I was in the UK at the time ... its one of the reasons I have so little faith in in immigration & recruitment "consultants".

The guys I spoke to from the UK wouldn't even meet me face to face after I landed in Canada

Now that I'm on the other side of the fence and get to see how recruitment works, I can see that recruitment consultancies have very little power when it comes to getting you a job or setting what you get paid ... that's all in the hands of the employers.

Recruitment people are all mouth & trousers

Cheers Glas

I hope I'm not in Walmart in 20 years, I'll only be 45!

I know it's a bit of a vague question, but I am trying to decide if this quality of life improvement is real or mythical. If I'm earning 50% what I do now, and the prices of the items I buy most often (not cars or holidays) are 2/3rds of the UK then my quality of life won't be as good. As you say views of mountains don't pay bills!

For me the quality of life is not about what I can buy, its about having some breathing space around me, not spending half my life in traffic, not worrying about petty crime. I find it all a lot less stressful here, and there is no $ value I can put on that. But I would find it a lot more stressful if i couldnt pay the bills, so that is a consideration.

We also eat different food in Canada ... a lot of kids food still has tartrazine in it, so we cook and bake almost everything ourselves ... as discussed previously, we're also dairy free in Canada ... soy milk is way more expensive than cows milk. It's all down to lifestyle and that can change a lot when you get here

Iain, I'm not just thinking of what I can buy per se, but even going out for a meal, to see a movie etc costs, and of course the frequency you can do these things depends on how much you have in the kitty. Also for me having space and time to enjoy my hobbies would be an improvement to my quality of life, but like most activities and interests, they require money. If I had gain time and space but couldn't afford to pursue my interests, I'd have achieved nothing.

Movies are $12/head
A meal out for a family of four is around $50-$60 at a regular family restaurant (ie.Red Lobster, not McD's).
Space is nice, but you can't do that much with it if it's -40C outside

Which is ok if your hobbies are indoor and simply require an unfinished basement

Seems to me this is a great salary for Calgary. In all my other research salaries seem lower than UK (SE England excepted) - but 90K is very respectable (=£40K). Is that a typical salary there?

Nope ... it's pretty high for Calgary ... that's why I'm wondering if I should push for me or just say thank you Mr Gifthorse ....

Dont know if it helps determine your worth,, but one of my wifes friends (a canadian) is getting $100k+ as a (long time) manager in a TO software company.

but 40K is 90K only by exchange rate...

I know there are people here on $100K+ ... a lot of it comes down to patronage and time serving ... if the company (or more accurately your boss) likes you they reward you ... if they don't, you have to move to get more money or continue to languish where you are now.

There are too many BMW's around Calgary for everyone to be on $40K

but after seeing the large number of wrecks being driven around Calgary as well...

Ooooh yeah ... not MOT here, only a safety check if you're selling a vehicle over ten years old.

Duct tape is a perfectly valid alternative to filler in Calgary

can you get something like an independent check (like the AA do here) before you buy a car ?

Some of those were way passed the duct tape stage..one had no rear bumper or trim, and the metal was about a foot further forward than the maker intended