Hello there, I'm a high qualified portuguese electrician,15 years of experience and i have 37 years old. It's my dream go work to a great country like Canada.I now that's not easy,but I have a dream and i like very much to work. So if you can,please help,i'l be greatfull
Can i work in Canada, please?
- Thread starter jla
- Start date
Double posting probably won't help.
If you have a criminal record in Portugal, forget about it.
Are you willing to work 12 hour a day/7 day a week rotations outside in -30C weather?
Are you willing to be on call 24/7/365?
Are you willing to work on dodgy 600V circuits in the pouring rain or snow?
Are you willing to work for a lower pay scale than presently exists in the EU?
Yes or No?
If No you should probably hunt around in the EU, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK may still be doing a bit of hiring.
If Yes then see below.
Write a very short,one page resume.
It would be most helpful if you have liceensed EU electrician status and/or some post secondary education.
Do not lie on your resume.
Google "Fort McMurray" and "Oil Sands producers" learn what you can and then google the home pages of companies you have found.
Go to the careers or jobs sections of the home page sites of the companies you have found and follow the instructions.
Chances are the big producers will not offer you a job but make sure you politely ask if they know of any contractors that are hiring outside of Canada.
Repeat as needed
You tell him not to ask idiots. Then you give him a link to the government. Am I the only one who sees the irony in that?
Hi GerryH.
The question I have is why don't we all ignore you?
You seem to specialize in insulting others and raining down negativity far and wide.
Sort of a forums resident buzzkill specialist.
I never said I was an expert on getting a Canadian work visa but here is what I do know.
You need to have a Canadian job in hand that does not take a position away from a resident Canadian.
And you need a Canadian company to sponsor your visa and supply an appropriate letter and paperwork.
Generally speaking you need to be very highly skilled or willing to do work that Canadians don't want to do.
How do I know this?
I have spent 25 years working all over the world on contracts.
And for most of those contracts I needed a work visa.
My old passports are stuffed with the things.
And as to my knowledge of work in the EU I just happen to have lived and worked all over the EU, to boot I am a local and hold an EU passport.
But GerryH probably knows better than I about that EU work stuff.
While working I helped Canadian companies both hire and train foreign engineers both in other countries and here in Canada.
Working both for foreign branch offices and local Canadian companies I assisted in bringing foreign specialist workers into Canadian for both for training and work experience.
This of course involved getting them Canadian work visa's.
So hey GerryH please don't hesitate to point out my errors.
And why don't you share your valuable knowledge on the topic and help out the OP.
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The biggest problem for foreign tradesmen is not having Canadian certification. It largely depends on what job you luck into how easily you will get certified. Since your English seems good it will make the whole process a lot simpler. Good luck.
Trex, what I do know is that the plumbing and heating company I work for has hired 1 Brit and 1 Irishman from GB. I know that an electrical company in Saskatoon has sponsored 2 Brits that are working for them. I asked our Brit about their quals and it is more stringent back there then it is here. So, before I posted I double checked on what you were saying in your original post.
Your description of what electricians here in Canada are required to do is absolute bullshyte.
Your description of what electricians here in Canada are required to do is absolute bullshyte.
Working in the trades and trying to travel and work is brutal.
Unionism at its finest.
Even in Canada many a tradesman with an interprovincial ticket will not be not qualified to sign off on jobs province to province because of interprovincial code changes.
Many Canadian Indian reservations have the right to create building and construction codes on an ad hoc reserve by reserve basis.
And thats just Canada.
Trades, I admit, are not my area of expertise.
In the past the foreign employees that I helped to bring into Canada for training were easy, they were both highly qualified and in demand.
And when I helped opened a subsidiary office in the US of A for a Canadian corporation it was similarly easy to bring Canadian workers into the US.
If you have the requirments under NAFTA and the company backs you it's a cakewalk.
Any large company can declare its employees needed or important to operations in a foreign location and hey, presto, a foreign work visa materializes.
Back to our Portugese electrician.
Trades are tough.
But I know that in the past, welders, pipefitters, insulators, heavy duty mechanics, scaffolders and HVAC guys have been brought into Canada.
