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However, to be fair though, a lot of them did stay, which is an indication that it's still feasible to make a living without advanced knowledge of French in Montreal. But most of these people are very blue collar.
It is possible.
I have two friends who speak no French and found good jobs in Montreal. Both work for Big Four accounting firms.
He applied to like 30 jobs in Montreal and didn't hear back from any of them.
He gave up and applied to 10 jobs in Ontario, he got 8 of those jobs.
So he's moving to Toronto next month.
For someone with higher education (from a Canadian or U.S. university) and several years of Canadian or U.S. work experience, it's a lot easier than a recently landed immigrant with only a basic command of English/French and limited professional/cultural experience.
FYI, I got both my undergrad and graduate degrees from two of the top 10 universities in America. Then I got 2 years of full-time work experience before coming to Toronto. When I did my initial interviews in Toronto nobody asked about my "non-Canadian" degrees or experience because most people are familiar with the top U.S. schools and also appreciate U.S.-based work experience. Now I work for one of the largest strategy consulting firms in Toronto and get approached on Linekdin a few times every week with new opportunities. I also have a dozen close colleagues who work out of our downtown Montreal office, many of whom came from non-francophone countries and can only speak English. Apparently, they love working in Montreal and generally have no problems communicating in English (esp. if you work for a multinational).
For someone with higher education (from a Canadian or U.S. university) and several years of Canadian or U.S. work experience, it's a lot easier than a recently landed immigrant with only a basic command of English/French and limited professional/cultural experience.
FYI, I got both my undergrad and graduate degrees from two of the top 10 universities in America. Then I got 2 years of full-time work experience before coming to Toronto. When I did my initial interviews in Toronto nobody asked about my "non-Canadian" degrees or experience because most people are familiar with the top U.S. schools and also appreciate U.S.-based work experience. Now I work for one of the largest strategy consulting firms in Toronto and get approached on Linekdin a few times every week with new opportunities. I also have a dozen close colleagues who work out of our downtown Montreal office, many of whom came from non-francophone countries and can only speak English. Apparently, they love working in Montreal and generally have no problems communicating in English (esp. if you work for a multinational).
So, it all depends.
I think if these people try to branch out or grow their career in Montreal, at that point their lack of French has a good chance of becoming a stumbling block.
There are a number of people (unlingual in English) who get brought in to Montreal from outside Quebec for specific jobs by employers, but once they've been around the block and outgrow that job it's often harder for them to stick around like they would in some other places.
I think if these people try to branch out or grow their career in Montreal, at that point their lack of French has a good chance of becoming a stumbling block.
There are a number of people (unlingual in English) who get brought in to Montreal from outside Quebec for specific jobs by employers, but once they've been around the block and outgrow that job it's often harder for them to stick around like they would in some other places.
Assuming they don't pick up any French at all, yes. But I would assume that anybody moving to Quebec/Montreal should be prepared to learn a basic grasp of everyday and work place French.
Also, certain jobs/industries area always in high demand - e.g. cloud app developers, Oracle/SAP specialists, etc. - so chances are even if they quit their current job they will be easily picked up by another MTL-based employer who are desperate for these specialized talents (my company so far has not been able to recruit a single successful local MTL candidate who specializes in certain technical jobs; we were able to recruit some bilingual graduates from Berri UQAM and other local unis, but all of them have no prior experience and we have to spend tremendous resources training them).
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