please mute your microphones turn off your cameras hello everyone and Welcome to our online event we are imigrant Services Calgary and this is a specialized employment event I'm just going to be starting off our presentation with a few uh administrative slides so this program is funded by ircc so we humbly thank our program funer and we are grateful that we can have the funding so that we can provide these free programs to our audience a few reminders before we begin I am going to please remind
each and every one of you please do mute your microphone turn off your camera uh as this event is going to be broadcast live on Facebook no abusive language will be tolerated in this safe space please do not post any personal information in the chat box as this is not a secure environment please save any questions that you would have about this workshop for the end of the workshop then you can type them into the chat box for the Q&A at the end of this event there will be a specialized evaluation
link that is sent out to all registered members or all registered attendees I humbly ask that you do provide feedback so that we can improve our workshops and constantly do better I also want to uh request I see that some people have uh registered under one name but they are actually listed here as under another name uh or the name of the device and so we do ask that you identify yourself and change your name inside Zoom so that we can understand who is uh attending this workshop and that way w
e can provide you with better Services all right so without further Ado I think I will formally start this as I said my name is Carlin and I am a newcomer Employment Specialist at Immigrant Services Calgary and uh this is a specialized online event about having a new career in the it sector and I would also like to say a special hello to the Facebook audience who is joining us live on Facebook today we are seeing a large shift in the economic landscape of Calgary and many professionals are chang
ing their career and choosing to transition to a new industry some have chosen to go to Tech careers in the it sector due to the high demand for labor we know that navigating this shift can be a challenge and in response we at Immigrant Services Calgary are committed to helping newcomer Professionals in their Career Development and we have created this event to provide information and guidance to people who are going through this very complicated career transition our guest speaker is Dr Lao who
is the senior program manager for technology programs at the University of Calgary continuing education department Dr La the floor is now yours thank you so much uh K Karen uh let me just share my screen okay so it's my pleasure to be here today uh thank you immigrant Services Calgary uh and uh just to give you a little bit of story uh I came here maybe in June and like many of the newcomers here I don't have a job I don't know a lot of people here in Calgary and Ken was actually one of my uh c
areer advisor uh she she actually shared with me you know how to actually nail down the the first job and I think after a few weeks and the second time I actually met her I actually told her that I I found a new job and then after that probably around uh half a year or more and I Shar with her that I I actually uh came uh to get my second job uh which is where I am here uh so I'm currently the senior program manager so my role uh at the university is mainly to think about uh a few things so firs
t is how do we actually uh make uh people uh uh to be able to transition or even uh find employment uh after they have actually taken some courses especially in technology programs and and secondly is uh really like you know uh the education sector is evolving very fast uh I do know many people are kind of like knows that uh we have been through a lot of these uh uh changes in a short time uh so in the past we have to go out and wait for taxi and suddenly now we can just use our mobile phone uh
to do a lot of things that we haven't imagined before but there are a lot of people saying that right the education sector is still the same and and it's not so later I will actually share with you more about uh what it is so just a little bit of my background so you have uh you could actually understand uh where I am actually from so I actually studied uh uh engineering uh so I got my bachelor degree and PhD so when I talk about engineering it's really hard cor engineering so I'm actually uh uh
researching in the high power so we work with uh the high power circuit breaker uh and I do the design implementation and also consultation uh so so but after some time I actually decided uh to transition into it so I let let you know about my story and I have actually uh uh spent seven years in electrical and electronics engineering and another two years as a researcher uh where I'm actually working in k so as you can see from the first picture on the top uh right so this is where my uh Univer
sity was University of Liverpool so so some of you who are uh familiar with the UK you can actually see uh the famous uh red building uh so this is uh the mechanical engineering department so I'm actually located uh on the right side so this is really uh the white building it used to be an award winning building so so I was actually start there for six years uh so if anyone of you who are actually football fans you would be very happy like me over the weekend because you know Liverpool won 5-0 i
