Entrepreneur, immigrant says culture and networking are greatest challenges to finding employment

Learning the Canadian culture and understanding how to network in this country are the two hardest things newcomers face when trying to find a job, according to Iman Aghay, an immigrant from Iran.

Aghay and his wife landed in Canada in March 2009 with little money, poor English-speaking skills, and no Canadian-recognized credentials. He says it was a tough start.

"I remember when I went to Walmart to drop off my resumé to get a job as a cashier, they told me, the last 2 weeks they had over 500 people dropping off their resumé and all of them could speak English properly," he said.

A year of unemployment

Back in 2007, when Aghay was still living in Iran, he decided he wanted to become an international professional public speaker.

"With an Iranian passport, with the limited ability to travel to different countries, it was kind of like a big dream — a massive dream," he said.

He and his wife arrived in Canada in March 2009 with, what he thought, was $12,000 in their pocket. But things would get worse before they got better, he found.

"Three days later I realized that my money was not going to follow me, and I still couldn't speak English properly," he said. "And I had no recognized credentials."

He handed out hundreds of resumés for 11 months.

"That was when we ran out of money. We ran out of everything. It was decision time for us."

Countdown to homelessness

Aghay and his wife had $2,500 left in the bank and almost $2,000 in bills to pay.

That was when we ran out of money, we ran out of everything. It was decision time for us.- Iman Aghay, founder of Vancouver Business Network

"I went to my wife and said honey, we have a decision to make," said Aghay.

They could buy two one-way tickets to Iran with the $2,500 or stay and pay the bills, and be left with nothing for next month's rent.

"My wife said something very interesting — 'Iman, have you ever backed down on any of our dreams?' I said no. So she said, 'Why would we do it now?'"

"And that's when we paid and the countdown started — 30 days to become homeless," he said.

Aghay had an epiphany on day 17.

"I woke up that day and I realized I'm insane because I was doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

That day, he decided to start his own business as a web designer and an SEO. consultant. Trouble was, he did not know how to design a website and his experience in SEO work was in Farsi, not English.

And that's when we paid and the countdown started -- 30 days to become homeless,- Iman Aghay, founder of Vancouver Business Network

Agha says he worked 18 hours a day. From 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Aghay looked for clients. Then he would go home for dinner and from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., he would teach himself how to build a website. After three days, Aghay found his first client.

Giving back

Aghay says helping others was very rewarding during those lean times.

"What actually helped me a lot was giving back to the community while I was growing."

He wanted to help others network in business circles — something he found difficult when he first arrived in Canada. So he founded a business meetup group online and started giving free talks at the meetups.

Vancouver Business Network now has more than 7,000 members and hosts seminars every week.

He recalls something his wife told him the night they made the decision to stay in Canada.

"We have a dream. We do what it takes to make it happen and we never settle for less."

Aghay is delivering a talk today at the Canadian Immigration Job Fair, held at the Vancouver Public Library from 10:00 a.m. PT to 5:00 p.m. PT.

To listen to the full audio, click the link labelled: Iman Aghay on his journey to success as an immigrant and entrepreneur.