Switching to a CS masters in Canada

[anxious_achiever]

Hello.

 

I graduated from Stanford University after a MS in Chemical Engineering and failed to find a job. Reason - my major isn't the best when it comes to jobs. I have a good GPA (3.75/4.0) and did my undergraduation from a top univ in India (IIT-KGP) with a good GPA again (8.61/10.)

 

I am considering switching to CS by the following route - doing assistantships with professors in various universities for a couple of years to get recos and then applying to Canada for an MS in CS.

 

I have two questions.

1) Has anyone done something similar? I get the feeling that getting a prof to say yes to someone with no background is tough, but I see no other way to get my career in CS started. How difficult is it to get a research project with a prof in any decent Indian univ? I'm willing to go unpaid as well.

2) Do I stand a chance of getting into good univs? (Waterloo, UBC and the like). I don't want to go to an average university.

 

Kindly help me out.