1st Canniversary and things are looking up!
Apr 19th 2013, 5:13 pm
#1
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Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2011
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Posts: 43
1st Canniversary and things are looking up!
Well, we’ve just had our first Canniversary and what a year it’s been.
We landed in Montreal last April but moved to Toronto about a month ago as Montreal just wasn’t for us. Toronto is definitely where we want to be and we’re a million times happier here.
Despite liking Montreal when we visited a couple of years ago on a week long "recce" visit, when we arrived last year we quickly realised that with the ever increasing divisions between Franco and Anglo Quebecers that Montreal was no longer for us. The endless in-fighting and "language debate" is just tiring and petty, and now that we've moved to Ontario where language isn't an everyday battleground it's nice to be able to just get on with life!
Our main surprise in Quebec was that despite both speaking fluent French we found it impossible to get decent jobs in Montreal. If you’re not a local, or from France, they just aren’t interested these days, even in the mainly “Anglo” companies. We each applied for over a hundred jobs and got just two interviews so were originally planning a move to Toronto last October. However, just as we were working out the logistics of the move, we got offered six month contracts in Montreal but the jobs weren’t in either of our chosen fields and both were pretty basic admin-type roles with correspondingly basic pay. We almost didn’t take them but in the end decided to give it another six months to make sure that “giving up” on Montreal was absolutely the right decision.
A couple of months ago when the contracts were up we knew for certain that there wasn’t a single thing that we liked about Montreal so we packed up and headed off and since moving to Toronto we feel like we’ve completely found our niche in Canada. We found a great apartment here, have both landed jobs in our chosen fields (although mine is in a more basic role than I usually have but it looks like I can work my way into something more senior pretty quickly), and find the locals much more open and friendly. We absolutely love Toronto and aren’t quite sure why we wasted so much time in Montreal trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole. You live and learn.....
Roll on Canniversary number two!
We landed in Montreal last April but moved to Toronto about a month ago as Montreal just wasn’t for us. Toronto is definitely where we want to be and we’re a million times happier here.
Despite liking Montreal when we visited a couple of years ago on a week long "recce" visit, when we arrived last year we quickly realised that with the ever increasing divisions between Franco and Anglo Quebecers that Montreal was no longer for us. The endless in-fighting and "language debate" is just tiring and petty, and now that we've moved to Ontario where language isn't an everyday battleground it's nice to be able to just get on with life!
Our main surprise in Quebec was that despite both speaking fluent French we found it impossible to get decent jobs in Montreal. If you’re not a local, or from France, they just aren’t interested these days, even in the mainly “Anglo” companies. We each applied for over a hundred jobs and got just two interviews so were originally planning a move to Toronto last October. However, just as we were working out the logistics of the move, we got offered six month contracts in Montreal but the jobs weren’t in either of our chosen fields and both were pretty basic admin-type roles with correspondingly basic pay. We almost didn’t take them but in the end decided to give it another six months to make sure that “giving up” on Montreal was absolutely the right decision.
A couple of months ago when the contracts were up we knew for certain that there wasn’t a single thing that we liked about Montreal so we packed up and headed off and since moving to Toronto we feel like we’ve completely found our niche in Canada. We found a great apartment here, have both landed jobs in our chosen fields (although mine is in a more basic role than I usually have but it looks like I can work my way into something more senior pretty quickly), and find the locals much more open and friendly. We absolutely love Toronto and aren’t quite sure why we wasted so much time in Montreal trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole. You live and learn.....
Roll on Canniversary number two!
Apr 19th 2013, 6:13 pm
#2
Banned
Joined: Apr 2009
Location: SW Ontario
Posts: 19,879
Re: 1st Canniversary and things are looking up!
Well, we’ve just had our first Canniversary and what a year it’s been.
We landed in Montreal last April but moved to Toronto about a month ago as Montreal just wasn’t for us. Toronto is definitely where we want to be and we’re a million times happier here.
