Caitilin

Hi everyone,

I got an email from the chc saying i'd get my visa in the next day or so, passport in the next week or so.

Right now I have no job here, so I figure go as soon as I get it and prices on the plane are reasonable. so say in the next six weeks.

now I am trying to decide between vancouver and calgary. I'd always planned on going to calgary, but lately i'm hearing the job market there isn't too great, but I"m not sure if that applies to IT as well?

Any thoughts on the IT industry in either of them?

Cheers
Deb

paolosmythe

Hello. it is (supposedly) always good to have choices huh?

I cannot speak for the strength of the IT industry, although i do understand that IT is more dominant in Vancouver, as Calgary is more petro-chemical inclined industrially.

But we were also deliberating between Vancouver and Calgary. In the end we chose Vancouver. Seeing -25C consistently recorded in Calgary this month was pivotal in our decision.... but so too was the countryside and waterside environment of Lower BC.

Also, we are more liberally inclined politically, which i understand is more the way in Vancouver and quite the opposite in Calgary.

I suppose it all boils down to what your priorities are and which carry most weight for you. Whilst housing costs in Vancouver are higher, it is declining in more quickly (i hear). On the flip side, due to its greater 'isolation' the cost of living (groceries etc) in Calgary is reportedly higher.

I think you may need to make a 'pros and cons' list for both locations and just go for it. But bare in mind, if your initial destination fails to bare fruit for you, you have an easy to identify 'Plan B' waiting.

I hope i haven't confused.

Steve_P

I think you may be the one confused.

Vancouver grocery prices are consistently higher than Calgary see the the link below granted it is from November 2007 but none the less it's and indicator of how prices are.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/canad...ry-prices.html

You have already alluded to the much hiigher price of housing in Vancouver and although it's dropping it's got a long way to go the get down to Calgary levels.

Taxes are going to be higher as B.C. has a provincial tax and Alberta does not.

Price of gasoline is higher in Vancouver.

http://www.vancouvergasprices.com/
http://www.calgarygasprices.com/index.aspx?

As for IT work I can't comment on that I don't know anything at all about it.

The weather well that's a personal choice but I will say Calgary is much sunnier even when cold.

paolosmythe

Steve - i had posted with a half expectation of being proven wrong and i am grateful for any correction to my words.

my comments were based on the pseudo-conclusions i have so far gathered, but of course such things are only as good as their source.

eg.
house price trends:
http://www.canadian-housing-price-charts.235.ca/


cost of living comparison:
http://www.canadaimmigrants.com/Vancouverliving.asp
http://www.canadaimmigrants.com/Calgaryliving.asp

Until i land in Vancouver, Calgary will remain a viable alternative (or should that be 'alternate'?) in the back of my mind and so if i am wrong in anything, i am grateful to be shown so and hope i didn't mislead anyone.

Many thanks for the more recent resource link.

ann m

(Without getting too techincal, when people say they are looking for a job "in the IT industry" - do you guys mean physically writing programmes, etc ? Or is the fact that all these big companies in all these cities have big IT departments sufficient ? Like I say, don't get all technical in your answer! but am I right in assuming that an "IT" person could work in a massive variety of scope and type of business?

There - sorry - slight hijack - but it's a question that pops up a lot on this forum - and to the uninitiated, who just sees a ton of large corporations in Calgary, I find it curious that IT people might not target here )

Caitilin

hey i love all answers, seriously! and wll respond in more depth after i go out and do what i have to

as to the IT question, IT is a very wide field nowadays, akin to medicine. Medicine being general, brain surgery being specific.

In specific, i'm best as an incident manager, but i make a very good tech support too (software) and passable hardware technician. have done customer service engineering, but basically, any bit of IT where customer and Tech meet. That is not the same as ye olde programmer (which can be seen as a specialist surgeon, whereas I do the more immediate fixes akin to a gp in the sense of that very broad and biased anology)

JonboyE

It is a personal choice really. In each city for every pro there is a con.

Calgary has the reputation of being a very "go getting" kind of place whereas Vancouver can be more laid back.

Calgary has the reputation of being a very conservative (with the exception of Steve_P and one or two others) whereas Vancouver is more liberal (though it gets very conservative very quickly as you go up the Valley).

Vancouver has the sea if that is important to you. Vancouver has mountains and skiing on its doorstep but they are still reasonably accessible from Calgary.

