For the new immigrants (e.g. Permanent Residents, Officially-sanctioned Refugees), October is a perfect month for job hunt. This is the time when major retail stores gear-up their seasonal staffing to cope with the expected year-end retail peak. Many will hold walk-in interviews for new seasonal hires and are willing to consider those without "Canadian qualifications" and/or "Canadian references". Of course, many of these jobs would fall into the "minimum wage" category, but IMHO it is a good first step to break that Catch-22 of "no Canadian work reference, and therefore no job offers" and "one has never worked in Canada before, and therefore does not have any Canadian work reference".
Here are some ways to hunt for seasonal jobs in Metro Vancouver.
1. Search job-sites online. For example:
- Craigslist Vancouver - Jobs
- Workopolis Vancouver - Jobs
- Monster.ca Vancouver - Jobs. [Note: This site is currently down.]
- Kijiji Vancouver - Jobs
2. Search career websites of popular large retail chains
- Real Canadian Superstore
- Canadian Tire
- London Drugs
- Sears
- Hudson's Bay (a.k.a. "The Bay")
- HomeSense / Winners
- Best Buy / Future Shop
- Old Navy / Gap
- Toys R Us
- Michaels (Arts & crafts chain)
- Chapters / Indigo
3. Walk around malls and/or shopping districts
For shops actively looking to hire, one may see "We're hiring" signs displayed on their windows. These are often displayed discretely at the bottom of display window, just next to the entrance); but sometimes they are displayed boldly right on the entrances.
[19-Oct-2013 Michaels - W Broadway, Vancouver]
[19-Oct-2013 Toys R Us - W Broadway, Vancouver]
Good luck to all job seekers!
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