Interested in being a Canadian? Here are a few handy tips. Happy Canada Day!

Thanks to Elizabeth Lee Rahman for sharing CBC Comedy's video.:

Gloomier future seen for Canadian immigration, Toronto Star

Extract:

With 35 per cent of male newcomers returning home and a growing middle class in developing countries less inclined to migrate, an internal government review is calling the future of Canadian immigration into question.
“There has been a rather negative view of these expatriate Canadians, as they have been regarded as evidence of ‘brain drain,’ Canada’s lack of competitiveness in retaining high-skilled professionals and business leaders, and our insufficient success in integrating new arrivals,” the report noted. “Canada could choose to take a more proactive stance with expatriates.” continue reading

On the same shelf:

•  Why new Canadians struggle to find jobs MILES CORAK Special to The Globe and Mail
• Top 8 Reasons NOT to Immigrate to Canada, Taken from NotCanada.com
• Why the world’s best and brightest struggle to find jobs in Canada Why do skilled immigrants often fare worse here than in the U.S. and U.K.? Tamsin McMahon, macleans.ca
• 6 Reasons Why Canada Is Not the Place for You Majid Kazmi Huffington Post

CV of Failures : Exploring Unsuccessful Attempts, Resiliency and Grit

"Some kind of moral discovery should be the object of every tale. "
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer  (1857-1324) 

See more quotes in Dictionary of Library and Information Science Edited by
Mohamed Taher and L S Ramaiah. ISBN: 8185689423 (New Delhi , Aditya, 1994), pages 93-94.

CV of Failures:

"We all have failures in our careers. But usually we keep quiet about it." This Princeton professor posted his CV of failures for the world to see. It includes sections titled "Academic positions and fellowships I did not get" "Degree programs I did not get into,"  "Research funding I did not get" and "Paper rejections from academic journals."  [source: cnbc.com] Continue reading: JOHANNES HAUSHOFER's CV OF FAILURES, 2016.

More on this shelf:

image source

• A CV of failures Melanie Stefan [Stefan, Melanie (2010) A CV of failures. Nature, 468 (7322). p. 467] Melanie Stefan keeps a Postdoc Journal and is a postdoc in neurobiology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
• This guy sent out a résumé listing all of his failures to great success Sarah Robinson
• Reflections on Rejections, Harvard University
• Showcasing Your Failures Land You a Job? Bobby Umar
• SAM’S CV OF FAILURES [everyday scientist]
• Why you should mention your failures, not your successes, on your CV
• This guy listed his failures and flaws on his CV — and it totally worked
• Bolster your CV with failure,  Shilpa Phadnis, Anand J & Shalina Pillai
• Joe Shooman writes words of the rejection letters

Bottomline: Resumes come in all shapes and sizes, and with all sorts of different content expectations depending on what positions your candidate has held, what industries they’ve worked in, and what countries they’ve gained their experience in. ... For example, did you know including ... even failures along with successes on your resume? [source: Assessing Resumes of New Canadians]

Best Practices in Today's Resume: Two Sides of the Coin

One  side:

Who cares about resumes anyway? Think about it. Scott Thompson has a degree in accounting, not computer science. But, does it really matter what he studied as an undergraduate? He’s 54 years old, has been CEO of Paypal, and before that held high positions at Inovant, a subsidiary of Visa, and Barclay Global Investors. Clearly, he is qualified to run Yahoo.

Therefore, why do we have to “look good on paper” in order to be hired? As long as we know we can do the job in front of us, who cares about the past? A resume only highlights the past, but for all of those future thinkers out there, a resume is not required… [more at Resume: A Work of Fiction]

Other side:

1. If your relevant experience, education, or skills are hard to find at a glance, your resume might as well be blank.
2. If it’s not immediately clear from your experience why you’re applying, no one will connect the dots for you.
3. If your resume is difficult to skim, it probably won’t be read at all.
4. If you expect to get your resume in front of a hiring manager, you need to first make sure you get through HR.
5. If your contact info isn’t correct, nothing else matters.  [more at Time.com]

Mitigating obstacles and barriers for newcomers By Lori Jazvac

Extract:
Strategies for Career Professionals:
As career practitioners, we need to demonstrate genuine empathy and support in helping newcomers tackle this new milestone of change in their lives and career transition with zest, enthusiasm, and optimism.
What the career professional can do... Continue reading

