Canadian work experience?

Does anybody remember sending CVs to Canadian companies and hearing about Canadian work experience?

Photo courtesy of Careerpursuitblog.wordpress.com

Well, we do. In fact, it's something mrHKer never forgot, because he's applied for many jobs and securing a job while still in HK was not straightforward. Did you watch youtube videos about how people found jobs in 1 month? Did you go to forums where it's mentioned how you do this and that and boom! 3 steps, 10 interviews, 3 offers? Well, for sure the youtubers, forum writers and bloggers are telling you what worked for them and how they did it. In fact, this blog  by Carerrpursuitblog explains what everyone was discussing pretty well.

In all honesty (again), it's not an easy process. Countless applications sent, with customized CVs and cover letters to match the job descriptions. And yeah, the Canadian experience part? I read how most of us applied and got rejected because of the lack of it. I did too. But it's not because I did not work for a Canadian company before nor does the work culture in HK differ. Remember, the companies are hiring people who fit their work ethics and will integrate their team. 

Some ways to look at it:

So, please bear this in mind when you write the CV and cover letters to apply:

• Read the job description to have an idea of the roles and responsibilities
• Read about the company
• Check on linkedin, glassdoor or indeed what is the work style
• If you can find who is your interviewer and can look that person up on linkedin to have an understanding of what he/she is like, then you may know what is their work background and leadership style
• Present your soft skills, eg teamwork, proactiveness, people-people communication internally/externally, based on what the company seems to be about (hint: corporate culture, mission statement).

Yeah, for MrHKer, it only started making sense towards the last hundred applications after receiving hundreds of rejection emails. But honestly, mrHKer worked in international companies with colleagues from overseas. He worked with Canadians, Europeans, Americans, Australians, Indians, Singaporeans, Thais, Filipinos, Japanese, Nigerians, Indonesians ... etc and even for American branch off companies too. The work culture and experience is not dissimilar from Canada's collaborative nature, proactive and problem-solving focus with a honest ethical approach (no cutting corners just for the sake to get a result - it's not result oriented but method oriented towards a generic useful not one-off solution). So, you get the idea. It's how it is in the US companies and even in most HK companies. 

What's the advice here?

Once you know what kind of company you are getting interviewed by, the type of culture and their work approach, think of all your skills and previous occasions where you could exhibit these in a work environment. "Describe an occasion where you fixed a problem", "Please showcase how you would resolve this issue with a client", "Have you ever dealt with a difficult employee/customer/<<insert issue here>>"...etc. All they want to know is that you are able to fit their team and act like one of theirs. Of course, if you did not do it in their expected way, you may still elaborate, eg you can tell them that although it diffused the situation or fixed the issue partially, you could have done it better by doing something else. Again, they are not just interested in your experience and what you did, but your thinking process.

So, there's the observation from what mrHKer's take on the "Canadian Work Experience" part.