Applying for positions outside your country
polycounter lvl 12
Ive been applying to junior positions outside Canada and have had a lot of emails from the companies stating that because I am from Canada they cannot hire me or that I would have to apply to a visa myself and then re-apply for the position?
Should i just stick to companies in Canada then or is there another way to apply to jobs outside your country?
thanks in advance :poly122:
Should i just stick to companies in Canada then or is there another way to apply to jobs outside your country?
thanks in advance :poly122:
Replies
I would too but due to the rather increasing trend of cuts coming out of Vancouver it is harder and harder to find any junior positions.
I never get responses from companies if i apply for anything but a junior position sadly and there are not a lot of those in the Vancouver area :poly127:
Have you tried applying for any out sourcing companies? If you can get in, some of that experience will probably increase your chances later on at a studio in the US. I've tried that route myself but havent had any luck with it.
EDIT: tell them you dont mind contracting from home!
I was hoping to get a job elsewhere but i guess do to my lack of experience i wont be able to do that.
I am back getting my degree specifically so I have the option of going elsewhere. I know it's not a guarantee, but that silly peice of paper opens many more doors.
Actually this is quite hard to bypass, even legitimately. I have a friend who is an opera singer, he was completely hired by a school in seattle to teach about some small sect of opera, not a high profile job that everyone wants either, a small school for minimal money. The school took an add out in the common newspapers and throughout the universities in Seattle surrounding to look for this position in the US first. They found nobody and started looking in Canada even though they were unable to pay the cost of relocating someone. They found my friend and eventually hired him. My friend went to meet them several times and eventually finally gave up his appartment and incurred cost of storing his stuff ect... The school had told him "your visa will go through, we literally cant find anyone here... The US government was not convinced the school did enough advertising for the position in ALL of the US and eventually denied the visa... stating instead of going immediately up to canada they should have looked in other parts of the US or something.... its really hard.
The school was pissed too cause they had been actively looking to fill the role for months.
even if you marry into citizenship you have to give up the canadian one....
c'mon america we're given you all our oil and water! we demand the benjimans!
You can prepare for it though when economies go back to max in 4 yrs (theoretically speaking) by making sure you have a degree, experience, cross border networks (for the recommendation letters), an immigration lawyer with a good track record, and not commit a crime.
Best of luck either way you go, tough times right now for sure!
Wish I could afford to, be an awesome time to put together a 3d portfolio or do side contracts... I just don't have any contracts... nor do I have the banked cash to take 1/5 off my pay check.
We've hired employees this way, and i'm pretty sure there are a few canucks on the boards working with h1b's as well here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H1B_visa
Oh yeah, and some form of degree IIRC.
-caseyjones
But the visa things state that you have to have 2 years work exp, 15k in your pocket, and rock the job so hard that they realy need to get you overseas.
if someone made the jump to america/canada, could you tell us something about how that process went?
If you have a batchelors degree and are australian you qualify for an E3 visa. It's quite easy to get one of these since the quota for it hasn't ever been used up.
of course you could just marry britney spears...
I had a good friend who was Canadian and I wrote the letters saying how great of a "graphic designer" she was, even though she was really more of a photographer. Photographer wasn't on that list. Graphic Designer is.
* I forgot an important point: She was only allowed to stay here for 3 or 4 years before they required that she apply for a more perm Visa, which she wouldn't qualify for, or marry an American.
Does anyone (foreigner) here have any "good" experience getting a job as a foreigner in the states?
edit: sorry not trying to hijack your thread but just didn't want to start a new one that basically was covering pretty much the same topic.
So, the bachelor degree thing. How big a deal is that when going for a visa? Would it be worth going back and studying for a while to get one? We all know that a piece of paper doesn't mean jack when it comes to art skills unless you've drawn a picture on it, but it seems like the governments don't.
I've been out of work for forever now (About 7 months) and it doesn't look like things are suddenly going to improve any time soon. Maybe it'd be worth taking some desperate measures and going back to school. What do you think?
I'm positive this policy no longer exists although I think at one point something similar did if you originally had American citizenship. Father was originally from the states and has lived Canada for 20+ years and finally got around to getting his Canadian citizenship and becoming a dualie like me and my brother. And if your originally Canadian although I'm not positive I'm pretty sure you can have as many other citizenships as you like.
Also there is apparently a program that allows people to very easily apply for a visa. You have to be under 30 and your only allowed to do it once in your life. No degree required and as long as the country hasn't reached its quota for the year your good to go. Think the countries are Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the UK. I don't know if its once per country or not. Brothers friend did it and it might be something to look into if you really wanna see another place.
Now I'm not sure how willing a company would be to hire you knowing that your only there for a year, and I don't know what it would be like applying for a more permanent visa if you did get said job,
I've heard this before, not sure of the details or even if it's true. Could be worth looking in to.
The last company I worked for gradually hired a handful of Canadians, all mid-level to senior positions though...
My girlfriend is very lucky, shes a fashion design student and supposedly the US love hiring British fashion designers.
The Uk has a Ancestral Commonwealth Visa, I have one and it wasn't that hard to get. All you need is at least one grandparent born in the UK then you get birth certs to make the connection from them to you and show that you have a little money saved up so you wont go over and go on welfare. It allows you 5 years to work in the UK with no restrictions except you cant go on social assistance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Ancestry_Entry_Clearance
I was going to mention that aswell. If I wanted to apply overseas (I've considered it) My best bet would probably be Canada or the UK.
I should get a job locally first, I'm sure that studios overseas wouldn't be keen to hire an international junior.
It's pretty rough to break into the industry here - not sure what it's like in the US at the moment, but I have a feeling there is much less competition for jobs in certain areas.
Location isn't specifically, it's more the saturation of people looking for jobs - I use Vancouver as an example because it has 4-5 pretty high end training schools for CG / Animation - They churn out people, probably 60-70 per month combined.
With the amount of the Vancouver work force laid off in the past 6-8 months there is a huge pool of unemployed, experienced, workers looking to get back in, and I'm pretty sure the local companies would rather fish from that, as opposed to the fresh-out-of-school no experience lake.
I should edit this and say I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm just trying to get some perspective from others.