WHY PERMANENT INDUSTRIAL JOBS ARE FAST VANISHING IN CANADA

BY CHRIS DEFONSEKA,The Sri Lankan Anchorman
 Extract: There are four main sectors where any country will depend on for a strong and sustainable economy, the banking or financial sector, the educational system, the industrial or manufacturing sector and the services sector. All these areas are governed by politics. Good results needs sound political governance. Effective political governance for each sector individually is not sufficient. Since all four sectors are inter-connected, the priorities in order of importance should be right. Based on experience and evaluation of economies over a very long period of time, every country must have a sound industrial and manufacturing sector, backed by constant research and development. continue reading:

The Sri Lankan Anchorman

'Immigrant talent meets its demise in Canada' By Sabrina Almeida, Can-India News

"That Canada is a land of opportunity is a hard sell for most immigrants who have had to bite and claw their way up. This is not just an expression of my bitterness at being told I’m not good enough, but the stark reality that almost all newcomers have had to face. While the Canadian experience card has shoved most out the employment door (the few who have made it are too insignificant number compared to the many who have not) or down the ladder that is not the only department in which the newcomers have been forced to eat humble pie. Talent is another one. "

Bottomline: 

"It’s time to stand up for and with newcomers to help them truly integrate and contribute to the progress of the country. Perhaps the government ought to insist (or provide incentives for) companies and employers hire a certain number of immigrants each year. Starting with government services. We’re more than just a vote bank!" Read the article

On the same shelf by Doug:
"Today, people like me are there, and the non-white, non-wealthy and foreign-born are on the edges, without much chance of grabbing the bottom rung of the housing ladder. (This is the division that led to the 2010 election of Rob Ford in Toronto: His backers, the non-white, non-wealthy, non-homeowning suburbanites, expressed their frustration with their ballots.)
If we don’t want the Canadian dream to be ruined by people like me, we’ll need to turn those inner-suburban districts into the sort of arrival cities we used to see downtown. We should take lessons from Surrey, B.C., which has allowed affordable basement and backyard “infill” apartments to flourish, or Toronto’s “tower renewal” zoning, which allows dense, high-intensity, multiuse districts to flourish between suburban apartment blocks." globeandmail

See also:  Job availability now determines career path, not ability or interest, Sabrina Almeida

Toronto Public Library: new fines, trouble with e-books helped complaints spike in 2012, Toronto Star report

Things have settled down now, but some observers say city’s ombudsman should have jurisdiction... "Library records obtained by the Star show complaints leapt to 7,627 in 2012, from just 2,191 in 2011, but dropped back to 3,875 in 2013 as ..." Continue reading Toronto Star  By: Samuel Greenfield, Staff Reporter, Aug 28 2014

On the same shelf:

• Toronto Public Library's site: A $1.00 fine will be charged for each hold you do not pick up.

  "You can cancel a hold at any time - whether it's outstanding, in transit, or available for pickup. When your hold arrives at the branch, you have 7 days to pick it up. In order to avoid the Holds Not Picked Up fine and allow others to get materials sooner, make sure to cancel your hold before 9:00 p.m. on the expiry date."

• Mississauga Public Library: Holds  "A $2 service charge will be added to your account for any holds you do not pick up" (Does it mean only physical or even e-books, not sure, comment by blogger!!!). "Please notify the library as soon as possible if you cannot pick up a hold. ...  These instructions are intended for items that you pick up at the Library.
  If you are looking for instructions on how to place holds on eBooks and eAudioBooks (for devices such as computers, tablets and smart phones), visit our help page."

The Little Black Book of Scams, By Competition Bureau Canada

Concerned about elderly loved ones and fraud?

Give them a copy of the Little Black Book of Scams, a reference guide with information on common scams that target Canadians and steps on how to avoid them.

Read or download from Competition Bureau Canada

The Canadian edition of The Little Black Book of Scams is a compact and easy to use reference guide filled with information Canadians can use to protect themselves against a variety of common scams. It debunks common myths about scams, provides contact information for reporting a scam to the correct authority, and offers a step-by-step guide for scam victims to reduce their losses and avoid becoming repeat victims.
Consumers and businesses can consult The Little Black Book of Scams to avoid falling victim to social media and mobile phone scams, fake charities and lotteries, dating and romance scams, and many other schemes used to defraud Canadians of their money and personal information. continue reading: Competition Bureau Canada