Well, here I am!
 

Its been a bumpy time for me as late, (please bear with me as this might be a tad long). Given recent events I have had a knock on the head and I am giving serious consideration to looking at Canada. I work in IT, and with a degree in Networking I have been a generalist my whole career of some 17 years. I have never particularly specialised in anything. That said, I have always had a job that was at least decently paid. Cue just this past Christmas. The sole director of the company fell grievously ill after a stroke and the company ground to a halt. No pay for December. Come 8th of January, we were all made redundant and he passed away 2 days later on the 10th. Cue the frantic hunt for a new job. What annoyed me at the time, and still does to a degree, is that I was actually planning to start looking for a new role in the New Year anyway given I had worked for this one company just short of 10 years! The universe or someone, had other ideas and pulled the rug completely!

I managed to thankfully find another job by some miracle, and even now I still don't know how I did it because the market where I am is absolutely dead. The problem is, the culture with this new job just doesn't fit, and I know it. I went back to the market and started job hunting, but there's nothing. Zip! (well maybe 1 or 2 jobs that I wouldn't get as I would be deemed too experienced or its the other end I don't have the specialisation of what they are after and its software) To make matters worse, I live in Aberdeen. Anyone who knows anything about recent events will be aware of how oil & gas is now viewed as toxic, and with the UK Government's utterly ridiculous Windfall Tax targeting oil companies, its a surefire attempt by those in power to veritably kill off a nationally critical industry. Absolute madness! As a consequence of this, Aberdeen has been on a slow death spiral for a long time. The city is contracting, jobs going, firms folding. We've seen several medium companies fold in just the last couple of weeks alone with maybe close to 500 jobs lost across them all. That then bleeds into other areas as it spills across the supply chain to other companies that rely on Oil & Gas clients for their services etc. The writing is absolutely on the wall, and I am now wondering if its time to jet off to climates anew!

I have started looking at jobs in Canada and honestly, the difference even for IT roles that I do looks to be night and day. Similar salaries in some case yes, markedly better in others. In some cases its relative depending on where you live. I had looked at Vancouver but came to the conclusion that the cost of living there would simply be too much, especially for someone single. I have started looking at Halifax in Nova Scotia, and again - it absolutely astounds me how many jobs there seems to be. Now I know the grass isn't always greener, but I also turned 40 back in February so I am under no illusions that has caused a mindset shift, coupled with the disastrous implosion of my old job. I am extremely fortunate to already hold Canadian Citizenship which I have had it since 2005 when I was in my early 20's. I look at my Canadian passport now and genuinely feel it would really be a shame to do nothing with it - at the very least I should try. I have a small amount of money in the bank that will soon receive a significant injection when the redundancy payment comes through in about six weeks or so. The car is paid off so that can also be turned into cash quickly if needed and its barely 4 years old and low mileage still.

I know I will need to get a SIN, Bank Account and all that gubbins sorted out. I know the work and recruitment culture in Canada is different to the UK and you have (generally) a better chance of success with a direct approach beyond an email and a CV. I am also looking at laying the ground work for a recce trip to Halifax. See if I can reach out to some agencies, or even just employers direct. I figure if I can let them know I am a full citizen and would be funding my own relocation, I might have a chance. I have also reached out to an old work colleague who jumped across to Canada back in 2021 and he now has PR and lives in Calgary - from his comments so far, it sounds positive. I know there is also a different 'culture' around 'canadian experience' but I am hoping that wouldn't be too much of a road block - thankfully, IT is the same really wherever you are. We shall see.

Is there anyone here who currently lives in Halifax who can offer any insights into the lifestyle? What to expect, and maybe some pearls of wisdom?

I figure I'll take a breath and stop for now. If you've made it to the end - thank you aha :D

Nelson

Re: Well, here I am!
 

Welcome back and sorry to hear that you’ve had a tough time. I’d definitely say go for it, as you say it would be a shame not to never experience the adventure of living in Canada now you’ve got your citizenship/passport.

My only concern from reading your post is whether or not you’d have enough funds, but it depends on what you mean by 'small amount of money in the bank that will soon receive a significant injection’. A small amount won’t cut it, if the redundancy is significant enough it may do, but would you want to put all of that in to a move when it could be money down the drain? Maybe working for a year or two longer and saving up a bit more may be an idea? This thread has tons of useful figures in which is worth a look to give you an idea of what you’d need in the bank, just bear in mind it’s very old now so I’d probably double it given the cost of living increases in the past decade or so. https://britishexpats.com/forum/cana...canada-735341/

Best of luck.

Re: Well, here I am!
 