Under the previous Federal Liberal Government so were strippers and hairdressers, but hey.
I figure if you have trades experience where its really needed your golden.
Your not going to be writing off on jobs off because of code requirments, but still.
Search the jobs, apply for what you qualify for and if you happen to be in demand.
Bingo.
If not try, try again.
Failing that come on over on a tourist visa.
Go to NE BC, Alberta or Sask.
Buy a hardhat and boots when you get there.
Take a local bus to as close as you can to a few nearby local drilling rig locations and then thumb or bum your way the rest of the way out to location.
I can't believe I just said that.
And now lets talk about working at the ski hills.
Love those Aussie chicks.
Thanks again for the personal insults GerryH, always nice to take it as low as you can go right off the bat.
I admit I intentionally made my initial post seem like working conditions in Canada are a rough go.
And I think most readers of this thread are well aware that Canada does not require electricans to work 24 hours a day 365 days a year in -75C weather on hot electrical circuits with a ground wire up the a$$.
Armed with nothing but a rusty screwdriver and a sledgehammer.
In the rain, at gunpoint.
The the reason why I explained to our Portugese friend that work conditions in Canada could be a wee bit rough its because they can at times can be exactly that.
Especially if your non- union.
You have to be willing to do work that Canadians are not willing to do-it's just that simple.
And some of the work in Northern Alberta or NE BC can really suck.
Or on the other hand you have to be far more expierenced and better educated than any available Canadians.
Either or.
In my view Canada really does not need any more work visa applicants that really are not all that keen to actually work hard.
So if you are upfront about how tough working conditions and requirements could possibly be I find things go a wee bit smoother in the long haul.
And on that front I do have a great deal of expierence.
I have done a fair bit of hiring in my day but conversely I have also learned how to do some firing.
Foreign work visas are not a free ride to a Canadian vacation, nor are they a ticket to exploit the Great Canadian Social and Welfare system.
My initial post laid out in a fairly straight forward fashion how our Portugese electrician could seek job oportunities in Canada.
GerryH why don't you improve on that for our Portugese OP thread starter?
Perhaps you and your Brit electrician pals could post a few job hunting pointers for him so that the rest of us could keep informed?
Perhaps you guys have an email or some company contacts for him?
This says it all.
Calling you on your bullshyte is not personally insulting you, it's calling you on your bullshyte.
Nice to see you admit your lies.
Nice of you to assume that our Portuguese friend falls into that category.
There's a new immigration program that was announced late last year. The program has already begun. The new stream is designed to increase immigration from people just like you. You seem to meet the language requirements. It would help if you have a job offer from an employer here. So long as you have certification and a few years work experience which you seem to have lots of, you would seem to be a natural fit for this program.
The Citizenship and Immigration Canada program information is here:
Skilled trades
For job offers, Google. Lots of electrician jobs around the country. Good luck!
Actually no lies at all GerryH.
It's you who doesnt know what he is talking about.
You said in a general that I didnt know what I was talking about.
Here is what I said.
If you have a criminal record in Portugal, forget about it.
Are you willing to work 12 hour a day/7 day a week rotations outside in -30C weather?
Are you willing to be on call 24/7/365?
Are you willing to work on dodgy 600V circuits in the pouring rain or snow?
Are you willing to work for a lower pay scale than presently exists in the EU?
Yes or No?
First off Gerry we don't give convicted criminals visa's to Canada.
Most of the sponsored Trades jobs in Canada are in the resource extraction game.
Mines, pipelines, refineries, oil sand sites, gas and oil production sites, stuff like that.
Question 1: are you willing to work 12 hour a day/7 day a week rotations outside in -30C weather?
Many, many Tradesmen work 12/7 shifts on 10, 14 or 20 day rotations, pretty much all remote plant, mine and O&G operations are on rotation.
Who doesn't think a Tradesman may have to work outdoors from time to time?
If you are on a newbuild or development project there may not be much heat (sometimes just a few Herman Nelson's) and guess what, you continue to work.
Lots of Linesman are dual ticket Electricians, guess what they work outside, even in winter all day long.
How do some people think that outdoor electrical circuits and controls are installed anyway?
Question 2: Are you willing to be on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year.
As to being on call 24 hours a day.
Pretty common stuff when your the senior on call guy.
Thats what being on call means.
The 365 days a year is a bit of a stretch, most people get a few days off, unless your self employed but it could be said some people choose remain on call for very long stretches of time.
When I was in managment I was on call 24 hours a day, year round.
My buddy is a senior Drilling Manager for a big oil company that drills oil and gas wells all year long.
He is on call 24/7/365 days a year. Year in and year out.
When he goes on vacation out of the country, guess what, they still call him, night or day.
Question 3: are you willing to work on dodgy 600V curcuits in the rain.
If the circuit wasn't dodgy an Electrician wouldn't need to check it.
1000 HP General Electric 600VDC motors are common as dirt on most large plant or construction sites and so are the circuits that feed them.
Tradesman work in the snow and rain all the time on construction sites or new builds.
I never said they didn't lock out hot circuits, they do, and then they work on them, in the rain and snow.
Question 3: Are you willing to work for a lower pay scale than in the EU?
Pay scales vary across the EU and Europe.
By and large EU and European pay scales tend to be higher than in Canada.
This would apply to Tradespeople and Electricians.
So where exactly are the lies GerryH?
Or is it the part where I said to research Oil Sands or O&G companies career sections for possible job availabilities.
Or is it the bit where I advised keeping your resume short and not lying about your qualifications?
Where exactly are the lies GerryH?
Some folks just don't seem to realize that some other people work pretty darn hard for their money.
Must be nice to have led some kind of sheltered, protected life and never have had to work long hard hours at a tough job.
When I worked on offshore semi- sub drilling platforms in the North Sea we called our Brit Electricians Sparkie's.
Two Sparkies to a rig, both working 12 hour shifts and both on call 24 hours a day as required.
When the main lighting wiring failed on the 200ft tall drilling mast guess who went up there to fix it?
The weather in the northern North Sea in January can be, to say the least, extreme but if the wind speed is below legal shutdown speeds, then it's "up you go lad".
And when the SCR gensets start to act up and threaten to shut down the $500,000 dollar a day operation guess who gets out of bed and works for as long as it takes?
So GerryH I will accept your apologies for your slurs and false accusations.
How are you coming along with helpful advice for our OP?
You being so knowledgeable on the topic and all.
Pay is relative. The EU also has higher tax rates than Canada, but I don't think even without considering income taxes that the scale is tilted that badly towards Europe.
The median pay in the UK is just under 24,000 pounds. That's roughly $37,000 Canadian. The 90th percentile works out to $56,000. None of my electrician friends work for less than double the median. Even in PEI, which isn't even considered a booming economy, a well trained electrician will make more than $70,000.
jla
I have to tell you the truth. There is no work in Canada. Under Canada’s New Governments Action Plan all jobs have been filled. Yes they have been in power for 8 years but they are still New at the job.
Those that do not have jobs can expect a visit from the Guilt Police Section. A new dept that falls under a number of Ministries including those that believe in – Their own fault they cannot find a job –
Which in itself does have that ring of truth as mentioned earlier. All Jobs have been filled as we bow down to our New Governments Multiple Action Plans.
I have to tell you the truth. There is no work in Canada. Under Canada’s New Governments Action Plan all jobs have been filled. Yes they have been in power for 8 years but they are still New at the job.
Those that do not have jobs can expect a visit from the Guilt Police Section. A new dept that falls under a number of Ministries including those that believe in – Their own fault they cannot find a job –
Which in itself does have that ring of truth as mentioned earlier. All Jobs have been filled as we bow down to our New Governments Multiple Action Plans.
Well yes, you are correct Ton.
Also I would point out that scale in Portugal is almost certainly nowhere near where it is in say Norway.
Taxes and hidden costs (like fuel) tend to be higher all over Europe than in Canada.
So it does tend to even things out.
However my point was to refute GerryH calling it "a lie" which it is not