Hello,

I’m new to this site and this is my first thread.

Well to keep this to the point I am looking to move to Canada from England in late 2013. I don’t have any part of Canada in mind and this is where my advice request comes in:

I don’t have a job lined-up and I don’t know anyone in Canada. From what I can see most people who move over there either have relatives or friends already there and they also normally have a job offer of some type. I don’t have any of these and I will be taking a big risk therefore I am hoping for some genuine advice. In addition I would like to add because I know it will be asked by those reading this is “how can I move to Canada without any of the above?” Well I am fortunate to have dual nationality as I was born in Canada however I moved to England when very young and I have been here more-or-less all my life.

I also have a decent education but no degree and that does seem to put me at a disadvantage?

So what I’m looking for is a place in Canada which has cheap housing, buying or renting, the cost of living in general is ok and there is plenty of work opportunities. These three factors are crucial in me making a success of the move as I will be landing at an airport somewhere in Canada and taking one massive chance.

Lastly doing research on the internet can be misleading and out of date so any information from people over will be great, especially anyone from the UK who has made the big move.

Thanks for reading my thread and thanks for any advice in advance!

Billy

What sort of work do you want to do?

Well, having Canadian citizenship removes a lot of the hurdles. However, you need to provide more information if you want people to give you advice. What sort of work are you looking for? What work experience do you have? What do you mean by a "decent education"? Having a "decent education" realistically means having a bachelor's degree at minimum. What are your interests? What preferences do you have in terms of geography and climate?

There's no sense moving to a part of the country where you'll find it difficult to find work. Or where the pay won't be enough to pay the bills. Or to somewhere where you're financially OK but you hate the place because it's -40C outside and you don't like the cold or the snow.

Canada's a big place, I would suggest you start with doing some research around jobs. There's no point moving to a place where you can't get work.

Maybe start with some generic searches in Monster or Workopolis to see what area's post the job that your looking for (which if you can be more specific about what your industry is, people can help you more!)

How old? How much work experience? At what? What part of Canada were you born in (probably irrelevant, just curious). What's your standard of living right now? Do you have savings?

I hope you get the point. We can't help you unless you help us.

But welcome and do please post again.

Snob. A decent education might mean being literate, numerate, aware of the world at large and having sufficiently developed analytic skills to be able to see that, in some cases, a degree is just thirty grand out of the window.

True - about 30 years ago. These days everyone and their dog is getting a degree. I agree that one isn't always necessary but when people hear nowadays that you are educated, they equate that with a college degree at least.

But surely, what you say, which is completely true, just means that a degree, at least a bare bachelor's degree, is useless (and stupidly expensive)?

Well said dbd33....

I would get your education translated into its Canadian equivalent as it can help in the job search.

I for one went down the ND/HND route and it equated to a degree over here. But to be honest it didnt hinder me in gaining a well paid engineering position.

That said, I have seen many job descriptions wanting a Masters or MBA. Personally, I have seen people who are highly educated on people but are poorly incompetent on the job.

Not at all. But you do need to get the right degree especially if you're going into debt to get it. About a third of young people (ok, not everyone and their dog but still a significant percentage) are graduating with bachelor's degrees in the UK and Canada. Some degrees are more useful than others. I know many kids who graduated with English, Philosophy, or Art History degrees who are now wondering what else they need to do to get a job. Going into debt for those degrees wasn't a smart choice because now they need something else to make themselves competitive in the job market.

Agreed. I'd argue that a trade apprenticeship is more useful than the majority of degrees.

I have no degree and I'm here, working AND being paid. I must be doing something wrong.

Jesus, I didn't say you couldn't work if you don't have a degree! Where did I say that? My point was that most people would consider "decently educated" (as the OP described himself) to mean at least a college degree in a society where a third of young people are now obtaining degrees.

Didn't say you did....let's move on.