What a newcomer's journey to get a job in P.E.I can tell us

It was 2018, and Donette Johnson had just crossed the Confederation Bridge into Prince Edward Island. She turned to tap her friend, who was driving, on the shoulder.

"Stop, stop, stop."

She jumped out of the car and ran around. She looked over the water, breathing in the sea air.

"I am finally here," she thought.

Coming from Jamaica, Johnson was excited to come to the Island. It felt like home.

But she soon encountered a challenge she had not expected. She couldn't find a job, and she could not understand what was standing in her way.

Her education background was in finance, so she sent her resumé to some financial companies on the Island.

The response she often received was that the position had been filled. Then in another month or two, she would see the same job posting.

"I wondered, 'hey, what was that all about?' So I really don't know what [the employers] were looking for."

Johnson's experience is not unique — other people who have moved to Canada and found a home on the Island have also struggled to find a job that will sustain them. But groups working with them say there are strategies and tactics that can help employers and job-seekers alike.

Blake Doyle, the president of Island Recruiting, helps match employers and employees in the labour market. He said employers in P.E.I. aren't necessarily looking for education as the primary criterion, but instead skills.

He noticed P.E.I.'s economy has benefited a lot from large numbers of immigrants and international students coming to the Island in recent years.

But P.E.I. is a small market, so education and experience sometimes doesn't match the market's needs. Employees need to adapt, he said.

"In P.E.I. we don't have a large advanced manufacturing sector, we've got pockets of manufacturing and aerospace. So if you've trained in the educational field that doesn't [match], then, adapt your education," he said.