Leading professionals home

Shoaib Mushtaq was working in Dubai when he realized that he wanted to move to Toronto. He just didn’t know how he would do it.

“I had spent a good six years building up network and close friends in Dubai. Coming back to Toronto, I would be closer to my family, but I had no professional network. You think, ‘How am I going to do this all over again and find a job?’”

Mushtaq found the help he needed from Toronto Homecoming.

The volunteer group organizes a four-day conference for those working abroad and want to return to the Toronto area.

The event offers opportunities to meet with executive search firms and companies looking to hire professionals with international experience, as well as networking events and social activities that showcase Toronto neighbourhoods.

Toronto Homecoming is taking applications for this year’s conference, which will take place June 9 to 12. It will be geared to early-to mid-stage professionals with experience in financial and professional services, science and technology, and not-for-profit and government sectors.

The deadline for applications is April 10.

“There are a lot of talented and ambitious people who have gone away, usually because they wanted to be in the Bay area because they were in tech or in New York because they work in finance,” said Eva Wong Scanlan, organizer and co-chair of Toronto Homecoming.

“At a certain point in their lives they want to come home.”

That’s typically when they get married, start a family of their own, or want to be closer to aging parents, Scanlan said.

The group tries to bridge the gap between local employers that want to hire international experience and professionals who want to come back to Toronto.

“We found through research is that the job network in Toronto is quite informal,” Scanlan said. “You don’t get a job through the paper. You have to know people and talk to people and when you’re not here, it’s hard to do that.”

There were about 100 people at last year’s conference – the group’s first.

It was an impressive group, said Helena Gottschling, senior vice president, leadership and organizational development, at the Royal Bank of Canada.

“The diversity of talent was quite amazing. That really piqued our interest. We’re always looking for individuals who have international work experience and who understand and know Canada and Toronto,” she said.

RBC interviewed 13 candidates last year, and hired two, including Mushtaq.

Conference-goers don’t actually need to be from Toronto. The event is open to anyone who has a connection to the city or Canada and wants to move here.

Mushtaq, 31, was born and raised in Dubai. He went to school in the U.S. and lived in Guelph before returning to Dubai in 2004 – a time when the oil-rich member of the United Arab Emirates was cementing its reputation as an international business hub and playground for the wealthy.

He moved back to Toronto in May, 2010 and accepted a job at RBC as a senior account manager in August.

He now lives in Mississauga with his wife and their three-year-old daughter. They have dozens of relatives here.

“I was scared that I would have to start from scratch but the experience in Dubai has helped me here. I realize business is business all over the world,” Mushtaq said. “The experience I had in Dubai was not lost.”