General Questions about moving to Vancouver
Jul 5th 2004, 1:40 am
#1
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 3
General Questions about moving to Vancouver
Hello,
I've spent a large part of today trawling through this site and others and would like to ask a few questions about a possible move. I know these questions might be difficult to answer definitively, but any pointers would be very welcome:
Myself and girlfriend live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I am a senior chemist (air pollution area) with a (govt) environment agency, she is a training HR manager with a petrochemicals company. Would we be likely to have a snowball in hell's chance of getting anything remotely similar in BC? I would probably have to accept a supermarket job, but she has much more experience at a higher level (11 yrs £40k) than me and is a bit more choosy.
Is it true that i could probably forget about getting a civil service job (for a good few years anyway)?
I think we would be looking to scrape together around £65k to bring (possibly £100k, if an elderly relative snuffs it): Is this remotely realistic as a cushion to get things set up?
I had a meeting with a immigration consultant, but to be honest, I think they were talking crap: they were pormising they would set me up with at least one interview but they could categorise me on their form, so they had me down as a TV weatherman! Are these consultants worth the money?
Any info much appreciated,
CT.
I've spent a large part of today trawling through this site and others and would like to ask a few questions about a possible move. I know these questions might be difficult to answer definitively, but any pointers would be very welcome:
Myself and girlfriend live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I am a senior chemist (air pollution area) with a (govt) environment agency, she is a training HR manager with a petrochemicals company. Would we be likely to have a snowball in hell's chance of getting anything remotely similar in BC? I would probably have to accept a supermarket job, but she has much more experience at a higher level (11 yrs £40k) than me and is a bit more choosy.
Is it true that i could probably forget about getting a civil service job (for a good few years anyway)?
I think we would be looking to scrape together around £65k to bring (possibly £100k, if an elderly relative snuffs it): Is this remotely realistic as a cushion to get things set up?
I had a meeting with a immigration consultant, but to be honest, I think they were talking crap: they were pormising they would set me up with at least one interview but they could categorise me on their form, so they had me down as a TV weatherman! Are these consultants worth the money?
Any info much appreciated,
CT.
Jul 5th 2004, 2:12 am
#2
Yorkshire meets Vegas
Joined: Jul 2004
Location: T. ON (so there!)
Posts: 1,354
Re: General Questions about moving to Vancouver
Originally posted by ChocolateTeapot
I had a meeting with a immigration consultant, but to be honest, I think they were talking crap: they were pormising they would set me up with at least one interview but they could categorise me on their form, so they had me down as a TV weatherman! Are these consultants worth the money?
Any info much appreciated,
CT.
I had a meeting with a immigration consultant, but to be honest, I think they were talking crap: they were pormising they would set me up with at least one interview but they could categorise me on their form, so they had me down as a TV weatherman! Are these consultants worth the money?
Any info much appreciated,
CT.
What I've done for my job search is get a list of all the recruitment consultants in my field in Toronto where I'm aiming to settle, and used them to find out about job opportunities. This also means that they are more primed for action when I eventually get my visa approved - 18 months time?
Jul 5th 2004, 3:28 am
#3
talking Ter Sami
Joined: Apr 2003
Location: hybrid territory
Posts: 1,107
Re: General Questions about moving to Vancouver
Originally posted by ChocolateTeapot
Myself and girlfriend live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I am a senior chemist (air pollution area) with a (govt) environment agency, she is a training HR manager with a petrochemicals company. Would we be likely to have a snowball in hell's chance of getting anything remotely similar in BC? I would probably have to accept a supermarket job, but she has much more experience at a higher level (11 yrs £40k) than me and is a bit more choosy.
Is it true that i could probably forget about getting a civil service job (for a good few years anyway)?
CT.
Myself and girlfriend live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I am a senior chemist (air pollution area) with a (govt) environment agency, she is a training HR manager with a petrochemicals company. Would we be likely to have a snowball in hell's chance of getting anything remotely similar in BC? I would probably have to accept a supermarket job, but she has much more experience at a higher level (11 yrs £40k) than me and is a bit more choosy.
Is it true that i could probably forget about getting a civil service job (for a good few years anyway)?
CT.
