For new immigrants and foreign-trained professionals, the first order of starting a career in Canada is to rewrite his or her career development plan. Of course, getting into a survival job will always be first priority for most but the first must go hand-in-hand with the second if you want to get on a progressive career track.
The best way to do this is to do a SWOT analysis (short for identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) that would basically enable a thorough scan of the new environment and assessing how your talent and limitations would play out.
Take the opportunity of getting orientated to the new surroundings while doing your survival job: take an hour or two a day to surf the internet for free training sessions (non-profit websites), jobs available in the market (job boards), how to do an effective interview (career sites); explore and consider membership to professional organizations to develop a network; take some courses and improve your skills.
When you have accomplished your SWOT analysis, you’d be in a position to create your new personal vision, mission, and career strategies. Your action plan and activities in the subsequent months must be based on these so you don’t get sidetracked and too comfy with your survival mode work. Get your roadmap ready and remember that it is not as important where you’ve been as where you are confidently and competently going.
