Frequently Asked Questions

A career diagnosis and progression system for internationally experienced professionals in Canada.

Most career advice assumes you know what your problem is. You do not, usually. That is not a failure of effort. You are applying, editing, taking courses, applying again, and none of it is aimed at anything specific because nothing has told you what to aim at.

A free, 14-question assessment. It takes about three minutes.

It identifies which of five career patterns your situation fits, names the constraint most likely to be blocking you, and emails you a written Action Brief with one thing to do first.

The paid version, and it is a different kind of thing.

You complete a structured intake, which takes about ten minutes. A person reads it. You get back a written analysis covering:

• what is actually blocking your progress, in your specific case
• how your experience is likely being read by a Canadian employer
• whether the roles you are targeting are the right roles
• whether you are aiming at the right career level
• which of your gaps are skill gaps and which are evidence gaps
• a prioritised 30/60/90 day roadmap
• one immediate first action

The diagnostic tells you which pattern you are in. The Assessment tells you what to do about your situation.

The diagnostic is automated and general. It is genuinely useful, and for some people it is enough. The Assessment is a person reading your actual circumstances and writing an analysis of them.

If the diagnostic is a thermometer, the Assessment is the consultation.

Five recurring shapes we see in stalled careers here:

• The Stuck Newcomer: applying constantly, hearing almost nothing back
• The Foundation Builder: early in the search or rebuilding, the target still wide and the proof thin
• The Negotiator: getting offers, consistently below what the role is worth
• The Remote Seeker: chasing remote or cross-border roles that keep not working out
• The Career Pivoter: strong background in one field, invisible in the new one

These are working patterns, not permanent identities. They describe a situation you are in, not a kind of person you are. Most people move through more than one.

No. AI helps with drafting; a person does the analysis and takes responsibility for what gets sent. Every paid Assessment is read and written by the founder before it reaches you.

We say this plainly because you are probably being screened by AI already, and being handed AI output by a service you paid for would be insulting.

Internationally experienced professionals in Canada whose careers have stalled. Most often these are people who held real seniority somewhere else and cannot get that recognised here.

Concretely, that includes:

• someone applying for months with almost no response
• someone employed well below their previous level, treating it as temporary and finding it is not
• someone getting offers that are consistently underpriced
• someone pursuing remote or cross-border work that keeps not landing
• someone changing field whose experience reads as irrelevant to the new one
• someone told they need “Canadian experience” while holding fifteen years of the actual thing

No, and this is the thing we most often get wrong in how we describe ourselves.

Feedback from readers has told us the site reads as though it is for someone who just arrived. It is not. It is for anyone whose experience is not being read at its real level here, including people who have been in Canada for years, who hold permanent residence or citizenship, and who are simply stuck below where they should be.

If you have twelve years of experience and are working two levels below it, you are exactly who this is for.

No. Some people take the diagnostic while planning a move. The analysis still works. It will just weight your situation differently.

It is built for people with real professional experience. Typically five years or more, often much more. If you are just starting your career, it will be less useful, because most of what it analyses is how existing experience is being read.

Yes, and there is a specific answer for you in section 5 about running two tracks at once.

Yes. No card, no trial, no upsell wall. You give an email address so we can send your Action Brief. That is the whole exchange.

About three minutes. Fourteen questions.

Your career pattern, your likely primary constraint, and a written Action Brief by email with one first action.

Because the kind of work authorisation you hold changes which roles are realistically open to you. Advice that ignores that is dishonest.

Answering is optional. “Prefer not to say” is a complete answer and you still get your full result.

We use it only to shape advice. We never use it to decide who receives which email, and we do not give immigration advice of any kind. More on this in section 8.

You can skip the form and still see your result on screen. You will not get the written Action Brief, which is the part most people find useful.

No. You can unsubscribe from any email in one click, and unsubscribing does not take anything away from you.

Honestly? It is directional, not diagnostic in a clinical sense. It is good at narrowing the field and bad at nuance. It will not know about your specific industry, your specific city, or the thing that makes your situation unusual.

That is exactly the gap the paid Assessment fills. We would rather tell you that than oversell a quiz.

Yes. Some people retake it after a few months to see whether their constraint has moved.

