haniyasin

Hi all , I have asked this question in another thread with different subject, but my friends from the thread suggested that a new thread is better.

Please Share your experience either as to be, or a new immigrant, or resident
in the province.

1- Cost of Living in Greater Halifax Area, rent wise 1-2 bedroom, ...house
2-Job prospects for immigrants in Technology and IT sectors.
3-Investment prospects in such services sector(IT, Software, outsourcing,....).
3-Do you recommend a new immigrant to settle away from Halifax,....
Dartmouth for example, Amherst , and other small towns and villages (knowing that :
A-you don't have established connections with these communities
B-How would the people of small towns and villages look at you (as partner or competitor )
C-What would you expect to work with there.


Special Thanx for alexisatk , being generous & willing to answer my inquiries
And iaink , mandymoochops for suggesting the thread
Thanx for all too in advance Meet you there

alexisatk

I'm going to answer these questions as a native to halifax and not an immigrant. I was born in Halifax, my OH has immigrated to Halifax from Scotland because of me so I will also try to include some of his experience.

1- Cost of Living in Greater Halifax Area, rent wise 1-2 bedroom, ...house

Currently, we are renting a two bedroom apartment in a building that is three years old in Clayton Park. Clayton park is a community on the outskirts of Halifax, but is still considered Halifax in the civic address. There are tons of shops and apartments/condos. It is also really close to Bayers Lake which is a retail park. My apartment is $1250/month and is really nice.

If you move closer to the city centre you are going to pay the same and get less nice of a place. More for a nicer place, less for a horrible place.

The best way to judge rental prices and qualities look at http://halifax.kijiji.ca .

Also keep in mind Metro Transit Buses are not very good, they are nothing like the UK. When I moved to Edinburgh, I was shocked at how amazing the transportation system was! If you live outside the city centre you are likely need a car as well as the transportation is less reliable the further you are from the centre.


2-Job prospects for immigrants in Technology and IT sectors.

My partner and I both work in IT as programmers. It really depends on what type of work you are looking for. If you are willing to settle for more support roles to programmers ie. (Tech Support, Application Support, Call Centre Support, Quality Assurance, Tester) in there various forms you will likely get a job. My partner (scottish) got the first job he applied for in two weeks and works as a .NET developer. Myself (Canadian from Halifax), got a job in 2 months as an application support programmer. As a side note, I did not look for a job immediately then got caught in the summer vacation slump where new job postings were slow and people were taking their time hiring.

Depending on the role, IT salaries where you have at least a bachelors degree in computer science you can get $35k (for a new grad) to i'm guessing 60k+ (for experienced 10 years or more). The middle range for the average person (3-8 years experience) seems to be $40k-55k. My OH makes less money then I do by $9k. He probably could have asked for more money in his negotiations.

Another note, if you are offered 2 weeks experience make sure you get 3 weeks before signing the contract. 3 weeks is the standard amount of vacation offered to an IT professional. My OH was offered 2 weeks and negotiated 3 as the company knew they were under offering.

3-Investment prospects in such services sector(IT, Software, outsourcing,....).

I'm not really sure what you mean by investing prospects in IT.

3-Do you recommend a new immigrant to settle away from Halifax,....
Dartmouth for example, Amherst , and other small towns and villages (knowing that :

Dartmouth is considered apart of Halifax, it is part of the HRM (Halifax Regional Municipality). The majority of the jobs and people in Nova Scotia live in the HRM. I would recommend it as the top place to live for opportunities, unless you have a career that lends itself to more rural communities ie. nurse, teacher, working at home, working in a shop etc. 90% of IT companies are based in the HRM mainly Halifax, Bayers Lake (also Halifax), Dartmouth, Burnside (also Dartmouth), Bedford.

A-you don't have established connections with these communities
B-How would the people of small towns and villages look at you (as partner or competitor )
C-What would you expect to work with there.

haniyasin

Thank you very Much alexisatk, for your time and the big effort you spent answering. I appreciate it a lot.

PS: for the investment prospects , I mean moving from the day job to owning your own business in IT, or technology. whether to server the province directly or to outsource for, type of business, other provinces, and the US.
wish you and your OH the best of luck and prosperity

haniyasin

any one else pleeeeaaase....come on....
don't tell me that no body lives or wishing to live in the Great Nova Scotia

alexisatk

Nova Scotia is a small place and there already seems to be plenty of competition for small IT companies ie. building webpages. Likely you will have to look outside the province to bring work in.

What kind of IT work do you do, or what kind of company do you want to set up?

