Slashdot Mirror

http://www23.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/2001/e/groups/2173.shtml

According to Human Resources and Social Development Canada, Software Engineer is a perfectly acceptable term for that class of job. Being an American now working in Canada, I prefer '(software/web) developer' as software engineer sounds too 90s for me. But there are plenty of software engineers in Canada and no looming threat from the other 'engineer' subspecies.

The government of Canada actually has all their job titles standardized. Systems Analyst seems to me to be a pretty low job on the list. Phrases like "experience as a computer programmer is usually required", and "Completion of a college program in computer science is usually required." For those in the US, college in Canada is community college with 2-3 year programs and you get a diploma at the end. University is where real computer science is taught, you get a degree, and can move onto grad school after that. If I remember right, I had a friend who was hired as a systems analyst to do some programming, because they didn't have a high enough budget to hire a programmer, so they just gave him a different title, lower pay, but he did the same work.

Labour Market Information - Wages & Salaries

http://lmi-imt.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/standard.asp?ppid=4 3&lcode=E&prov=&gaid=&occ=&search_key=1&pre_sel_cr iteria=0

"Get an idea of what people are paid in various occupations across Canada."

Euphemistic, unclear, and non-standardized job descriptions are common no matter the field. Of course, it's more common in places where there is high demand and low job quality: workers at Subway are called "sandwich artists", telemarketing is "enumeration-type work".

Some job listing sites do require employers to use standardized job titles. The Government of Canada's Job Bank website uses a dewey-decimal-like National Occupation Classification, so that at least you can understand what type of work is being described.

The detailed job description? Well, the devil's in the details. Read the employment contract before you sign it.

- RG>

Not unique!?

What are you talking about? The Canadian SIN is unique for every person in Canada. See point #2, here: " SINs can begin with the numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 9. Each person receives a unique Social Insurance Number. "

If you want more SIN facts, see this document.

/Dave

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Currently unemployed guy with 8+ yrs industry experience. DSP SW, HW, Wireless communications. More, you say?

Not unique!?

What are you talking about? The Canadian SIN is unique for every person in Canada. See point #2, here: " SINs can begin with the numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 9. Each person receives a unique Social Insurance Number. "

If you want more SIN facts, see this document.

/Dave

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Currently unemployed guy with 8+ yrs industry experience. DSP SW, HW, Wireless communications. More, you say?

Canada requires more than US$30,000 in cash and you must be highly qualified in a professional field to move.

This has either changed, or you've been misinformed - since there are several different ways to immigrate to Canada, and they're all quite complex (fucking bureaucrats), I thought I'd give a breakdown of the easiest way - Permanant Resident status. You wouldn't be a Canadian citizen, but you'd be well on your way to becoming one. Permanant Resident status grants you priviliges to live, work, and study in Canada as any Canadian would, and is the easiest way to go about doing it.

Let's assume you're a 'skilled worker' (the category most slashdotters are likely to fall under). You need several things before you can be given a work permit.

Number one, you need to have at least one year of paid work experience in your field. Sorry guys, kernel programming doesn't hack it (hahaha) unless you were on someone's payroll. If, as a programmer (let's assume you were a programmer), your job description matches what the government has on file for a 'computer programmer', then bravo, you're a skilled worker for a qualifying profession. If you had a different job description, you may find it at the bottom of that website. If you're not a programmer at all, then check the NOC list (now I feel like a secret agent) for your profession and put the four digit code for your profession into the search box on the programmer description page.

That's a lot of typing for something that's pretty simple.

Now, we have to make sure you can support yourself in Canada, on your own, for six months. The government says you'll need about $9400 Canadian dollars to support yourself for six months. If you have a family, it may be more. In comparison, the student loan fuckers gave me $7400 to last me an entire year (minus my $4000 tuition). I hope they all die.

If you have secured work in Canada before coming, you do not have to have this money. However, you'd be stupid not to have a few grand in cash in the bank, or it'll be a bitch to rent an apartment without first/last month's rent.

Oh, and if you're bringing more than $10,000 in negotiables (cash, stocks, bonds, treasury bills, traveller's cheques, cashier's cheques, money orders, etc), for the love of god declare them at customs. You do not want to spend your first few weeks in prison or have to pay a chunk of change in fines. Just don't.

Also, while we're on the subject, don't bring marijuana. Seriously, people do this, as if we don't grow our own. You can get it here, and it's cheaper than what you paid, trust me.

Now, you have to be able to speak the language. If you've gotten this far, you probably qualify for moerate or high English lanuguage proficiency, but you may, at your option, choose to use French as your primary official language instead. Keep in mind, however, that unless you move to Quebec, you will more than likely need functioning English to get around. Whichever you choose, you will have to prove it, either by taking a test of your (e.g.) English, or by providing proof from another qualified organization. If English or French is your first language, just take the test. It'll be trivial. Some people who immigrate to Canada are pretty much functionally incompetant in English and still get in (and that's fine), so if you can understand what I'm saying, you'll be fine.

