How can ATS Resume and LinkedIn Job Search in Canada?

Canada is a dream country for immigration. Thousands of Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and other nationalities migrate to Canada every year. Over 90 percent migrants find that despite their education, language ability and experience, job search in Canada is a real struggle!

In most cases, landing in a job of choice is extremely difficult in the Canadian job market. A number of immigrants restore to what they call Survival Jobs. Working part-time on casual jobs is the only way to survive for many. It can take about a year or so to find the first desirable job, which may not be at the similar level of seniority that people have worked in their home countries.

In Canada there are several services focused at helping immigrants. There are many programs that can help immigrants in identifying gaps in their resumes etc. However, one of the biggest reason for their inability to find a job is the lack of understanding of job market dynamics in Canada.

The biggest loss that any immigrant has to book is the loss of social capital. When an immigrant lands in Canada, the starting point is almost zero social capital. A number of immigrants do not have friends and family to provide the initial hand-holding and moral support, some of them are still struggling to find their firm ground in Canada.

Expectations from immigrants to find a job quickly, and failure to find one, put immigrants under massive psychological stress. Those who are with family, owes are bigger and more complex. What seemed to be a nice and easy sailing, becomes an unbeatable challenge on arrival in Canada.

Following three paragraphs will explain few key reasons for inability of finding a job in Canada quickly:

1. Lack of Job Search Strategy and Ignoring the importance of LinkedIn Profile Optimization

I provide consultancy to my clients on job search strategy. I have seen that the lack of understanding of job market dynamics as one of the major failure. The fact of the matter is that a large number of jobs are with recruiters. Companies do not hire directly, recruiters do the selection and initial interviews. Recruiters are busy professionals, it is not possible for them to track emails with resume attachments. Competition is stiff. When they get a lead, they only have 48 to 72 hours to produce one or two potential candidates. The fastest way for them is to use LinkedIn as a search platform. However, only those who have active and optimized profiles stand chances of appearing in recruiters search. All other profiles do not exist because LinkedIn’s algorithm ignores inactive or non-optimized profiles. LinkedIn Profile Optimization should be one of the priority even before landing in Canada.

2. ATS Resume

The second factor is ATS resume. ATS is the abbreviation of Application Tracking System. A resume that is not ATS friendly, is most likely to get rejects in initial sifting process done digitally. ATS is used where there is a need to save time. Hiring managers would only see resumes that are cleared by ATS.

In Canada, ATS is considered as an essential part of hiring process. Immigrants need to focus on creating effectively improved resumes to beat the competition on ATS.

3. Targeting the Hidden Job Market in Canada

And the third factor is their inability to target the hidden job market. There is a general consensus around 70% jobs in the market are not advertised. This means that the actual job market is much bigger than what we see on job sites such as Workopolis, Monster, Indeed etc.

Most immigrants I coached did not know anything about the hidden job market, and they could target the hidden job market by the optimal use of their LinkedIn profile. It is essential to learn to tap into the hidden job market, there is lesser competition, better opportunities!

I encourage you to read an interesting study conducted by CERIC. This study documented the challenges faced by newcomers and immigrants such as finding a career match in, delays in landing in the first job, challenges in searching jobs, lack of network etc.

In my experience, immigrants who initially invest in LinkedIn Profile Optimization, ATS friendly resume and learn to target the hidden job market stand better chances of finding a job in Canada quickly.

Survival jobs are not for everyone, these jobs are tough and unsustainable. A decision to make an initial investment in a new beginning in Canada can make a lot of difference for Canadian Immigrants.