n uh the football match against Manchester United Okay so I actually spent about two years working as a research engineer in Korea so uh in the second picture you can actually see this is a changwan so changwan is really an industry City in uh South Korea is one of the uh top eight uh uh City uh in South Korea and after that uh I also started my career as uh lecturer and then a senior lecturer in a numbers of universities so it's a picture that you see at the right bottom uh is really in China s
o I actually uh work in China for about uh seven years in my earlier part of my career and this is also related to Liverpool because uh they actually setting up uh a new uh School uh whereby they partner with a local University uh and and we have some types of like uh Blended kind of like Eastern and Western University uh to come up with a new innovative ways of delivering education so that that's really about me in my earlier career and uh after that I also started my engineering consultancy co
mpany so you can see a majority of my background is really in engineering uh and later I uh became the head of Department uh in charge of engineering and it so this is the first time where I started to really knows about it so when I get uh into this uh I found out that the market has shifted so we get lesser and lesser number of students and the industry uh is uh really like not doing very well on the other hand we can see uh a lot more opportunities in the it sectors so after I've actually wor
ked as the head of department and look at the trend and that time you know cyber security was really hot so so I kind of like reflect upon myself so where do I go from here so am I going to stay and in this engineering field which is dying or should I try to uh get into the field of it uh and and the the only thing that we have learned in engineering for example for those of you who are familiar uh if you are taking engineering uh you would take maybe one or two courses in programming and normal
ly you will do C programming uh or you do MLB programming but nothing more okay so we never go into the details of object oriented programming and we never go and develop a lot of this software we are just like using coding to try to solve some engineering problems so so I think uh back in 2017 2018 I was actually thinking because that time I was also wondering uh that because I have actually got my education back in uh UK uh and after leaving uh uh the UK and you can see I spent majority of my
time in Asia uh I kind of like reflected that uh maybe Asia is not the place that I want to be so so I wanted to really find uh another place whereby I want to enjoy the the life in the wrest room so so that that's why I started to apply uh to become uh uh uh a PR in uh Canada uh and uh in 2018 I was really happy because this is where uh I got invited but at that time uh as you can see I am still uh in the middle of my career I I I don't know what's going on I don't know anybody in Canada so I c
ame here for one week make sure that I got my documentation uh and also apply for my PR card stay here for one week and then I I left Calgary uh and then back to uh Singapore and then hopefully that you know I could try to land a job so that I can actually come when I get a job so the fact is that uh it's not easy so it's not easy for people to really try to find a job uh away from Canada uh so uh as you can see from the slide uh later in 2020 June I decided to really come back and take a a firm
decision to leave everything behind Asia and take my oneway ticket you know to Calgary so that was really risky because you don't know what will happen you know uh so so this is really uh a period whereby I feel really lost uh because I have been really busy in my career like I like to work over time and I work every day even weekend and and when I actually left my job and came to Calgary uh the first two or three months is like really free I I don't know what is going to happen I don't have a
job and and and this is where I actually took part uh in some of the workshops some of the networking events uh organized by a numbers of organization and uh very Bradly because of my past experience working in um engineering and of course later I share with you that I also uh started to transition into it even back in 2018 because I know in order for me to find a job in Canada uh engineering will not work for me so I'm trying to uh work out a plan and and that that was the reason why because of
uh that particular plan or decisions that I make back in 2018 2019 allows me to learn my first job as a technical instructor uh in uh Canada teaching Club Computing okay which is really in in the field of it and later around March 2021 I actually started my current job uh which is at the University cgri so so just to give you some kind of life story so so this is really one of story that I actually tle upon when I actually go to LinkedIn so I find this is really interesting I don't know this pe
rson Adriana uh but it really hit me because where this is really the story that I think many newcomers have been through it's like people are actually asking you know uh we have been here we are invited we go through so many processes sending our application doing our medical waiting for one year two years like myself I need to take my iOS test for two times okay because I didn't pass my English test first time because when I take my first I test it was maybe after 10 or 15 years since I took m
y last exam so after that I decided to take my is test again and then I got a better score which allows me to come but the thing is when a lot of foreigners or newcomers come to Calgary or to Canada and uh we couldn't actually get the same opportunity so so I do agree uh and uh some of the people actually come up with a terminological so you are not getting the opportunity because you do not knows the Canadian culture okay so so that's why we need to understand Canadian culture and try to actual
