My Immigrant Story Episode 4 — Meet Sergei Timshin

Welcome to the My Immigrant Story podcast! Every 1–2 weeks we bring in a new guest who is a first generation Canadian immigrant skilled professional or entrepreneur and learn about how they first discovered Canada, immigrated to the country, and set themselves up for success professionally.

Our next guest is Sergei Timshin! He is a Senior Data Analyst at Index Exchange. He completed a Master’s program in Data Analytics at the Fox School of Business at Temple University and is originally an Aerospace Engineer from Russia. Sergei has an interesting story of moving to New Zealand and the US prior to coming to Canada. He pursued the Express Entry Federal Skilled Worker immigration program to immigrate to Canada at the beginning of 2021 (right in the middle of the pandemic!).

Sergei and Nino originally met at a get-together organized by Mesto (a community for Russian-speaking entrepreneurs and IT professionals) in Canada. Mesto is an example of a wonderful community where skilled professionals from all over the world can connect and build meaningful relationships.

During the episode, Sergei talks about the importance of setting yourself up for success professionally both in Canada and in the US by making sure you have a properly formatted, up-to-date resume. In his experience, the resume format between what’s expected in North America and in other countries can differ significantly. He also goes into how he was successful at networking by reaching out to people with relevant experiences on LinkedIn and requesting informational interviews.

In the past, Sergei has been involved with a wide variety of startup and side projects while working as a data analyst professional. When this episode was being recorded (end of 2021), he was helping his girlfriend Sofia with a launch of a crepe cafe in Toronto — Sava Crepes by Yonge and Eglinton. Sofia is a Russian-Canadian immigrant entrepreneur herself and opened her cafe at the end of 2021. If you’re interested in how to start a cafe in Canada, she documented her full story of opening the business (from the very beginning up to launch) on her instagram page: sava_crepes.

To hear Sergei’s full story and takeaways, tune in on Thursday, January 27th when the episode goes live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts!