Vancouver or No?

Uncle_moe · 05-04-2011 12:43pm #1

Been wondering whether or not to make the move out there. After looking at a lot of threads it doesn't seem like people are enjoying themselves and saying it was a waste. I have no job and not many prospects here, educated tro a deent level with a few years experience but it looks like the job market is brittle there too. I'm basically worried about spending what little I have getting out there and ending up back here in a few months worse off than i am now, albeit only slightly worse off. Any ideas?

DazzlerIE · 05-04-2011 2:04pm

Uncle_moe wrote: »

Been wondering whether or not to make the move out there. After looking at a lot of threads it doesn't seem like people are enjoying themselves and saying it was a waste. I have no job and not many prospects here, educated tro a deent level with a few years experience but it looks like the job market is brittle there too. I'm basically worried about spending what little I have getting out there and ending up back here in a few months worse off than i am now, albeit only slightly worse off. Any ideas?

IF you've enough cash to potentially soak up a couple of months waiting for the right job then go for it.

In my experience, they're VERY reluctant to give career style jobs to people on one-year working visas

A lot of people seem to be telling the white lie that they're on a two year one now, and depending on their ability to get it extended

mac123 · 05-04-2011 2:09pm

Lots of work in Canada, depends what your looking for and what your willing to do. Id recommend coming over, going to agencies and telling them that you will do anything. You should get a job within a few weeks. Then try and network, get to know locals, see who they know, phone people who work in companies that your interested in and look for their advice etc etc. Id probably start calling and emailing people before I left if I was you, maybe set up some informational interviews for when you arrive.

Networking is the only way to get a decent job in Canada. You can try the job websites if you like but they are a complete waste of time, I applied for 100's of jobs online and I only ever got responses for sales/commission only jobs. I didnt even get one interview....so basically if I was you I wouldnt waste my time going that route.

Uncle_moe · 05-04-2011 3:39pm

great thanks for the replies, I am leaning towards going over as there's not much here and it'd be an epxerience if nothing else. Not bothered about career opportunities at the moment, just want to have a life and not hang aournd on the dole.
I've researched a bit and networking seems to be the way to go out there alright.
Now I have to find some reasonable flights and star contacting people out there.

dan_d · 06-04-2011 10:42am

I'm the same. Sick of wasting away my late twenties on the dole, it's sh*te.
There's no prospects here. We have friends there in the same business and hoping, if we were to go, they'd help us out jobswise, as they're there a few years and are now permanent residents.

Reading here though, it'd make your heart sink a bit. I get the impression from the bit of searching I've done that it's definitely about who you know, to find a job out there. I know my friend found it hard at first to settle in - she said Canadians were "weird"!!! By that she mainly meant their sense of humour I think. But she's made a lot of friends and settled in well there, which is good.

Myself, I'm dying to go. There's nothing here.

red menace · 06-04-2011 3:55pm

Funnily enough I was discussing Vancouver with my Canadian coworkers the other day.
They were shocked to hear of so many people going to Van to live.
The all agreed that it was the hardest place to find a job and it was coupled with a high cost of living they would avoid it at all costs.
They do recommend it as a nice place to visit

InTheTrees · 06-04-2011 5:55pm

DazzlerIE wrote: »

In my experience, they're VERY reluctant to give career style jobs to people on one-year working visas

Yup, unfortunately a one year visa is a red flag on your resume right away.

Nobody wants to go through the whole advertising/interviewing/hiring process again in a year.

InTheTrees · 06-04-2011 5:59pm

red menace wrote: »

Funnily enough I was discussing Vancouver with my Canadian coworkers the other day.
They were shocked to hear of so many people going to Van to live.
The all agreed that it was the hardest place to find a job and it was coupled with a high cost of living they would avoid it at all costs.
They do recommend it as a nice place to visit

Its jealousy.

Vancouver and BC is the California of Canada and Americans say exactly the same thing about California.

