"...interview to Waterloo tomorrow, so things are not that bad yet. What I meant is that there were some adverti..."

A job with RIM perhaps? - Only joking. If it is though then read the contract - it's been written by a coven of lawyers. I've never seen such legalese outside of a court document.

Hi
You are correct in your conclusions about UK jobs within IT - there is still movement (though much reduced outside London) whether in a technical post or PM roles. However the economic climate is irrelevant to someone with the requisite experience and technical background, experience is key. Companies always want good people. However there are alot of PMs out there – a PM is not necessarily following the cutting edge of changes in technology in terms of products or apps. This might be limiting your appeal.

Regarding the current Canadian IT market: my feedback since September from contacts within the marketplace is that there is demand. I finished a project in UK in September, blanketed my availability to Canadian employment agencies and secured a completed permanent offer within 2 months. However there must be a clear reason why the investment should be made in you as a foreign resident. There ARE shortages for good IT people - but again a PM is not necessarily a dedicated 'techie' at the coal face. All depends on the appeal of your particular CV. I would highlight here Alberta in particular, which is experiencing highly accelerated economic growth and I know for a fact there is a shortage for certain key IT skills – it seems the local population base is a limiting factor. When you compare the IT sector in Ontario (Kanata etc) plus Toronto, there is a lot of talent to draw on. However Alberta is out in the wilds by comparison, so might want to concentrate your efforts in that region. Be aware also Canadian sourcing methods and philosophy is different to UK - much of it is unspoken - especially in Ontario for reasons already stated.

I hear you and I completely understand, I was presenting it as a point of view from a potential employer.

We did the same (albeit without baby as our children were/are older). However we took the plunge and decided to risk all. It isnt for everyone and yes it could have gone horribly wrong. But then we all make our luck to some extent

Good luck on your search

I was in the same opinion about GTA, I have also done two recce the last aug/sept - Agencies like UK I loathe but sadly reluctantly we have to use them to a degree; I am looking down hardware / breakfix route and thus far struggling to aquire any interest and becoming now reluctant in moving..

money is not a motivator here simply the quality of life aspects with a young family on tow

jon

There is another thread running with advice on looking for work with some good references, and links to wiki entries that may help.

Personally I have never found agencies to be any use in Canada

I moved to Edmonton three months ago and it hasn't been hard to find work.

Trying to find work from the UK ( despite having PR) was a complete failure. Most of the employers wanted someone "in province" and were not keen on overlooking that.

Had quite a few interviews ( and some through agencies) however companies do seem to take a long time to get back to you here.

Having said that, much of the work is contract work as opposed to full time. Also most of it seems to be programming / support / install work. Not so much in the way of project management.

All,

Many thanks for your advice and thoughts. Up until now I had never really been past Toronto-GTA however I am determined to move to Canada and so I will investigate further in to areas such as Alberta etc.

I guess the quality of life and low crime rate is going to be lower in most areas compared to the UK so I've got to keep my options open and not just restrict myself to Toronto.

I would (preferably) like to stick to cities with low snow fall during winter. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Well, I live in Emdonton and have visited Calgary several times. While it used to snow a lot in the past that hasn't happened in a long while.

From numerours discussions about the weather in both cities it seems that we will get maybe 4 or 5 dumps a year. No much really compared to other provinces.

Off course in Calgary there are Chinooks ( warm winds off the mountains) which may melt it for you. Hence why today it is 15 in Calgary and 5 here in Edmonton. But then it all freezes again

That is not to say the snow doesn't stick around ( it does) and that it isn't cold ( it is!!) and it can be a little icy. However, I think we are talking about a 3rd of what you would get in Toronto.

This is a cool little map which gives you some idea:


http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/englis...over/snowdepth

Two months is just luck. Sorry if I'm offensive - I believe you are well qualified etc etc. But for each story like yours I will find you ten threads here when qualified people were looking for work for several months and more, some leaving back where they came from and some accepting those fancy "quite different" jobs. I did know all that before coming - it doesn't scare me, it's just part of my experience.

I see a lot of people here who claimed to be qualified when immigrating. So many don't even speak English. No wonder they can't find a good job. On the other side, my wife is attending language courses where some Chinese lady, not really speaking English, says she's here for two years or so and she's running her own business. Should we start saying that anyone even without language can do well here based on this example? Ok, this is an offtopic.

Some people are just best suited to the challenge of finding work, either by their skills, ability to put it down on paper (electronic copy) or confidence during discussions. Other times it can be down to pure luck that you remind the interviewer of someone they like/dislike etc...

Focus, focus and focus on what you want to get too, look for the compromise if you can afford it and your dream job may arise from something completely different. Read the challenges in this thread Staying power is important too.

I understand that people have different circumstances and cannot take that option. Perhaps they need to review the plan and come up with a different one.

Ditto; I sent out a few CVs while I was in the UK and even with a PR visa and knowing I'd be moving over in a few months I didn't even get a response. Then when I started sending out CVs after landing, I had a job in two weeks.

Finding jobs from the UK is hard unless they have a very good reason to want you; which shouldn't be too surprising, I guess.

None taken. Sure maybe i was lucky, looking from the thread that seems the theme. Right place and right time always helps. Keep plugging away at it though and i'm sure you'll be rewarded.

I'm currently working on a project, in Canada, where there a lot of contractors. The contractors commute weekly, from all over, Kansas City, Minneapolis, NYC, Boston, Philly. I assume they're actually H1B people. I would say that maybe 20% of them are literate in English. With my other hand I'm working on a project outsourced from the US to India, that one's a little better, probably half of the technicians have strong enough English to speak about the weather. English, while an asset in North America, is not essential to computing positions.

As demonstrated by the spelling of the methods in the ActiveX interface to a component that a company that I used to work for developed.

Yes, this is right. It's soft skills that somehow are becoming more and more important (may they go to hell please?). I did my share of consulting and got some of that, hopefully. But I'd prefer to work with someone strong on technical side rather than on politics. Yes, ideally you should have both, but human ability to absorb stuff with their brain is limited, so hackers that deal with software bugs as equally well as with "certified behavioral interviewers" are rare.

I spoke with a consulting company here. The only "tricky" question that they asked was about "main weakness and main strength". Both guys that were talking to me were coming from technical side, obviously and were less interested in soft skills, even if they were in consulting. On another hand, a "software product company" bombed me with psychological/philosophical questions. So, you never know.

On "soft skills", I am also recalling Dave Barry (from his book of "Greatest Hits"):

Sounds familiar, eh? I think people suffer more from that madness here in North America.