IT Skilled workers
 

Are there many IT people looking to come over?

if so what areas are you looking at?

There are several IT based companies here in Kamloops that are really struggling to fill IT Skills posts. We are not looking fr fresh graduates - The local University provides lots of them, but the 10-15 year working in the field skills are in great shortage. Our company has had a 10-15 year seasoned senior programmer post available for nearly a year, we are also looking for an experienced networking person. When I talk to Directors of other companies I hear the same thing - both Windows / ASP.Net and Linux / PHP skills.

We will be working on raising the profile of this City because either you guys aint coming over this way or you are not finding our city.

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

I would guess most IT people go for the big cities, because that's where most of the jobs are; whereas there seem to be plenty of companies in the smaller cities and towns looking for people who know what they're doing so finding jobs there may be easier.

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

I think that that is the popular mis-conception. There is high competition for jobs in the big cities and high chance of not getting an IT job where as in the small cities skilled workers can take there pick and have different companies fight for them.

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

Speaking as an IT person who has 8 years experience in a wide range of areas (most of which are as useful as tits on a man) I find that the skill sets a lot of the senior posts want are clearly designed by someone who likes to cover every letter in the alphabet. I'd say this is one of the main reasons jobs like this stay unfilled for so long. Not location.

When a job requires the candidate to be not only skilled in but also an unparallelled master in every programming language from A+ to ZZT-oop then I'd say it's time to revisit the description. Or at least get realistic about the pay grade.

Besides, working as an applications programmer/developer over here is akin to being Chicken #1258 in a battery farm.

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

Could it be the money ?

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

I've been to Kamloops and would probably be tempted but it is too far from the UK for my wife. It's going to be one of the small cities in the east coast of Canada for us I'm afraid. I just hope that IT companies there are having the same difficulties as you. If so my long experience and skills should be well suited.

:lightbulb:Perhaps your company should advertise on www.jobserve.com. Although this is the UK link, from there, if a UK based IT guy wants to seek a job elsewhere in the world such as Canada, he need just check the North American tick box and it links its search to the NA affiliated site. Workopolis, Monster and in particular Monster.ca are not that well known here yet.

A few more things that are probably major factors apart from these job visibility issues are indeed, "the money", seemingly longer hours and very minimal paid annual leave. For prospective UK immigrants I would think the latter is a big turn off, especially bearing in mind many are leaving close family for their new lives. They will feel the need to use their leave to go back to visit aging parents, yet would still like some decent time left over to discover Canada as well. Two or three weeks total just does not allow both needs to happen. :( Perhaps this is the key incentive rather than the money if you are to lure more UK IT staff with the skills and experience that are in demand. Well it would be for me anyway.

So are there any leading edge IT companies in Fredericton, New Brunswick that can entice me? :thumbsup:

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

Money and flexi time might help as well as help with initial costs ? if you want the right people you have to have something to tempt them.

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So are there any leading edge IT companies in Fredericton, New Brunswick that can entice me? :thumbsup:[/QUOTE]
snap thats where we are heading east side good luck

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

We are looking to come over to BC. I am only 8 months into the long wait. Looking on the bright side, we are coming to Kimberley in March for 2 week snowboarding and exploring BC. (hope to miss flight back to UK;)

I have worked in IT for over 15 years. What IT jobs are there in Kamloops?
We would come tomorrow if we could get a jobs out there.

Whats the best websites to look on. I have registered on the Canadian Job bank?

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

I'm an IT Business Analyst in the UK and will be moving to Calgary either late this year or early next. It's refreshing to hear that there are companies out there that are willing to hire international applicants as I have lost count of the number of applications I have sent off to employers in Calgary.

Shameless begging I know...but if there are any IT workers who would be willing to spend some time on the phone with me (or over a coffee when I come over for a reccee in early March) I would really appreciate the opportunity to start building a network.

Thanks in advance.

Darren

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

Hey nothing shameful about being an opportunist or offering needed services.

:lightbulb:Perhaps there is an opportunity here for opening up a new sub-forum for advertising skills and requirements from both the employee and employer perspectives?

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Kamloops is on my list, so if you have names of it companies who are in need of it-profesionals, that would be very helpful. :-)
My husband will be 30 this year and has 9 years of it experience (most recent with c#.NET). We expect to move to Canada in September-November.

We first were looking for the Vancouver area, but to be honest I'd like to live in a smaller place...

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

Actually my one of my two best mates in Canada is trying to convince me to come to Kamloops....

Adn I am in IT. What kind of positions are you looking at hiring? I'm not a programmer (though i'm well familiar with them and programming), but tend to drift into workflow management and the like - adjacant but not programming itself. Services i'm also quite good at - hope to have mcse's complete by the time i come over. Have masters degree, will travel ;-)
:thumbsup:

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I know a company in big city looking for a junior to assist a senior.

Qualifications required:

ASP, PHP, Linux, Apache, Windows 2000 server, perl, java, javascript, ajax, html, dhtml, xhtml, css, flash, action script, mysql, photoshop, illustrator, dreamweaver, fireworks, image ready, and so on.

