Canada Must Be Doing Something Right
Does Canada know something that we don't, or are things just slow up there these days?

The USPTO is hiring over a thousand new examiners a year, and is planning to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.

So, I found it to be quite the contrast when I ran across CIPO's latest information on their plans for future hiring:

2008/2009 Hiring Targets

Candidates that were invited and wrote the written test evaluating knowledge and abilities and were
unsuccessful will not be considered in any future recruitment campaigns for a period of 2 years from the date
of the written test.

Discipline:	Target Date	Number of openings	Deadline to apply	When applying indicate Educational Background in:
Biotechnology	March 2009	10	October 31, 2008	Masters degree or Ph.D. in biochemistry or molecular biology
Electrical	December 2008	12	September 1, 2008	Degree in electrical or computer engineering
Organic Chemistry	March 2009	6	October 31, 2008	Honours Degree in Chemistry (1)
General Chemistry	September 2008	11	May 1, 2008	Degree in Chemical Engineering (2)
Mechanical	Not presently hiring	0	N/A	Degree in Mechanical Engineering

Note: Only minimum required Educational Background is indicated in the above table. Asset qualifications may be applied. See the statement of merit and footnotes below for further details.

(1) An honour's degree in Chemistry is a four-year degree or three years of post-CEGEP university.



(2) An honour’s degree in Chemistry will also be considered (see footnote 1). A Chemical Engineering bachelor’s degree with specializations in Biotechnology, Biochemistry, and/or Environment will be considered as equivalent to a Chemical Engineering degree. A bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering or Metallurgy will be considered as equivalent to a Chemical Engineering bachelor’s degree.