ly blend into uh this culture in order for us to uh get the opportunity which in some way I totally agree uh because uh as you can see from for for my example before I came to Canada I actually have uh uh work in many different countries uh which are not uh a place where I've been to and I was lucky in the past is that uh in my previous job I always get people who recommended me a job before I went to that country except Canada so Canada is the only country that I just took up the challenge to h
ead my adventure here so so I I think a lot of the newcomers want the opportunities so I think I I would like to share with you about my uh observation so I lately uh so one of the strategy that I actually took is really to try to uh connect with people from LinkedIn so so this is really the uh very old uh advice but it's really effective so so I think uh don't be shy so this is one of the strategy that I use so what I actually found is that uh if you want to know a lot of the story of people ho
w to transition into it you may be able to find a lot of uh successful uh uh example and uh KY is really one of the person that I actually spoke to uh uh few months back I think in April when I got my uh latest job so so I was actually curious because uh uh she uh was actually from us and we had a chart and she mentioned to me that right uh she used to be working in chemic as a chemical engineering uh in a firm and she relocate to Calgary and after that she couldn't find a job and that prompted
her to take up the courage uh to uh study uh it and she she went into web development later uh to specialize in mobile apps development and and the reason I I was actually quite motivated is because uh friendly speaking uh web development mobile development is also one of the thing that I used to be interested but I never got uh the opportunity to tell myself that I can actually get get through it so I always get too busy that I didn't really have the courage to really uh learn and always I have
a lot of imagination that know in in this field there will be a lot of young people they are really expert in coding so how could I uh who is actually getting older and older be able to compete if I were to really start uh to go into this area in late 30 or late 40 so so that's why back in 2018 my idea is that right so since I am actually trained uh in engineering so I may not be technically as good as people who are trained with many different types of uh coding uh or programming languages uh
so probably I will try to choose something that uh is not focusing too much on software development uh then uh my first choice was actually uh to look into more like engineering related uh it field so I dive into uh area like uh networking as as you can see networking is really uh closely related to uh engineering and also I look into the cyber security so this is how I actually started to transition when I make my decision to try to go into ID so I I I kind of like reflected on my own experienc
e and look at what is really uh the the the field uh that I have opportunities before I uh decided to spend more time to uh get into the field so just to let you know uh one of the the tips that I normally do is before I uh understand I I like to have an overview idea of uh what are the job opportunities so I did this search uh yesterday so uh I just typed Azure so Azure for information is uh Microsoft cloud so I just switched to Calgary and then I found there are 330 352 jobs uh that is actuall
y related if you have some skill set about a year so I actually try to play around with the keyword so I I I type AWS uh because AWS is Amazon web services it's another popular Cloud providers uh in North America and if you do that you can also see you have uh more than 3 200 plus jobs available uh in Calgary and later I typed in some other keywords like cyber security or CSP I get 150 plus which is still good but the thing is this is only the jobs available in C so if you expand it to the whole
Canada you would easily find more than thousand jobs however uh if you look clearly uh of course uh there are some jobs that require a lot of experience so for example if you see lead full St developer so they may expect you to have five 10 years of experience but you may also find something that require less uh number of years experience so for example I actually uh look at this so by the name you can actually see is a software developer you may think it require a lot of coding but when you lo
ok at what is actually in indicated here uh you can see here they actually focusing on people who likes to learn they actually allocate four hours per week for professional development time uh so this is really something that is actually quite common in the field of it uh uh you have to keep on learning forever and ever Nothing Stops not like in engineering uh that I was in the in the past whereby once I actually know about the basic principles of electrical and how things work I can actually us
e similar knowledge for 10 years 20 years but such thing doesn't actually happens in it when I later kind of like started to learn I found that right things in it change every few months so so so if you really want to get into ID so this is something that you may need to be kind of like uh familiar with is uh there will be a lot of learning a lot of this uh uh upgrading and you can actually see uh they are also not requiring people to have really a lot of experience because uh things changes so
