Convince me ...
 

I've had enough of Alberta ... yep, you can get a job here ... but it's a bugger to get a better one .... convince me which is the best province to live in ... I'm getting itchy feet.

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Ontario. Cos I'm there. :D

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Ontario was my first choice ... 2001 was a crap year to get an IT job, so I ended up in Alberta.

You're asthmatic? How bad is the air there? Do you just spend too much time hanging around in student bars and not taking your asthma meds?

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Yeah, I'm asthmatic. The air is particularly bad in the summer (naturally), not as bad in the winter. This summer wasn't THAT bad actually, as it wasn't that hot, and you could actually breathe (couldn't have done that the previous years).. I've gotten more than a dozen asthma attacks, but I'm not 100% sure if it's purely the doing of the air quality... I smoke, and I often smoke a lot. I don't hang out much in bars, so I'm not really exposed to others' cig smoke so much.. A couple of my friends have asthma as well, and only one of them has had serious asthma attacks like me.. so it depends on the person and how bad the asthma is, I suppose. Also keep in mind that my meds don't seem to do much to help with the asthma, so that might also be a factor. But I would say that the whole Ontario air thing is a bit (not saying altogether false) overrated. Although if you had said that to me 2 summers ago, I would've told you that you're crazy.

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Give up the weed. It nearly killed me as I suffer with poor breathing. Really bad as a child. Due to the weakening of the lungs I ended up with a severe viral infection that nearly done me in. Its difficult I know but for your sake give it up!

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Sorry Glaswegian as I'm not responding to your post (cos I can't :rolleyes: ...yet) Danmarsden....if you are asthmatic take up a wind instrument.....proven to improve your breathing.....Mr Padsnbon has serious asthma and use to take medication for it right through his earlier life but then took up a wind instrument...now he only uses an inhaler very infrequently, ie once every 3 months and only once...works...honest....it encourages you to control your breathing (Mr Padsnbon plays the didgeridoo...actually teaches and does stage performances etc) :)

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Hmm, good to hear you're OK! Hmm, but you're right about the weed... I know for sure that I won't be mixing tobacco with it! That one landed me in hospital pretty quickly. :scared: :scared: Don't think I can give it up though. :confused: Maybe Willmore would be kind enough to prescribe some alternatives to the only genius-creation by God (i.e. weed), since she seems to be an expert on... BC bud.. :D

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Ahhh, very interesting, I didn't know that. Thanks. Will try it.

And inhalers suck. :mad: :mad:

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Actually they blow :D

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hehe, yeah, true that.. won't change the meaning though would it.. :rolleyes:

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Nope not at all. :)

For comparrison, my asthma is much worse since I started working in London, I'm looking forward to my trip out to Calgary in January, to see if I can breathe easier there.

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Isn't London the asthma capital of the world..? :scared: :scared:

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I prefer to think of it as the pimple on the anus of humanity! :D

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I've just come back from a 2 week trip to Calgary and didn't cough or wheeze at all. Within 30 minutes of landing back at Gatwick the breathing problems were back.

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Some description there! :eek: I'll try to quote you on my presentation about London today! :D :D Should scare the hell out of people. :D

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Have you considered a return to the UK?

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Yep ... nobody wants to to go back, not even my youngest kid who was only three when we left, so it would be a very bad move indeed.

I used to work as an IT contractor ... rates are now barely 50% of what they were when I was in business and most of the jobs are on London ... ignoring the fact none of us harbor fond memories of the place, going back would be financial suicide.

Nah ... going back to the UK would invite failure .... failure is not an option.

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London sucks. I should know. I have the misfortune to live here.

Still, should all be a fading memory in a couple of months time...

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Thanks for the info on asthma Dan ... quit smoking and stop being such a dumbass ... it's not just that you'll live longer, smokers die in really nasty ways.

The air is normally clean and clear in Calgary ... right now we're having a crappy chinook that's dragged on for too long ... my youngest kid has gone back to the same recurrent respiratory infection he used to get in the UK.

When I lived in the UK I always thought that anybody who lived in or near London had to be nuts ... I haven't changed my mind ... I'm just beginning to wonder if that's still how I feel about Toronto or Vancouver ... at least there seems to be a lot of jobs there.

Surprisingly enough, my question didn't get answered ... Willmore hasn't been around, so I guess I have to say "BC is paradise" to myself ... for Iaink's benefit I'll point out that not everybody in Toronto lives in the GTA ... for anybody from the Atlantic provinces, yes the scenery is lovely, but I don't want to move anywhere with even less work for IT people and no, I don't want to retrain to be a vending machine mechanic, plumber or truck driver - they're all worthy jobs, just not my cup of tea.

