Job interview in Canada

Well, today I got my first Canadian interview. Actually if was the second one, as the first one was over the phone.
Generally it is the same way as in Denmark, one needs to tell why this company, where do you see yourself in 5 years.
What I have found a completely different is the test part.
The whole interview was 4 hours. Yes, 4 hours. 1 hour one uses to talk about stuff, you know, what the job is about etc. The other 3 is a test. And yes, it is a test of ones knowledge with no help. You just get a piece of paper with tasks, computer and off you go. So, in other words, it doesn't matter where you worked before, who is your uncle or who is your golf buddy (however the last one might still help). Here, it is a matter of your knowledge, way of thinking creatively, outside of the box and not to panic.
Everything happens in a nice way, with a smile.
So no matter what I got an interview!

Credit rating

You know, if some of you ever experienced moving to a new country and starting all your life from the scratch, you will understand me.
We have moved to Montreal a little over a month and now it is the time to get settled and get things started. Well, not that easy. If one is not a Rockefeller or Donald Trump, building a live can be difficult here. I admit one can buy everything cash. I would say more then everything. No one will ever ask you where the money come from, why you have so much cash, and why not to pay with a credit card. Actually just experience of an incident at the doctor, when one couldn't pay cash, but only with visa created a chaos among the patiences. Anyway, talking about cash. So if one wants to open a credit card is all about cash. It all depends how much cash one has and how much one wants to tight cash to ones account. The more - the better.
When one get to rent an apartment in Denmark, it will be highly suspicious if the landlord will ask you to pay cash or with a cheque. That will be a signal to call the police or tax authorities. Well, in here, if your landlord will ask you to pay with a credit card, that is where one should be cautious. Why? Well, they believe is that then landlord can get too much information about you. Maybe yes, maybe not. I just find it strange to keep writing cheque for our apartment, school, figure skating, etc.
Anyway, and then it come shopping. And that goes down to credit rating. Again, if one has cash, and easily can afford 25000$ car cash, then no question asked and no problem. However, if one wants to finance the car, then there comes the fun ride. One need to prove a credit history in order to be allowed to finance the car. And in order to get a credit history one need to get a loan of some kind. Catch 22, isn't it? We have had one of the experiences that I will be able to remember till the day I die. We wanted to get a lease transferred for the last 6 months. We could pay all lease cash, we had co-signers (someone canadian, that is willing to say, "yes" we will pay, if they will not), and we were ready to take the lease. As we didn't have any credit history, we couldn't get the transfer. So the car dealer decided to help us out. We were offered to buy the car for the value of it, at the end of the lease, plus lease the car for the last 6 months. Wow, what a plan... I don't even know how to be grateful for that "help".
Anyway, so at the moment I believe our feelings will be very much so described in the following cartoon: