Re: Work ideas?
 

I think that's a grand idea. Money aside, working to help people is probably very rewarding, especially as you will bring a unique understanding and empathy to the work.

Re: Work ideas?
 

I'd be tempted to look at childcare/ nannying but suspect that's only a cashcow closer to Toronto.

I've just undergone a slight change in career path- within the same company- because I can't get that pesky PEng stamp. I don't think it will have any major impact on my life but it's somewhat annoying.

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Having children means I'm 10 times less likely to want to look after other people's children ;)

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What about attending nursing college to get the required provincial qualifications?


I just remembered that I once taught a course in political science at a nursing college. That was quite an experience. :o :lol:

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Dog Walking

Dog Grooming

Dog Sitting

Hot Dog Stand

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Are there any care homes near by? I have a friend who works as a private carer in a home. She is employed directly by the family of the person she is looking after, she provides additional care that the care workers in the facility don't have time to do. No nursing qualifications required.

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Dog gone why didn't I think of that... ;)

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I figure if we all throw enough ideas out there something will blossom.

Have you ever thought about franchising? :

..::HOOTERS::..

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I know a dog groomer, she makes quite a good income, she also has a small supply shop that sells grooming stuff, and offers day sitting as well.

Dog walking can be lucrative in the right area, but won't be steady income, some days busier then others, and in some places there is no demand for that sort of thing, not enough urban hippy types.

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But you can look after your own too and become a paid housewife!

Looking at the amount charged I've often pondered shifting from engineering to childcare, but my quals probably wouldn't work for childcare either, and there's the being a bloke thing.

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Paid housewife????:sneaky: I think you might be missing the point of why I wanted to GO OUT to work- to escape the children and housework ;)
I thank you for your efforts though :)

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Fair point, but in lieu you can get long grinding hours and a lovely commute.

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Yup. I've been home for nearly 7 years now and I'm thinking that I need to do something else at least part of the time. But I'll have to find something that either works around hubby's ludicrously long hours or that pays well enough to provide childcare for 3 kids and fund a second car. I had an unsuccessful interview at the library here, then I have another interview scheduled to work in a local Post Office part time. Not perfect, but who knows where these things could lead.

Before we came here I worked for a big insurance company, but that was never what I wanted to do. Since coming here, I've had a few part time retail jobs and then some babies.

I do have a degree, but it's a joint honours, which seems to confuse things a bit. I can't go on to further study without more concentration of one discipline or the other so I'm considering taking some money out of hubby's RRSP to go back and get myself up to speed for a Masters and go from there.

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You have quite young children so a little while to go yet? Will you study online part time or something?

It really is quite difficult to come up with something that really grabs me... I'm hobby less (who has time eh?) so no ideas there.

I will try and get the nursing sorted, but I suspect the end result is that I go from having a career to having a job and there is a difference. Who knows! Will Canada be worth it?!:unsure:

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for the next year I'll see what I find online that interests me, but the diploma to top up is a year full time. Except by full time, they mean about 10 hours a week in class, so the rest I should be able to work around I hope! I was going to leave it until the youngest was in school, but she wasn't actually planned (middle starts school this year, I was supposed to be getting back to this now) and I can feel what's left of my brain turning into mush...

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And no, I don't know if I could get fulfillment from just a job either. And I have no idea what my passion in life is, so I know where you're coming from!

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Probably what my problem is, I just get jobs and I get bored with them so fast and get no fulfilment from them at all, mostly feel like they are a waste of time with no real benefit.

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How are you with computers? There are many growth areas here: internet security, networking, software development, project management, etc.

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People leaving that industry at a fast rate is what is creating the high demand. You're expected to work 80+ hours every week for some companies. Since they exempted IT Professionals from maximum hours and no overtime pay a shortage developed steadily to it's current levels of 106,000 and rising. I've left that industry but still get requests for telephone interviews up to 9.30pm by overworked managers who have no time to interview during the daytime. Plenty of work but there is a lifestyle choice to make too.

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It depends on who you work for. I've been in IT for 29 years. I typically work 40 hours a week from my home office - not having to commute to work is a huge time and money saver. The hours are flexible so I'm able to run errands during the work day and make the time up later. I can walk the dog during breaks. So for me, there's been a big improvement in quality of life.

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For me, I am about as proficient as well as long as I only have to plug it in and follow on screen directions, I am good to go, anything else I am no good.

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Yes but somebody in your type of job would not likely leave it so those jobs are quite rarely available - and how do we identify it as a good one? Without repeating to much what I've already said I got a really good offer from a Canadian Insurance Co only for the offer to be rewritten by a US Insurance Co that acquired them. The hours of 37.5 originally offered were now minimum 80 as the guy in the US was being fired so the guy in Canada (me) could do both jobs. That woke me up to the fact that even if I got a good IT job it could change over night with an acquisition or new manager. Rather than have that threat over me I've moved out of IT. No job lasts forever so didn't want a repeat of what I've been through this last year so chosen a different angle - remote consultancy to UK and Chinese companies and homestay lets. Now I can work at home.

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You forgot

'ing'

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OK i have no experience of the medical field but would you be able to work in one of the little labs that takes blood etc ? You have the skills but i don't know about qualifications or how much it pays.
They tend to be busy though so would that be a good option ???

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How about retrain and become a qualified swimming instructor and perhaps have your own swimming school?? This is something that has recently come into my mind. I have been trying to book some swimming lessons (ok, ok, please dont laugh, I admit it i cant swim!!) and finding a school / class where they can take on new students has been quite challenging as everywhere is booked up. One 'private' school emailed back saying that they are fully booked with 320 students (admittedly over 3 sites). A program can run for 10 weeks and usually consists of 2-3 lessons per week, and at $30 (minimum!!) / lesson / student, its a lot of dosh for teaching kids (and adults) to kick about in the water!

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That had crossed my mind- I can cannulate and take blood (not that the first is needed) but I suspect childcare/pay ratio is going to fall down..Thank you for the suggestion though.

You can actually train as a lifeguard in our local pool. But as above I suspect it's a job when you're not worrying about childcare/hrs of work etc.

Its difficult when you're the main childcare for three...

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I was an ophthalmic technician - a skill not recognised here - in Canada for 20 years before moving to Australia. Because I had always done medical typing at home, I was able to sign up with an employment agency and get temp jobs as a medical typist which turned into a great permanent job that I love as admin in a large teaching hospital. I have also been studying for the past 4 years part time toward a nursing degree. I'll be finishing in less than a year and will :fingerscrossed: get into a grad program of my choice (geris or palliative).

Why not look at working as a medical typist either from home or in a doctor's office? Working from home does take discipline, but the benefit is that you don't have to commute.

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Good idea... Will look into that..

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9-11 operator? With your medical background it might get you into the door for it.

I don't know how 9-11 works in Ontario so not sure if your area has a dispatch center or not. Our area in BC for example doesn't have one, its outsourced to a company in Vancouver.

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urghhhh, I'm a qualified swimming instructor and taught for many years in the UK. I ran my own swim school for a while, as well as being a county level swimmer myself. The standard of swimming 'teaching' here is laughable. I would love to return to that industry, but would only do so on a private lesson basis. I would lose my mind otherwise!

I was in the water with my niece for her lesson a while back, biting my tongue as I wasn't the teacher, I was there for confidence for my niece. I had to take over when the 16/17yr old 'teacher' ten minutes into the half hour lesson said 'ummmmmmmm what to do now, what to do now.....ummmmmm'

Judging by what I have seen and experienced, there is no training involved in becoming a swim instructor here.... .can you swim? Ok, give it a go!

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One of my children worked as a swimming instructor in the school/university holidays. The money was really good, $27/hr iirc. She packed it in and went back to lifeguarding at $18 or so though as the instructing involved rich children who were concious and, even worse, rich parents who were concious.

At a tangent to that, I've worked in IT for Aetna, Tenet Healthcare, Royal Insurance, Manulife, Prudential and a bunch of other insurers I've forgotten. I've also worked for service bureaux supporting insurance companies such as CGI and EDS. I do not recognise the description of the IT workplace above at all.

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My hubby works in IT and at his last job he was expected to work long hours for no extra pay - sometimes all weekend too. On call without pay for 1 week out of 6 - meaning 6-10 every evening and 10-10 sat/sun for no extra pay - always had to be available within an hour. When we worked out his hourly rate some weeks, he might as well have worked at Tims. All of these increased hours developed and increased as time went on - it was not like that when he first started. It was a U.S. Company - so maybe that had something to do with it? He now has a much better job, still in IT, but they at least treat the IT staff as human!!

As for changing career, I think it is very difficult after being a nurse for a long time. I looked at various options when I was struggling to get registered here - but by volunteering in the hospital, I realized that I hated not being "hands on". Even working as a PSW, I found it hard because I was restricted. I am now registered (RPN) but my role is much more advisory than hands on - and I really do miss that. I have the occasional hands on issue to deal with and I get a lot of satisfaction from that - and I know I would not be happy doing anything that would take me away from the "nursing" role.

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Page 6 of this thread http://britishexpats.com/forum/canni...-856733/page6/ shows my calculation to prove that a shelf stacker earns more per hour than most IT professionals. Later on in the thread I receive compensation of 10 months salary for being fired after refusing to work 108 hours per week. Whilst the employment regs didn't cover me the Ontario Human Rights did and the employer backed down rather than have a hearing.

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I don't understand why he wouldn't always be available within an hour; I think that's a reasonable expectation (though sometimes people find it frustrating not to be able to take holidays in places with poor internet and/or telephone connections) and would be disappointed not to be able to get hold of someone more quickly than that.

However, it's also a reasonable expectation to be paid for the hours actually worked. I think is an argument for being a contractor, if someone wants one of our people to work 70 hours then that's 70 times the person's hourly rate + HST. There's no question of any other arrangement. If one becomes an employee then that simplicity is traded for a package of "benefits" such as on-site daycares and cheap cafeterias that are designed to minimise the chance of the worker leaving the premises. Since employees are as disposable as contractors I can't see the case taking a position with elastic working hours, elastic at the employers choice, without additional compensation.

Again though, I don't see jobs like that in non-technical companies in IT in Canada, nor in the US. CA I know is like that, Google and Microsoft are rumoured to be but which insurance companies in Canada are sweatshops of that style?

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It doesn't prove that at all. You can't substantiate your numbers for hours or income for "most IT professionals".

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Have you looked at working for drug companies doing clinical trials. I used to work at the Univiversity of Western Ontario and lots of RNs who were tired of shift work worked for the large drug companies. Not sure of the opportunities available in your area but I think clinical trials take place all over the province.

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That's the part that worries me. I started out studying nursing with a view to job security here in Western Australia. A brand new hospital just opened about 4 months ago and over the last 5 years or so there have been a lot of job losses and outsourcing of non-medical workforce to Serco. Being admin meant that if I wanted to keep my job I would possibly have to shift to working for them or get into a medical job. Thankfully I kept my job.

Anyway, over the course of the last few years things have changed for me. My marriage ended and I now find myself with a new partner who is interested in us moving to Canada, and in particular to somewhere close to my home town in Ontario. Now the problem is going to be whether I can work as a nurse at home. It's very frustrating!

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From your posts it does come accross that you love your job and the healthcare field. Once you are decided on whether you're in Canada for the long haul or not, perhaps it would be worthwhile totally re qualifying. Whether that is an RN, completing degrees or whatever. Perhaps you could retrain in psychology or another healthcare field if the idea of re-taking nursing is hard? The point is you're "youngish", you're able to survive on a single income, and you want an actual career. My two cents.

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And the college may give some credits for her prior experience, and degree so may not take as long to re-qualify from scratch over here as it would for someone starting fresh with no prior medical training and courses taken.

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Well yes I can as most ads for most IT Professional positions state salaries less than 60 and many surveys would agree with that. Prior to coming here I rang around many recruiters to get figures. Most ads actually state expected to work late evenings and weekends or this is said during the interview. I have offers stating minimum 80 hours per week expected that I rejected - Ministry of Labour told me this is common. The Ontario Ministry of Labour is inundated with complaints on this issue.

Anyone can do the same referencing as I have to get the same facts and figures if they doubt them.