Finding employment is often a team effort

It’s no secret, to find a job you need to connect to the right people. And you need them to connect you to more of the right people, and maybe recommend or vouch for you. And then you just might need those people to connect you to even more people.

That is how one immigrant professional recently found a job in her field of electrical engineering.

Originally from Lithuania, Virginija Bruzeviciute came to Toronto in 2012. Her journey to employment started when she entered TRIEC’s The Mentoring Partnership. The program is delivered with the help of 15 service-delivery partners and over 20 employer partners that provide and recruit established Canadian professionals as mentors.

Virginija found out about The Mentoring Partnership and joined the program through Humber College. After completing her mentoring relationship in March 2015, she was referred to the Connector program – a pilot that TRIEC launched in February 2015 that helps skilled immigrants build their professional networks.

“I learned about TRIEC Connector program from my advisor at Humber College,” – shares Virginija. “I decided to apply after reading more about it. I was interested in meeting other professionals in my field. “

While still actively looking for a job as an electrical engineer, Virginija was referred to a potential Connector, a Canadian professional with well-established networks able to support Virginija in building her networks.  This Connector was volunteering with one of TRIEC’s Professional Immigrant Networks (PINs), the Association of Romanian Engineers in Canada (AREC).

In the process for looking for the right connection, one of AREC’s Board members who saw Virginija’s resume forwarded it to his company, Plan Group, which was looking to hire electrical engineers.

Virginija’s skills and qualifications were a perfect fit. After a successful interview she was offered a job.

“I learned that connections are very important. I also learned that it is more important to find someone who can consult and share experience in job search.”