The best advice is always ... do your research ... go visit ... make up your mind for yourself ... it's time for me to take it.

I've had my tantrum and now I'm going back into sleep mode :zzz: :zzz: :zzz:

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ah but living here you get used to it, I get that feeling of dread every morning as I approach it!! :) I lose my will to live somewhere near Alexandra Palace ;)

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This is my final 2 cents on this, since what the hell do I know!

But taking it logically, it seems to me that the problem you face is symptomatic of the IT industry as a whole. There is no land of milk and honey for IT guys any more. So, rather than relocation, what about retooling. It needn't necessarily be a complete career 180. But what about say, moving from IT technical side to IT sales. Or jumping in on one of the new hot technologies -- perhaps get Linux certified or something (I have no idea whether this is a new hot technology or not, but IBM keeps pumping out commercials for it). I get the sense that you are frustrated because you're banging your head against this IT same-old-same-old brick wall and it isn't budging.

Failing that I have no further helpful counsel -- I don't think upping sticks to a new province will solve the problem by itself.

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Within 1 hour you have access to 150 million people from London. It may not be your paradise but financial stability together with potential customers..? Seems to attract a lot of business and a viable alternative to Toronto. You could choose BC when your kids get older and less finacial strain. Had you thought about expanding outside of just IT. Add marketing and web support plus networking, even hosting... It could be a route to working for yourself again. 75% of immigrants do! Just a thought which I am sure you have already covered.

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CalgaryAMC may be right Glas, but I don't think there are many hot new products in IT at the moment. What about a complete career change ? I'm thinking I might have to do it as/when I get to Canada. I have been considering applying for a job with Canadian Pacific, as I have a friend who became a conductor, and enjoys his work. That said I don't know what the salary is like, so this may be a not so good choice.

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Retooling isn't working ... I've been continuously retraining for two years now ... the guys I work with seem to have an equal mix of fear and loathing for me ... I hammer out certifications like nobody's business ... all I've done is raised the bar in the office ... every time I mention taking a crack at Linux certification, our Linux specialist pales.

IT imploded up its own sphincter ... the Y2K and dot-com mis-selling didn't help ... it's almost 2005 and many businesses are just getting around to recovering from both ... there's still work out there, but the days of the IT cowboy with one skill and a single certification are long gone.

Sales is probably the best way for me to go ... I'm currently trying to move away from being a systems engineer to being a sales engineer ... the main problem is lack of opportunity.

Periodically I sit down in moments of dispair and wonder what the hell I'm doing in Calgary ... most of my UK experience was with BIG companies ... there isn't anything close to that size here ... even the biggest Canadian oil & gas companies are small in comparison with modest UK businesses.

Whine ****ing whine ... I'm fed up hearing myself nowadays ... I'm not the same person that left the UK and I'm not sure that it's an improvement!!

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You may want to consider BC - very long growing season, so lots of green. Vancouver's economy is on the upswing.

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I've tried to get to BC before and got blocked by the "local applicants" hurdle ... it's certainly something for new immigrants to bear in mind ... you might not have the option of moving around once you're here.

I've already changed my agents on Workopolis & Monster ... I'm searching for jobs in BC & Ontario already.

Right now I'm not sure I can take another Calgary winter ... the thought of spring being another five or six months away on my mind!!!

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There are plenty of hot new products, I can't believe the strength of the stuff that's out there right now.

The real issue is that businesses won't stump up the bucks ... back when I was a contractor in the UK, I could count on a good year's worth of consultancy from a decent sized roll out. In Calgary it's "get them started and do some knowledge transfer" - it's really hard to squeeze out any profit in that sort of market. I don't know if its an oil & gas thing, but I've had about enough of it.

I'm getting there ... maybe a vending machine mechanic?

I need to do something different ..... it's down to a new place to live or a new job.

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Look, if long brown/grey winters are getting you down, Ontario is only slightly better. Central Alberta is green from about late May to mid October. Southern Ontario is green from May 1 to Oct 30 (more or less). Vancouver Island and the Vancouver area would be green over a much longer period than both - March until end of Nov. perhaps? Wilmore would know more.

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How did you cope with Edmonton winters?

Let me guess ... you took a Mexican vacation around Jan/Feb??

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I'd be interested to hear what you consider hot new products?

I'd have said web-services, but they died a quiet death since we tried them 2 years ago.
Only thing now is I guess would be Aspect programming, which I'm inclined to avoid as it's a nightmare for maintenance...which is what I seem to spend all my time doing these days.

