Thursday, January 4, 2007

Success Skills and Recruiters

I got some calls from a couple of recruiters. Both of them are based outside Winnipeg but have some openings here. One of them had an opening that required me to get government security clearance so she sent me the forms I needed to fill out. The other had an opening that required Crystal Reports skills (I've been seeing a LOT of those jobs). Hopefully these lead me somewhere good.

Today I also attended the orientation for Success Skills Center workshop. Basically, they're a not-for-profit organization that assists immigrant professionals find work in their field. This will be a 2 week workshop where we will be taught things like resume format, interview skills, work environment, culture, etc.

Naturally, the first people I was able to talk to were fellow pinoys. I met around 4. There were probably around 30 attendees with various ethnic backgrounds. In addition to that, a fellow Pinoy who I met at Success Skills told me that he thought I was Chinese. Had to throw that in :)

One of the pinoys related how she had self-esteem problems working in a survival job which I totally understand. This is probably thanks to wrong expectations. Thankfully, my expectations aren't so high since my wife arrived here first and told me how it really was. It's easy for one to be taken by surprise thanks to the "points system" where if you pass, you would expect that you can get a job in your field. You are led to believe that you are what Canada is looking for. They seem to be getting better at this though as they mentioned that you might not get a job in your original field in this seminar I attended before leaving the Philippines. Oh well, I hope this workshop helps me, her and everyone else attending.

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