And Californians say the same thing about LA.

They may be shocked but are there any other canadian cities that arent under six feet of snow from october to april? Thats worth something right there.

red menace · 06-04-2011 6:06pm

InTheTrees wrote: »

Its jealousy.

Vancouver and BC is the California of Canada and Americans say exactly the same thing about California.

And Californians say the same thing about LA.

They may be shocked but are there any other canadian cities that arent under six feet of snow from october to april? Thats worth something right there.

Maybe so, my experiences of Edmonton has been overall pretty positive tbh
Easy enough to find work for both of us, lots to do etc
It all depends on what you are looking for I suppose, we wanted to move somewhere it would be easy to pick up work and Alberta fitted the bill well

InTheTrees · 06-04-2011 9:47pm

I'm in Seattle so my only experiences of vancouver are from pretty frequent visits.

Is there any other major city in the world that doesn't have a motorway in fom the suburbs? Vancouver is an absolute f'ing nightmare to get into. The closest motorways end about 10 miles from the city centre and you have to drive, wiggling around the neighbourhoods to get to the centre.

And they drive like they're asleep. If you thought it was slothful in the united states, you'll be amazed by vancouver. You can walk faster than the traffic.

kevthecelt · 07-04-2011 7:45am

I lived in Whistler and Vancouver for a year in 08/09 and I can tell you it is an amazing spot. There's a reason why it has been voted best place to live in the world for 5 years running. Health care system, beaches, weather (in the spring and summer anyway!), great transport system and just cool people in general.

Go and make your own mind up about the place. I did and I'm looking forward to going back next year!

tenchi-fan · 08-04-2011 4:26am

InTheTrees wrote: »

Yup, unfortunately a one year visa is a red flag on your resume right away.

Nobody wants to go through the whole advertising/interviewing/hiring process again in a year.

It's a 2 year visa now! At least, 2 one year visas.

I am registered with 3 different agencies and they all were happy enough to take my word for it when I told them I could renew my visa for a second year. They didn't even ask for proof.

tenchi-fan · 08-04-2011 4:49am

dan_d wrote: »

I'm the same. Sick of wasting away my late twenties on the dole, it's sh*te.
There's no prospects here. We have friends there in the same business and hoping, if we were to go, they'd help us out jobswise, as they're there a few years and are now permanent residents.

Reading here though, it'd make your heart sink a bit. I get the impression from the bit of searching I've done that it's definitely about who you know, to find a job out there.

It's not really "who you know", although there's no harm joining a few clubs and making a few contacts when you arrive in a new city. Canadian employers want to know you're going to stick around for a while.

Put the work in in Canada and you'll be fine, regardless of whatever city you go to. Any job will keep you ticking over and will help you get your next job.

If you're just out of college and expecting big money you're out of luck. There's no substitute for professional awards, recognised trades and relevant work experience. If you have no previous experience you are competing for unskilled work with tens of thousands of other new immigrants in Canada so you can't afford to be fussy.

You can get better jobs by beefing up your CV ... a Fas work placement program is still work experience, charity and volunteer work abroad are pluses (Canadians are big into volunteer work).

I'll say one thing.. hit the ground running. Canada is an expensive country and it can be very easy to get stuck in party mode when you arrive here, only to land home with your credit cards maxed out in 2-3 months time. I know two people who arrived 2 months ago that this happened to. They're back in Ireland, enjoying the sunshine, BBQs and cans. If they didn't bother with Canada they'd be around €4000-5000 richer.

When I was 25 I did exactly the same thing I'm preaching about now when I went to Australia. I didn't get my accounting qualification before I left Ireland, I went on the piss for 3 months in Australia, blew €5000 in savings and a few thousand my parents wired to me, put a grand on my credit card and arrived home with nothing... I settled on a callcentre job to pay the bills when I arrived home in Ireland.

Canada really is a brilliant opportunity so my advice to all boardsies heading over there is to make the most of it.