In the meantime, these might be of some use
http://www.ejobs.org/states/brccom.html
http://www.ejobs.org/
I'm not in Canada so I don't really know how much use these are but it is somehwere else to check out I guess.
Jul 5th 2004, 2:17 pm
#4
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 3,015
My sister is an employment counsellor in Vancouver. I will copy your post to her and let you know what she says.
She will tell the truth. She won't embellish the facts just to please you!
She will tell the truth. She won't embellish the facts just to please you!
Jul 5th 2004, 2:32 pm
#5
Forum Regular
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 56
I came in 87 and did not use a consultant - not sure why people need them - maybe things have changed since I arrived - use them with caution because you probably have read a lot of people here getting poor information from them.
What I did in preperation for coming, is to visit and go around perspective employers. To be honest they were not that helpful - but I politely pushed them for information and some looked at my qualifications and told me that I was in with a chance of getting a job in my field. With that knowledge I then came and got a job very quickly, but also booked in to go back to school to upgrade too and had all the infomation I needed to do that on account of my fact finding trip. Better, in my opinion, to spend money and come here to get information about the job market in relation to your qualifications and skills rather than rely on a consultant - why listen to the stable boy when you can get it from the horses mouth!
As for the funds you have, in my opinion it should get you off to a good start.
Hope this helps
the doc
What I did in preperation for coming, is to visit and go around perspective employers. To be honest they were not that helpful - but I politely pushed them for information and some looked at my qualifications and told me that I was in with a chance of getting a job in my field. With that knowledge I then came and got a job very quickly, but also booked in to go back to school to upgrade too and had all the infomation I needed to do that on account of my fact finding trip. Better, in my opinion, to spend money and come here to get information about the job market in relation to your qualifications and skills rather than rely on a consultant - why listen to the stable boy when you can get it from the horses mouth!
As for the funds you have, in my opinion it should get you off to a good start.
Hope this helps
the doc
Jul 5th 2004, 2:45 pm
#6
Loving it here!
Joined: May 2003
Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 1,198
Re: General Questions about moving to Vancouver
Hi Chocolate
Are you both able to come over and visit? Get in touch via the Brits2Van group (see below) it would be a good excuse to arrange another pub trip.
Clare
Are you both able to come over and visit? Get in touch via the Brits2Van group (see below) it would be a good excuse to arrange another pub trip.
Clare
Jul 6th 2004, 3:32 am
#7
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 3,015
Hi - I sent your post off to my sister. This is her response:
Don't know how much of this you want to post, but do what you like with it.
Although I never say never, I would say that they may find it quite difficult to get decent jobs in Vancouver. The job market here is not great and has been this way for the past 3-4 years. I assume they both have university degrees - for most decent jobs with some career prospects this is becoming a requirement..
I agree with him - immigration consultants often do talk crap. If they told you they had no prospects for you, you wouldn't pay them! Setting you up with an interview means nothing.
HR is a field where most employers want Canadian experience (and rightly so, I believe - you have to understand the work culture and be able to interpret both the Canada Labour Code, employment equity and BC Employment Standards Act) CHRP (a designation from BC Human Resources Management Association) is becoming more and more requested if they were to decide to come here, it may be worth her getting that, as that would at least say to employer's that she had obtained some Canadian education in HR. She probably can't afford to be "choosy" and is unlikely to get anything close to what she was making in the UK. $40k is a more likely start.
I'm not sure what "senior" means - I expect it's just a government designation - you start as a junior chemist and after x years, you become a senior chemist, so it may not really mean that he would be considered at a senior level in the private sector. There are a number of biotech companies in Vancouver, plus there's the company that has the government's contract for testing cars for air pollution and they hire quite a lot of people, but who knows what type of experience he has and whether it would be relevant - but it would would be worth a try as it would pay better and at least be more relevant to his experience than a supermarket job.
Theoretically the government hires Canadian citizens over others, but assuming you have Landed Immigrant status, applying for government jobs is worthwhile, if you can find anything you qualify for (which may be unlikely, except clerical work) There are not a lot of Federal Government positions in Vancouver, and although there are always some Provincial Government job postings, most are in Victoria. I wouldn't advise that you live in Victoria, as there really are very few jobs except government and there have been huge government cutbacks in the past few years.
