WILD GEESE Louise Scott and John Lyne:With no chance of career progression at home, an Irish couple headed for Canada and toughed it out to land jobs with a future

WHEN IT COMES to getting what they want, Louise Scott and John Lyne make sure all the odds are stacked in their favour.

A year ago, the couple were still living in Dublin, with not a penny left in the bank. Her job in finance was going nowhere. He was in career limbo.

“We were sitting down one day, getting all frustrated, when John said he’d heard there was lots of work in Toronto,” says Scott. “I replied: ‘Let’s check it out’.”

Months later, after an intensive networking campaign in the city, the pair had completely turned their situation around.

Originally from Co Meath, Scott had been working for Bank of Ireland Asset Management for over three years, analysing bond and stock performance. After successive pay cuts and employee layoffs, the writing was on the wall. “There was no career progression,” she says.

Lyne, a Dublin native, had been forced to retire from a career in professional rugby after successive ankle injuries and was struggling to reinvent himself. He had gone on to study finance at Dublin City University but, with no real experience in the field, he faced even greater challenges.

Minds made up, the couple started preparing. They flew to Toronto for a quick reccie, meeting contacts at the Irish Chamber of Commerce. Scott actually found a job through a recruiter in London, but – following a gruelling three-month interview process – the company withdrew the offer after discovering she only had a temporary visa.

Scott was enjoying a last holiday off the coast of Italy with her mum and sisters when she heard the news. Having already secured an apartment, and with her furniture already on its way across the Atlantic, she and Lyne had no choice but to go anyway.

Once there, they set about networking with a vengeance, building high-level contacts in the companies for which they wanted to work.

“There’s not a head of a finance company in Toronto I haven’t met,” she says. “I stalked people. If I couldn’t get a meeting, I’d get to know the bartenders at the bars they drank in.”

Lyne was even more brazen, she adds.

“If he heard of a corporate event, he would make sure he got a badge by saying he was with one of the companies and then just walk in and start meeting people. He had to make contact with people because nobody in human resources would give his CV the time of day,” she says.

Scott’s big breakthrough came after contacting the company that had dropped her just before her move, pointing out that she would not have been there in the first place had it not been for that company.

The call led to a recruiter who lined her up for a job as an investment analyst with consulting firm Towers Watson. After three months of interviews, she bagged the position.

The couple had set a deadline of the year’s end for them both to find jobs. Having only one breadwinner would have left them no better off than back in Dublin, says Scott.

Two days before Christmas, just as they were about to head home for the holidays, they received word that Lyne had found work in a property valuation agency. “We came right down to the wire,” she says.

The couple are now able to enjoy the city with their new- found spending power. “I love the lifestyle, the music, the markets, the pubs,” says Scott.

“We’d gone through a couple of rough years back home. Now we’re both working and earning, we actually have a lifestyle.”

For the moment, there are no plans to return. Scott’s employers are currently sponsoring her for a permanent visa. “I don’t see things improving back home in the next 10 years. By that stage we might have a family here so, realistically, we’re staying put,” she says.

She advises newcomers to bring enough money to sustain them through lengthy interview periods with Canadian employers.

“Everything seems to take three months over here,” she says.

It is also important to keep in touch with contacts, following up with emails and phone calls.

“If anybody asked me if I needed help, I’d say: ‘Yes, you can give me five contacts’,” she says.

And it is important not to be backward about coming forward. “You’re just one of hundreds of faces, just another person. There’s no point in being shy.”