European working in Canada

[WHiPCPL]

Hey all

I apologize ahead of time if this is the wrong place to post this, I wasn't sure.

Basically my situation is this:

I live in Denmark and the industry is "screaming" for engineers, which is true if you have +5 years worth of experience, which I don't (got my degree in January 2019). I only have a 25 week mandatory internship worth of experience, my reason for not having been a student worker at an engineering company during my time at university is a combination of being ill and simply not having the time to work.

I've also been looking for a job since October 2018, and I have good grades, good recommendations and do well at the job interview but I'm always rejected due to there being a candidate with more experience than me.

I'm basically fed up with the job market in my own country at this point and have been looking into finding a job in a different country, that specific country being Canada (since it mirrors mostly what my own country is like).

I'm hoping to reach out to some canadians or non-canadians working in Canada who have either immigrated, moved or otherwise who can hopefully answer some of my questions and share their experience with the canadian work life.

My general questions are:

- What's it like working in Canada?
- What's it like living in Canada, and how are canadians typically towards foreigners?
- From what I've seen there seems to be a lot of Electrical/Power Engineering jobs available, does this sound correct?
- Will I be required to learn french or does that depend on where in the country I reside?
- What's my best chance of a potential employer taking my application seriously?

I also have a couple of technical questions:
- I assume Canada follows the IEEE standards, is this true?
- In what areas of Electrical Power and Energy Engineering fields are Canada particularly strong in?
- If you've followed the IEC standards previously, was it a hard transition into IEEE (If Canada follows these standards).
- What are some canadian companies I can check out? (I already know WSP, I'm not picky about whether it's a big or small company).

All I really want is some advice since I'm at my wits end and there doesn't seem to be any chance I can get a job in my own country.

 

[moltenmetal]

Hi WHiPCPL- here's the information that you'll need to make an assessment:

https://www.ospe.on.ca/public/documents/advocacy/2015-crisis-in-engineering-labour-market.pdf

This report was written in 2015. Between then and now, the Alberta oil patch has dried up in terms of employment prospects, so things are worse not better.

It includes this graph:

30% of people in Canada who have engineering degrees, work as engineers or engineering managers.

33% of people with eng degrees work in jobs not requiring a university education of any kind.

Thousands more immigrate to Canada every year. Some find work as engineers and have a nice life. Most don't find work as engineers, and some of them also have a nice life. Many return home disappointed.

Don't come without a job in hand, even if you're given the opportunity to come.

Before you come, make sure you'll be elligible for licensure. Check with the province you may wish to live in. Ontario for instance allows prospective immigrants to evaluate their potential licensure status before immigration. Fail to do this at your peril, because although you can absolutely work as an employee engineer without a P.Eng. license, many employers use licensure status as a proxy for having a valid engineering degree. There are thousands of degree-granting institutions worldwide, with some being superior in every way to what a Canadian grad would obtain, and others being more equivalent to what a technician or technologist here would obtain. And no, getting a Canadian Masters degree will NOT solve a licensure elligibility problem.

 

[WHiPCPL]

Hi moltenmetal

Thank you very much for the response, I've broadened my horizon to look at other countries as well.

 

[moltenmetal]

Don't get me wrong: Canada's a great country- a G7 nation with tremendous opportunity. It just also has a hell of a lot of people educated as engineers, and they out number the engineering jobs by a significant margin. Forewarned is for-armed, as they say.

 

[Desrod2]

If you are good in programming, you might find a job in a software company. Lot of opening there and the jobs are not restricted to licence engineers. Some companies will help you getting a work permit if you get a job with them.
French is the official work language only in Quebec but you can easily survived here if you speak English since this is the required language for any international focused company. We are Quebec based but most of our customers communications are in English.

Once you move in Canada, you can work on getting proper recognition of your Eng diploma and find a job in that field if you wish. Also note that depending where you plan to go in Canada, the temperature might vary a lot: today it was -30°C in the prairies and only -4° in Quebec.

 

[WHiPCPL]

Hello Desrod2

I only barely passed programming although this is mostly due to my illness becoming even worse during that time. I have considered learning PLC programming although I'm very confused with how to go about it.

I'm also looking at other countries than just Canada (Ireland, Scotland and Switzerland).

Thank you for the information though.

Short circuits, protection, arc flash assessment. That's what I know best

 

[rotw]

I would like to add some of my personal notes:

Since you are from Denmark, keep in mind that Scandinavia/Denmark/Netherlands set up the benchmark worldwide in many socioeconomic aspects (infrastructure quality, education, healthcare, how the society is organized, etc.) Just fine tune somehow your expectations accordingly.
And also make sure to compare apples with oranges: Canada is quite a big country.

- Will I be required to learn french or does that depend on where in the country I reside?
I do not think you need French in other provinces than Quebec, it can help sometimes, but definitely not a must, unless again you intend to move to Quebec, in this case it is strongly advised to master French language. I speak native French and I found this not to be a game changer in provinces others than Quebec. Your English skills - based on your posts here - suggest your skills are quite good; that for sure would help you.

- What's my best chance of a potential employer taking my application seriously?
I would say as general rule, do not limit yourself by yourself I think people generally sees Denmark as very positive marker (education, human development, productivity) and that could help you I suppose.

I suppose Moltenmetal posts are sufficiently informative for the rest.