Rahel

What is the average salary for a civil engineer in BC?
My partner has 20 yrs of work experience and possible PEng in Canada( He has MICE in England and washington accord would enable him to have a PEng in BC)
Does 80000/year is too low?
Thank you
Rahel

Rich_007

MICE is no good here. You would need to accumulate several MARMOT to gain Canadian equivalent.

Rich.

Rahel

marmot.. Grey and red would do??? lol..

MICE..(unfortunately!) stands for Member of Institution of civil engineering..

hudd

I worked both in Alberta and Ontario. Chartered status had little wait in Alberta but as there seemed to have more weight in Ontario. Due to the number of British Engineers in Ontario. You will have to sit the PEng law & ethics examination. They will also look at your degrees and tell you if you have any other examinations to complete. I am not sure if many employers know about the Washington or Sydney accord in Canada.

Has he been offered a job?

Is he expected to work long hour such was weekends for that money? If so that not a good offer?

I worked for the Ontario govt. I had about a dozen engineers working for me. Senior Engineer with 20 years experience supervising a few junior engineers or technologists would make $85- 93K. Salary will depend on his level of seniority. I have known Engineering Managers in Alberta making $70 -75K in private companies.

Rahel

Yes he has been offered a job..but I am not sure, if we should follow the money or a happy family life.. Kids are growing up and so are the expenses associated with raising them!..

The company mentioned that as a senior engineer, he is expected to do overtime and work on saturday..
Oh why is it so hard to make a simple decision??
Rahel

dingbat

If your hubby is an experienced senior engineer, in BC that money is not that good to be honest. After taxes, you are left with not a lot. Can't recall how many kids you have, but if you aren't working, your hubby will have approx $4500 -$4700 after taxes, EI and CPP each month. Average tax rate is 25.9% and mariginal is 39.7% according to the E&Y website. That sort of take-home money will not go far, when the grocery bill for an average family is about $1000 - $1200 per month, not to mention all the other bills. Don't expect automatic P Eng status either. The Washington Accord means sweet FA here and getting status depends on the length and content of your
degree(s). I would be cautious that the employer doesn't expect the work of a P Eng member, but once you are here, then not help in any way to ensure that your husband gets it. The employer cannot lose - they get an engineer that they can legitimately not pay at full rate because he has no P Eng status. Watch the "subject to" clauses in any offer and ensure any offer is set out in a written employment contract with clear details. Surely an experienced engineer would earn much more in the UK?

Rich_007

Not a lot ? Tell me you're having a frickin laugh eh ? Ever likely you're always on here whining and moaning and griping. What do you want, $10k a month ?

Plenty adults live on far less than that in BC. And they manage, and survive. How much do you think RCMP, nurses, teachers, civil servants earn ? What about 'normal' average Joe's in the private sector, mid range income ?

A Brit bringing a decent wedge of settlement cash could easily survive on that much. Unless they're sloppy with their disposable every month or want to live a bling bling life, live in a mansion, have a boat, a hog, a jet plane, a ski lodge, and a fancy woman etc.

Get real, please, this kind of (dis) information confuses the hell outta people. It's not right, it's inaccurate, and it reflects your negative attitude to where you're at right now. This forum needs to be full of accurate information and the cyber-patrons of it need to cast oversight to ensure BS doesn't seep out.

Rich. [He ranteth most forcefully, yet he careth not for the respondent whines of the miserable and negative].

Bleech

dingbat

Plenty of adults do indeed live on far less than that in BC. And they also have a second income, sometimes a third. This is just one income as I understood it and they have kids, which you do not. You landed on your no kids to support couple feet Rich, good for you. But unfortunately, living in K town, with £ you admitted you brought with you, you have no idea how the rest of us live. These people never said they were Brits bringing a decent wedge of settlement cash . We could all easily survive on that much if we were in that position. So as they say in BC, a province with which you are only recently acquainted, blow it out your ass.

JAJ

If the degree is recognised by the Engineering Council UK and was awarded in 1989 or later then it must be recognised by the Canadian engineering authorities (otherwise Canada could risk expulsion from the Washington Accord for breaching its obligations).

But Washington Accord only covers the academic component of engineer training, it does not mean a direct transfer of CEng to PEng.

Rich_007

They'll survive if they have a positive attitude and realistic expectations.

If they're miserable, whiney, and whingey they'll go home lame and play the blame game. Brits abroad, and all that malarkey.

Guess where we are at, people yes it's attitude time again. A rule of life: attitude influences everything, success, relationships, health and wealth. Migration too, I believe ?

Uh and so has your vastly superior experience of life in BC made you a highly successful settled and happy migrant, or can I blow that outta my ass too only 11 months in and I'm a huge class one loser

And FTR we didn't bring millions of dollars to Canada, we don't earn supernova bucks and we're just regular everyday middle class people. So you think it was easy for us, go slap yourself upside the head, not once, but ten times. Then quit whining.

LROFLAY.

Rich.

dingbat

You missed the point, as usual. Positive attitudes may be all warm and fuzzy, but they don't pay the bills when you are in a tight spot and have exhausted every avenue available to you. Just because motivational stuff is your business, it doesn't mean everyone will succeed if they wander around with a cheezy smile and store bought delusional platitudes by the shed-load. Comparitively speaking, given the situation, I could claim to be successful migrant. I have the house, the job and views to die for. All most of us want really. You have to be adaptable in BC, otherwise, for example, right now I would be on welfare with five kids. Many people here with kids don't get past first base. They are very expensive and eat a huge part of what might otherwise seem to be a good salary. That is the point.

dingbat

Which is what I meant. Many older graduates don't know about the 1989 cut-off either.

iaink

80k for a headhunted senior position sounds borderline low to me.

Sure, you could live on it there, but i suspect others doing the same job get more.

The PEO (ontario PEng) publish a (limited) salary survey with median and average salaries for different levels of engineering work. The BC PEng body probably does the same, and there are other salary estimators out there that have been mentioned here before (www.salary.com), so I would do more homework before accepting that.

I would be looking for nearer 100k, especially if I was setting up home near vancouver and giving up a decent job elsewhere to do it. Especially if overtime is "exempt"

As JAJ points out, there is no such thing as a simple transfer to PEng status I'm afraid. Bound to be at least some paperwork to do at best.

Cowtown

One of the guys I work with is from Vancouver ... he's looking at spending $700K on a lot 45 minutes from downtown.

I get the feeling that $100K won't go far ....