And you have to be an expert in all of above as well as a kick @ss designer.

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And out of curiosity, aside from knowing at least as much as the junior, what doe sthe senior have to know?

Is it me or are some of these ads getting a little heavy handed on the skills you're expected to pick up?

I know i read one, which expected you to speak three languages, have finished your MSc and had several years real world experience by 21....

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

I have been working within IT for 8 years with the following skills:

ORACLE DBA
UNIX
XML
SQL PL/SQL
PRINCE2 Practioner
ITIL
CISCO Networking

and other stuff (won't bore you)

However when I initialy started to look into moving to Canada and working in IT everwhere who replied to me said yeh great but you don't have a Bachelors Degree in computer science (or the like) and we would be requiring that.

:blink:

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

My job requires a degree in Computer Science... but I don't have one. It's just another way to weed out applicants, and with lots of foreign experience you won't necessarily have a problem.

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

Thanks Mark, :thumbup:

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

I live in Kamloops and work for the largest IT 'employer' in town. I arrived in town last july with just a suitcase and had not 'networked' prior to coming over as I didn't know anyone.

I don't have any post secondary education, just 15 years work experience and I got a job no problem. In fact during my first few weeks I was constantly asked if I knew of a good SQL DBA and after much persuasion I managed to convince my best mate to join me and he is currently waiting for a positive LMO.
They had this position advertised for over 1 year and in the end were more than happy to recruit a foreigner!

I cannot really put my finger on what was putting Canadians off? the pay was above average for Kamloops, holiday started off on 15 days, full benefits, blah blah blah.

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

lol - I hear what you are saying loud and clear.

On the flip side of that I have found that since writing adverts and Job descriptions over here I have gradually navigated to the A-Z requirements. The reason for this is to widen the field rather than narrow the field. An advert may only get two applicants in two months with a very narrow focus. I never expect an applicant to have all the skills and my experience is that a lot of Canadians know they dont need all the skills, certainly by judging from the resume's they send. It would appear that employers are happy to see as many resumes as they can get and then filter through them to see which are the best or nearest fits. I remember in the UK when I saw 200 resumes after a 2 week advert and promising to reduce the requirements and make them tighter for the next advert.

However I like your points and will pass this view onto other IT employers in the city to think about.

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We are aware that there is a money issue Kamloops does not try to compete with big City sallaries.

It is like the UK - some cities have a lower cost of living and therefore pay less and some cities have a higher cost of living and pay more.

I remember the London UK wages compared to those in the Midlands - but having moved to a Lincolnshire village I found that a lower cost of living and a lower sallary often actually meant more spending power locally.

Lincolnshire vs London is like Kamloops vs Vancouver.
Property in Vancouver is well over double the cost of property in Kamloops but the wages are not well over double - so in the end you may be less well off living in the big city with a high sallary than you are in a small city with a modest sallary.

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

Interesting point - the hours and the leave entitlement.

These two factors are common discussions. The more we look to Europe for experienced workers the more we must consider them. In our company we have now raised the leave entitlement to 15 days standard with reward days for people that feel this is important to them and prove their commitment to the company. It is also interesting that the new generation of people comming into the workforce also feel that leave time is more important than money so there may be changes in that area across canada.

The other side is that living in a smaller city means no traffic ques to get home - you can be on the golf course by 5:15pm after leaving work or on the beach, at the tennis club or whatever you like to do. This means that in total you have more leisure time. My wife and I found that house cleaners are very cheap and have our house cleaned on a Friday, easily get our weekly grocery shopping done even on a Friday with no queue's at the checkout and can be home for 6:00pm on a Friday and then have all weekend to ourselves. The hundred or so lakes and all the golf courses, the ski slopes, hiking trails, campsites etc withing less than an hours drive means we have found a far better quality of life without the smaller vacation time than we ever had in the UK.

Oh yes - did I mention the weather? 40 degree Centigrade peak in summer very little rain most of the year - no need to go anywhere for the weather so every weekend from March to September is a weekend in the sun.

http://www.venturekamloops.com/movetokamloops.htm
http://www.kamloops.ca/media/placeinthesun.shtml

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

There are lots of IT jobs here and several IT companies. With 15 years in the trade I am sure you could find something to suit your taste and more than one offer. If you want to send me a resume as a private message I would be happy to take a look and tell you more specifically what companies deal with those areas. Let me know what your ideal role is as well.

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

I fully agree.

To me this forum has been a great place to hear about and discuss employment related issues and I often feed infomation I obtain from here to our Local City ecconomic development board. We actually have stands in the UK at immegration events and the more we understand the better.

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He may be the person I am looking for. we are a C# .Net web application company. If you would like to send a resume as a private message I would be happy to look at it and circualte it around town.

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There are several IT firms in town. BC lotteries, ASL internet, iCompass, Idea Lever, Visual statement and lots of other smaller companies that employee IT based people.