A written report. It covers your positioning, your target role, your career level, your skill gaps versus your evidence gaps, how your experience is likely landing with Canadian employers, and a prioritised 30/60/90 day roadmap with a defined first action.

Long enough to be specific and short enough to act on. It is a working document, not a brochure. There is a sample on the Assessment page so you can see the format before you decide.

The founder. Personally. Every one.

A resume review fixes the document. This works out whether the document is even the problem.

Frequently it is not. Sometimes the resume is fine and the targeting is wrong. You are applying for roles a level above where your evidence currently supports, or a level below where you would be credible. No amount of resume editing fixes that.

Coaching is an ongoing relationship built on conversation. This is a written analysis delivered once, plus one call at the $99 tier if you want it.

If what you need is sustained accountability over months, this is not that, and we will say so.

No. We may tell you what your resume is failing to evidence. We will not write it for you.

The most useful distinction in the whole analysis.

A skill gap is something you cannot yet do. The fix is learning.

An evidence gap is something you can do but have not demonstrated in a way an employer can verify. The fix is proof, not study.

Most people diagnose themselves with skill gaps and go take another course. Most of the time they had an evidence gap, and the course did nothing. Getting this the right way round can save you a year.

No. We are not a job board and we do not have employer relationships. We can tell you what kind of role, at what level, positioned how.

This comes up more than we expected, and it is a real gap in most career advice.

A common example: someone with thirteen years in project management, applying for PM roles at their level and entry-level roles in a different industry as a route back in. Perfectly rational. But the standard advice (“fix your resume, then update your LinkedIn”) breaks immediately, because you can tailor a resume for every application and you only have one LinkedIn profile.

Our working answer: the primary target carries the profile; the secondary target carries tailored resumes and direct conversations. Put the profile fully behind one target and do not dilute it, because a profile hedging between two industries usually reads as unfocused to both. Pursue the second track through applications and direct outreach, where you can explain the pathway in your own words.

Which target should be primary is exactly what the Assessment works out.

No. If the site gave you that impression, that is our wording rather than your reading.

Plenty of the people this is built for are employed. Being stuck below your level is one of the hardest situations to move out of, precisely because nothing is urgent enough to force a change.

That phrase is doing a lot of hidden work. Usually it is standing in for something more specific: unfamiliar references, unverifiable achievements, unclear equivalence of your previous employer, or communication norms in interviews.

Those are addressable. “Canadian experience” as a blanket requirement is often not lawful in a job posting in any case. Naming what is actually behind it is part of the analysis.

Not for using any of this. The diagnostic and reports are in English. Email us in English or Turkish.

You must be 18 or older to use the service. It will help you less than it helps someone with substantial experience, because most of the analysis is about how existing experience is being read.

One-time payments. Not a subscription. Nothing recurs, nothing auto-renews.

Because we are testing whether it is worth anything, and charging a serious price before we have evidence would be the wrong way round.

Ten is the real number, not a marketing device. After that we will know a great deal more about what this is worth.

The Shoppers Hub Canada Inc., the company behind FindJobsCanada. That is the name that will appear on your card statement.

Stripe. We never see or store your card details.

Yes, in several circumstances:

• you change your mind before submitting your intake
• we do not receive your intake within 14 days and close the order
• we decide your situation is outside what the Assessment can address
• we deliver more than 7 calendar days late without agreeing a new date with you
• you tell us within 7 days of delivery that the Assessment did not meaningfully address your situation, and tell us why

We do not refund because you disagree with the conclusions, or because an outcome you hoped for has not happened yet.

The full terms are on the Terms of Service page.

We will tell you and refund you in full. We would rather return your money than send you something that does not help.

Not at $49.

Three business days from your completed intake, not from payment.

That distinction matters. If you pay on Monday and submit your intake on Friday, the clock starts Friday.

We remind you at day 7. If it has not arrived by day 14, we refund you in full and close the order. We cannot write an analysis of someone we know nothing about.

We will tell you before the deadline, not after, and give you a new date. More than seven days late without an agreed new date and you can ask for a full refund.

Thirty minutes, by video, to walk through your report and ask whatever you want. You book it through a private link sent with your report. Book within 60 days.