Exceptions are in the larger cities, for e.g. Chinese, Japanese, Israeli, Arabic, Sihk, etc. immigrants, as there are already large communities of these persons in the larger areas, and they will be able to help you get acclimated to your new home, and still give you a comfortable anchor, if you desire one.

For an idea of how easy or hard it is to really get into Canada, take a look at

You may be able to glean some smug satisfaction that it was eventually scrapped, but the point is the same...your government tries the exact same shitty crap in your country as certain goverment agencies try in the US. And you can bet there are governments in Europe looking at this and thinking , "Hmm, that sounds like a good idea. Let's put it to a vote at the next EU meeting." Ditto their counterparts in Australia, Asia, Africa and South America. If the bastards don't succeed this time, you can bet they'll try again somewhere else. Or maybe there is already another push underway in Canada, odds are there is. These fascists are like cockroaches, they may flee the light and hide for awhile, but they are damn hard to kill and will just wait for their next opportunity to come scuttling back from the filth.

About the only thing I can see that Canadians can be proud about is the fact that they seem to be 4 years ahead of the US in attempting to implement police-state tactics. Bravo Canada.

Per the limitations of the law he can hold a job (PDF), and get married. Looks like he could be considered an adult if he wanted to be, as well.

I work help desk.. and its soooo borring telling end users to put there coffe tray back in the drive and to do a defrag so that aol will connect better.
here are the sites i check on an hourly bassis

www.cnn.com [american news]
www.slashdot.com [duplicate IT news]
www.theregister.co.uk [more IT news]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi.html [world news]

Daily
www.kuro5hin.org/ [political thinking and stuff]
cagle.slate.msn.com/politicalcartoons/ [funny]

Weekly
www.anandtech.com [awsome hardware reviews]
www.tomshardware.com [awsome hardware reviews]
www.comics.com [funny]

oh.. yes.. and of course
hrdc-drhc.gc.ca
wich i check on a minute by minute basis

What, you mean the US should do it like the rest of us?

www.theregister.co.uk

www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca

But the USA is the Internet, right? That's why you have .gov, .com, and .net instead of .gov.us, .co.us, and .net.us

It's always bugged me a bit, especially when companies in my country use .com instead of .ca - I always try .ca by default and many of them don't have the .ca even in use to point to the .com.

I honestly don't know if there is even a TLD for the USA...

It used to be you didn't need a SIN until you got your first job (at -maybe- 16 years old) but now many parents are required to get one for their kid's Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) - sometimes in the first year of the baby's life. Welcome to the system, Junior!

Does this surprise me? Yes and no. Yes, because I often look to Canada as our more enlightened neighbor to the north who's solved so many of the problems that did or have plagued us for so long: universal health care, rampant racial strife, rigorous environmental protections, etc. At the same time, Canada as a nation has long had a strange relationship with its children.

Most countries put children and minors into the same legal category as imbeciles and the insane, but Canada is much more aggressive about it and in the process, their parents are often in practice lumped in as well. Have you ever been to a supermarket in Canada and tried to buy caffeinated Mountain Dew or caffeinated rootbeer? It doesn't exist, because children can't be trusted with caffeine and their parents might be too stupid to realize that non-cola sodas may contain caffeine.

Frankly, it astonished me at first, because Canada is more dedicated than most countries to conducting research into children's psychology: if we understand our children, then we can change the world! That sort of thing. But what's even more surprising is that a recent study ; demonstrated that in spite of how much effort and funding was being poured into Canadian schools and Canadian children's programs (from prenatal and on), immigrant children still on average outperform native-born Canadian children. And that's in spite of the fact that Canada's immigrant children are in greater poverty and penury than their native counterparts; the education they received in foreign countries prior to arriving in Canada has helped them succeed where Canadian children without that opportunity languish.

I'm torn as to how to how to find a solution, of course. On the one hand, parents are proving insufficient, but at the same time, the government is proving incompetent to solve the problem. Clearly something has to be done, but who? The only choice I see is the UN, but they're usually unwilling (or not allowed) to get involved in purely domestic affairs, and you don't get any more domestic than child-rearing. But whatever Canada does, it must act soon. Certain industries (particularly the film industries in British Columbia) have been on the rise and have successfully drawn an international presence formerly reserved to the US. But if Jonny or Sally can't read, then when the children grow up to staff or lead those industries, the nation will find itself in a lot of trouble.

I only wish we in the US had something to offer in aid, but we've failed our children too. I suppose that ultimately, we'll have to rethink the legal status of children and perhaps move them into a more autonomous position and role, where they can think for themselves and make decisions in their own best interests, since obviously we can no longer trust ourselves to act in anyone's best interest but our own. First it was propertied white men who were enfranchised, and then came men of other races, and then finally ;wo men. It's time for children to join in the society of nations and receive their full share of human rights including the right to vote, not just in silly online polls but in elections that matter. They have voices of their own, and it's time we started listening.

Does this surprise me? Yes and no. Yes, because I often look to Canada as our more enlightened neighbor to the north who's solved so many of the problems that did or have plagued us for so long: universal health care, rampant racial strife, rigorous environmental protections, etc. At the same time, Canada as a nation has long had a strange relationship with its children.