Despite liking Montreal when we visited a couple of years ago on a week long "recce" visit, when we arrived last year we quickly realised that with the ever increasing divisions between Franco and Anglo Quebecers that Montreal was no longer for us. The endless in-fighting and "language debate" is just tiring and petty, and now that we've moved to Ontario where language isn't an everyday battleground it's nice to be able to just get on with life!
Our main surprise in Quebec was that despite both speaking fluent French we found it impossible to get decent jobs in Montreal. If you’re not a local, or from France, they just aren’t interested these days, even in the mainly “Anglo” companies. We each applied for over a hundred jobs and got just two interviews so were originally planning a move to Toronto last October. However, just as we were working out the logistics of the move, we got offered six month contracts in Montreal but the jobs weren’t in either of our chosen fields and both were pretty basic admin-type roles with correspondingly basic pay. We almost didn’t take them but in the end decided to give it another six months to make sure that “giving up” on Montreal was absolutely the right decision.
A couple of months ago when the contracts were up we knew for certain that there wasn’t a single thing that we liked about Montreal so we packed up and headed off and since moving to Toronto we feel like we’ve completely found our niche in Canada. We found a great apartment here, have both landed jobs in our chosen fields (although mine is in a more basic role than I usually have but it looks like I can work my way into something more senior pretty quickly), and find the locals much more open and friendly. We absolutely love Toronto and aren’t quite sure why we wasted so much time in Montreal trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole. You live and learn.....
Roll on Canniversary number two!
We landed in Montreal last April but moved to Toronto about a month ago as Montreal just wasn’t for us. Toronto is definitely where we want to be and we’re a million times happier here.
Despite liking Montreal when we visited a couple of years ago on a week long "recce" visit, when we arrived last year we quickly realised that with the ever increasing divisions between Franco and Anglo Quebecers that Montreal was no longer for us. The endless in-fighting and "language debate" is just tiring and petty, and now that we've moved to Ontario where language isn't an everyday battleground it's nice to be able to just get on with life!
Our main surprise in Quebec was that despite both speaking fluent French we found it impossible to get decent jobs in Montreal. If you’re not a local, or from France, they just aren’t interested these days, even in the mainly “Anglo” companies. We each applied for over a hundred jobs and got just two interviews so were originally planning a move to Toronto last October. However, just as we were working out the logistics of the move, we got offered six month contracts in Montreal but the jobs weren’t in either of our chosen fields and both were pretty basic admin-type roles with correspondingly basic pay. We almost didn’t take them but in the end decided to give it another six months to make sure that “giving up” on Montreal was absolutely the right decision.
A couple of months ago when the contracts were up we knew for certain that there wasn’t a single thing that we liked about Montreal so we packed up and headed off and since moving to Toronto we feel like we’ve completely found our niche in Canada. We found a great apartment here, have both landed jobs in our chosen fields (although mine is in a more basic role than I usually have but it looks like I can work my way into something more senior pretty quickly), and find the locals much more open and friendly. We absolutely love Toronto and aren’t quite sure why we wasted so much time in Montreal trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole. You live and learn.....
Roll on Canniversary number two!
Glad you had the realisation and moved on to a different area to try it out, rather than what most seem to do (give up and return to the UK).
Congrats and here's hoping that things just get better and better!
Apr 19th 2013, 10:19 pm
#3
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Joined: Jun 2010
Location: Almonte, ON
Posts: 1,061
Re: 1st Canniversary and things are looking up!
Congratulations! 
Apr 20th 2013, 2:07 am
#4
BE user by choice
Joined: Oct 2010
Location: A Briton, married to a Canadian, now in Fredericton.
Posts: 4,854
Re: 1st Canniversary and things are looking up!
Well done and my very best regards
Apr 20th 2013, 12:42 pm
#5
Forum Regular
Joined: Nov 2011
Location: Was Glasgow Scotland, now Ancaster, Ontario
Posts: 229
Re: 1st Canniversary and things are looking up!
Nice to hear you have stuck it out and a city move was all it took to make you stick on this side of the water! We visited Montreal on our recce trip and I have to admit it wasn't my cup of tea, mainly because of a very rude guy working in a shop where I ended up deliberately not buying lunch!
