4 years in Canada. 7 lessons as an Immigrant.
If you are thinking about moving here, this might be of interest.
To understand my background:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chengeer/
Oct 6, 2023 — will be 4 years we live in Toronto. This is my SIWIKE (Stuff I Wish I Knew Earlier).
p.s. I am in Toronto. So writing this with Toronto in mind but you can extrapolate.
1. The world is your oyster. But it is also a jungle.
It is a very competitive market. Canada is great as it opened its doors to immigrants. The smartest people from all over the world are coming here as skilled workers.
What the government probably didn’t calculate is whether the local businesses can create enough jobs for those who arrive.
Don’t be discouraged, but don’t have illusions.
Getting that first job in Canada might be (and has a high probability to be) a damn rollercoaster.
The world is your oyster —if you are hungry, humble, smart and ready to show your intense work ethic, you shall succeed.
But it is also a jungle.
You feel capitalist. Eeryone does what it takes to survive. You will have to do what it takes to get what you want in life too. On the other hand, however, the only limitation you have is your Hunger & your Abilities.
2. Success is inevitable when it becomes non-negotiable.
Those who come here thinking: “It’s ok if I fail. I can always go back” go back or struggle immensely. Those who come here thinking: “I burned my ships at the shore. I will die or I will succeed” succeed.
Let me give you a perspective.
I work in Talent Acquisition. And I truly refined my understanding of what Talent is.
It’s a complex equation with a multitude of moving variables, but the most important of it is Grit.
People who can bite the bullet, grind it out, push through the pain of adversity, and just find resourcefulness and creative ways to get shit done — those are the ones that succeed in life.
Immigration is not the path for the soft. It either hardens you, or it breaks you.
In career or in life, success (whatever this word may mean to you) takes place when it becomes non-negotiable.
You become something new when remaining the same is no longer an option.
3. Canada is not a dreamland. It is just another reality.
The more you live here, the more you will see the dysfunctions of the Canadian reality.
- Taxes that eat a quarter of your paycheck.
- Junkies that get a dose that’s been covered by your tax money.
- Homeless people camping in the park in the tent or pissing in the open on the streets of downtown.
- Occasional shootings — they are rare but when they happen they truly shake our generally peaceful society.
- The “wokeness” of the people. Everyone seems not to understand that opinions are like assholes. Everyone has them, but it doesn’t mean that you need to stick it in people’s faces. The notion of humility is diluted.
- Public transport is not really public. It costs you 3.5$ CAD to ride a TTC.
- Free Healthcare is not as amazing as it sounds. The system doesn’t work as it is supposed to — it’s slow, it’s clunky, it’s inefficient even in life or death situations, I am not talking about a regular cold or infection.
- There is history. The system is old, and you will see archaic processes everywhere. They still use paper mail to validate your identity. It took me 3 hours to open my bank account. If you are in tech, you will be familiar with the term “technical debt” (basically, when you are building software and your first architecture is limiting further scaling the product at some point). This is exactly what is happening. You will see this Debt everywhere — legacy systems that do not evolve fast enough, do not scale, or do not die. Government services primarily, banking, telecom, corporate, just society and culture overall.
I don’t want to scare you.
I just want to share that what you find here might fall short of your expectations.
Canada is not a fairy tale. It is just a different reality.
For some, it will be tough to navigate. Some will thrive in it.
And of course there are positives too. In Canada, there is so much to love.
- Clean air
- Clean water
- Peaceful sky above your head
- Embracing all cultures (and cuisines)
- Amazing nature
- You will find a lot of great people (great minds and ideas)
- Strong tech scene
- A whole new realm of opportunities
You will be giving up something to win another something. The question really is — which something is in alignment with your Core Values?
Some people who lived abroad came back because their core Value is Family. To spend time with their parents. To enjoy the comfort of their language and navigating familiar systems. To love their friends.
I get it…
But that was never an option for me.
All I ever wanted is to escape the Matrix. Even at a cost of not seeing my parents grow old.
4. One must reconcile that the part of your identity will die here.
You are not coming here to remain the same. You come here to reinvent yourself.
Some people are clear on what this entails. Most people underestimate the degree of transformation that has to happen in order for you to successfully assimilate.
A part of your identity will die away in order for the new You to take its place. The sooner you reconcile with this fact the smoother your integration will be.
5. About Canadian experience.
If you ask me, I will share with you a perspective of a Talent Partner.
Skills are skills, experiences are experiences, no matter where in the world you are getting them.
I know it is from my professional experience, hiring process is much less about the technical skill for the job, and a lot about your individual intelligence.
Your communication, your character, your Social Intelligence, your ability to figure the 💩 out.
[If you want to learn more about what I am looking for in candidates, I am talking more about this topic HERE.]
However, that invisible barrier of required Canadian experience does exist and it will be strictly individual.
If you are in a regulated profession, you will have to get a license to practice your profession e.g. architects, doctors, accountants, lawyers.
