Hopefully someone can offer me some advice on Fredericton. I have applied for a job in Fredericton and they want to talk to me via telephone next week. I have had phone interviews for Alberta before but when asked to go over for an interview I made the difficult decision that Alberta was not quite right for us and turned down the interview in Canada. My resume must be good because I have had a reasonable amount of interest and I have made it quite clear through my applications that I would need a work visa.

Both myself and my husband feel that the maritimes is more for us. I have not been to Fredericton before so can anyone offer advice on what it is like to live and work there.

My husband is an accountant in industry (mainly manufacturing) and I want to make sure that there are employment opportunities available for him. I have looked on Career Beacon and found lots of jobs but they mostly based in Moncton. Is there much in the way of manufacturing and industry in Fredericton?

Thanks
Rgilbert

Haven't been to Fredericton, but check out this link. There is a lot of information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredericton

Good luck with everything.

Hi Rgilbert, I am interested in how this goes as my girlfriend and I recently applied for PR and are strongly interested in moving to Fredericton when possible. The area looks so beautiful and we are really excited about the prospect of re-locating there: have you considered Moncton at all? With that in mind I am currently in the process of looking for suitable employment and a work permit: have you been in touch with any agencies/contacts over in Feredricton that might be of use?

My educational background is in the Arts (BA English Lit, MA American Lit) but I am relatively open minded as to what I intend to do upon landing. Do let me know if you think of anything that might be useful and good luck! Have you applied for PR already, or are you going to get a job offer and then apply?

Best wishes, Ben

I have to admit the most scenic city I've been to in NB is without doubt Fredericton. Coming from Yorkshire I would describe it as the NB equivalent of York whilst Saint John is the equivalent of Leeds (not the prettiest/but not that ugly either and an industrial powerhouse). We are heading to SJ - for a few of reasons - proximity to the sea, plenty of work, near to Poly Mountain for skiing, close to the States for tourism, low house prices and beautiful scenery out in the suburbs. SJ looks a lot like Boston and New York in parts - but neither FRD or SJ has crime at the levels we know over here - both cities would be good places to raise a family.

I went to Moncton in 2005 - and have to say it was the only place in NB I experienced traffic on a large scale ( I think a new bridge was being built). It has the largest in-migration (from other Canadians) of any city in the east - so it must be doing something right. Parlee beach nearby - rivals anywhere I've been in the med. However - there is no real downtown and everything seemed really spreadout a bit like the International Drive area of Orlando Florida (Moncton's equivalent is Mountain Road - which leads to the Magic Mountain Theme park). Beyond that I can't really comment apart from saying I drove near to the outlaying areas of Riverview and Dieppe on the way to Hopewell Rocks and these areas looked really nice. Housing is cheaper in MCT but the city is more French/Acadian than the other two (which may or may not be a plus).

There are definately more ex-pats in SJ - I noticed a lot of English accents on both trips - and once you get out of the Fundy Fog Belt the temperatures are very good in the summertime. If I wasn't already committed to SJ (or rather one of the outlying towns of Rothesay, Quispamsis or Hampton) I would pick Fredericton above Moncton - but that's just my personal taste.

We lived in Fredericton for about 8 months. As others have said it is a great looking city. I found it really easy to get around, there is hardly ever any traffic (maybe a 3 minute delay on one of the bridges in the middle of rush hour!).There are some stunning buildings there too, and the river is beautiful in the summer.

The main reason we left was lack of work opportunities. It is mostly government or university. There are some small high tech companies, but it is limited. If you have a job, that is great, but if you are hunting for something on a short timescale, you may struggle. We moved to Halifax when I couldn't find anything at all I could apply for after being made redundant. If you are looking for manufacturing, probably Moncton or Saint John would be better, or further afield.

Other things to consider with Fredericton:
We spent a lot of time travelling long distances to get to places. Fredericton has everything you 'need', but often not everything you 'want'. After a few 4 hour each way trips to Halifax to pick up visitors (cos the flights are much cheaper to there) it gets very dull.

One thing I didn't expect at all - Fredericton is very cliquey (sp?). We found it very hard to meet people, they can be a bit standoffish. This is not just us, as it is a completely different world in Halifax, and I have spoken to many people who agree completely that Fredericton is like that. Saint John is much friendlier, and even residents there agree about Frederictonians!

Apart from those provisos, I loved the place, and you can get a lot of house / land for your money.

Good luck

Thanks for your responses. Sounds like it could be a great place to live. Employment in his chosen profession is important to my husband so we will have to do some research if my phone call next week goes well.

Hi Ben

We are just over a year into the PR skilled worker route so still a long time to wait. I have resigned myself to having to wait for some time and we have just got on with our lives in the UK. I have not had contact with agencies. My job is fairly specialised and I tend to just keep my eye on available positions through the Canadian equivalent of my professional organisation. Maybe because my job is specialised I have had some interest from Canadian employers. I also spent a bit of time making sure my resume was suitable for applying for jobs in Canada. Good luck with the job hunting.