A big truth of life Desimisri!

I think the only difference lies in the fact that Canada is portrayed as a glittering country and promises exceptionally great life and therefore new immigrants migrate here with that vision, whereas India is never advertised as a land of opportunities (infact, the world knows it as something entirely different).

Guess that the media has power to fool anyone - even the US citizens for that matter!!

Chandresh

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Chandresh

Advice is free – lessons I charge for!!

Chandresh

Wouldn't quite agree that the media is fooling prospective immigrants. North America in general does have terrific systems. However, one does have to adapt and 'work' those systems to one's own advantage.

Guess its easier for the younger guys to do that, the adapting is probably a tough ask from the middle aged folks.

Salaam malai kum. Marhaba!

Thank you Mishtar India and Mr Chandresh for your kind words. Our club had been wondering for some months now how you CD's would take to non- desi "Indians" writing on this site. I was just selected president last month and after the initial orientation program I decided to post our points of view, as being the person who has for the longest period of time lived in India in this club, and knowing how hospitable Indians are, I knew you would not mind us posting our viewpoints.
There is a lady in our club without premises who would like to post her perspective from a woman's point of view. I hope you will not mind.

Also a note for Crenshaw.
I have for the last 10 years in Canada helped people get a job by using the following as my opening line on the cover letter. Let us assume that the job posting was on workopolis

"In response to your advertisement on workopolis.com for a customer service representative, please find attached herewith my resume."

The success rate at the moment using that opening line has been 75% plus. What do you recommend to better that strike rate?

Here is a sample letter for a lady who just got her job and started on Sep 13.

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Dear Mr. Hand,

In response to your position for a regional sales coordinator on your website, I have attached my resume for your perusal.

I have dealt with financial institutions for several years and have done extensive work in the areas of business, finance and insurance. I have worked closely with top management on several projects related to finance and have delivered research material within tight schedules. I also have been the liaison officer distributing information, coordinating events and handling reports and expense accounts. I have the ability to work independently, have excellent attention to detail, strong results orientation, excellent organizational skills and great follow-up skills. I also have superior grammatical, proofreading and editing skills required for business and corporate communication.

I would appreciate the opportunity of meeting you personally to discuss how my educational qualifications, organizational skills and extensive and varied work experience will bring added value to your organization.

Thanking you,

Yours truly,

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Notice the opening line, which you say is a no no, I use all the time and it works most of the time. Can u post a better opening line or perhaps a better cover letter altogether?
Please note the job is that of a regional sales coordinator and she got it. The post pays over $50,000 and she has been here only 3 years. She is Muslim and educated in India, but from Egypt.
Please let me know of a better opening line.I would really appreciate it.

I would love to meet you Mishtar India. Say next weekend. I do not drink alcohol so a coffee place would be fine or even China buffet if you like Chinese food.
Mr Chandrsh, we are also going to Temptation 2004 *ing Shah Rukh and gang.

Desimisri

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while in Rome do as the Romans do

DesiMisri,

Let me give you a counter-arguement. It will challenge your theory of "implicit" racism in Canada vis-a-vis India.

For e.g., say you have you an Indian company L&T Cements. (thats Larsen and Tubro cemnets). An arabic speaking person, with knowledge of English only may not be able to find a job there. Thats 'cos L&T operates in different states of India where languages differ. If the concerned person is fluent in Hindi ( at least) or the regional language, then I am sure that such a scenario will not occur. A similar analogy can be derived from applying for jobs in institutions that require a candidate to be bilingual ! Ppl from Somalia, Ethiopia etc., will face problems in India as they have to pick up both English and a regional language (or Hindi).. The same person will generally be excluded from Blingual jobs in Canada and will stand a good chance where English is the only requirement.

Think abt this... I have friends from Germany and Sweden who are working in Indian organizations (i.e., TCS, WIPRO, Infosys) and they are led by Indian folks and not "non-desi Honcho's" as you have put it !..

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"Aur Vaise Bhi, Sharafat ki jab kapde utarti hai, sabse zyaada mazaa shareefon ko hi aati hai"....(From The Dirty Picture)

Warning !! SCAM ALERT !!
http://www.canadiandesi.ca/read.php?TID=4169 & http://www.canadiandesi.ca/read.php?TID=1379
This is a Useful Health related Tip
http://www.canadiandesi.ca/read.php?TID=3865
Please visit
http://www.cmje.org/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php for some interesting Information ! (Especially 009.005 )

Misri

Lets not get sidetracked here, the example of the opening line was meant to be illustrative. Words like herewith and perusal are generally considered old English and therefore out of place in a North American context (that's the input that I've received). Again this input was received from 2 people that are out in the field opening / reading Resumes of people every day.

