I have a couple of agents lined up for job hunting in Calgary. Well one is a real agent, i.e. does job finding for IT people. The other is the MD of a SW development company who does some head hunting on the side. That seems quite common in Calgary (Canada at large maybe?). Both do not seem too keen on contacting companies with my resume (see not CV, but the proper Canadian term!) until they are sure I'm really commited to moving. I get the impression that they don't want to get a reputation for putting forward time wasters. Reputation seems very important there. As the wiki says personal contact makes all the difference in job hunting.

Despite this I have been trawling the web pages and have found a few jobs I could apply for. So my resume (there did it again!) has winged it way to one airline (already knocked back), and two oil/gas companies. I'm not sure what the reaction is when HR get an application for someone 7000km away and with no visa (yet). Mild laughter or side splitting ridicule? I'm honing my cover letter to make it sound like December is but a few weeks away. Actually I have a spreadsheet which calculates my time remaining. 20.86 weeks! But only 104 working days, if you can call this working! I'll follow up the application with a phone call, probably after Stampede as I hear not much gets done for 10 days! Do business men really go to work dressed as cowboys?

My company has been taken over and my department has reduced from a high of about 15 to just three of us. Most of the others have left the building but a few have found other places in the new organisation. Still I'm not complaining as the package will pay for my move to Canada.

Ah well, 834 hours and counting. Let's see what tomorrow brings

SM