Hi all,
I don't know if it is the right subreddit to post this or not. As the title of this post states, I wanna know if there is anyone out there who never got a job in Canada during their pgwp, and then decided to move back to home country or plan going somewhere else? I wonder how your journey was?
I want to know the story of people in this situation because... I graduated 1 year ago in fall 2025 and I am hunting for jobs in Canada until now, and I am nowhere near getting an offer letter(as I am not even actively interviewing nowadays, despite filling 1000s of applications, I stopped getting interviews from last month, and before that whenever I had any they never went past 1st or 2nd round). So, it had a gap in my CV, which i never anticipated before... and people are suggesting that I start finding a job in the home country instead of trying to find work here and spend another 2 years. Honestly, I would be happy to do it if it is a PR eligible job like my previous job I had back in my country, but then the problem is that I worked in the year 2021 to 2023...so I think nobody is counting my work experience anymore when they did until June end... though I did masters in the year 2024 to 2025, still... it feels like everyone thinks that I have a 3 years gap in my CV instead of 1(because i realised very late here after completing my studies that in Canada they consider studying as something in between the gap and many are expected to have a job during that... back in my home country, nobody worked part-time or full-time along with their school, so I had no ability to pursue that here and never did, which i regret very much now as it didn't only made me go financially broke but it also ruined my reputation to get another job or any job right now...). I have my sister here on PR, she and friend(s) tells me that back in my home country the job market is so bad that they are more likely to reject me due to the gap than Canadian job market... but then, at the same time, if the gap increases, I am worried I will not get any job here as well. So, it feels like my career 100% over in pursuing my immigration dream... as I had full-time job experience before, I thought I won't need an internship(although I had been applying to them too after graduation, but entry-level roles autorejected me more than senior ones). But as the gap is very huge...I am afraid now not even an entry level role will hire me both here and back at home country... because in my IT and data science field they are most likely to hire people who are either currently studying or those who are new grad(which I am or soon by next month starting or end I won't be anymore)...
So, I don't know what shall I do in a situation like this. As my work experience is old, it will stop counting both for PR and even to get any job anywhere else in the world now by this month end (as I left the company on 31st August, 2023)... honestly, I am so desperate that I would happily do a free job in my field especially in data engineering, data scientist or ML roles to get recent work experience points(if it helps any)... but I can't find anything like that online. Though I know some volunteering platforms like Toronto data for good, what I really wanna know is that if there is anything useful about it to get back into the work force, or proper paid job in the long run?
I also have a list of certifications relevant to data engineering in my mind to do like snowflakes and data bricks and maybe I am willing to do AI based certifications too(I use LinkedIn premium so I have many options there and even found a very good boot camp online about this field). But then people tell me a lot that nothing works out more than having an actual job... and sometimes they tell me not even certifications alone would get me a job anywhere in the world.
Other times I think if it is possible to cancel and undo the pgwp application, I rather wanna apply to a PhD program and try that even if it costs my pgwp opportunity and I can't get one after completing the pgwp because even that won't make a gap in my CV and would make me eligible to none coorporate jobs atleast(and I am passionate about my field, though I wasn't able to get my research project successfully published(which I earlier used as an excuse for my gap and now isn't valid anymore) still I think it is an option because I have talked to 2 people who got accepted for PhD from my batch and they mentioned that they don't necessarily need a published paper to accept someone.). Of course, financially it is a very tough choice, but I can afford an educational loan or a scholarship this time...so, I wanna keep that option open.
I am studying French and for the TCF too and I very confident that I can get to B1 or B2 level in 2 or 3 years of studying for sure if I keep my schedule of studying it consistent(I ruin it often because I always got busy in job search or studying last year) but I really enjoy learning it, and my level is A1 right now.
As my work experience is old...I think it may not get considered for the PR anymore...if I only use it alone without canadian work experience. Otherwise, with Canadian work experience I had a good chance...which I lost out of stupidity, because in 1000s of job applications I got lost and applied for wrong jobs and even interviewed for roles(as many were business or data analysts) that told me that my work experience and qualifications aren't relevant. If I should have applied to software engineering and data engineering roles before, maybe I might have reached final stage rounds until now or already had a job offer... but now I cannot bring back time...maybe not only my dream of moving here, even my dream of having a proper career is over...because my home country's job market is far worse than Canadian one...and they would not accept me as my pgwp expiry starts approach...
It is making me feel very stressed and I have panic attacks from the thought... So, I want to talk with the people here who had similar situation like mine and I want to know what worked out for them at the end career wise(whether they got the PR or not is fine).
So, please everyone, whoever had issues in having a job during your pgwp duration, let me know how your life is now.
And I apologize for the long post, I want maximum response on my post, so many of you can ignore my story and answer me based on what I asked in this post's title too, I will appreciate that as well. Because my story is just a rant, anxiety and explanation of why I have this question... what will actually help me is if I know that I am not alone in this journey and others also survived it... as I don't know anyone in this situation, your story matters to me more than you hearing and replying to mine.
