In today's episode, I'm talking to the brilliant and straight-shooting Ruairi Spillane, who runs Moving2Canada and Outpost Recruitment.

Ruairi is one of the OGs when it comes to helping newcomers move to Canada, find jobs, and settle in nicely. So he was a must-have on The Newcomers Podcast.

As someone who's been recruiting local and global talent for Canada for over a decade, he's seen what works, what doesn't, and he's not afraid to tell you the difference.

And he dished out dollops of that tough love on this episode.

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Ruairi and I chat about:

• The red flags that tell him an immigrant is likely to struggle in the job search
• The three risks employers are evaluating you on during the interview process
• Why Canadianizing your resume is about the content, not the format
• How to proactively address your immigration pathway in an interview

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Dozie's Notes

A few things that struck me as I listened through this week's conversation:

1. "I can do anything" is a red flag, not a selling point. It screams you haven't done the research. Pick one or two job titles that match your skills in Canada and build your resume around those. Spraying and praying something sticks is exhausting.
2. Canadian employers are evaluating three risks you probably aren't addressing. Settlement risk: Will you stay? Immigration risk: Can you stay? Local experience risk: Can you adapt? Ruairi says employers in professional roles aren't hiring for six months. They're investing in training you for three to four years. If your answer to "How long will you be in Canada?" is "I have a two-year work permit, we'll see if we like it," you've just told them you're a flight risk.
3. Refusing to adapt your resume can mean you might struggle to adapt to the role. Ruairi says it's a pattern he's seen over the last 12 years. When he suggests improvements and a candidate says "my resume is fine the way it is" or "I paid someone to edit this so I'm not changing it," he steps away. Time and time again, that response has usually meant the individual might not be exactly willing to adapt to a new way of doing things in a new country. Brutal? Right?

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Official Links

✅ Connect with Ruairi Spillane on LinkedIn

✅ Check out the Outpost Recruitment Jobs Board

✅ Join the 170K+ strong newcomer community on Moving2Canada

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In our first episode of 2026, I'm speaking with Rodrigo Cotrim de Carvalho, a Brazilian food researcher and educator who left Rio de Janeiro for Ottawa, Canada, through the now shuttered Startup Visa program.

There's a lot to reflect on here, folks. But I think the one I kept coming back to was the point Rodrigo makes about all that gets lost in translation as you go through the messy process of fitting into your new home.

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Rodrigo and I also chat about:

• Feeling like a prisoner while waiting for PR approval
• What it means to think in Portuguese but converse in English
• The gap between what Canadian immigration promises and what it delivers
• The impossibility of being mediocre when you've left everything behind
• The three F's that immigrants miss the most

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Dozie's Notes

A few things that struck me as I listened through this week's conversation:

1. Your immigration pathway can sometimes become your identity, even when it shouldn't. Rodrigo finds himself introducing himself through his Startup Visa pathway because it's the easiest thing for people to understand. However, that's just how he got here, not who he is.
2. One person should not define how you see a country. It's easier said than done when you're raw and sensitive as a new immigrant. Hold onto that principle though, it does wonders for your mental health.
3. Autonomy is something we immigrants take for granted before we land. The freedom to be yourself without wondering if you're fitting in or getting it right usually disappears once you start over.

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Official Links

✅ Connect with Rodrigo Cotrim de Carvalho on LinkedIn

✅ Check out Babette Food Experiences

✅ Listen to Rodrigo's Due Tramonti Podcast

One Ask

If you found this story helpful, please consider sharing it with one immigrant you know.

In the last episode of 2025, I’m chatting with Deanna Okun-Nachoff, an immigration lawyer and host of the Borderlines Podcast, about where Canada’s immigration system stands six months into the Carney government.

Any sense of accountability on the part of the government for where we are today with immigration has been largely absent from the raging public debate. The now-infamous “come to study or work, come to stay” messaging was pushed hard at some point.

And it worked. Hundreds of thousands of temporary residents moved to Canada with the intention of earning permanent residency. Now, the government can’t fulfil those promises for some very obvious reasons. Yet, the blame for everything wrong with the process through which these folks came into the country has landed squarely on their shoulders.

The big question I hope this episode helps kickstart is: What kind of nation do we want to build? And are the decisions we make going forward grounded in those values?

Deanna believes that whatever path Canada chooses, it must be fundamentally grounded in being upfront, truthful, direct, fair, and accountable.

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Deanna and I also talk about:

• The TikTokification of immigration narratives
• The exhausting policy whiplasy of the past 20 months
• Why she thinks public trust has collapsed
• Why she thinks good, fair, humane decision-making is expensive

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Dozie's Notes

A few things that struck me as I listened through this week's conversation:

1. The policy whiplash means it’s sometimes hard to know what’s working and what isn’t. We keep changing immigration measures. For example, there are measures in place to reunite families. Then it’s suddenly withdrawn. Processing times keep changing. All this is not only exhausting, but it also means that it’s impossible to make measured, empirical decisions about what policies actually achieve their goals, because no plan lasts long enough to be evaluated.

2. Accountability is needed in the immigration discourse. The silence from the government is corrosive and will harm the Canadian brand in ways that will take us years to comprehend. Of course, we are allowed to make hard decisions. But let’s take ownership of what led us here in the first place.

3. The Canadian government appears to have become enforcement-minded. So much prioritisation has gone to enforcement. This approach has fundamentally altered the relationship between the government and its citizens. Once the government starts regarding the public as a threat, something that needs to be surveilled, it becomes a totally adversarial relationship.

Official Links

✅ Connect with Deanna Okun-Nachoff on LinkedIn

✅ Listen to the Borderlines Podcast

One Ask

If you found this story helpful, please consider sharing it with one immigrant you know.