In other countries, the Province of Qu\u00e9bec has come to be perceived as an Eldorado of the video game industry. The truth is that this industry represents a small portion of the many professional opportunities that the field of information technology (also known as I.T.) has to offer. Concerned by a shortage of labour, the industry has opened its doors to talent from abroad.<\/b><\/p>\n
With such household names as Ubisoft or Electronic Arts at the forefront, the video game industry benefits from enormous visibility in the Province of Qu\u00e9bec and world-wide. However, of the 210,000 IT professionals in Qu\u00e9bec, only 5% work for this industry. \u201cIt\u2019s a very specialized area. It would be a mistake to think that you can join just by snapping your fingers\u201d warns Vincent Corbeil, Operations Manager and Head of Market Analysis for TechnoComp\u00e9tences, the sector committee for labour in information technology and communications for the province.<\/p>\n
The field of IT has a broad range of jobs to offer but the majority are in the computer technology and software edition areas. These provide work for 77,000 IT professionals according to a 2018 sector survey.<\/p>\n
Half of these employees work in IT companies while the other half work for banks, insurance companies or in manufacturing. \u201cWith an increasingly computerized economy, businesses need to hire IT specialists to use their data or digitize their processes\u201d says Nicole Martel, CEO of Association qu\u00e9b\u00e9coise des technologies (AQT), the Qu\u00e9bec association for technology.<\/p>\n
Last April, the CTIC, the Qu\u00e9bec council for information and communication technology, estimated that 44,000 positions in this field would need to be filled by 2021 whereas only 3,000 graduates enter the job market each year. To meet the demand, the industry has turned to immigrant labour. Among the positions to be filled are programmers, UX designers, data architects, quality and control testing specialists as well as Agile project managers and consultant-analysts who can understand a client\u2019s need and frame them in terms of a technological solution.<\/p>\n
Immigrants make up 27% of IT specialists in Qu\u00e9bec. Online recruiting and job fairs held abroad have made it far easier for businesses to recruit in a different country. \u201cThe main hurdle is how long it takes to get the work permits\u201d says Nicole Martel.<\/p>\n
Of course, businesses in Qu\u00e9bec seek French-speaking workers but the demand is mostly for bilingual candidates. The inability to speak English hurts your chances of being hired.<\/p>\n
Another consideration before starting your search for a job: the IT industry in Qu\u00e9bec centers primarily on small and medium businesses. Only 1 business out of 10 has more than 50 employees. \u201cYou\u2019re likely to be interviewed by the owner of the business rather than an HR expert\u201d says Vincent Corbeil. \u201cYour hiring might hinge a bit more on gut feeling\u201d.<\/p>\n
Typically, small and medium businesses have looser hierarchies and more multi-disciplinary, less defined jobs. Coming from a company with large groups of people who have clearly delineated responsibilities and an overarching structure may turn out to be challenging in terms of adaptation. Flexibility and creativity, good communication skills and aptitudes for team-work are all vital skills. \u201cYou need a quick grasp of the cultural codes that regulate your work environment\u201d says Vincent Corbeil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In other countries, the Province of Qu\u00e9bec has come to be perceived as an Eldorado of the video game industry. The truth is that this industry represents a small portion of the many professional opportunities that the field of information […]","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":8701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[484],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jobillico.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jobillico.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jobillico.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobillico.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobillico.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobillico.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8120,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobillico.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8115\/revisions\/8120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobillico.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jobillico.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobillico.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobillico.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}