Most countries put children and minors into the same legal category as imbeciles and the insane, but Canada is much more aggressive about it and in the process, their parents are often in practice lumped in as well. Have you ever been to a supermarket in Canada and tried to buy caffeinated Mountain Dew or caffeinated rootbeer? It doesn't exist, because children can't be trusted with caffeine and their parents might be too stupid to realize that non-cola sodas may contain caffeine.

Frankly, it astonished me at first, because Canada is more dedicated than most countries to conducting research into children's psychology: if we understand our children, then we can change the world! That sort of thing. But what's even more surprising is that a recent study ; demonstrated that in spite of how much effort and funding was being poured into Canadian schools and Canadian children's programs (from prenatal and on), immigrant children still on average outperform native-born Canadian children. And that's in spite of the fact that Canada's immigrant children are in greater poverty and penury than their native counterparts; the education they received in foreign countries prior to arriving in Canada has helped them succeed where Canadian children without that opportunity languish.

I'm torn as to how to how to find a solution, of course. On the one hand, parents are proving insufficient, but at the same time, the government is proving incompetent to solve the problem. Clearly something has to be done, but who? The only choice I see is the UN, but they're usually unwilling (or not allowed) to get involved in purely domestic affairs, and you don't get any more domestic than child-rearing. But whatever Canada does, it must act soon. Certain industries (particularly the film industries in British Columbia) have been on the rise and have successfully drawn an international presence formerly reserved to the US. But if Jonny or Sally can't read, then when the children grow up to staff or lead those industries, the nation will find itself in a lot of trouble.

I only wish we in the US had something to offer in aid, but we've failed our children too. I suppose that ultimately, we'll have to rethink the legal status of children and perhaps move them into a more autonomous position and role, where they can think for themselves and make decisions in their own best interests, since obviously we can no longer trust ourselves to act in anyone's best interest but our own. First it was propertied white men who were enfranchised, and then came men of other races, and then finally ;wo men. It's time for children to join in the society of nations and receive their full share of human rights including the right to vote, not just in silly online polls but in elections that matter. They have voices of their own, and it's time we started listening.

Does this surprise me? Yes and no. Yes, because I often look to Canada as our more enlightened neighbor to the north who's solved so many of the problems that did or have plagued us for so long: universal health care, rampant racial strife, rigorous environmental protections, etc. At the same time, Canada as a nation has long had a strange relationship with its children.

Most countries put children and minors into the same legal category as imbeciles and the insane, but Canada is much more aggressive about it and in the process, their parents are often in practice lumped in as well. Have you ever been to a supermarket in Canada and tried to buy caffeinated Mountain Dew or caffeinated rootbeer? It doesn't exist, because children can't be trusted with caffeine and their parents might be too stupid to realize that non-cola sodas may contain caffeine.

Frankly, it astonished me at first, because Canada is more dedicated than most countries to conducting research into children's psychology: if we understand our children, then we can change the world! That sort of thing. But what's even more surprising is that a recent study ; demonstrated that in spite of how much effort and funding was being poured into Canadian schools and Canadian children's programs (from prenatal and on), immigrant children still on average outperform native-born Canadian children. And that's in spite of the fact that Canada's immigrant children are in greater poverty and penury than their native counterparts; the education they received in foreign countries prior to arriving in Canada has helped them succeed where Canadian children without that opportunity languish.

I'm torn as to how to how to find a solution, of course. On the one hand, parents are proving insufficient, but at the same time, the government is proving incompetent to solve the problem. Clearly something has to be done, but who? The only choice I see is the UN, but they're usually unwilling (or not allowed) to get involved in purely domestic affairs, and you don't get any more domestic than child-rearing. But whatever Canada does, it must act soon. Certain industries (particularly the film industries in British Columbia) have been on the rise and have successfully drawn an international presence formerly reserved to the US. But if Jonny or Sally can't read, then when the children grow up to staff or lead those industries, the nation will find itself in a lot of trouble.

I only wish we in the US had something to offer in aid, but we've failed our children too. I suppose that ultimately, we'll have to rethink the legal status of children and perhaps move them into a more autonomous position and role, where they can think for themselves and make decisions in their own best interests, since obviously we can no longer trust ourselves to act in anyone's best interest but our own. First it was propertied white men who were enfranchised, and then came men of other races, and then finally ;wo men. It's time for children to join in the society of nations and receive their full share of human rights including the right to vote, not just in silly online polls but in elections that matter. They have voices of their own, and it's time we started listening.

Human Resources Canada tried to pull a fast one like that a while ago. The fit hit the shan (breach of privacy) and they had to back off and dismantle it. DROP DATABASE LLFF
This file was a collation of Employment, Unemployment, Taxation and Customs files on Canadian Citizens. One particularly interesting usage was to XREF people returning from vacation with unemployment records. So that if you were on EI and took a week to Aruba, they'd mark you as ineligible and fine you for the extra weeks paid out.
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Vote Inanimate Carbon Rod in 2000

Request HRDC information
.. oh and you have to pay a minimum of CAD$5 to get access to that information.
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