fast so uh generally uh with one or two or three years of experience uh you could actually be able to find a lot of jobs and in particular for this uh they are actually working with uh Microsoft Power Platform so for some of you who actually knows is that right so uh there are two ways of solving a problem uh in in it one is you can actually start your own project and then you do all the code by yourself uh and normally you can start with your open source uh uh kind of like development or using
different types of SDK the other way is really uh what is so good uh that I like about Microsoft is they are trying to empower people uh to develop your own apps or software without uh requiring a lot of these uh skill set in coding so this is really what uh they actually looking at uh you have another of uh uh skills whereby you can use the tools like Power Platform uh to really develop some software without a lot of time in uh developing your own uh software so as I share with you my strategy
of getting a job in Calgary is really simple I only have three uh strategy so the first one is because I was starting it very late uh my previous education was really done in uh early 2000 so I got my PhD in 2004 uh So based on today's standard now now is 2021 whatever that I've learned in 204 would be outdated by now so uh I started with uh taking certification exam so so depending on the area that I like so so you can actually see I try to get you know uh CCNA which is really uh in networking
and then after after that I try to take some of the cyber security certifications and then try to crack you know the CSV where whereby a lot of people may may be aware so I do a lot of Linkin learning I do a lot of this Youtube Learning because uh I've been away a long time from studying and once you get started you will get excited because I I discovered there are so many things that is really exciting in the it and and and and and late lately I kind of like uh find uh the data engineering uh t
he cloud is really amazing so you can actually see in my latest certifications I actually invested more time in the cloud uh which I think this is really a good investment because uh if you ask me my own opinion uh there are a lot of things that you can actually achieve if you're good in the cloud and you don't need to invest in a lot of uh uh money uh to buy all the infrastructure and uh they lot of services whereby uh allows you to do amazing stuff uh and there are many services that you can d
o that so I highly recommend so uh recently I got my Microsoft certified trainer and and this is how uh I get so the main reason of me getting a job as a program manager in University of C is because they see I have actually got a lot of certifications despite uh some of the competitors for the job actually have computer science kind of like background uh but they hire me even though I have engineering background because I have demonstrated that I have actually uh spent a couple of years to real
ly go through uh the certifications in the it so this is one of the thing that uh actually makes uh it to be one of My Success uh in getting my interview also for for my first two interviews actually so the second one as I mentioned to you is really to attend the networking uh session participating in some of the free courses available so something that I find is useful especially in Canada is that there are a lot of very great organization doing all of this for free to help newcomers so I have
never seen anything like that in other countries so as I mentioned to you I've work in many other countries so there isn't a lot of support from the government from the local organization to really help to support the newcomers so so I think this is really cool so I personally have attended you know whatever that you seen on the screen here I've attended uh uh a few events from immigrant Services Canada uh and also when I first came here I actually joined uh the uh June uh uh CCIS uh employment
communication Workshop uh so this is where uh we have to wake up very early in the morning and then go through classes every day and then uh they teach us how to write the uh the the CV resume and we have a guest speaker to really uh share with us about the culture in Canada which I actually lik a lot because uh I haven't have any opportunity to work in Canada prior so that is really a good experience and and that also uh is good because as as you know uh when I came here I I did I was not havin
g a job so having a support and getting another 20 person you know in uh uh the class really feel that we we really want to work together for our goals and and I think a good thing is that right because uh the economy changes uh we found a lot of newcomers actually get a job and later when I get connected back to uh CCIS uh one of the uh person that attend attended the workshop also became the coordinator uh for uh CCIS she shared with me uh recently A lot of people with it background have no pr
oblem in finding jobs in Calgary uh so this is something that is very positive so so I think if you decided to really Venture into it uh uh I would think you have a lot of opportunities and uh as you can see just now uh I also work in ower so ower is also another organization nonprofit organization whereby they get the money from a lot of these uh multinational companies like uh Microsoft RBC so so they funded EMP power Canada uh to have uh free it courses uh to people who are actually less than
35 years old uh so so they they started in us and then later uh you have similar thing in Canada so what you could actually do is uh they will require commitment from the person and then when you actually go through the courses uh they have the program coordinator and instructor to help you and a dedicated team to try to arrange interview uh and also uh to do recommendation uh for jobs so so if you are Keen uh to really look for opportunity in it uh Empower actually has quite a uh huge uh prese
