Immigration and Entrepreneurship

I started my life as an immigrant in Montreal, Canada about 13 years ago. Back then, my objective was to pursue my academic career at McGill University, and possibly become a university professor. For me, the trip came at a very critical time; my mom was sick, and our family was emotionally affected. I was in love with my then girlfriend (now my dear wife); In professional life, transferring my duties and responsibilities to the people who were taking the control over company was not an easy job. Somehow, we all survived!

Immigration to Canada

I have saved this blurry photo of my two watches on the night of my arrival to McGill residence. The one in the left side shows it is early morning in my hometown; the one on the right was the new reality!

Starting life as a lonely immigrant was not easy. I learned every bit of living in Canada on my own, and with the help I received from its wonderful people. It is very true if I say that I made everything from ground zero. Immigration had taken its tolls on me (for a brief moment though).

Things change however, and the life showed its happy face, once again. My mom was getting better each passing day, and my marriage and the arrival of my wife was huge boost. Things were going perfect on personal scale, but I was facing huge challenges in my professional life.

Building Your Career!

All Over Again …

For me and my wife, living a student life, provided a great opportunity to integrate into society at our own pace. Learning the daily language, finding new friends, and getting used to cold winters.

Staring from scratch is not always easy. But with a little patience and perseverance, comes the good results!

In professional scale, I had to start everything almost from scratch. I had my academic degrees from the best schools in Iran, but getting them to work for me in Canada took some time. I decided to take one step at a time; First thing first, I finished up with school. Then I had to wait for our immigration papers to be ready, which was not an easy job back then. As soon as the school finished, I started working at a start up company to develop my skills, and familiarize myself with professional engineering environment in Canada.

During this period, I took the next step, which was to move forward with professional engineering licensing. I had my academic credentials verified and filed for PEO licence. I gained the mandatory 12 month work experience when my application was under review; and passed the PPE exam soon after I was eligible to.

Professional Networking

During my work experience, I tried to meet with people in industry and develop my professional relationships. I took the opportunity to participate in many lunch and learn meetings, and get to know the industry and how it works (because honestly, they don’t teach you this in school).

Online Marketing tools such as LinkedIn provide effective solutions to share your capabilities and engineering background. They can also use LinkedIn for networking and making meaningful connections, and ask about potential job opportunities. Read My Blog Post on the Applications of LinkedIn for Engineers

Finding Nemo: A Good Business Partner

I tried hard to save my relationships with school friends, colleagues, and other professionals I met. During this period, I started feeling that I need a very serious business partner who has the same objectives, passion, and willingness to work hard. I was fortunate to find this person, and together, we have come a long way so far. We have spent hours and hours every week, planning, and thinking, and re-planning our business idea. Updating ourselves, and helping our clients with their problems, and supporting them has been in our radar.

Immigration and Entrepreneurship

I had been always interested in engineering practice; that is to use what is taught in school in solving engineering problems. We bring into our business (www.fprimec.com), our extensive academic background, and professional set of skills. Together with my business partner, we adapted an entrepreneurial ecosystem and used it to start a knowledge-based company with special focus on developing and implementing non-destructive testing solutions and structural health monitoring in everyday life.

The excellent atmosphere in Canada has helped us make this dream come true. We have worked very hard for this, but without the help we received from our wonderful advisers and mentors, this could not become what it is today.

I would like to add that my wife, Azadeh, who has been an extremely important part of this endeavor. She has stayed with me in the very dark moments of this journey, and has supported me throughout the challenges we face each day. Sleepless nights, and days out in business trips. Without her support and sacrifice, this journey might have ended way too early. Her love has kept me move forward every day.

During this wonderful journey, we have also benefited from different government support programs, Invest Ottawa community, space, and mentors, ID Gatineau, Cilex, NRC Canada and many more.

Remarks

I am an immigrant; but I feel that I share the very great values of this wonderful country. During my life in Canada, I have met so many wonderful immigrants who started and ran a very successful business. They come from all over the world. We have shared the same office space, the same kitchen, the same mentors. Each of us brought their wonderful cultural heritage, which helped us become better people.

As an immigrant, I strongly believe in immigrant entrepreneurs, and how they can help create jobs. and that is all possible, because we live in a wonderful country, named Canada. Thank you Canada.