Then there is the climate. Some people can't cope with the gray and damp fall and winter in Vancouver. Others don’t like the cold of Calgary. A friend who lived in Vancouver for several years before moving to San Jose was posted to Calgary in September. She emailed me just before Christmas, and I quote, “don’t even think of moving here. It’s @#$%^&* freezing”.

ogcsmith

I work in IT support / installs In Edmonton and as soon as I landed I started applying for things ( nothing clever, just pinging things off via Monster.ca) I got quite a bit of response and much of it from Calgary ( which was no good!).

The IT market in Edmonton is still not bad but I think Calgary is even better. As I understand it, most of the corporate headquarters are in Calgary ( Oil and gas especially) hence why there is so much work.

Of course it helps if you have the paperwork. Have you got a degree or any Microsoft certifications? They seem to love that stuff.

Steve_P

Hey we even elected a liberal in our riding in the last two provincial elections so there must be more than three of us.

Unfortunately your friend got transferred here for one of our coolest Decembers for quite some time.

Ask her what she thought of November.

Seriously, good points.

Sam-in-Okotoks

I met a guy in December who was on a 2 week research trip here in Calgary. He was looking for work in the IT field and said he worked with Cisco or something similar (whatever that is) He mentioned there were a number of work options available in Calgary and he was offered a job. Good luck with the job hunting and I don't think you will go far wrong with either Calgary or Vancouver.

Caitilin

paolosythe...choices are good unless you can't decide ;-) then they're just frustrating. my main priority is being able to get a job, everything else is secondary as my main hobbies can be practiced anywhere - writing, rpg, and SCA. As to the weather, cold or wet seems to be my choice ;-)
And thank you for your set of research links as well! i did most of this about five years ago when i first applied, but its nice to know i'm still in my right mind!


Steve_p, thank you, that is information well worth having and thank you again for the links! i'm tending towards Calgary at the moment as thats where i've had the most job nibbles (not interviews, just replies so far) and if cost of living is cheaper there it will help stretch the budget.

Ann, please see my explanation above. its a very wide field and i'm more of a first line generalist than a specialist such as a programmer would be.


Jonboy, yep, i k now ;-) I'm tempted by the go getting at the moment to be honest.

Ogcsmith, monster is one of my main tools, yeah. Anyone in Edmonton looking for a support analyst? I'm thinking Calgary will be the way to go. MSc artificial intelligence, Bsc hons, and MCP qualified ;-)

Sam: I'm tempted to agree with you but htings seem to point a little more towards calgary than vancouver. its down to the job thing in the end, but here's hoping something turns up soon!

Wearsider

I know that it may sound obvious, but does your current employer have offices in Canada, and have you been able to contact any hiring Managers?

Have you got ITIL Practitioner for Incident Management? It may be worth trying to boost your CV with this before you land.

As stated earlier, every Organization has IT, so Calgary will have as many, if not more opportunities than van

Caitilin

I am my current employer, so I have to go with no....not yet ;-)!!!


luckily its a trade that goes on in most companies!

Edited to add: No, unfortunately ITIL has always been too expensive for me to afford.

Getting There

Hi Deb,

When I first got here, I was looking at IT jobs (I used to do some CIO type work when I worked for BT in the UK). I found this IT temp agency pretty responsive and able to send through reasonably well matched opportunities for me to consider. Now, the only thing is that you cannot register from abroad (although I might have a workaround for that if you PM me). However, you can look at the posts on offer. It might trigger a thought or two on the sorts of opportunities here. As another poster said, there are a number of corporate headquarters here in Calgary and even if a lot of the helpdesk support is contracted out of the region (or even the country), I feel sure there will be some opportunities for proven IT problem solvers/communicators. Anyway, take a look...
http://www.sisystems.com/index.cfm?mg=cpo.viewopps

Hope it helps,

Eamonn.

dboy

I've lived in vancouver for the past 16 years and no 2 ways about it, Calgary is cheaper to live: cheaper houses, lower taxes, etc.

Vancouver is a nicer city although people tend to find it a bit on the dull side as far as night life goes. Lots of rain but it is very seasonal. winter can get very gloomy. Summer - ah yes - I've always said that if vancouver was summer all year round it would be the best place in the world to live.

Both cities are great and housing is dropping quickly in both. As far as it goes, the economy is really starting to cycle down.

good luck