nce in Canada they also have offices in Calgary so this is something that uh you could explore so my third strategy is really to reflect upon myself so so I have actually make a decision to really leave everything back in Asia the reason why I actually say Asia is because uh I have actually been staying around in many different countries in Asia so I don't know where my home is but I want to make a decision to leave Asia and come to Canada and I always ask myself what do I need to achieve for th
e next three to five years and when you're actually doing the job uh search sometimes you see a job and then you ask yourself are you happy if you are given this job you may be happy for the first year because uh you know you are so excited you finally get a job after a long time of searching a job but do you still have that types of uh kind of like motivation uh doing the same job you know or you are just trying to get the job for the sake of getting a job yeah so so this is something that I I
think uh as a job uh Searcher uh we may tend to forget about the long-term uh job that we want uh and also I always always think about my strength and winess so for example uh one position in posted in Calgary or in Canada may have over 200 people or 300 people applying so so I always think about myself that you know how could I actually make sure the person actually get interested in interviewing me and how can I actually become their first choice so so so of course I have actually I have not r
eally sent a lot of C or Rec so so I recall uh when I actually came here since June I may have sent almost 30 plus uh resume 30 plus and it's strange because as you can see I'm really not in the it fi so my strength is really in education so so I I keep on getting rejection because how do I know is it reject because I don't hear anything from them so I've actually sent 30 plus kind of like a resume I kind of like receive kind of like zero response so I'm thinking am I doing something right uh of
course uh I later realized that uh I was not really a strong candidate looking at my background because if I'm trying to apply for an engineer or it job whereby they require three years four years five years of it experience in working in a company my experience is really zero right I I have over 14 15 years of experience in higher education and also another few years like you know being a consultant in engineering but not really uh similar to the experience that they wanted to so so that's why
I actually changed my strategy and to really focus more on education because this is where I can actually show my strength uh and my uh strengths also uh involve a lot of these past experience working in different countries uh knows about different types of uh education model uh uh of different country uh so I would really focus on uh spending more time uh to apply for these jobs rather to send a lot of quantities to Res me after being rejected for over 30 times so I I I I don't feel this strat
egy works so so the good thing is once I've actually changed my strategy so uh for the two jobs that I actually get I was being told later that I was really the strongest candidate so so that that's why I think it really inspired me that you know when you want to go for a job uh application uh make sure that uh you knows about the job you knows that your skills uh and experience matches uh the job uh and that will actually lend you the job that you want and enjoy and uh so my my sharing is uh re
search and invest in yourself so I can do my own sort analysis so so not only the knowledge uh and skills education uh also your personal aspiration uh so so this is uh the third strategy that works for me so far and finally I would like to share with you about uh the uh technology industry Outlook so I refer to the uh research from uh deid so you can actually see here uh uh back in 2021 we are actually hit by covid uh so uh the three tech industry trends uh is really cloud computing so this is
the first one the second one is uh artificial intelligence and the third one that they're actually saying is Edge Computing so if you want to see what is really the impact from these few keywords so you can see from the full report you can see in the link here uh they have the key takeaways so if you have time you can go to uh read the whole report but what you can actually see is if you are trying to get a job in it so this is really what people are looking for uh in uh the future or even from
now uh we always heard about digital transformation so so what is really digital transformation uh so so it's like uh we have a lot of companies uh so the first digital transformation actually happens for all of the multinational company because they have a lot of talents they have a lot of this uh money uh to actually go on that but uh the trend now is not only the huge tech companies are doing the digital transformation uh the trend is now affecting a lot of the small and medium company as wel
l because if you do not go through the digital transformation you will be fa out the company will be fa out so it's simple as that so so this is the reason why uh when we are talking about digital transformation uh we are no longer want to invest in infrastructure people are actually moving into the cloud and people are actually moving into data and data analytics capabilities to help the companies uh to make decision and of course you can see there are some cyber security as well and as well as
