The need to talk about the BC Professional Immigrant Conference that happened this past Saturday at Hilton Vancouver Metrotown is quite high and I’m only hoping you’ve been part of that wonderful audience of over 500. New Vancouverites – professionals trained all over the world – have attended to learn about career development, succeeding in a new country, and simply network. If in theory it’s quite simple – When in Rome, do as the Romans – practice proved us differently. To me, this event was great on a few different levels: I’ve reconnected with some old friends and some of my colleagues I haven’t seen since the Career Development Conference last year, met a few of my former clients from Richmond (I was so happy to learn about their success stories and even happier they came to see me!), made a few new connections, and I was able to present on such a dynamic topic as Social Media and Personal Branding. Very well spent time, both as a participant and as a presenter. As a participant, I was dazed to personally meet and talk to Lionel Laroche, the keynote speaker at this event and the author of (among others) Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions. He addressed an audience of over 500 participants on the topic of Succeeding in Canada. Laroche emphasized many of the points we bring up during our counselling sessions at Skills Connect, yet wrapped in such great stories that the audience – myself included – has moved from smiling, to laughing, and to all kind of other noises specific to a suddenly surprised crowd. The learning curve an immigrant expects to go through when s/he arrives to Canada is somewhere from 6 to 12 months, but in reality, as per Lionel’s discourse, this can go up to around 6 to 7 years or more. Once those numbers uttered, I looked around me and I could sense a heavy and silent shock, some heads moved slowly from left to right and back, some sighed heavily, some chins dropped down. As someone who’s been here long enough, I could see Lionel’s point very clearly, but this is a hard to accept reality. On the bright side though, as a career advisor, I must say I have witnessed quite a few meaningful success stories of newcomers who have managed to settle in a good role in less than a year. Not too many, however. And no matter how fine that position was, it was still at a level that was much lower when comparing to the work they did before moving to Canada. In a charmingly plain graphic representation, Laroche illustrated how, along this learning and acclimatization curve, some factors proved to be more important than others. Among the central ones we find, again, those language and soft skills. As a newcomer, as soon as you manage to tune your soft skills up, align to the standards of your new home, and develop your communication skills, you’re good to go. Many come to settle in Canada with really high technical skills. When they fail at fining professional work, their first attempt to fix this situation is to go back to school and take those technical skills one step higher. This is unfortunate. Bringing up an inspiring story about his own start in Canada, Laroche emphasized how the soft skills (not the technical ones) truly are the first item newcomers should tackle and improve. I really enjoyed listening to this stimulating keynote presentation and it is my hope that all the participants have left the venue with precious information in their pockets. If what you have learned has both inspired and moved you, don’t sleep on it for too long: get started, you’re the master of your own future. If you have questions that concern you, then seek professional advice and try to move on, make a plan, follow it. Time does not forgive. I’d like to wrap-up my note about this event with a quote from the American author Wayne Dyer: Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal, live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone.

by Magdalena Mot