Active job ads
Responding to job ads published online or in the newspapers is not the most effective way of job search. The best job search method is speaking with employers directly (in-person contact) or being recommended to employers by family or friends..
Since most foreign nationals who want to work in Canada ARE NOT IN CANADA for them job search options are quite limited: foreign workers can reply to job ads or contact employers (through e-mail or using telephone) even if those employers (companies) have not posted any job vacancies.
At any given time thousands of Canadian jobs are posted online. There is no shortage of online job ads in Canada. The only problem with those job ads is that millions of people can see them and in many cases hundreds of them will apply for them.
Practically that means when you respond to the job ad posted online chances are your resume will be one among possible another 100 resumes that this particular employer will have to look at.
And what happens then?
What happens in that case is that whoever is in charge of selecting applicant's for job interview will eliminate 90 or 95 of those resumes after looking at them no more than 15-20 seconds. Which means if your resume is not perfect they won't even read it carefully.
So what can you do in that case? How can you make your resume stand out?
There are still some things that you can do. First and foremost make a good resume!- sending a poorly done resume to Canadian employers is just waste of time.
Second thing that you can do is to prepare a video introduction which you can upload to Youtube or put on our web site. This way when Canadian employers receive your resume they will have a chance to see you speaking, telling them about your skills and work experience, which is more informative than just glancing at your resume for 15 seconds.
In case you do not have time to send dozens of resumes to employers every day you can pay someone else to do that for you. If/when Canadian employers respond to those resumes sent to them you just take over that conversation and arrange Skype inteview for yourself.
Yellow pages and similar business directories
There are many online business directories listing some Canadian businesses. Yellow Pages is probably the most popular one (www.yellowpages.ca/business). This is where you can find basic information about Canadian businesses.
With a little bit more searching on the Internet you are likely to find web sites for those companies. Many of them will have Careers section on the web site and practically all of them will have contact information which you can use to contact them and offer to work for them.
However my favourite place for Canadian company information is Canadian government's Directories of Canadian companies.
Just click on "Search for Canadian companies" link and dive into the ocean of around 50 000 of Canadian companies, big and small. All with contact information, web site address, physical address and telephone number provided for most of them.
There are many other business directories on the Internet, just type "Canadian Business directories" into Google search box and you will have them listed by the search engine.
Chamber of Commerce web sites
Another great resource for job seekers are local chamber of commerce web sites. What is chamber of commerce? Chamber of commerce is a local business association which goal is to promote and protect interests of the business community in that particular city or region.
The way to look for local chamber of commerce web site is by typing words "chamber of commerce" and the name of the city into Google search box.
For example if you type into Google search box "Chamber of commerce Edmonton" first web site on the list will be www.edmontonchamber.com where you can find "Business Directory" section of the web site. Business directory will provide you with all important information regarding Edmonton employers which are the members of their chamber of commerce.
Some chamber of commerce web sites are more useful than others however those who are serious about job search in Canada should use them as usually more established businesses tend to register for membership in the local chamber of commerce.
List of Canadian Chamber of Commerce Web sites can be found here.
Company/corporation databases
As already mentioned federal government of Canada has a huge database listing Canadian companies, which can be accessed for free.
Each province in Canada also has its own company database however access to the information in those databases is not free, with only one exception: Nova Scotia! Nova Scotia database of companies can be accessed for free.
If you have friends or relatives in Canada they might be able to help you with that problem since membership in local Canadian public libraries might give them free access to the company databases (for which you would normally have to pay).
Useful company information can be found on web sites (databases) such as SEDAR, Business in Vancouver etc.
Thanks to the Internet it is very easy to access astonishing amount of information on Canadian companies from anywhere in the world.