I've seen lots of people get jobs here - but I've also seen lots of VERY disillusioned immigrants - many of them from the UK who come here thinking it's as easy to find work as it appears to be is the south of England, and find out that there are few jobs advertised, there's loads of competition and without Canadian experience, it's hard to "get your foot in the door" in anything but grunge work. However, sometimes people are incredibly lucky. An HR consulting company I did some work for recently hired a 28 year old South African woman who had only just arrived in Canada (Afrikaans is her first language).. She had a few years of HR experience in South Africa. She was hired as an Administrative Assistant, but before she started, they needed an Employment Counsellor in Kelowna, so they gave her that job - so she got lucky and the poor people of Kelowna got unlucky!
Vancouver is an expensive city to live in, compared to most of Canada. However, it's still a heck of a lot cheaper than London. If you came here with $150,000 (that's around 65,000 pounds) - you would have a VERY comfortable "buffer" . If you invested wisely, you could probably live comfortably on this for 3 or 4 years. It would hugely depend where you wanted to live and what you wanted for a lifestyle. If you wanted to rent a nice apartment in a nice area in Vancouver, you would be looking at around $1500 a month, but there are lots of one bedroom apartments going for lots cheaper than that and if you didn't mind living a bit further out (New Westminster or Surrey) you'll get a really nice apartment for $800 a month. There's a glut of apartments for rent and vacancy rates are high at the moment (have been for the past year), so finding rental accommodation is not a problem. -
Don't know how much of this you want to post, but do what you like with it.
Although I never say never, I would say that they may find it quite difficult to get decent jobs in Vancouver. The job market here is not great and has been this way for the past 3-4 years. I assume they both have university degrees - for most decent jobs with some career prospects this is becoming a requirement..
I agree with him - immigration consultants often do talk crap. If they told you they had no prospects for you, you wouldn't pay them! Setting you up with an interview means nothing.
HR is a field where most employers want Canadian experience (and rightly so, I believe - you have to understand the work culture and be able to interpret both the Canada Labour Code, employment equity and BC Employment Standards Act) CHRP (a designation from BC Human Resources Management Association) is becoming more and more requested if they were to decide to come here, it may be worth her getting that, as that would at least say to employer's that she had obtained some Canadian education in HR. She probably can't afford to be "choosy" and is unlikely to get anything close to what she was making in the UK. $40k is a more likely start.
I'm not sure what "senior" means - I expect it's just a government designation - you start as a junior chemist and after x years, you become a senior chemist, so it may not really mean that he would be considered at a senior level in the private sector. There are a number of biotech companies in Vancouver, plus there's the company that has the government's contract for testing cars for air pollution and they hire quite a lot of people, but who knows what type of experience he has and whether it would be relevant - but it would would be worth a try as it would pay better and at least be more relevant to his experience than a supermarket job.
Theoretically the government hires Canadian citizens over others, but assuming you have Landed Immigrant status, applying for government jobs is worthwhile, if you can find anything you qualify for (which may be unlikely, except clerical work) There are not a lot of Federal Government positions in Vancouver, and although there are always some Provincial Government job postings, most are in Victoria. I wouldn't advise that you live in Victoria, as there really are very few jobs except government and there have been huge government cutbacks in the past few years.
I've seen lots of people get jobs here - but I've also seen lots of VERY disillusioned immigrants - many of them from the UK who come here thinking it's as easy to find work as it appears to be is the south of England, and find out that there are few jobs advertised, there's loads of competition and without Canadian experience, it's hard to "get your foot in the door" in anything but grunge work. However, sometimes people are incredibly lucky. An HR consulting company I did some work for recently hired a 28 year old South African woman who had only just arrived in Canada (Afrikaans is her first language).. She had a few years of HR experience in South Africa. She was hired as an Administrative Assistant, but before she started, they needed an Employment Counsellor in Kelowna, so they gave her that job - so she got lucky and the poor people of Kelowna got unlucky!
