My Immigrant Marketer Story – Emmanuel Olutokun

This relocation story is one of faith and work. It was written by Emmanuel Olutokun.

Marketing and brand management is one particular field I am passionate about and over time I have increasingly grown fond of the technologies that drives efficiency and better interactions with the customers. To stay abreast of these technologies, I like to observe, study trends and align.

For example in 2017, I decided the new skillsets I needed to add to my armory was paid media and so I pretty much got resources on it and jumped at any opportunity to learn and/or practice. Interestingly, 6 months down the line I was managing campaign budgets in six figures and helping clients deliver on their objectives.

Prior to my arrival in Canada I had gotten myself acquainted with as many materials as possible to give me an idea of both the job market and the marketing industry. I discovered that Canada has a policy that ensures employers maintain transparency and fairness in its selection process which gives everyone equal chance. However, it can be a bit challenging for immigrants without a canadian job experience.

I also came across the story of people that basically put out 200+ applications before getting a job and I just thought to myself that if getting a job here can be this lucrative then I need to get serious about it. To achieve this, I had to give myself a one month before arrival head-start. I pretty much spent my Christmas structuring my resume and cover letter with my wife.

My resume was ready to be sent out by 1st of January but I waited for the new year mood to tone down a bit. Using the keywords relevant to my industry I sent out some applications on the 2nd of January to the relevant vacancies on indeed.ca.

Few hours after I sent it out, a staff from the company viewed my LinkedIn profile, so I immediately knew I needed to adjust it.

During the one month before arrival, I applied to a couple of companies through Indeed and LinkedIn, and quite a number of them reached out. I had to request that the interviews be moved till when I arrive and thankfully they accepted.

I had a funny experience with one of the hiring companies. We had scheduled a Google hangout interview before I travelled. I was all prepared for the interview, it was going smoothly when 15mins into the call the network began misbehaving, there was the occasional “Can you hear me, I can hear you” conversation in-between. After about 5mins of trying to make it work, the interviewer had to terminate the call.

I sent an email asking if we could have the call at another time and the interviewer agreed to have it in two days. In order to avoid the previous issue I had backup devices.  It was time for the interview and I didn’t receive any call, wow, I waited for another 10mins hoping he’ll call but nothing.

I followed up with an email and the interviewer said he called but I didn’t answer the phone. I was stunned for some few minutes, my devices were in perfect working condition and there was no way the call would have come in and I won’t receive it.

The next thing that happened is actually a true story. I picked up my phone, opened my Instagram page and the first post I saw was from my network provider announcing that it had issues with it’s network. Ah! These guys just cost me this opportunity.

I obviously never heard back from the company, despite this I persevered and continued my outreach.

As at the time I was landing in Toronto, I had about 6 interviews to attend, even during my stopover at Frankfurt another one got added to the list.

It was an interesting first week because I had interviews Monday to Friday sometimes two a day. It was a rigorous one but I knew it was necessary, if i really wanted to cut the wait time.

As I learnt when I was a teenager, I did the possible and left the impossible for God to do. I got my first job in Canada the first week of arrival after some tests, stages and extended hours of interview.

This story is still being written but I believe with God and guts you can achieve anything you set your heart at.

By Emmanuel Olutokun