Hacker News Reader

Comment by salqadri | Hacker News Reader

This doesn't happen just because of age. While I was living in Canada, I met plenty of highly-qualified immigrants desperately looking for jobs, and would routinely get this response even though they weren't old or anything; its just that they would literally be applying for low-skill jobs because the appropriate jobs would not take them for lack of "Canadian Experience".

View on HN

This is a thing in Australia as well, and it's quite baffling. As far as I can tell, it's not even racism or genuine comms concerns etc, it's just that any work experience outside Australia gets discounted as "not real work".

>>it's not even racism

>>work experience outside Australia gets discounted as "not real work".

I mean, that might not be the strict definition of racism, but it essentially is.

This is still true even when the people getting discounted are of the same race and culture as the interviewer, though. Like, hospitals seemingly don't want doctors that grew up in the US but then studied medicine at foreign universities—even when those universities are world-renowned for producing great doctors.

Unless you're suggesting that such places think that the foreign culture "contaminated" their own countrymen in the few years they were abroad—and made them useless—a different explanation is needed for this effect.

If you discount the quality of a degree from a well-regarded university just because it’s in a foreign country, it’s racist (or xenophobic or something roughly equivalent). Not against the candidate but against (citizens of) the nation hosting the university.

With that said, I think hospitals want American candidates with degrees from American universities because the concern is that an American educated by a university in another country was perhaps unable to gain acceptance to an American school, in which case perhaps the foreign university isn’t actually as selective.

> If you discount the quality of a degree from a well-regarded university just because it’s in a foreign country, it’s racist (or xenophobic or something roughly equivalent).

i don't see how it can be 'racist', because countries aren't races. it might be in some sense 'xenophobic', as it seems more a case of people being more comfortable with people similar to them.

Of course countries aren’t races. The citizens of those countries do have races, though. If, for example, you’re only judgemental against Latin American universities, that could be considered xenophobic but it could also be considered racist. The two aren’t really that easy to separate when the prejudice is against a group that is both foreign and a different race.

i'm not sure i follow your reasoning. is canadian a different "race" than australian?

Describe to me what the average Canadian thinks the average Australian looks like.

Now describe to me what the average immigrant to Australia looks like.

I think that will help you understand.

what is the correlation between 'the average immigrant' (whatever that is) and this notion? are other immigrants 'outside the average' seen differently within the scope of this notion?

right, this is the “effect, not motivation” thing in the OP.

nationality <> race

When I moved to Australia I encountered exactly what you described, luckily I was still junior so I presented myself as fresh out school to find an entry-level job. A few years later I moved to the valley and finding a job was easier in many ways.

What about work experience in popular western countries in Europe? I've been living (and working) abroad for the last 10 years but might come home sooner or later.

One reason I can think of, which can cause this, is that it's going to consume greater resources to background check internationally than just within the country.

I do know at least two people who have lied in their CV and got jobs based on those and was wondering how they could get away with it so far.

That’s exactly what happened to my wife. She’s highly qualified and had a lot of international experience in large, well-known companies (HP, Intel, HSBC). Here in Canada, she’s rarely been able to even get to an interview these past couple of years, and when she did, she was “over qualified.”

She now makes sandwiches at a local supermarket for minimal wage and all but lost all hope. Breaks my heart.

I was lucky to get a job pretty quickly though so there’s that.

Oh man, that sounds pretty bad. Why didn't she try consulting/remote work in the U.S.?

She’s a project manager. It’s tough to do remotely so not many jobs available. That said, she did a couple of freelancing gigs for foreign companies last year. Not very steady or stable though and they don’t help her with the “Canadian experience” requirement.

She’s now learning to code to try and get a job in that. Coding is very in demand here (which explains how I got my first job here within a week of arriving)

Wow, that's a tough one. I'm in Vancouver myself and I don't think you can get a PM job here without strong personal connections. The job is much more about trust, confidence and network, than any specific skills, and that's not transferable between locations.

That said, if she held similar positions in Fortune 500 companies, maybe she should try using her network from previous places to get her foot in the door.

Interesting, what race is your wife?

I see you’re getting downvoted but it’s unfortunatedly a relevant question. In her case, however, that’s not the issue. She’s white with an “European-sounding name” so that’s not it.

I don’t think it’s racism or even xenophobia per se. It’s just companies want the “Canadian experience” on your resume. I hear similar stories from other immigrants here. After the first job, everything goes well. It’s just that getting that foot in the door is really difficult.

If your wife is a woman and you too are a woman, this would be puzzling. If you are a man, it becomes a lot less puzzling. "Race/culture"still trumps gender.

> I met plenty of highly-qualified immigrants desperately looking for jobs

They maybe highly qualified but what about their communication skills?

There is a lot of competition as well too many immigrants chasing few jobs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com