In writing a covering letter I would minimize the number of words that I used and in a grammatical sense, use more active voice than passive - "I have attached my Resume for your consideration"

In my previous post, I never meant to suggest that any of those points (language, research ability, etc) was by itself a no-no, rather each is a contributing factor. A recruiter would have to be stupid to toss the Resume of a suitable candidate into the trash can just because his opening line was too long. However, professional recruiters after reading a cover letter / Resume and talking to the prospect over the phone, very quickly know whether they would want to present him to a client or not. A number of attributes come into play here - writing skills, speaking skills (therefore in broad sense, 'language ability').

The bottom line is being able to communicate one's message across during the recruitment process, unfortunately that does not seem to happen with a lot of the new immigrants that we are talking about.

As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke don't fix it", if your style works for you, good for you. However, there are a lot of people that crib about Canada without really looking at themselves, identifying their flaws and deficiencies and working on them. My previous message was meant for those people.

Thanks.

Hi Desi misri, ON and Crenshaw and the rest:

Everybody is entitled to their opinion. I can see where desimisri is coming from because even at Birla we had people from countries like Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius etc working with us who had degrees from Indian universities purely for their language abilities. Even though we hired MBAs and M.Comms so that we were sure they understood the concept of finance, their main contribution was their language prowess. They were there basically for PR purposes.
Your friends from Sweden and Germany, ON, are they “gora”? If they are, I don’t need to say anything more ‘cos I imagine our Egyptian friend is the same color as us Indians ie brown. If they are not “gora” lemme know. I’ll think of something to back up Desi misri. After all they are from Sweden and Germany, not South Africa nor Egypt, if ya git muh drift, pal.And if they are “gora” and you really want me to be more explicit, I will. It ain’t gonna be pretty, though.
Crenshaw, you used a bad illustration “ I have attached herewith my resume for your perusal”. The first substantial job I landed here was using that line. If you can base your judgement based on the feedback of 2 HR recruiters, Desi misri is telling you that it works 75% of the time, I’ll go with him on that. Actually that cover letter I wrote is a stereotyped cover letter from a basic business correspondence course in Mumbai and you know what the recruiter told me? He told me it was the most powerful cover letter he had read in a long time. While at that company I would use in internal memos “ Please do the needful” one hell of a lot and most people had heard it for the first time. It became so popular that the CEO started using it. Short and sweet and to the point.
All these are personal experiences. Like I always say a controlled study should be done.
By the way, folks, I am gonna look for that cover letter and post it here. It may help you guys or not, who knows?

By the way, Desi Misri, in what capacity do you work here, just out of interest. Many Egyptians I know here, speak French. If you do, you have a clear advantage over the desis who don’t. At any rate ‘tis great to know other nationalities are comin’ on board this site. And ‘tis also good to know that you folks recommend this site to your kinsfolk.
Mebbe this site really oughtta be put as a link on the CIC site.

BKB

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Get what you want by helping others get what they want

Ok folks,
Here is the cover letter I sent for a job as fund analyst. It is basically a copy and paste version from a basic business writing course given in India- and the recruiter told me it was one of the most powerful ones he had read in a long time.
If any of you people have any cover letters you have written that have landed you a well paying job, say $50,000 or above, or let's make that $40,000 or above (the average in Toronto, I beleieve is $725 per week- so $40,000 is above average), do please post it here for all those who wish to use as examples for their cover letters.

Ain't no good to say ya shudna done this nor that w/o giving an example of what ya think shudda been done.

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Dear (Hiring Manager),

In response to your advertisement for a fund analyst, please find attached herewith my resume.

I am interested in gaining employment with your company. I hold an MBA in Business Specialization. I have extensive experience in the mutual fund industry, travelling abroad and developing products in a global environment. I have been working in the financial field for the last sixteen years, four of those years were with Birla-Sun Alliance, a subsidiary of Sun Life Canada. I have the ability to work independently, have excellent attention to detail, strong results orientation, great follow-up skills, excellent problem-solving skills, analytical skills and top-notch organizational skills.

I can offer you the immediate benefit and future potential of my enthusiasm and professional work ethics in undertaking any and all tasks assigned to me and would greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet you to discuss how my educational qualifications, work experience, superior time-management and organizational skills will bring added value to your organization.

Thanking you,.


Yours truly,

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Please post your comments if ya will folks. Yeah perform a post-mortem on this- 'Twill be a good exercise.

Hey like it's Sat night and I am writin' this post. Shud be tyin' one on!

Bambai ka Babu

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Get what you want by helping others get what they want