Vancouver is an expensive city to live in, compared to most of Canada. However, it's still a heck of a lot cheaper than London. If you came here with $150,000 (that's around 65,000 pounds) - you would have a VERY comfortable "buffer" . If you invested wisely, you could probably live comfortably on this for 3 or 4 years. It would hugely depend where you wanted to live and what you wanted for a lifestyle. If you wanted to rent a nice apartment in a nice area in Vancouver, you would be looking at around $1500 a month, but there are lots of one bedroom apartments going for lots cheaper than that and if you didn't mind living a bit further out (New Westminster or Surrey) you'll get a really nice apartment for $800 a month. There's a glut of apartments for rent and vacancy rates are high at the moment (have been for the past year), so finding rental accommodation is not a problem. -
Jul 6th 2004, 5:31 am
#8
Happy Bunnies
Joined: May 2004
Location: NW Calgary
Posts: 1,371
Some useful bits of info that we have picked up along the way (we both work on the fringes of the environmental sphere):
1. If you are a member of a profesional organisation, see if they have a reciprocal arrangement with a Canadian equivalent and it is more likely that your qualifications and professional standing will be taken into account.
2. You an get your qualifications assessed by various agencies - others may have links to relevant organisations for this.
3. Try this useful link for environmental jobs - if you get a login you can build a resume and scan through lots of links to potential employers. https://www.cchrei.ca/welcome.html
4. Find some equivalent Canadian employers (provincial government; environment canada) and give them a call - you might find that your skills are so specialist/in demand that you can emigrate via provincial nomination which is much quicker.
5. Provincial website for BC lists jobs and describes relevant departments. http://www.gov.bc.ca/bvprd/bc/home.do
Hope this helps!
1. If you are a member of a profesional organisation, see if they have a reciprocal arrangement with a Canadian equivalent and it is more likely that your qualifications and professional standing will be taken into account.
2. You an get your qualifications assessed by various agencies - others may have links to relevant organisations for this.
3. Try this useful link for environmental jobs - if you get a login you can build a resume and scan through lots of links to potential employers. https://www.cchrei.ca/welcome.html
4. Find some equivalent Canadian employers (provincial government; environment canada) and give them a call - you might find that your skills are so specialist/in demand that you can emigrate via provincial nomination which is much quicker.
5. Provincial website for BC lists jobs and describes relevant departments. http://www.gov.bc.ca/bvprd/bc/home.do
Hope this helps!
Jul 6th 2004, 5:45 am
#9
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 3
Thank you everyone who replied.
We both have degrees and post-degree qualifications. I would expect that Mrs. Teapot would have to do some retraining, especially regarding Canadian HR legislation, but reading through this board, I am a bit concerned about the lack of recognition of foreign qualifications in Canada: I mean air pollution is the same the world over, right?
The 'senior' bit in my job title is a bit of a government tarting up though: they give us important-sounding titles to make up for the lack of pay.
Thanks again,
CT
We both have degrees and post-degree qualifications. I would expect that Mrs. Teapot would have to do some retraining, especially regarding Canadian HR legislation, but reading through this board, I am a bit concerned about the lack of recognition of foreign qualifications in Canada: I mean air pollution is the same the world over, right?
The 'senior' bit in my job title is a bit of a government tarting up though: they give us important-sounding titles to make up for the lack of pay.
Thanks again,
CT
Jul 7th 2004, 3:48 am
#10
Loving it here!
Joined: May 2003
Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 1,198
Re: General Questions about moving to Vancouver
Hi Chocolate, I am on a great mailing list and just realised that it would be ideal for you - [email protected]
Below is from today's digest, it is a pity you are not over already, the BBQ would be a great job networking event...
All the best
Clare
Below is from today's digest, it is a pity you are not over already, the BBQ would be a great job networking event...
-- Topica Digest --
....Connecting Environmental Professionals will be celebrating the summer at our 2nd annual beach BBQ on Wednesday July 14, 6pm 'til...? (July 15 is the rain date.) For more details email [email protected].......
JOB Posting: YEN National Director
By [email protected]
Job Posting: FVRD Watershed Coordinator
By [email protected]
Eco-Industrial Networking Roundtable
By [email protected]
Fruit Tree Project Coordinator Job Posting
By [email protected]
....Connecting Environmental Professionals will be celebrating the summer at our 2nd annual beach BBQ on Wednesday July 14, 6pm 'til...? (July 15 is the rain date.) For more details email [email protected].......
