venerable bede

Hi All,

To cut a long story short. I was born in England but my family emigrated to Canada when I was a baby. We foolishly returned to England In the 70's and I have lived here since then. Fortunately my parents ensured that I was made a Canadian citizen before we left.

I am now thinking on returning to Canada and needless to say have a hell of a lot of questions to ask. I am sure you will get sick of me given time

My first question is about employment.
I am currently a programmer and was wondering what the opportunities where like over there and what wages where like.

Any feedback is much welcome.

Thanks in Advance

dbd33

We're currently paying fifty bucks or so for CICS/Cobol/Db2.

venerable bede

I probably should have mentioned that I am a .net man.

dbd33

Oh dear.

ImLivingTheDream

Sorry I thought you said you were a programmer?

venerable bede

I didn't realise developed countries still used Cobol and Db2.

dbd33

That's for commercial applications. Whatever net's for they probably use it to do the same things here.

Airseir

Where were you thinking of re-locating too? Salaries vary sometimes in proportion to cost of living and sometimes in proportion to demand. You also do not mention your experience level or programming areas of expertise so it is also impossible to advise on sallary other than $35,00 to $140,000.

Large cites do not seem to have shortages where as smaller ones do. Recent grduates are easy to find and tend to be paid on the $35,000 salary area depending on location. Seasoned programmers with specialization are where the shortages are in smaller cities. Let me know more details and I can help with further information espacially for BC Interior.

ks65

Hi dbd33,

Both myself and OH have 15 + years in COBOL, IMS DB/DC, DB2, etc. Not moving to GTA though, how's the market for remote working from NS?

dbd33

Frankly. I need an IMS person right now for maybe twenty hours, since it's a tiny job we'd go $100. After that, I think you'd have to be very lucky. I know some people who have IMS Fast Path and Tandem expertise (pardon me if that's not exactly the trade names) who do very well supporting ATMs but the banks are all in Toronto and they are very conservative, they want a person physically there and dressed for banking. In twenty odd years of contracting out of Toronto I have heard of one job down east. In order to make a living there I think you'd need to work remotely into the US. I do lots of that but I know Americans and I'm carded, I've no idea how you would get started from NS.

Look, Canada doesn't have much in the way of computing. The population is small and many firms are subsidiaries of US enterprises that tend to keep their head office at home at outsource their computing to the third world, Nova Scotia offers about the computing opportunities of Cornwall. The GTA offers the opportunities of Slough but then it looks like Slough. I don't say not to move to NS, I just say that it's the definitive career limiting move.

Novocastrian

You seem to have forgotten the North Shore.

dbd33

Dammit. That trunk link into Bangalore, I do know it's going to crush us remote workers here but I get a mental block.

clynnog

DBD, after all the griping you make about Toronto, the GTA, your back breaking work on the farm in upper Appalachia, what keeps you here. If you want to move to the shangri-la that one enters just before North Tonawanda, why don't you go?

Believe me, nothing could approach Slough for its bleakness...that opening scene of "The Office" should be shown to any anglophile here in Canada who's always wanted to emigrate eastwards across the Atlantic.

daft batty

Slough, right next door to Burnham Beeches, Windsor, Bray, beautiful countryside right next door. I've been to worse places.

PS wheres Tonawanda? and why the north bit?

clynnog

North Tonawanda is a craptastic suburb of Buffalo, infamous for its 3 alarm blazes etc, on Buffalo TV news.