Europolitan December 2014 - Moving To Canada

My journey to Canada started in Russia back in 2004 when I was thinking of the next
big step. I just completed my MBA in International Marketing in Reutlingen and considered Europe as an accomplished target at that point. It took about three years for the
application process and, even though there were no friends or relatives in Canada, in
2009, I and my family embarked on this journey.
Moving to Canada
By Andrey Bolgov (MBA 2003)
Job search in Canada

As soon as we arrived in Toronto, I started my job
search. Even though we travelled in Europe, lived in
Germany and Italy, read many stories of newcomers
experiences in Canada, we still had a big cultural
shock. Everything was different and no book or account
by a person who went through this cant really anticipate
your own, real experience. With every day though, our
confidence grew bigger and bigger and we fell in love
with our new home.
Job search is very different here compared to Europe.
You need to target your resume entirely at the position
you are applying for. This makes the whole process of
applying for new jobs very time intensive as you need
to adjust your resume every time and come up with
relevant examples in your cover letter. The employer in
Canada is not looking for a static resume that talks
about your responsibilities and your accomplishments
in general. They are looking for the results that you
have achieved at your work and everything needs to be
relevant to the advertised job. Networking is a very
effective tool to look for a job in Canada. Most jobs are
distributed here through referrals and your personal
network in most cases is instrumental in landing a job.
This usually leaves newcomers at disadvantage right
away because no one really knows you here. Information
interviews, that I have never heard of before coming to
Canada, are pretty big here. It is a very effective strategy
to ask potential employers for a meeting before applying
for a job. An information interview can help you to
learn about companys key challenges and opportunities,
projects they are currently working on and identify
your relevant experiences that you can use in your
application.
Communication in general and business communication
specifically might be also a challenge for a newcomer.
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Schwerpunkt Kanada
People in Canada are very polite and often wouldn't

tell you directly they don't like something. It is also
considered rude if you are expressing your critique too
directly. Canadian indirectness combined with the tendency of the English language to have words with
multiple meanings can make communication pretty
challenging, especially for a newcomer whose English
is not the native language.
Working for private and public sectors

in Canada
I found my first job in Canada through Workopolis, a
Canadian employment website. It is considered here
almost impossible to find a job through Workopolis
because there are too many people applying for these
jobs, especially in marketing and sales. However, I was
very specific in my search and came across a job opening
in international marketing with Maplesoft, a developer
of mathematical software. This company has just
entered the German market and was looking for somebody with marketing experience and deep understanding
of the German and French markets. Suddenly, my European background combined with my languages, brand
management and marketing experience became very
handy and made my application despite a very competitive process quite unique. I had three rounds of
interviews after which I landed this job in Waterloo,
located approximately 100 km west from Toronto. Kitchener-Waterloo area is arguably the Canadian Silicon
Valley with many high-tech companies residing there
along with a large Mennonite community famous for its
farmers, hard work and being conservative as far as
technology implementation is concerned. You can meet
many companies working on the latest advancements
in the aerospace and telecommunications industries.
You can also see here Stephen Hawking who comes to
the town periodically for his work at Waterloos Perimeter
Institute for Theoretical Physics. At the same time, once
Andrey Bolgov (MBA 2003) is an international business professional with over

10 years of global experience in business development, investment attraction, marketing and sales management in both private and public sectors.
Andrey Bolgov (MBA 2003)
Andrey worked in software, construction and consumer goods industries

focussing on effective brand management, entering new markets and launching new
products. In his current role as Business Development Consultant at the
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Andrey is supporting food processing and beverage companies in Ontario in their attempt to expand their businesses
and become more competitive on the global scale. Andrey has an MBA in International
Marketing from the Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences and a Bachelor Degree
in Intercultural Communications from the Moscow State Linguistic University. Andrey
speaks fluently four languages including English, German, Italian and Russian and has
an intermediate level of French.
you leave the immediate city, you will encounter Mennonite horse buggies and will emerge into true farm
lifestyle. It is remarkable how peacefully these two
extremes live together.
large market space combined with stable economy, skilled

workforce, R&D incentives, competitive business costs
and high quality of life make Ontario a highly desirable
destination for many businesses all over the globe.
After my work at Maplesoft, I decided to join the

Provincial Government of Ontario. Since I had never
worked in the public sector, I didnt really know what
to expect. My first assignment was with the Ontario
Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Employment in Toronto and I had an opportunity to work on a
program aimed at attracting foreign direct investment
into the Province from Europe. Again, my knowledge
of the European market, experience in the private sector,
languages and my personal experience as a newcomer,
helped me immensely while competing for this job.
Later on, when I was working on European investment
opportunities, it was very easy for me to relate to what
companies were going through while entering the North
American market. My work consisted in identifying gaps
in the supply chain in Ontario and looking for companies
in Western Europe whose products and technologies
would succeed in this market and fill the niche. According
to fDi Intelligence, Ontario achieved outstanding results
in 2013 by exceeding foreign direct investment received
by both California and New York combined.
In my current role, as Business Development Consultant with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and
Rural Affairs, I support food and beverage companies
as they grow their business in the Province and work
hard to successfully compete on the global scale. Coming
originally from the private sector, I am really impressed
by how client-facing our work is and how businessfriendly our services are. It is a great experience to go
out and meet with businesses in various stages of their
development and help them leverage connections,
knowledge and resources provided by Ontario Government to the private sector. It is also remarkable to see
the level of cooperation taking place among all levels
of government including municipal, regional, provincial
and federal aimed at assisting companies to become
more sustainable and guarantee jobs in the future.
It is also an exciting time, especially for European investments, because of the upcoming free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union or
Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
(CETA). According to the latest predictions, this agreement will be finalized by the end of 2015. Once this
agreement is implemented by all member countries,
companies based in Canada will have a unique advantage of a duty-free access to both NAFTA and EU markets representing together a market of over USD $34
trillion and 953 million consumers. Proximity to such a
TOP 10 North American destinations for FDI

2013 Foreign direct investment in Canada and the USA,
investment value, USD $ billions
7,2
6,6
5
3,9
3,3
2,9
2
1,9
1,6
1,5
Ontario
Texas California Quebec Lousiana Gorgia New York North
Indiana South
Carolina Carolina
Source: fDi Intelligence, June 2014
Schwerpunkt Kanada
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Europolitan December 2014 - Moving To Canada

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My journey to Canada started in Russia back in 2004 when I was thinking of the next

Job search in Canada

People in Canada are very polite and often wouldn't

Working for private and public sectors

Andrey Bolgov (MBA 2003) is an international business professional with over

Andrey Bolgov (MBA 2003)

Andrey worked in software, construction and consumer goods industries

large market space combined with stable economy, skilled

After my work at Maplesoft, I decided to join the

TOP 10 North American destinations for FDI

Source: fDi Intelligence, June 2014

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