We do not record calls.

Depends on you. If you read a written analysis and act on it, the $49 version is complete on its own. If you think better out loud, or you expect to have follow-up questions, the call earns its money.

We genuinely do not mind which you choose.

For the diagnostic: your first name, email, your fourteen answers, your resulting pattern and constraint, your urgency, what you have already tried, your work eligibility if you choose to answer, and how you heard about us.

For a paid Assessment: everything in your intake, plus a payment confirmation from Stripe.

The full detail is on the Privacy Policy page.

No. Never. To anyone.

No. Not ever. We have no employer relationships and no recruiter arrangements.

To give advice that is realistic. It is optional, it never affects which emails you receive, and we delete it after 12 months automatically, sooner if you ask.

Mostly in the United States, with our service providers. Canadian law requires us to tell you that plainly, so we do, in the privacy policy.

Yes. Email hello@findjobscanada.ca and we will do it, and confirm when it is done.

No. We are not a recruiter, a job board, or a placement agency. We do not submit you to employers or contact them on your behalf.

No. The founder is not a licensed immigration consultant or a lawyer, and immigration questions need licensed professionals.

We ask about work eligibility only to know what roles are realistic. We never advise on status, applications, permits or pathways. For that, talk to an RCIC or a lawyer.

No, and we would not trust anyone who did.

Not yet, and we will not invent them.

We are in a founding beta with a small number of customers. When we have real outcome data we will publish it, including the parts that do not flatter us. Until then, anyone quoting you a success rate for a service like this is making it up.

Ebu, the founder. Someone who arrived in Canada with substantial professional experience, assumed the job search would be the easy part of immigrating, and found it was not.

The full story is on the About page.

No, and we say so plainly. The founder is not a career counsellor by training, not a licensed immigration consultant, and not a recruiter.

What is behind the analysis is having had to decode this system first-hand, plus several years of research into how Canadian employers screen, how roles are priced, and why qualified people get no response.

If a professional credential is what you want, hire a certified counsellor. That is a legitimate choice and we will not argue with it.

You should not, entirely, on the basis of a web page. What we can offer:

Not yet. We are in a founding beta and have not yet delivered enough assessments to have honest ones.

When we do, they will be from real paying customers, used with permission, and we will say which tier they bought. Nothing else counts.

hello@findjobscanada.ca. A real person reads every message and usually replies within 1–2 business days.

Email it. If enough people ask the same thing, it ends up on this page.

Email us with the nature of the request in the subject line so it gets to the right place.

Same address, and say so in the subject.

Yes, please do. It is free, there is no catch, and nothing is required in return. Email us and we will help you share it.

The software an employer uses to receive and sort job applications.

When you click “Apply” on a company’s careers page, you are usually typing into an ATS. It stores your application, lets recruiters search and filter it, and tracks you through each stage. Common ones you may have seen the name of: Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, Taleo, BambooHR.

What it actually means for you. People often describe the ATS as a robot that rejects resumes. That is mostly a myth, and it is worth being precise about, because a lot of expensive advice is sold on the basis of the myth.

What is true: the ATS is a database with a search box. A recruiter types criteria into it. If your resume does not contain the words they search for, you do not appear in their results. So you are never rejected, you are simply never seen. Some systems do rank or filter automatically, but the far more common outcome is that a human searched and you were not in the list.

What follows from that is simple. Use the same words the job posting uses, where they are honestly true of you. Keep the layout readable: one column, real text, no critical information hidden inside an image, a text box, or a header. Send a PDF unless the posting asks otherwise. That is nearly all of it.

“ATS-friendly” or “ATS-optimised” resume: a resume written so the system can read it and the recruiter’s search can find it. Nothing more magical than that.

What it is not. It is not an AI deciding whether you are good. It does not score your personality. There is no trick formatting that beats it, and anyone selling you one is selling you something.

Recruiters search the ATS using words from the job description. Keyword matching means making sure the true version of your experience uses those same words. If the posting says “stakeholder management” and your resume says “working with senior people”, a search for the first will not find you.

Keyword stuffing is the abuse of this: hiding lists of words in white text or cramming irrelevant terms in. It reads badly to the human who eventually opens the file, and it is not worth doing.

