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Finding work for non-French speaking professional (Montréal)

Hi everyone,

Im a first time poster so apologies if I've placed these questions in the wrong thread. I'm an Australian interested in working in Montreal. I have the 2yr Canada working holiday visa. Unfortunately I don't speak French. I understand that can be a serious issue in terms of finding work in the city, but to get more detail on exactly how big an issue it is, I was hoping to find out - from you experienced Montreal expats (and locals):

- What are the chances for a non-French speaker finding a job in the corporate sector in Montreal?
- What are the chances of a non-French speaker finding any kind of job (say i needed to survive for a few months and was happy to do work in the service industry, eg washing dishes etc, while i learned french)
- What are the best websites to look at for job ads? both corporate jobs and others
- Can you suggest any recruitment agencies?
- Are there any good expat meetups i can attend to build my network, and where could i find these?
- What is the deal with a special work permit for Quebec? Will an employer sort this out if they want to hire an expat or do you have to do it yourself? Do you have to be out of the country to apply?

To give a bit more background on me, I'm a business analyst / statistician with 5 years experience and a masters degree, having worked in finance (banking) and digital marketing in a big software firm. Basically I think my resume is solid but wondering if the language barrier overrides/trumps that hands down.

I'm not naive that this is a challenge, just keen to know how big a challenge it is :)

Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

Dan

Montréal Forum

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