DAVIE_MAC

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.

MarkG

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.

DAVIE_MAC

Thanks Mark,

Danny B

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.

Airseir

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.

Airseir

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.

Airseir

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

Airseir

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.

Airseir

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.

Airseir

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.

Airseir

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.

Caitilin

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).

Airseir

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.

Airseir

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.

Airseir

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.