JOB Posting: YEN National Director
By [email protected]
Job Posting: FVRD Watershed Coordinator
By [email protected]
Eco-Industrial Networking Roundtable
By [email protected]
Fruit Tree Project Coordinator Job Posting
By [email protected]
All the best
Clare
Jul 7th 2004, 4:34 am
#11
Just Joined
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 8
Vancouver Questions - TRY THIS
Hey there Chocolate TeaPot,
Did you browse over to Discover Vancouver by any chance?
It does exactly what it says on the tin! []
Very good forum & friendly, helpful people who I hope/trust are representative of Vancouver in general.
Added to which, I am in the process myself of very seriously evaluating a potential UK->Vancouver move.
It occurred to me that rather than us all scrabbling around - picking up odds & ends of info here and there and, doubtless, asking the locals the same questions, in different ways, over and over - we should pool our resources.
Makes sense to try to combine & cross check our data, impressions, thoughts etc. into a useful central resource.
So, anyone at all seriously interested in relocating to Vancouver and, in particular those who want to chip in and advance a group enterprise so we all benefit, you should check out these links ASAP:
COST OF LIVING - all sorts (Groceries, Air Fares, Cinema, Insurance....)
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4511
CRIME
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4538
PUBLIC TRANSPORT - QUALITY, QUANTITY, COVER ETC
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4541
WEATHER - WINTERS
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4561
REACTION TO THE BRITISH ACCENT IN VANCOUVER
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4539
UBC - PROXIMITY TO DOWNTOWN CITY CENTRE
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4541
SKI SEASON IN BC
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4565
STATS - AGE, ETHNICITY, HEIGHT, WEIGHT ETC
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4585
INTERNET SHOPPING & TAXATION ON US IMPORTS
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4294
MEDICAL INSURANCE IN CANADA
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=3953
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4587
(and hey if you can't add any information to the pool, that's cool - I'd rather think my hours at the keyboard were benefiting more than just me anyway - Hope this helps) []
Red.
Did you browse over to Discover Vancouver by any chance?
It does exactly what it says on the tin! [
]Very good forum & friendly, helpful people who I hope/trust are representative of Vancouver in general.
Added to which, I am in the process myself of very seriously evaluating a potential UK->Vancouver move.
It occurred to me that rather than us all scrabbling around - picking up odds & ends of info here and there and, doubtless, asking the locals the same questions, in different ways, over and over - we should pool our resources.
Makes sense to try to combine & cross check our data, impressions, thoughts etc. into a useful central resource.
So, anyone at all seriously interested in relocating to Vancouver and, in particular those who want to chip in and advance a group enterprise so we all benefit, you should check out these links ASAP:
COST OF LIVING - all sorts (Groceries, Air Fares, Cinema, Insurance....)
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4511
CRIME
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4538
PUBLIC TRANSPORT - QUALITY, QUANTITY, COVER ETC
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4541
WEATHER - WINTERS
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4561
REACTION TO THE BRITISH ACCENT IN VANCOUVER
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4539
UBC - PROXIMITY TO DOWNTOWN CITY CENTRE
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4541
SKI SEASON IN BC
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4565
STATS - AGE, ETHNICITY, HEIGHT, WEIGHT ETC
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4585
INTERNET SHOPPING & TAXATION ON US IMPORTS
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4294
MEDICAL INSURANCE IN CANADA
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=3953
http://www.discovervancouver.com/for...?TOPIC_ID=4587
(and hey if you can't add any information to the pool, that's cool - I'd rather think my hours at the keyboard were benefiting more than just me anyway - Hope this helps) [
]Red.
Jul 7th 2004, 5:17 am
#12
Loving it here!
Joined: May 2003
Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 1,198
Re: Vancouver Questions - TRY THIS
Originally posted by Red-Vancouver?
Hey there Chocolate TeaPot,
Did you browse over to Discover Vancouver by any chance?
It does exactly what it says on the tin! []
Very good forum & friendly, helpful people who I hope/trust are representative of Vancouver in general.
....snip....
Red.
Hey there Chocolate TeaPot,
Did you browse over to Discover Vancouver by any chance?
It does exactly what it says on the tin! [
]Very good forum & friendly, helpful people who I hope/trust are representative of Vancouver in general.
....snip....
Red.
Hey Red
I had never seen that forum http://www.discovervancouver.com/forum/default.asp you are right - very lively, good range of topics, Thanks for sharing the link!!
Clare
