Keeno_G

Hi

New to the site. Considering moving to Canada with my wife and young daughter from the UK for a better life. I was just wondering if anyone could advise on the IT jobs market in Canada? I have over 10 years experience as an senior IT engineer having worked mainly in the financial sector in the UK. From what I have read it does not appear to be as big an area as IT job markets in other countries. Ideally I'd like to have a job lined up before moving.

Also can anyone recommend any cities to initially start looking at? We would want to visit before committing to anything

Thanks in advance
Greg

jagz

I am in IT work and I live in GTA. GTA (Toronto area) might work well as it hosts the headquarters of many financial institutions and the major banks.

From my friend (from Vancouver) I also heard that the Vancouver area also has better jobs and majority of such jobs come from Startup. So in general, the IT work environment atmosphere is likely to differ from Toronto to Vancouver, perhaps the influence of silicon valley (due to its proximity).

Still a lot of interviews go face to face unlike US. I wouldn't be surprised if the employer ask you to fly over for an in person interview.

Generally, if you land in one region, it gets pretty difficult to move.

Good day..
Jay.

Keeno_G

thanks for the info Jagz

I will look into Vancouver and Toronto for possible job opportunities

Cheers

Tigger1

I would recommend getting on LinkedIn, my other half is in IT and regularly gets approached by companies (we're in Vancouver)

bc2015

Why do you think life in Canada will be better than the UK? Just curious.

Keeno_G

I don't if I'm honest, well not yet. All I know is the good things people say about Canada and from what I have seen it looks very nice. Before committing to anything we would visit first to get a feel for the place. Ultimately would come down to where we think is best to raise our daughter

pdarwin

+1 for LinkedIn. I had a few contacts that way. I worked in IT in Ottawa for the last few years and always found work, even sans bilingual. Consider Ottawa as well.

Gazzae

As others have said use linkedin but also use indeed.ca or monster to get an idea of the jobs available and how your skills fit. I'm a SQL server DBA/Developer and had no problems finding a job in GTA - I started a permanent job within a month of arriving but be prepared to look at contracting as well.

dbd33

I have some experience with contracting. Be aware that rates in Toronto are about half what they are in London (I just bill the same but in pounds instead of dollars) and they're less in Vancouver. Given that property costs in Vancouver are almost as high as in London you really have to want that dopey lifestyle to make it worthwhile to move there.

Gazzae

I don't have experience with London, I'm from Belfast where salaries were a lot lower than London lol. For the record the contracting jobs I was looking at for SQL were around $45/50 an hour so yeah I imagine the same jobs in London would pay £40-50.

Photoplex

Moved to Calgary 9 years ago and landed a job in IT within 2 weeks. Became an independent consultant about 5 years ago and have been raking it in with a golden rake ever since. $150+/ph contracts. Ahh, oil money.

However, since the collapse in oil prices, it's been a bloodbath in Calgary. There's still IT jobs/contracts out there, but competition is fierce. Applications per posting have gone from the mid 20s to 200+.

I was out of contract for about 6 months, but picked a cushy little number up so I'm happy for a few months, billing ridiculous hours. Not holding my breath for another contract straight away when it's finished though

I would suggest Calgary, which usually has higher rates than Toronto or Vancouver, but it's pretty bad here at the moment. However, it looks like you're a year or two away from making the leap, by which point things should be nicely recovered. Worth considering.

Edit: Oh, and you can't call yourself an IT Engineer here, unless you're a professional engineer. It's a protected licensed designation here (like "doctor") for which you need to have studied actual engineering at degree level, and be a licensed member of a professional engineering association. No, having an MCSE or similar does not make you an engineer in Canada.

Gozit

Hmmm.... Some interesting info in this thread. For background, I actually live in Canada already but after high school i'm getting into IT. So IT Engineer UK/Europe = IT Systems Admin in Can/US... I actually want to head in the other direction to Europe when i'm done college here so yeah. Not to hijack the thread or anything but any recommendations for someone who wants to start their IT career potentially in the UK or elsewhere in Europe, coming with a college education in ON with multiple co-ops / apprenticeships and relevant certs?
Cheers

Keeno_G

Thanks for all responses so far some great info given.

Are Canadian companies generally receptive to foreign workers or is there a preference to hire locals ?

dbd33

Ha!

I'm sitting in a computer department where I suppose there are about 300 people total. There are, perhaps, 20 Canadians and one of those calls herself a banana (we also have a self-styled "coconut" but he's a Nepalese-American rather than a Canadian). All computer companies and departments in and around the GTA include a mixture of people from the four corners.

Siouxie

I'd suggest posting that question in the MBTUK or similar boards on BE for Europe.