As for the vending machine repairman, all I can say is...."We know a song about that don't we Johnny?" :D

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You're on the development side?

There's a ton of new system management products out there - all aimed at reducing TCO. The problem is that businesses who want to reduce TCO don't want to pay for long term consultancy engagements!!

Whenever anyone posts "maybe I should retrain in IT" I just about wet myself nowadays ... great woolly mammoth husbandry has got a better career path than IT has right now.

Do we? Please enlighten us .... the pipes the pipes are ca-a-a-alling?

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When I was living in Edmonton, it was very nice to be able to go to the waterpark at West Edmonton Mall - it almost seemed that I was in Hawaii.

When I lived in Red Deer, I used to drive to Calgary just to get out of the snow for a few hours. I realize that the brown everywhere gets very monotonous, the monotony of piles of snow everywhere you go in the Red Deer/Edmonton area was even worse than the brown around Calgary. In the Red Deer/Edmonton region, I used to wish (after 3 weeks of very cold weather) that the bloody temperature would go above freezing for just a day so I could de-ice my vehicles.

After I moved to Red Deer (I lived in Edmonton for 7 years and RD for 8 yrs) I ended up buying 160 acres of land (mostly forested) near Winfield, Alberta. I would go snowmobiling, cross-country skiing and hunting there to make advantage of the snow. I also raised bison, wild boar, pheasants, wild turkeys and rainbow trout on this property - so I had lots to do.

If you don't get involved with winter-related sports like skating, snowmobiling, ice fishing (near the parks) or skiing, the winters in Canada will be too long - the exception being the "lower mainland of BC" or Vancouver Is.

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Yep, thats the secret. You cant hide from it, so you have to embrace it.

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Surprisingly enough, my question didn't get answered ... Willmore hasn't been around, so I guess I have to say "BC is paradise" to myself ... for Iaink's benefit I'll point out that not everybody in Toronto lives in the GTA ... for anybody from the Atlantic provinces, yes the scenery is lovely, but I don't want to move anywhere with even less work for IT people and no, I don't want to retrain to be a vending machine mechanic, plumber or truck driver - they're all worthy jobs, just not my cup of tea.

I'm around now...but wanted to wait it out and make sure this was the "real McGrouch".....and not just some fascimile.....since you did say you were going into retirement.....just can't trust those Scottish folks can you?

Come and live on the west coast...you'll love living by the ocean (especially since you're a biologist)....the milder weather, the rain....the cost of housing......and best of all be closer to me......Paradise is wonderful, and heck who wants to work and raise and support a family anyway - let the kids find their own food hehehe.......... :D

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Yup for my sins I'm a developer. :( Trying to re-angle myself as an infrastructure guy, (build sytems and software testing).

Re TCO that's very true, anything that reduces cost long term, but may cost a little short term isn't liked at all. I'm trying to promote good software engineering here, to reduce our maintenance time, and thus cost, but I'm bashing my head against a wall. (If it slows our development it must be bad, despite what we are making being extremely flaky :( )

I wouldn't recommend IT to my bitterest enemies now (ok actually I might :D ) and what's more, I went into IT to get the better money, but I'm finding so many people I know who took much easier careers are not that far behind me in salary.

As for the song, you have to search Sheryl Crow's songs.

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Not a good move ... it's just as tough.

Alberta doesn't support the concept of spend now or pay later ... it's too deep.

Same here ... Canadian job values and salaries are very jumbled up ... the best advice is don't assume that you're valued here just because you're valued in the UK.

I'm going to book myself in for Vending Machine Mechanics 101.

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If Sean Connery can have flexible retirement, so can I ... there's a certain physical similarity too ... I'm also losing my hair.

Are your public schools crap too?

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I really think that's what Calgary lacks ... a season ticket for West Edmonton Mall is very attractive.

It's all relative ... we get to hate the monotonous brown and like to see some snow.

We need something ...

My kids are too young for skiing, but we're into skating. The problem right now for me is fall is lasting too long ... I need to see some winter weather.

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My former receptionist's husband works as an operator for the Nova plant at Joffre (east of Red Deer). She told me that he makes $90,000/year (and that was in '94), on a job that took only 2 years of education in community college.

Joffre is one place that has a concentration of these petro-chemical plants, but Fort Saskatchewan has a much heavier concentration of such industries. This field may be another avenue to explore.

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I've had the feeling since I got here that everyone else gets paid a ton more than I do ... I also know that I get paid more than some of the other guys I work with.

Maybe it's time to do something else?