L31mr0d · 08-04-2011 6:30am

Uncle_moe wrote: »

After looking at a lot of threads it doesn't seem like people are enjoying themselves and saying it was a waste.

It's a misconception. You're hearing the loud minority. When people are happy and content they don't usually head online to start threads about it. People start threads to complain or look for advice, not to let everyone know that everything is hunky dory and going fine.

OP, can I ask, why are you considering Vancouver? What is it about the city that appeals to you?

InTheTrees · 08-04-2011 2:29pm

tenchi-fan wrote: »

It's a 2 year visa now! At least, 2 one year visas.

I am registered with 3 different agencies and they all were happy enough to take my word for it when I told them I could renew my visa for a second year. They didn't even ask for proof.

Agencies just want to have a large selection of resumes to show their client, it shows they're efficient.

From my experience in the tech industry it can take a month to hire the right person. Advertising, reviewing resumes, initial interview, secondary interviews, etc etc.

Then there's the cost. An agency charges a percentage of the first years salary and it can be substantial. $5k at the least.

Thats an expense you dont want next year (or the year after.)

SO i dont mean to be negative.

myleftfoot · 08-04-2011 9:57pm

tenchi-fan wrote: »

It's a 2 year visa now! At least, 2 one year visas.

I am registered with 3 different agencies and they all were happy enough to take my word for it when I told them I could renew my visa for a second year. They didn't even ask for proof.

Cool, but it's not the agencies you'll have to convince.

tenchi-fan · 08-04-2011 10:06pm

InTheTrees wrote: »

From my experience in the tech industry it can take a month to hire the right person. Advertising, reviewing resumes, initial interview, secondary interviews, etc etc.

This is exactly the reason many companies decide to use agencies.

myleftfoot · 08-04-2011 10:15pm

tenchi-fan wrote: »

This is exactly the reason many companies decide to use agencies.

They still need to do that work with an agency.

tenchi-fan · 08-04-2011 10:18pm

myleftfoot wrote: »

They still need to do that work with an agency.

Except the agency does most of the work...

myleftfoot · 08-04-2011 10:33pm

tenchi-fan wrote: »

Except the agency does most of the work...

A company does this:

Advertising - Lets the agency(ies) know they are looking for someone

Reviewing resumes - review resumes that the agencies forward to them

Initial interview - Does this

Secondary interviews - Does this

Meeting/talking with an agency is not an interview. If you're not retarded the agency forwards on the resume.

InTheTrees · 08-04-2011 10:34pm

yes, the agency certainly works for its 5% and so it should.

But they really only cut out the advertising portion of doing it for yourself, you still have to weed through their selections (and sometimes their technical expertise means they arent too discerning), and then do the whole series of interviews.

Interviewing for people is awful. You have to make sure a good selection of employees interview the candidate without overwhelming them and then you have to poll them afterwards as to what they thought. Everyone has an opinion then. Its just a hellish experience.

So you can imagine how some could react negatively when a candidate says Oh by the way I'm only here for a year. Hell the 501k only kicks in after 6 months...

(Again I dont want to appear negative, if it was solely up to me i'd hire everyone I could from ireland).

Uncle_moe · 10-04-2011 6:56pm

dan_d wrote: »

I'm the same. Sick of wasting away my late twenties on the dole, it's sh*te.

Myself, I'm dying to go. There's nothing here.

Absolutely right,

can't wait to go now, booking flight tomorrow, just gonna get a one way ticket with BA, they seem to be the most reasonable.

elflass · 10-02-2013 11:14pm

I have ten years experience in marketing communications. Anyone know what the job market is like in Vancouver for marketing professionals on two year IEC visa?

Have noticed people saying it can be pretty difficult to get a job. Is this for everyone in general or graduates?

miker1983 · 05-03-2013 3:21am

Terrible weather.

Panthro · 05-03-2013 3:53am

The thread is 2 years old.
Closed.

Vancouver or No?

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