Thanks for replying, I will start taking a look. In terms of figures, given the recent job implosion I have managed to rebuild just over £2k in savings over the last couple of months. I have the first half of a redundancy payment due in the next number of weeks, that will be £6500. Trying to get the other half of it which is 7500k odd is proving messy. Because its Scotland, and the company isn't 'insolvent' in law, there is no process to make the company insolvent like in England and have the Government pick up the bill. So that cost has to be shouldered by a creditor/willing party to pay the legal fee to kick it off. That means for the rest of us, the remaining money we are all due (despite having a legal ruling at a Tribunal giving the rest of the money), its locked behind a legal technicality. Stupid Scottish law! All in for everything I am due it was just over £14k. I'll be lucky if I see even half of it going forward, sadly. Trying to get my colleagues to join forces so we can get the rest of our money but not sure if the will for them is quite there, we'll see. The Redundancy Payment service say at the moment, they'll only cover my redundancy because of the company's status in law - my former boss's estate have washed their hands of it (because it turns out he was doing illegal stuff with his taxes so they're on radio silence after his passing) If we can force the insolvency, we can re-apply and get the rest etc. We'll see!

Anyway, I figure with that and what I can save, plus the sale of my car before I go which could be another £10/12k I would probably be looking at an estimate of £18k to £20k - so nearly $37,000 Canadian. Would that be enough for one person to live on/establish themselves initially? I would already plan to have contacts, or possibly even a job lined up if I could so that I wouldn't need to go too deep on what I've got. My apartment here would be rented out to cover the mortgage so hopefully no immediate need to return aha.

Re: Well, here I am!
 

That's enough for about 6 months to 8 months depending on how frugal you are. I think you could get a job in that time and get some cash coming in during that time.

Re: Well, here I am!
 

Nelson1805 , you have an interest, an urge or itchy feet to come to Canada, you need to do some ground work.

from my armchair.

in your shoes if you are able to afford to do a recee, budget $3000-$5000 Cdn for a 30 day visit.

I would also suggest that you apply for a SIN while still in the UK, once you have that make the recee.

https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-...sin/apply.html

that way when you go to a career/job agency you'll have the SIN to go with the Canadian passport.

you also need to look at accommodations, as a suggestion for the first 6 mths (be thrifty, make that $35k Cdn go further, your life savings can go to zero real fast) get a room, not an apartment

https://www.roomies.ca/rooms/halifax-nova-scotia

https://www.roomies.ca/calgary-alberta

start looking on-line at available work & pay at where you will end up.

what about your old mate could he help you get a job where he works or knows someone?

technology wise wouldn't IT be the same worldwide, with the added tweaks in terminology?

good luck to you, keep posting updates to your OP.

Re: Well, here I am!
 

Anyway, I figure with that and what I can save, plus the sale of my car before I go which could be another £10/12k I would probably be looking at an estimate of £18k to £20k - so nearly $37,000 Canadian. Would that be enough for one person to live on/establish themselves initially? I would already plan to have contacts, or possibly even a job lined up if I could so that I wouldn't need to go too deep on what I've got.
Even in Halifax summer is approaching. If you wanted to rough it a little could you even pick up a modest camper van (kijiji.ca or autotrader.ca). There are plenty of campgrounds around where you could camp or even boondock. It would also give you some wheels to travel to other potential job locations without hassle of finding new digs $$$$.

Re: Well, here I am!
 

Yeah there is a lot of prep work to do in between trying to keep myself sane with this new job. My old mate yeah we exchanged a few messages, and he read my last one but he hasn't responded yet - he's out in Calgary at the moment and I think I'd like to avoid Calgary due to the harsher winters. I know there are harder winters generally given its Canada after all, but yeah. Calgary is not on my list anymore. I am somewhat fortunate that IT is pretty much the same the world over, you're right. It will be interesting to see how I am perceived in terms of having no 'Canadian' experience. We shall see what happens, but thanks for your reply - I'll add your links to my growing list of research sources :D

Re: Well, here I am!
 

That would certainly make for an interesting trip. My redundancy payment should be coming in hopefully in the next six weeks max given I confirmed the last of the stupid questions to the Insolvency Service yesterday. Honestly the bureaucracy is pretty daft considering they already HAVE everything they are asking for again aha! I am looking at my options for a recon trip across to Canada and Halifax is defo at the top. It fills me with hope when I see how many job opportunities there are when compared to what's happening in Aberdeen at the moment. From my field in IT, the number of jobs being advertised is night and day, literally. Being in Halifax would be nice, and being close to even the US with a weekend trips to New York etc all suddenly becomes possible :D