Stonedog

Well I live in Nova Scotia but I have no experience of any of your first 3 points:

1- Cost of Living in Greater Halifax Area, rent wise 1-2 bedroom, ...house I rent a 2 bedroom house by the river for $750 a month fully furnished, but it's nowhere near Halifax
2-Job prospects for immigrants in Technology and IT sectors. No clue
3-Investment prospects in such services sector(IT, Software, outsourcing,....). Again, no clue !!

As far as this one goes:

3-Do you recommend a new immigrant to settle away from Halifax,....
Dartmouth for example, Amherst , and other small towns and villages (knowing that :
A-you don't have established connections with these communities
B-How would the people of small towns and villages look at you (as partner or competitor )
C-What would you expect to work with there.

I certainly would recommend living away from Halifax simply because that was the choice I made and I love it here. I live on the South Shore in Gold River

A: I didn't have established connections with anywhere in Nova Scotia.
B: Well they look at me like I'm a canadian, until I speak then they ask me 101 questions about England Not 100% sure what you were meaning here, is this IT related ?
C: Well I expected to work with other people and that's pretty much what I do

Your post doesn't really lend itself to people outside of Halifax who have no IT experience

Flogger

I live In NS, though i don't live in HRM, or do I know anything about IT.

We live in a small town within easy commute (35 mins) to Dartmouth, which is where the wife works.

Kaye5

Not wanting to hijack the thread, but we're looking at the South Shore - I've sent you a PM - hope that's ok.

haniyasin

I am interested in the Enterprise Content Management : Document archive, business process management ,unified communication, Enterprise 2.0 collaboration
targeted to SMEs based on cloud computing as SaaS.
We are building a customized system ( idea & value) with other 2 of my brothers
I hope it'll succeed

Lorry1

My husband works in I.T in Halifax. It is a very small market here with limited large companies.
'It's not what you know, it's who you know' is definitely the case here. Hubby has been networking since we arrived almost 4 years ago and has now made a really good name for himself and he has a very good reputation.

He now works for the largest I.T company here in Halifax. In 6 months, if all goes well, he will be promoted to a directors position in this company.
After this, there is nowhere else for him to go and no way of furthering his career here.

The salary he earns is very good but he doesn't even earn half of what he would in the same position in London.

For us, knowing we would be working in Halifax, living nearby was our only option really. We live just 20 mins away from Halifax and Dartmouth. We didn't really want to live in the 'city' with 2 kids.

haniyasin

Thanx for sharing, to tell you the truth am more biased towards getting away from Big Cities (even though Halifax is not that big)....but since i did not try how it is there am a little confused ....if I got a Job in Halifax should I live there or Not ....
and if I had the chance i would live in a small farm not escaping but to get the clear state of mind to give , innovate ,...something I feel I can but for many reasons 9-5, bills,....as most of us have these monkeys on their backs and wish them to disappear LoLz

for the competitor / partner point: I have read many posts about frustrated Nova Scotians who felt being treated like "Come from abroad" some even said that as long as you are thought to be a visitor you are most welcomed ...but when it comes to settling some would feel that you came to compete with their job prospects ...if I could come again to such posts i shall reference them.
I Love the province even if I never visited ... and I don't know why either...so just need to make sure that i shall be met with the same feelings

haniyasin

how do you think a small community would feel ..when they see more immigrants settling in the neighborhood...
what if these immigrants did not have the cultural connection (race, religion,....) would they still be welcomed...i am sure that the Canadians are the most welcoming ...but when it comes to sharing streets and living places am not sure how far welcoming can get to ....
though hope it is as warm as in public ads.

alexisatk

Your likely to drum up some business in Halifax, but you will also have to look further to find enough to support yourself in the long term. ie. Other parts of Canada, the US, or even europe.

About the "come from away" mentality, I have never experienced it (or seen it happen to anyone) around Halifax. But it could be something that occurrs more in rural areas. Prince Edward Island is notorius for the "come from away" mentality - even to other canadians.

alexisatk

You can also have large parcels of land and privacy surrounded by trees and be less than half an hour drive to the city centre.

Another thing to consider is that if you rely on getting business from other parts of canada or the US. The cost of travel between cities can add up. It's not as cheap to fly as it is in the UK or Europe due to the distances in North America and lack of competition in Canada.

haniyasin

Thank you for the info:
As it turns around although the money is not that much...I believe working in a less crowded company/city would facilitate one to stand out of the crowd if he is talented enough.
though that much of talent may not help if he is working in New York for example since it would be much harder to be distinguished in his field.
I wish you and you're husband the best. and wish him to own his own business as soon as it is technically possible