The stage before a real interview. Usually a short phone or video call, or a set of written questions, used to check the basics: are you authorised to work here, are your salary expectations in range, do you actually have the experience the posting asked for.

Roles filled through referrals, internal moves and direct approaches rather than public postings. The point of the phrase is that applying to advertised roles is only part of how hiring happens.

When someone already inside a company puts your name forward. Most employers pay their staff a bonus for a referral that gets hired, which is why asking for one is a normal request rather than an imposition.

A short, low-stakes conversation with someone doing the job you want. You are asking about their work, not asking them for a job. Common and well understood in Canada. Fifteen to twenty minutes is the norm.

A way of structuring an answer in a behavioural interview: Situation, Task, Action, Result. You describe the context, what you were responsible for, what you specifically did, and what happened as a result. Canadian interviews lean on this heavily.

An interview built on questions that start “Tell me about a time when…”. It asks what you have actually done rather than what you would hypothetically do.

The search syntax recruiters use inside an ATS or on LinkedIn, combining terms with AND, OR, NOT and quotation marks. You never need to write one. It is useful only as an explanation of why exact wording on your profile matters.

Where a role sits in a hierarchy: coordinator, specialist, manager, senior manager, director. It is one of the most common places an international career gets misread, because the same title can mean quite different levels of responsibility in different countries and different sized companies.

A skill gap is something you cannot yet do. The fix is learning.

An evidence gap is something you can do but have not demonstrated in a form an employer can verify. The fix is proof, not study.

Most people diagnose themselves with a skill gap and go take a course. Most of the time it was an evidence gap and the course changed nothing.

A plan broken into what you do in the first thirty days, the next thirty, and the next thirty. Used two ways: by candidates to structure a job search, and by new hires to show an employer how they will start. We use it in the first sense.

Everything an offer is worth, not just the salary: bonus, employer pension or RRSP matching, health and dental benefits, vacation, stock or options, allowances. Two offers with the same salary can differ substantially once these are counted.

Laws requiring employers to publish a salary range in a job posting. Several Canadian provinces have introduced them and the rules differ by province. Where it applies, it means you often do not have to guess the range.

A phrase you will hear a great deal. It usually stands in for something more specific: references an employer can check, achievements they can verify, an unfamiliar previous employer, or communication norms in interviews. As a blanket requirement in a job posting it is often not lawful. There is a longer answer in section 5.

A licensed immigration professional, regulated by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. Along with lawyers, RCICs are the people legally allowed to give you immigration advice and represent you. When we say “talk to an RCIC”, this is who we mean. You can check whether someone is genuinely licensed on the College’s public register.

The federal government department responsible for immigration. The authoritative source for anything about status.

The status allowing you to live and work anywhere in Canada indefinitely without being a citizen. Relevant here only because it usually means no employer needs to do anything special to hire you.

Authorisation to work in Canada without being a permanent resident or citizen. An open work permit lets you work for most employers; a closed or employer-specific one ties you to a named employer. The distinction changes which roles are realistically open to you, which is the only reason we ask about it.

A document some employers must obtain before hiring a foreign worker. You will occasionally see a posting say “LMIA support available” or “no LMIA sponsorship”. It is an employer-side process.

Canada’s official system of occupation codes. Job Bank and government postings are organised by it, and it is sometimes useful for finding the official title and wage data for work you already do.

A company that formally employs you on behalf of another company. This is common when a US or overseas employer wants to hire someone in Canada without setting up a Canadian entity. You work for the client; the EOR handles payroll, tax and benefits.

An employee has tax deducted at source and is covered by employment standards. A contractor invoices, handles their own tax and remittances, and has far fewer protections. The same work can be offered either way and the take-home difference is significant in both directions.

The five recurring shapes we see in stalled careers here: the Stuck Newcomer, the Foundation Builder, the Negotiator, the Remote Seeker, the Career Pivoter. Situations, not personality types. Full descriptions in section 1.

The written result emailed to you after the free diagnostic: your pattern, your likely main constraint, and one first action.

The paid written analysis of your specific situation. Section 4.

The first ten paying customers, at a reduced price, while we find out what this is worth. Ten is the real number.