Glad things are working out for you in Toronto, enjoy!
Glad things are working out for you in Toronto, enjoy!
Apr 20th 2013, 8:01 pm
#6
Forum Regular
Joined: Apr 2010
Location: Toronto
Posts: 174
Re: 1st Canniversary and things are looking up!
Well, we’ve just had our first Canniversary and what a year it’s been.
We landed in Montreal last April but moved to Toronto about a month ago as Montreal just wasn’t for us. Toronto is definitely where we want to be and we’re a million times happier here.
Despite liking Montreal when we visited a couple of years ago on a week long "recce" visit, when we arrived last year we quickly realised that with the ever increasing divisions between Franco and Anglo Quebecers that Montreal was no longer for us. The endless in-fighting and "language debate" is just tiring and petty, and now that we've moved to Ontario where language isn't an everyday battleground it's nice to be able to just get on with life!
Our main surprise in Quebec was that despite both speaking fluent French we found it impossible to get decent jobs in Montreal. If you’re not a local, or from France, they just aren’t interested these days, even in the mainly “Anglo” companies. We each applied for over a hundred jobs and got just two interviews so were originally planning a move to Toronto last October. However, just as we were working out the logistics of the move, we got offered six month contracts in Montreal but the jobs weren’t in either of our chosen fields and both were pretty basic admin-type roles with correspondingly basic pay. We almost didn’t take them but in the end decided to give it another six months to make sure that “giving up” on Montreal was absolutely the right decision.
A couple of months ago when the contracts were up we knew for certain that there wasn’t a single thing that we liked about Montreal so we packed up and headed off and since moving to Toronto we feel like we’ve completely found our niche in Canada. We found a great apartment here, have both landed jobs in our chosen fields (although mine is in a more basic role than I usually have but it looks like I can work my way into something more senior pretty quickly), and find the locals much more open and friendly. We absolutely love Toronto and aren’t quite sure why we wasted so much time in Montreal trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole. You live and learn.....
Roll on Canniversary number two!
We landed in Montreal last April but moved to Toronto about a month ago as Montreal just wasn’t for us. Toronto is definitely where we want to be and we’re a million times happier here.
Despite liking Montreal when we visited a couple of years ago on a week long "recce" visit, when we arrived last year we quickly realised that with the ever increasing divisions between Franco and Anglo Quebecers that Montreal was no longer for us. The endless in-fighting and "language debate" is just tiring and petty, and now that we've moved to Ontario where language isn't an everyday battleground it's nice to be able to just get on with life!
Our main surprise in Quebec was that despite both speaking fluent French we found it impossible to get decent jobs in Montreal. If you’re not a local, or from France, they just aren’t interested these days, even in the mainly “Anglo” companies. We each applied for over a hundred jobs and got just two interviews so were originally planning a move to Toronto last October. However, just as we were working out the logistics of the move, we got offered six month contracts in Montreal but the jobs weren’t in either of our chosen fields and both were pretty basic admin-type roles with correspondingly basic pay. We almost didn’t take them but in the end decided to give it another six months to make sure that “giving up” on Montreal was absolutely the right decision.
A couple of months ago when the contracts were up we knew for certain that there wasn’t a single thing that we liked about Montreal so we packed up and headed off and since moving to Toronto we feel like we’ve completely found our niche in Canada. We found a great apartment here, have both landed jobs in our chosen fields (although mine is in a more basic role than I usually have but it looks like I can work my way into something more senior pretty quickly), and find the locals much more open and friendly. We absolutely love Toronto and aren’t quite sure why we wasted so much time in Montreal trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole. You live and learn.....
Roll on Canniversary number two!
Apr 22nd 2013, 2:15 pm
#7
Forum Regular
Joined: Jun 2010
Location: Calgary
Posts: 286
Re: 1st Canniversary and things are looking up!
Congrats, awesome that you didn't give up and tried something new ... well done to you guys! Glad you're settled now
