R I C H

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

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

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.

R I C H

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.

Airseir

Sounds awesome.

Caitilin

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

BenM

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?

Airseir

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.

dbd33

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?

Danny B

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

Coffeepot

If the benefits are a good package then thats not too bad i assume thats full medical dental etc, still quiet a bit less than in London for the experience you are talking about dep on tax rate there of course ? its the lack of holidays, in some of the places OH has worked they have had flexi time and the option to work from home if need be,
surely this would be an incentive to UK potential employees to get them there ?

Airseir you have made some very good points about quality of life and after all thats why most of us are making the move it is for us anyway.
You paint a very nice picture skiing and the beach etc sounds lovely

Danny B

Yes that is full non contributory benefits, and we start off on 15 days vacation.

We also have a system called ETO (extended time off) where you can stay 1hr late or come in early each day, and bank the time to take later.

Some people work 8am - 5pm (should be 4pm) and have 3 days extra off per month. It all comes in handy, so far I've banked 60 hrs (8 days) to take when my parents arrive so when you add the 8 days on top of the 15 it's no real change from my holiday allowance back in the UK.

Coffeepot

That sounds like a good idea and sim to flexi time, even one hour build up is a good incentive, after all you want to see some of the country when you move there,

8 days extra is good thats 12 weeks 1 hour extra a day, yes thats not bad. is there anyone going from Kamloops to the jobs in Canada show at Olympia on 28th june, i am pretty sure you would get some IT interest from there ( we will be there for a start ) thats probably aimed more for Airseir.

We were there a couple of years ago and were actually put off by the immigration experts they said there were no IT jobs it would take us years to get in,

Cyan

Skilled Business analysts are in demand all over esp those with object oriented UML, RUP, Use Case experience. As long as you can speak English (I could tell you a few horror stories), can capture functional and non-functional requirements you should be okay for most BA positions.

An ability to translate your modest British CV into an 'I can do anything' sales centric NA Resume also helps. I would say that was the biggest culture shock when I was job hunting.

xxalxx

Hi everyone,

This thread caught my eye, so just thought I may tack a wee question onto it as well

How is the job situation over there for support type peoples? I have 8 years 1st / 2nd line support experience, as well as experience in my current role as a hardware technician - all of these roles in a large UK university.

I read the wiki bits on contacting employers directly to find out information, but does anyone have any tips on how to go about that ? Totaly different than our UK way of doing things, and a bit daunting to be honest !

Al