You are new in a country. Your family, friends, coworkers, and network stayed in your original country. All your experience and educational background don’t matter anymore.

That is how I feel as an international student in Canada.

In Brazil I had a Business Administration bachelor and worked as Data Analyst for around 10 years. I was working before come to Canada. I was referred to it via networking. The godmother of my nephew knew that I was looking for a new position and indicated me. There, I used to design dashboards and executive presentations; I monitored, analyzed and suggested changes to the company’s KPIs, such as budget, financial expenditure and cost; and I developed improvement to achieve goals.

In others words, in Brazil I had networking and experience, in Canada I have nothing.

The article “Finding your first job as an international graduate in Canada” points out some steps to help international students start to work in Canada, including networking (Sivakumar, 2024). However, for a newcomer like me, it is not an easy quest. As I wrote, my entire support network is in my country of origin. It’s a utopian idea to believe that an international post-secondary student can easily create a network during or after graduation.

Furthermore, Sivakumar forgot another important point to get a job in Canada, Canadian experience. In her article, More (2022) informs “Many employers […] are looking for Canadian experience”.  This fact creates a vicious circle for us, international students. We are looking for our first job in Canada, but we need a previous Canadian job to have an opportunity.

How can we, international students, get a job in Canada?

References

Moore, D. (2022). How immigrants are overcoming obstacles to build careers in Canada: Hiring new immigrants is also an opportunity for employers to break through systemic barriers and fill the talent gap, experts say. The Globe and Mail (Online). https://libaccess.senecacollege.ca/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/blogs-podcasts-websites/how-immigrants-are-overcoming-obstacles-build/docview/2705279778/se-2?accountid=28610

Sivakumar, V. (2024). Finding your first job as an international graduate in Canada. CIC News. https://www.cicnews.com/2024/07/finding-your-first-job-as-an-international-graduate-in-canada-0745296.html