, but...



In my opinion, for those from 'Third World' countries in sub-Saharan Africa like Nigeria and South Asia, there really is no room for comparison. Canada is a developed country, if your intention is to migrate for a 'better life', by all means, do.

eclectic139:
Good day all,

Thank you for all your contributions.

Please do they confiscate Indomie Noodles at Canadian airport?

obajoey:
Please people of God, what is the minimum balance that should be in the statement of account to be used to support student visa application, please.