the business model transformation so you can actually see there a lot of things that is actually related to digital transformation but the few keywords is really cloud computing Cloud infrastructure data data analytics everything uh about uh this area and if you are looking into the workforce uh so people actually trying to find ways uh not to have the manual process uh to have uh advanced technology uh as I mentioned to you Microsoft is actually doing quite well by uh empowering people uh who
are not expert in it or computer science or do not have coding skills to have the capability to also deploy or even uh design your own AI Solutions uh so this is really something that is happening so so just like when we try to think back in time so let's say 20 years ago uh if you knows how to do a PowerPoint presentation if you know how to use Microsoft Office you can get a job but now it's like we are going into a phase whereby you know uh in the future you are expected to know some tools uh
whereby no longer we are using PowerPoint uh people are looking at your skills whether you know how to tell a story about data so the two important kind of like presentation that you need to do is T and powerbi okay so it's really like how do you actually make use of the data present it and analyze it and then uh come up with a story so this is really what we're actually seeing a trend so can you actually see that many of these software have built in AI capabilities even iPhone that we are using
after you have taken a lot of pictures you get the reminder saying that right uh some of the pictures are actually auto zoom into the middle and then tells you the story of your memory so all of these are already affecting our lives so so the thing is uh we need to continue with the trend and the last one is not really uh applicable if you really in it because uh they also talking about uh the supply chains and Manufacturing processes so I would like to share with you what are the opportunities
that uh we can offer especially from uh University of Calgary continue educ so recently we have two successful projects with Microsoft so that is also the reason why I actually get motivated to become the Microsoft certified trainer so we we work with Microsoft uh and RBC uh from June to September to offer free AI certifications to 6,000 people in Canada so at the end uh of the project we actually have over 7,000 enrollment uh and 87.8% of passing rate uh for the fundamental certifications uh s
o this is really something that we we we we are very happy with because within less than three months uh the whole project you know just have less than a month to prepare we are able to launch it and not only to benefit people in Canada as you can see we are also having uh a lot of other people from other countries and the other thing that you can actually see is that uh this is also quite surprising to me is uh the culture here really focus on lifelong learning you can actually see uh we have p
eople even in the 40s or 50s or even you know 60s taking the course in AI so I couldn't imagine in Asia so so in my own country I don't think people that is over 30 years old would be motivated to learn but in Canada you can actually see here they it's it's like normal for them to really keep on upgrading so so we are seeing not only people in the it sector we are seeing a lot of people from different sectors are trying to uh learn about Ai and also machine learning so the second thing that we c
ould actually offer is uh I I like to really collaborate with people uh so one thing is for example I always think that you know uh the the reason why people want to get education is really to uh fulfill uh their aspiration for example to get a better job uh to to want to uh explore new knowledge explore a new uh life so we we what I see in education nowadays is that uh uh when we when I go to a school uh there is less and less interaction with uh people I mean especially in covid whereby we mov
e all the classes into online delivery then the human touch disappear uh so so what I'm actually trying to focus now is how can we we kind of like uh focus on the human connection how do we actually uh provide useful work experience uh so a lot of people wants to have a course that actually brings them uh really uh useful experience to apply the skill in their job in a a real project uh so this is something that uh we are actually uh reflecting on and uh one of the thing that is uh we are also t
rying to encourage uh industry people uh so they may not be the expert in it because we know that it actually now uh affects every different jobs uh so if uh you have actually some kind of experience uh for example in business analysis or business intelligence uh you we are actually looking for instructor or even teaching assistants uh whereby we want you to actually share about your experience to the classroom to our students so these are some of the things that uh we can offer and unfortunatel
y we don't actually recruit full-time instructor I think uh in Canada as a whole uh if you look at Contin education uh the strategy is really we want to get uh people in the industry to be instructors so uh it would be uh a shortterm types of uh contract uh for the instructor so with that so this is uh what I would like to share with you all today I hope all of this uh information will be helpful to you and and I look forward to hear from you if you have any question yes back to you thank you Dr
Le well I think I learned a lot about changing careers and different perspectives all right I know that there's probably going to be some questions but first of all we're just going to say goodbye to our Facebook audience so we're going to turn off the Facebook live feature so bye Facebook audience and thank you for joining us and uh
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