PART-TIME JOB / CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN CANADA

Working part-time in Canada is an excellent opportunity to reap monetary benefits as well as gain indispensable work experience which will help you further in your future substantially if you are planning to apply for the Canadian PR (permanent residence).

With a Canadian student visa, you have the authorization to work 40 hours every fortnight (two weeks). You have the option to work less than these particular number of hours as this is just the maximum limit. Students are however advised to work only up to 28 hours every fortnight by the universities if they are pursuing an intellectually demanding course. Since working more than these recommended hours can adversely affect a student’s performance academically. To maintain a work-study balance hence you are advised to reduce the number of working hours.

Pay scale

Students working part-time are mostly paid on the number of hours they put in at work. The average minimum wage is 10 dollars for every hour worked. If work experience is your end goal and if you are assisting your professor with his/her research work, you wouldn’t require a work permit. You will pay significantly less working like this and mostly it would be confined to your campus although you can work beyond the normal limit of working hours. So with using just your student visa, you can occupy yourself in meaningful, On-campus academic work.

Applying for an off-campus work permit after six months of study lets you work outside your campus for about 40 hours every fortnight (two weeks).

How do I find a part-time job?

Every universities and college use a notice board to let the students know the list of openings available on-campus.

There are broad varieties of part-time opportunities available off campus as well. Once you apply and get your work permit you can actively start looking for opportunities outside of your campus. Below are some tips to find a part-time job more efficiently:

• Before you start your venture to find suitable employment make sure you have a good resume prepared beforehand. There are a lot of commercial organizations that help you find suitable employment by helping you create a professional industry standard resume that has all the essential features like your former training, skills, pursuits and previous work experience. It is of the utmost importance that you have a verbally and factually accurate resume. It would be a good idea to ask an English proficient speaker to check your resume before you start looking for jobs.
• Once you have a professional resume, you should immediately start looking for jobs that are suited to your skillset. You can start searching in areas with large shopping complexes or a large number of retail establishments. A suitable approach would be to directly walk into the stores and directly ask the manager or the person in charge of hiring if there’s a part-time position available. Even if they aren’t hiring right now, you can still choose to leave your resume there in case a future vacancy suitable for you crops up in the future. It is essential that you dress appropriately when you are approaching employers to form a good first impression of you.
• You can also make use of the ‘careers’ section of major retailers and companies and search if there are suitable employment opportunities. Most of these websites allow you to apply directly in case it doesn’t you can find out the location of the employer online and schedule to visit during working hours as part of your job search.
• Due to the multilingual nature of the country, you can also find work as a translator if you are multilingual since it’s in high demand.