Do your research if your profession requires passing through additional levels of hurdles and bureaucratic complexities. You need to be prepared for this.
- I had friends, a couple — architects from India. Both brilliant at what they do, and working 6 figure jobs in Dubai. But when they came here they quickly realized that no one is hiring them because they need to be licensed. They just packed, went back, and are making way more money there than they would here. This whole immigration thing left a bitter aftertaste.
- Same with accountants. I know a lot of people who had a career back home but upon arrival in Canada they realized that they need to be CPAs. Some of them persevered and continued a profession in Finance. Many of them just used this as an opportunity to re-invent themselves and pivot. Some just failed to integrate, and came back.
Even if your profession is not regulated you will face the so-called “Canadian experience” blocker. What can it mean:
- Not enough experience working in a Canadian work culture i.e. not understanding workplace communication
- Discrimination — you can get discriminated simply because of your accent (the hiring team decides that they don’t want to have someone with thick accent represent their company)
- Simply lacking language skills. (English is everything. Without English life can get very VERY hard here).
It is always situational, there are many cases in which you might get rejected with that reason and it is not even a reason that companies will give you (they can’t discriminate you in the open — it’s illegal).
If you are asking yourself: “So what should I do?” you won’t find a prescription here. There is no general guidance that I can give you here that would work universally for everyone.
Your life is your life. Your mind is your mind. Your results in life are what your mind is capable of.
Connect with other humans. Every person is a data point on your map. The more data points you have the more effective you will be in navigation.
But remember, there is no map to where you are going. Your future is for you to create.
6. Canada is expensive.
I have Toronto data points, but don’t expect a lot of deviation. Other cities will be a tad bit cheaper. Vancouver will be more expensive.
Here are my data points — Sep 2023.
For a couple living together:
- 1 bdr condo in downtown — 2500$+
- Car — 800–1000$ (depends on your insurance which can get insane. We got quoted 600+$ in our first year. Find a good broker.)
- If you don'’t own a car and use TTC — 150$/month per person at least. More if you are a heavy user (commute a lot, don’t live closer to downtown).
- Food — 800$ (we tend to eat well, I suppose you can go frugal and cut down to 500–600$ but this would affect my mental health. Groceries can take 1000$+)
- Restaurants/Play money — 300$-1000$ (again, if depends on how you spend. You can cut eating out to 100$, or you can go enjoy yourself and spend a 1000$).
- Phone/Internet — 150–200$ (you can cut this down, but 2 phone plans 50$ each + internet 50$, is actually a very solid deal we have + taxes)
I didn’t include Shopping, Personal Expenses, Services, Unpredictable expenses, etc. You can tell. It builds up. We are not even talking about Savings here.
Now look at the income (you can google an income calculator).
- 50k CAD after tax = 3k / month
- 75k CAD after tax = 4700 / month
- 100k CAD after tax = 5800 / month
Do your math.
If you are a single-income family, one person has to make around 100k/year to live a fairly decent life. As you can tell, this is not a low salary either.
When I say Toronto is a 3 jobs city I mean it. I was able to get by because of my side-hustles. How people live on a single salary is hard for me to comprehend. I am damn sure it is not easy.
7. There is only One Path. Yours.
There are 3M+ people in Toronto. Immigrants comprise how much? 40? 60? 80% of population?
Tens of thousands of new people are coming here every year to build their new life. But every person you will meet has their own story.
What’s my point?
The point is the same.
Prescriptions don’t work.
You can listen to everyone, but then listen to no one.
There is no blueprint to immigration. There is no manual to succeeding in Canada.
If back home you had support systems, here you will find out that your resources are limited. Someone might help you, but ultimately you are on your own.
Your success is a function of your own intelligence. Your confidence, your courage, your communication, your relationship-building ability.
Following others will get you nowhere. A decision to carve your own path just might get you a shot at understanding who you really are and what you are made off.
Immigration is not easy. Neither it should be. If it was easy, what would be the point? Pain is an indication of change.
I wish you the best of luck in your journey.
If by the end of this article you are thinking that Canada is all doom and gloom, you didn’t get the point.
I am not sharing this to discourage you. On the contrary.
Immigration is a call to adventure. If it is in you, it is in you and no one will be able to stop you. I am just the guy who says: “Watch out. There are hidden reefs under water.”
If you like this Pirate analogy, use it.
I am not sure you can relate, but I had that strange feeling when I was younger (I have it still) — a feeling like I was missing places I have never been to. This is it. The call to adventure. If you answer it, the search begins.
When we go after the treasure we don’t know what we are seeking. But from where I stand, treasure is not what you are able to create in the material world.
True treasure is what you become.
The deepest human desire is to have an ultimate human experience, and for some (note: not for everyone) that means to actualize your full human potential.
Immigration is that process. You flip your reality upside down to find out what you really are made. Those self-induced hardships shape you into a new being.
Canada is not a dreamland. But it will be if that’s what you believe in.
Whatever you are.
Whereever you go.
Life is what you make it.
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