My Canadian Immigration Story: Dusty Ahmedabad to Snowy Toronto

It was a lovely afternoon of dusty Ahmedabad, I was designing Marketplace for engineering portal my company was developing, and my wife rang me with enthusiastic voice, “We got Visa!!”

Though we were expecting it at any time, this moment brought mixed feelings – but I should say more of a worry than the happiness.

When I return home at evening, my wife surprised to look at my face – she was expecting a smiling face, but got worried face!

Yes, the mental process of settling down in Canada started. I had few friends in Canada who migrated from India recently, and I knew their situation. Being a head of US based software development company’s technical division at India, and getting decent salary sitting in hometown, it was really a big thing to go to Canada and establish roots!

Days and nights passed without rest and with worry.

May 10, 2000 was the day when we put our foot on the soil of Canada, and the real struggle started.

I was lucky though. I had job in Hand when I landed in Canada. Surprising enough – but the company for which I was working offered me job in US. I went to US twice in first month and started working from Canada, till I get my L1 Visa.

So, Canada was our temporary stay. God knows what was written in our fate, but some how my L1 Visa got delayed and I finally decided to stay in Canada.

I had bachelors degree in Engineer, having 12 years of sound IT experience ranging from CAD applications to business applications to Internet applications. The last job was with US Company and I really had few months of North American experience. In addition I worked on Canadian project at India for two years.

I tested with many people regarding my adaptability in Canada. My technical director of last job, seniors and Canadians from the Canadian project and many others said that I should be successful here.

With their faith in me and with my faith in God, I started looking for job in Canada. And my search goes like this.

In fact I registered my resume with many job sites when I was in India. I was also asking many people about my resume and was constantly modifying it. Having my resume on the Internet had resulted many phone calls and inquiry e-mails – mostly from recruiter.

My main job finding source was Internet. As I had computer at Home, I didn’t needed help from HRDC centers or Libraries otherwise they are really good sources. I also took other precautions – like having Call Answer facility from the telephone company –, which is required as the whole America runs on voice messages. I noticed some people do not take it (as it costs few dollars a month!) considering it unnecessary. This is wrong, as here no one is waiting for you. The life is fast and people after hearing few rings do not get any response or voice message prompt they hang up and will never call again. You will definitely loose many jobs! I also prepared a proper script that I need to speak on telephone. Usually when people call on telephone there questions are simpler and predictable. “Tell me about your current (or last) job”, “Tell me about yourself”, “Which is your strongest skill/skills” etc. It is not difficult to prepare such script. I was also sending different resume for each company depending on the requirement.

The first person to interview me was a recruiter. He called me to a coffee shop and after fifteen minutes, he concluded that you can get a job of around 60 K, but you might have to satisfy somewhat junior level of work! Yes, that was reality for most of the people – those who don’t understand what the technology means and what the Canadian experience means! He also advised me to lower the speed of my English. It was good advise though. He said that when you speak fast, and since your pronunciations are not Canadian it will be difficult for other person to understand what you are saying! Somehow that recruiter didn’t get any job for me.

My second interview was with a software company developing portal lumber industry. They were using same tools on which I worked on last project. I thought it should be good match. The interview went well. They explain me what they are doing and for what this position is for and finally they asked me for my expectation. Not knowing the market position here properly I told them a figure, which was much less than what, they were thinking and so they refused me! I learnt a lesson that you should not tell anything below market otherwise that will show that you are not competent.

The third interview was with another Internet company – which was developing pornographic site! My technical interview went well, but they rejected me for my management skills. The position was for managing software development group of about 50 people. I learnt a lesson again – improve your management skills or at least show them that you are competent manager. I refresh my knowledge about software management, read some material on quality assurance, team development, and software development lifecycle – which I knew and was practicing, but decayed because of time.

And one good day, I got a call from one recruiter. He asked me about myself and other stuff. As I was getting many calls from recruiters and very few of them were getting converted into interview with real client, I considered this one usual. Next day he called me and asked that is it convenient for me to go to London for interview? I said, I don’t have car, but I can manage.

After sometime he called me and said, well the company president himself is coming to Markham at his (recruiter’s) office. It was good for me. I went there. It was first interview and it was on management skills. They wanted to develop a portal for Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry. Being a Civil Engineer by education and also by work and with solid experience developing Engineering portal, they had full trust on me and my presentation went excellent. They were very positive and said me that we are ready to hire you, but you have to pass technical interview on this Monday on telephone.

I prepared myself for that interview during weekends. On Monday I got a call from the technical person from Edmonton. It lasted for 90 minutes. And finally I got a job! That was excellent, well paid and with good title job!

My dream came true!!! Thank God.

I adjusted myself from Dusty Ahmedabad to Snowy Toronto quite comfortably!