apskinner

Its really interesting reading everyone's threads, both positive and negative they all contain some value and there are some really nice, caring people that offer advice.

I thought I'd add my story so far to get some of that feedback and maybe relate to others .....

We moved back from Waterloo Ontario - Silicon Valley of the North they say! - in August 2015. It was my wife who first said 'I think I want to return to the UK' primarily we convinced ourselves that we missed our friends and our families. We have no kids, my wife's family is in Scotland and her parents retired in Portugal, I have only a brother (South East) and two nieces (Ireland & Southampton). We have some close friends though some of whom live in South London and the rest near us in the Cotswolds

We'd both worked in Canada since 2007, myself for BlackBerry - unfortunately that only lasted until St Paddy's day 2014. I was fortunate to be fairly senior and got about 10 months salary and then was able to claim EI so the money lasted well, we cut back significantly and lived half on my wife's wages and supplemented it with the EI etc.

I had spent the rest of 2014 and half of 2015 working to help some ex-work colleagues set up their own businesses in Tech but there were no paid roles in those start-ups for me.

When we arrived back we were lucky to have a friend let us have her old house on a cheap rent for 6 months, then we decided that we had to get on the housing ladder and bought in the Cotswolds (New build) using a very large deposit (equity from canada) a help to buy loan and the mortgage my wife could obtain. She was very lucky that the company she worked for allowed her to continue to work for them in the UK from home, going to london once a week. And we live off her salary very frugally

For me its been 11 months of job hunting, I'm over 50 have a lot of Engineering Management experience but my technical skill set has fallen behind due to the roles I was doing in Canada. So far its been clear that the major employers for my skills in Defense industry and other government regulated industries won't employ me because I cant get clearances due to not meeting residency requirements - It kills me that 40 years in the UK, just 8 years away and suddenly I'm not a safe bet.

I've tried networking, job fairs, CV reviews, applying for anything that moves in my field but the only snippet I got was from Openreach, who interviewed me, passed me for a role but now need to find a role within 60mins commute. We just don't want to relocate again after just buying - so yes I guess we've restricted the market but I'm with 1hr of Stratford, Swindon, Oxford and Cheltenham so seriously? Who says there isn't age discrimination.

So I volunteer, and now I'm looking to go shelf stacking just to spend more time out the house.

Do I miss Canada - you bet, do I like being in the UK - yes, we see friends regularly, we joined the National Trust and go somewhere every week, but money is tight and we've bought nothing new, we haven't taken a holiday and drive an old banger, so thats the most depressing thing about being back, I know I could have worked in Canada again, opportunities were starting to come up, but we made a decision and have to stick to it, my wife is happy, but I do think we had it better.....

So that's my story :-)

Freshwhyte

You have a lot of IT/Tech industry experience from the sounds of it, have you looked into Accenture ?

apskinner

I hadn't, to be honest I've been trying to stay away from Contracting, but I will certainly have a good look around their website.

Thanks

Sparkleydiva

We have only been back 8/9 weeks and i have had many job offers but my DH is certainly struggling too to get work in IT. He is looking at anything and everything and has had some interviews but i really this his age (53) is proving problematic. In NZ he was working throughout the 8 years we were there and earning good $$$ but nothing here - and we cannot manage on just my income, even though i am fairly well paid.

As to where to from here, i really dont have any suggestions, and am worried my other half will continue in the way you have, which is very worrying long term for you both. The market is quite tough, he is no longer hand-on technical either. If you have any leads please let me know and i wish you good luck.

Freshwhyte

Would both of you mind sending me a PM outlining your experience (no personal info needed) my company has about 400 positions within the UK (mainly IT) and they couldn't give a toss about how long you've been back for, they need hard working, goal driven individuals with experience of course. If I find anything that matches I'll reply with some links for you guys

Cheers !