If you send a resume to [email protected] she would be able to take a look and provide a good view of the types of employment opportunities in that field. Venture Kamloops is the City Economic Development Center and they are well educated about the shortage of experienced skilled workers.

Our City has pretty much narrowed the skills shortage down to an experienced skilled worker shortage - skills without experience are not in short supply to the same extent.

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I've worked since i was 18 sans the year i did the msc..i'm now 28. ;-)

Can do work experience too! 2 years office manager, 2 years helpdesk first line, some time at second line, almost 2 years work flow manager, some technical account manager, and now i'm doing customer service type stuff for Netherlands (all of it, mind you. Banks of all things. Think fourth line porblems aka code change though i coordinate those, not do those).

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

A small city like us with a huge experienced skills shortage will look at the persons track record and proven experience. I am sure that there are some out there that will prove me wrong - but don't let them dare shout experienced skills shortage my direction when they are looking at quals as well. I know there are some out there that would say - oops not from a Canadian University - sorry.

If no-one is doing the job then better to get a junior and train them - it may take 10 years to train them to the equivalent of a ten years experienced person. Another 3 years and one of my team will be the 10 year experienced person - but 3 years is a long time, and if I hire one now I will have two in 3 years.

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

WOW sounds great - yes - send Wendy anything you can about yourself and explain you are looking for mapping skills to industry in Kamloops. I am sure that with a skill set like that we would soon find a few companies you could send resumes too. Tell her you given her contact name on the ex pat site by some-one in Kamloops, Wendy will know where it came from.

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

Hi Danny B - we must meet for coffee some time. I work on the corner of first and seymour - guessing you are very close to me.

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

Look after my tenant (your newest recruit, Miss Harris) - she's looking forward to her new job :thumbup:

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

A small city like us with a huge experienced skills shortage will look at the persons track record and proven experience. I am sure that there are some out there that will prove me wrong - but don't let them dare shout experienced skills shortage my direction when they are looking at quals as well. I know there are some out there that would say - oops not from a Canadian University - sorry.

If no-one is doing the job then better to get a junior and train them - it may take 10 years to train them to the equivalent of a ten years experienced person. Another 3 years and one of my team will be the 10 year experienced person - but 3 years is a long time, and if I hire one now I will have two in 3 years.

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Courtney is your Tenant - Wow - we will look after her don't worry Rich.

And talking about Coffee - we must re-check our schedules we never did manage to find a date to meet. We bought a motor home at the late end of last year and if we were not away with that we were out on the river or shushwap lake with the neighbors and their speed boat.

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For sure. I'm flexible about work schedules, just drop me a line when you're free and we can meet up. We boat on the river and Shushwap regularly too - perhaps can get together for some skiing in the summer.

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

Sounds awesome.

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I think venture kamloops was on the list for the belfast expo show..I'l definitely do that, thank you!

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

Does anyone know the situation out there for people with about 5 years experience in development? Quick summary MEng Software Engineering, currently senior software engineer and leading a team of 4-5 others. Primarily Java, Oracle plus all the web stuff (HTML, XML, JavaScript, XSLT) and some others ASP, PHP, C++.

All this talk about requiring 10-15 years experience sounds quite a long way off for me still! Is there no hope?

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

There is definitely hope.

Some people after 5 years will be getting to a position where they are strong enough to start taking a lead role while others may be more dynamic and get to grips quicker. You are already leading a team with a software engineer title - if you were a .NET developer in C# and already had a Visa I would be trying to get you to send your resume. I am sure that with your track record you would soon find employment in the field. With 5 years experience companies may want to start you lower than a lead programmer but with the right aptitude you should be able to grow quicker here than the UK. With 5 years experience you certainly should not be on the lower ranks.

The issue I find is the desperate shortage in small cities, this is not the same in the large cities where they can pick and choose. If we can see some-one has the skills and is good we want them.

The 5 year issue is that in the last 5 years there have been some good graduates that can fill posts, however they are growing without the guidance of experienced staff so take a good 10 years to reach true software engineer status because they need to learn by trial and error. Some-one that has grown with good quality guidance would know how things should be done quicker.

I hired a 5 year experience programmer 2 years ago and considered myself lucky. the best I can normally get is straight from University or 2-3 years experience. Perhaps there is more of a long term commitment attitude here. They have been there for 3 years so they are reasonably happy - why go to the unknown.

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What do programming jobs in Kamloops pay? I posted a bunch of rates for Toronto on a recent thread and would be interested to know how that compares with BC. Could BenM get $25/hour, $50?, $100?

Re: IT Skilled workers
 

I cannot speak for the whole of Kamloops, but where I work $70k-$80k pa is about average for that type of role (Senior Programmer with 10-15 yrs experience) as a regular full time employee.

Contractors brought in from out of town will be paid at a slightly higher rate but have no benefits, sickpay, holiday etc.

Basically if you are coming from London, just take off the pound sign and replace it with a dollar sign :frown: