In her early years in Canada she was forced to abandon her aspirations and instead she worked at several different survival jobs. Four years later she was laid off, eligible for Employment Insurance and ready to return to her professional career. Alice joined EAS Program in May 2003.
She attended several workshops and counselling sessions. (Alice reported that for her the learning highlights in the first few weeks of her participation were résumé critique/enhancement and clarifying her career goals.) Her counsellor helped her to change her résumé format from chronological to functional, to add more accomplishment statements to it, and to reorganize her employment history.
Due to shortcomings in her English language skills and her lack of professional engineering designation, Alice decided that Electronic Technician was a more realistic goal than Engineer, and she targeted all her self-marketing tools to that objective.
Her counsellor recommended that Alice seek volunteer opportunities in her field to compensate for her unemployment gap. On her own she lined up a volunteer placement as an electronic technician. After three months, she was offered a full-time permanent position at the same company.
In September 2003, JVS Toronto recognized Alice with the Scholnik Award for outstanding achievement and overcoming barriers as a new immigrant.
(* Name has been changed)