fi_broon

I'm at the north end of Albert St. We came over from Birmingham last year, but I am Scottish (from fife, but lived in Edinburgh for years). We came here originally because we were lucky enough to have friends who put us up for a while whilst we got ourselves sorted. I got a job here at RIM and stayed. I sometimes yearn for big city life, but then I also love being able to get to the middle of nowhere within 1/2 hour.

Willmore, thanks for the Karma

Fi

TheVickers

How did you get your job at RIM? What do you do? Sorry for all the question, did it take you long to find a job?

thanks
Jo x

fi_broon

Ask away, I'm happy to help

I applied for the job online about the time that I got my medical requests. After a few weeks, I got an email from HR saying that they wanted to call me. I had 2 telephone interviews then they arranged another interview for 2 days after I arrived in Canada. I started work as a product engineer 5 weeks after we landed.

How are you settling in? Where in Kitchener are you?

Feel free to drop me an email anytime.

Fi

TheVickers

wow, 6 weeks, how are you finding it then?

Have you got friends of family here?

Jo x

Mrs Madmac

Hi there,

We are finding that Guelph is a nice place to live and the weather here is better than at home...... although ask me again in winter and I may say something very different!

Our rental house is nice and so far the cost of living is the same as where we were. (We thought it would be cheaper but when you add the taxes on to things and actually look at what you have it is about the same.) Big purchases like a house, car or furniture is cheaper though.

Jobs - well that is a whole other ball game. We both are looking for work but it is the "networking" bit we have a problem with. We have no family here and so far have only made a couple of friends...... jobs here are mainly done via networking and we don't know who to network with! (Sent off resumes, made phone calls but we really need some face to face stuff with people so that they can see we are articulate and don't have two heads!) We are going to go to the volunteer centre tomorrow to see if we can at least do something useful............ but volunteering won't put food on the table.

It is early days!

TheVickers

yep, we are in the same situation as far as networking goes!!!! What do you both do?

whereabout in Guelph are you?

JO x

Mrs Madmac

Hi Jo,

I work in Finance/Admin and hubby is in IT. He was a lecturer before we came out and I did some lecturing in the past. Our first job hunts were focused on that but all those types of jobs have been filled for this term.

So we are now looking at our other options....... hubby has also been an IT engineer and I can do anything with finance/admin........... so we will just keep plodding on. (A bit harder than back home because we don't know people, but we knew that before we came.)

We are in the Grange/Victoria area.

How long have you been here and what do you do?

TheVickers

We have been here almost 4 months. I work in Admin and Paul is in IT!!!!!! how weird is that!!!!! Paul is a Microsoft Winows Server Engineer. He used to work for Huntsman back home, well we both did. He also worked for Syntegra. We have a 20 month old litte girl too so I am not looking for work at the minute, luckily my SIL and niece work for big insurance companies, talking of which have you checked on the www.manulife.com and www.sunlife.com websites, they have a recruitment section you can post your resume on. It would mean commuting to Waterloo but its only 25-30 mins.

Jo x

dbd33

I do contract IT work in Guelph (or into Guelph via VPN). If any unemployed IT people know what z/OS is then chatting might lead to a, ahem, mutual advantageous discussion.

Madmac

Oh, that'll be the large, unwieldy and dare I say monolithic 64-bit OS that IBM punt. Innit?

Can't say I've had anything to do with it though I could fake a conversation if you want.

Mrs Madmac

Hi Jo,

Spooky indeed....... I have found many little spooky things since we got here!

Thanks for the tips on the insurance companies..... it was one avenue I had not thought of.

Hubby read the "z/os" post and then put up his own response ..... in his own style I may add! (The comments of Madmac may not necessarily represent to comments of Mrs Madmac....... never quite know what he might say next!)

Emilylots

Yes, sadly I even enjoy the mud!

Emilylots

Hi Jo

Sadly he doesn't have a job to come to but on our last trip over he had a few interviews with recruitment consultants and even got as far as a job interview which was going really welll until they realised how long the WP route would be. So we are hopeful but realistic and have put a bit aside to see us through the first few months. The worst case scenario is that he has to return to the UK on a short contract if we are getting desperate.

Regards

Nikki

willmore

Dont forget that Octoberfest should be starting soon. Great party time - lots of food, beer and dancing. The best place to party is that large german club (damn I cant remember the name of it now, Ocean where are you....it begins with an S I think).....anyway lots of fun....but remember to take a cab - dont drive! Not only is parking impossible, but police are all over the place.

dbd33

That's the thing. I guess I'll do the job myself and search again here when Unix and/or Windoze comes to Canada.