How job hunting taught me the importance of being treated right

Newcomers to Canada generally face the same hurdles to employment when they first land in Canada. Most of us spend weeks and months applying to almost every job under the sun, we start off with jobs that make the most sense in terms of our career trajectory from back home, but by the end of it, we settle for a job that’s a step-down. To get ‘Canadian experience’, ‘to get that foot in the door’. That is part of the ‘immigrant experience’, we’re told, ‘everyone goes through this’, all of this despite having painstakingly established that our educational qualifications and work experience are equivalent to Canadian standards as part of the immigration process. Of course, this does not apply to all newcomers; if you’re from a select few countries, the path will be much easier, but then again, you won’t be an immigrant, but instead an ex-pat!

If you couldn’t tell already, I’m bitter about that experience that I, along with many others, had to go through. Partly because there was no other choice, I just accepted it and went along with it at the time, but rather unsurprisingly quickly found myself bored with the work I was doing. That’s when I decided to look for a new job last year and had 2 vastly different experiences, but in hindsight, I’m glad I had.

Let’s start with the bad news. Company A reached out to me on LinkedIn, asking if I’d like to interview with them because they were looking for people and thought I’d be a great addition. Excited that someone would bother reaching out to me, I was immediately drawn in. I do this thing where I react very quickly to things and form positive or negative impressions that then take a long time to change. The interview started off swimmingly well too, and I’d already started thinking of my first day there. Then, he said something so matter-of-factly I could scarcely believe it, “I know you have 6 years of experience, but we’re only going to consider the 2 years that you have in North America”. Just like that. I was shocked, and could only mumble a “Yes, okay, I understand”. Of course, this was a way to devalue my experience (which is for what it’s worth, in global agencies), but was also an obvious attempt at undercutting me and offering me a role and compensation that was below what I was qualified for. I told him I would think about it and was met with the patronizing “Of course, I understand you might not want this role because you have to do what it takes to feed your family”. The worst part is this is not where the conversation ended. I spent the next week trying to reason with him over email and try to get him to see how my experience still held value, at one point almost begging, till Akanksha made me see sense as she so often does. I finally managed to send an email telling him I wasn’t interested but didn’t feel good about it. I felt weak and embarrassed and went into a downward spiral of wondering whether we’d even made the right choice in coming to Canada, whether we’d ever be accepted into the job market, let alone society, and all sorts of other negative things. Oh, and of course, he didn’t pronounce my name correctly nor ask for the correct pronunciation, it would have been almost ironic if he did!

A week after this horrendous experience, I had Company B contact me. They were more measured in their approach and put me through a rigorous interview process. At every stage, I was listened to, asked about ALL of my experience, and treated like an equal. I was challenged, but fairly. The last interview I had was with the CEO, who started off the interview by asking how my name was pronounced, and who made it a point to get it right before carrying on with the rest of the interview. The role was great, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to switch jobs in the middle of a pandemic. This simple question, coming from someone who I thought would be the last person to bother about something as ‘trivial’ as to how my name is pronounced, sealed the deal for me. Because it isn’t trivial. It matters, and it showed me what the culture of the company is like. As Joe Biden said in his inauguration speech, “It’s about the power of your example”, and this was as powerful an example as any to give to your employees.

Having had time to reflect, it is crazy how simple things can make a world of difference to someone. Both roles were similar, in fact, the one that I had the bad experience at was slightly better. Did that person even realize what they were saying, did they intend to make me feel the way they did? My guess is it is both yes and no. There is, unfortunately, a prevailing sentiment in Canada (and perhaps other Western countries too), that all immigrants, especially those who are non-white, are either escaping war, famine, (insert natural disaster of choice), or moving from a situation of extreme poverty to the utopia that is Canada. It’s 2021, it’s not hard to find out what things are like in other countries, or to take the time to speak to someone who’s moved to find out why they moved, but then again, that takes effort and also warrants a massive change in mindset. It must be empowering in a sense to imagine that you live in a country that people are desperate to move to, to do the jobs you don’t want to do, to feel superior. It’s difficult to imagine that someone who’s worked in India or China might have had even more exposure than you, or might know more than you in your field, because how could they? They are from a third-world country riddled with social evils and stuck in the 19th century! I exaggerate, but it is to make a point. Immigrants, for the most part, are not ‘allowed’ to start off at the same level as locals, because as much as Canadians do not like to believe it, there is a social hierarchy in place in Canada too, and that is one way of enforcing it.

These are not difficult things to ask for. I was not asking for much, in fact, Company B treated me just like everyone else, which is in essence, what I wanted. It will hopefully be a long time before I’m on the job hunt again, but when I am, I now know how I need to be treated, and will not sell myself short, or allow myself to be judged differently from others just because of my background. It’s a powerful lesson that I had to learn through an uncomfortable experience, but I’m ultimately glad I did.