PLC job prospects in Canada for a newcomer

And-Rey

Member
Join Date
Jun 2014
Location
Ukraine
Posts
6
Salute all fellows of the trade!

I’m Andrew and I am an alcoholic…sorry, PLC programmer :oops:

As I’m the new here, first off I’d like to greet all forum participants and say “thanks” all you guys who help each other in our uphill struggle. 🍻 Regretfully, I haven’t come across to this forum before, as I used to surf Russian/Ukrainian tech websites mainly, but from now on I’m in. :cool:

Sorry for many letters written beneath, I hope you’ll wade through it.

I’ve been working as a PLC/HMI technician at one of largest Ukrainian iron and steel enterprises for the last 5 years. Before that I worked there for 2 years as an Instrument technician. We’ve got a lot of various control systems here, mainly based on Schneider and Siemens solutions.

I have experience & skills in troubleshooting/programming Modicon and Simatic PLCs; SCADAs iFix, InTouch, WinCC; MS SQL Server, Visual Basic, MS Office Suite, etc. Certainly, I’m not such a pro, who thoroughly knows everything in all this stuff. New issues are continually occurring on site and you have to find out solutions pretty swiftly using all means available. So with the lapse of time you have to learn more and more, gaining valuable experience and leveling up your proficiency. And this is great actually!

The key thing I’ve realized, is what the ability to troubleshoot, knowing where to look for and figuring out how to solve the problem, is crucial for the profession, particularly at the place where I’m working now. And, in my opinion, it’s obvious that this skill is gained through the hands-on experience during commissioning and maintaining process facilities.

One more important thing is that despite quick mind is an asset in the trade, before making any decision one has to think twice (or much more) before doing anything, as he or she is responsible for the possible consequences that, in turn, may be quite unpredictable :unsure:. So I believe that composure and ability to soberly appraise the situation being under pressure (process staff is usually pretty impatient and loudmouthed:mad:) are essential qualities as well.

Actually, all the text written above is just some thoughts I wanted to share. The question (it’s rather a piece of advice) I’d like to ask the community is the following:

I’m immigrating to Canada by the end of the year, Calgary, Alberta (or maybe other city in the province, it depends). It’s not a secret that any would-be newcomer dreams to find a professional job right away after landing and I’m not an exception. :rolleyes: However, the reality is tough and after arrival only a few are able to quickly find a job they’ve longed for. Unfortunately, my ”input data” are not encouraging.

Here it is:
  1. No Canadian education;
  2. No Canadian experience;
  3. No oil and gas experience (as it is Alberta);
  4. No Rockwell experience (as it is North America);
  5. No professional contacts (networking, eh?);
  6. No references from Canadian employers;
  7. New immigrant with Russian accent;
  8. Maybe some others I don’t even suspect about yet ))
On the other hand:
  1. 7+ years of hands-on process control experience;
  2. 29-old guy with a positive attitude and strong willingness to apply his skills afield, to permanently learn and study all new stuff;
  3. Engineering education evaluated by International Credential Assessment Service (www.icascanada.ca) as comparable to Master’s degree in Canada.
  4. I really love my job! :nodi:
As you can see, the cons list is twice shorter than pros and I realize that it’s pretty naive to hope that an employer would wish to hire such a specialist. But nevertheless I wonder what steps should I undertake to increase the odds of getting a job in automation field?

I’m pretty confused what do I need first: whether get some survival job experience to obtain at least any Canadian references. Or to apply as an instrument technician (an electrician) apprentice and after a couple of years give it a try to get into PLC programming. Or, maybe, I’ve got to take some Allen-Bradley PLC training courses (e.g. www.plctechnician.com). Or just forget about it and join the ranks of Tim Horton’s employees for the rest of my life. :( In short, I’m still hesitating in what direction I have to apply my efforts to. :confused:

I would sincerely appreciate if you could give me any clues about my situation. 🤞🏻

Please, don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to implicitly “advertise” myself or something, merely would like to hear an opinion of competent people in terms of my chances of getting a job in the trade upon arrival to Canada.

Thanks for your patience to have overpowered this writings.

Best regards,

Andrew
 
Any immigrant usually has a hard time finding a job in their chosen field upon arrival. When my parents immigrated from Scotland, my Dad was a bus driver/conductor. His first job in Canada was working in a Toboggan factory ( how Canadian, eh?)

Perhaps you should rethink your chosen destination and consider Toronto. There is a large Ukrainian community in the city and perhaps word of mouth from a fellow Ukrainian could help you in your search.
 
To LadderLogic:
Thanks for good words, but quite frankly, my writing is considerably better than speaking, I’ve got to practice a lot more.:mad:

To curlyandshemp:
Thanks for advice. GTA has undoubtedly a lot of opportunities, as well as one of the biggest Russian/Ukrainian communities in Canada. Like they say, new immigrant should settle in place where he/she is able to find a good job, whether it is Toronto or some unknown fort in Northwest Territories. And after that, one may consider more desirable place to move, according to one’s preferences. It's another matter how should one know in advance where he/she could find such a job? o_O
 
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