AFC73

Hi

I'm a UK Chartered Accountant working as a Internal Audit Manager, planning to move to Vancouver (or BC) in June and was wondering if there was any CA's out there who had made the move and what their experience of finding a job was like. I have spoken to a load of recruitment consultants both in Vancouver and Toronto who seem to be quite positive. I always take what these guys take with a pinch of salt. Not convinced that in the current market employers will recruit people with no limited Canadian experience?

Cheers
Anson

JonboyE

They want people who have a strong knowledge of IFRS. Which you do, of course.

JAJ

Is there a plan to become a B.C. Chartered Accountant?

AFC73

Yes, I can sit the conversion exam in October, which I suppose would help with 'canadianising' my skills

lcinlondon

AFC73 - Were you successful in your attempts to emigrate to Vancouver as a CA? I am currently looking to move to Toronto early next year. I'm ICAS qualified - if you have any advice as to how you managed the move it would be very much appreciated?

christmasoompa

As this thread is a year old, it would be much better to start your own thread rather than resurrecting an old one.

And it would also be appreciated if you would read the 'Newcomers to the Forum' sticky at the top of the page, which includes a guide on how to use the forum.

Good luck.

AFC73

Hi, no I am still in the UK. What stage are you in your research and want part of accountancy do you work in? I work in Internal Audit and found after a couple of trips out there and attending a conference that the market was pretty tough - particularly without Canadian experience. So I have decided to revisit the idea in November.

Happy to answer any questions you have - drop me a pm.

Cheers

christmasoompa

One thing to bear in mind is that presumably you got PR as a Skilled Worker, as Accountants were on the list of eligible occupations then? Whereas lcinlondon will require a job offer (from an employer prepared to go through the LMO/AEO hassle) to get a visa, so it will be much trickier.

AFC73

Absolutely, I was lucky I got it before the list changed - although that is also probably why I found demand to be weak.

Budgie1

Hi Anson,

I immigrated to Canada with my wife in mid 2007 before the financial crisis when things were still booming and had no luck at all finding work in Internal Audit in Vancouver.

My last role prior to moving was as a Sarbanes Oxley Manager for a very large Bank where I had 13 people to supervise. I had lots of prior experience in government, 7 years in Big 5, was a CA, CIA, MBA, CISA etc.

Employment consultants were worse then useless in Vancouver in my experience and only knew what to do with public accountants doing tax returns and external audits.

The best website was this one:

http://www.theiia.org/chapters/index...ew.news/cid/26

Most of the internal audit jobs in Vancouver are with the BC government, with a little financial services, gaming (casinos) and mining thrown in.

I really felt like a big fish in a very small pond, was rarely granted an interview in my six months of searching, though near the end I was offered casual work for $150 an hour to do IT audit consulting at a small internal audit consulting parternership, but their biggest client was in Calgary and I wasn't super keen on being away from home.

In the end I decided to try Calgary. I drove over after having touched base with a large 2nd tier firm looking for a manager and on the way organised a couple of other interviews through Robert Half with listed companies.

In 48 hours I had my three interviews and three offers and I currently work for a publicly listed company as their Head of Internal Audit.

So unfortunately I had no luck in Vancouver, but had no issues finding work in Calgary though again that was while things were still very strong in early 2008, I think it would be harder now as things are still a bit slower here at the moment though with oil prices on the rise again who knows.

The Vancouver job market seemed very small and insular for senior internal audit roles due to its comparatively small regional economy.

By contrast Calgary is full of large public companies and as such better internal audit opportunities, Toronto should offer good opportunities for you as well I'd have thought.

I hope you have better luck then I did, but to be honest three years later I am very happy I made the move to Calgary with my family, we love it in sunny Alberta.

If you have any other questions let me know.

JonboyE

Mine too. They tend to be more like head hunters rather than the role they traditionally play in the UK. They are necessarily part of the job searching process, but only a small part.

AFC73

Nice to read that it is not just me that found Vancouver market small and tough. I haven't thought seriously about Calgary - been focused on Toronto and Vancouver. I originally planned to come over and expect to work straight away. Increasing I am thinking of treating it as a 6 month break with job hunting. do you guys think that there is value in becoming a Canadian CA? As an IA I don't think it is particularly relevant to my job, but anything to make the CV ( sorry resume) more Canada friendly. Perhaps it time to give Robert Half Calgary a call.

Thanks for your tips!

Anson

Budgie1

I personally don't think becoming a Canadian CA is likely to make a big difference, but it always depends on the specific role I guess. The skill set looked for is usually "an accounting designation" plus CIA and or CISA.

I have no plans of becoming a Canadaian CA but I did complete the Canadian version of the Certified Fraud Examiner certification (www.ACFE.com) after finding employment, but that was useful for my current role.

Just have a search on the Robert Half website to see if there are any roles, again with the cool down I haven't seen much lately but again you can check out the IIA Calgary Chapter job site:

http://www.theiia.org/chapters/index...ew.news/cid/72

And of course, if you are happy working for a public practice keep an eye on the PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young and Grant Thornton websites, if I remember most of them give you the ability to send through your resume and PwC did eventually come back to me with an interview request for a Director role - but that was some weeks after I had already accepted my job so I never went to that stage in the process.

If you are interested in Toronto, I'd have thought that would be the best place to find Internal Audit work bar none in Canada given it is where most corporations have their headquarters.

http://www.theiia.org/chapters/index...iew.news/cid/8

Good luck

Colby

Hi Guys,

Just following the thread. I'm a UK ACA and did an internal transfer to Calgary in September last year to do audit with a big 4 firm. It seems from my experience that getting jobs in Calgary is a great deal easier than in Vancouver/Toronto. I had initially looked at Toronto, but they had nothing on offer so directed me to Calgary and there's no shortage of opportunities here. Also, the salaries here (at least to my knowledge and in my firm) are higher than Vancouver, without the high cost of living. It really depends on what you want to, I'm from a small town so for me Calgary's size etc is perfect, but maybe not for everyone.

The main thing I have noticed is that unless you're Canadian CA or international equivalent (UK, Aus, US) its not such an open job market. However, with good experience I would expect that there would be much more opportunity than it sounds like there is in Vancouver.

Good luck with whatever you decide

AFC73

Cheers for the advice. Always good to here from people who have been through it already

Thanks

Anson