Job Market Stories & Experiences

Now, that I already had my first interview in two years, I would like to share with you some guidelines in How to pass a job interview in Canada.

1. First of all, you have to convince the interviewer that that job is the job you dreamed of from when you was in your mother womb. It doesn’t really matter how you think and who is the real you, you have to convince the person in front of you that the truth is: You envision that job from small ages, and it is what you dreamed of all your life.

2. Lie, lie, lie. In all my experience (and I have a lot) with Canadians interviewers, they don’t like to hear the truth, no way, you have to lie and to be a good actor, play drama, play comedy, play the role of your life if you want to get the job. If you are a person that like saying the truth, or don’t know how to be a good actor, than search for jobs in other places (US is a very good start, Europe, is not bad also), but don’t try in Canada, even you are the best of the best in your field the chances to get a job there are minimal.

Once, I was able to get a HR book in my hands, I was amazed to see in that book that they were told to lie to the candidates. What you can expect from a person that is saying lies, only untrustworthy things.

3. And here comes the next advice to follow, DON’T try to show that you are better than your interviewer, it doesn’t work that way in Canada, if you are better than him/her one day you can take his/hers job, and that is no good for that person. No you have to be lower than him and to stay there. Don’t be a smart ass, that will not give you a job in Canada. The only chance to get a job if you are smarter than the person is interviewing you, is: or that person will be retired in one-two years, or if the product is so screwed up that only a miracle will save it, and they are expecting that you will be the miracle.

4. The HR interview, that is the nicest part, to be able to pass it buy a book about interviews and learn it by heart, when you get to the interview only say the exact answers from that book. The HR person doesn’t need to find about you and to see if you can fit in the collective, no in Canada they need to know if you can learn a book by heart and if you can repeat it word by word. If you don’t have a good memory, forget about a job in Canada, it will not happen, go in US, where the HR questions are humane and you don’t need to learn anything by heart, or go somewhere else, where HR is made by peoples with feelings, not machines.

5. There are others, but first I am waiting for your comments….