Career advice, moving to Halifax for work....

[Thor]

So as many of you know I moved to Iceland 3 years ago, loved the decision and am very happy to be back home.

I have a job with a company I like, which has lots of room for advancement, but because of the financial crash of 2008, the value of my wages when compared to the CAD dollar is making me a sad puppy.

I find myself looking at Halifax a lot these last few months for IT jobs, I see salaries for sys admins around 60-70,000 with the experience I have.

Its a short flight from here, mind you probably cost me $1000 per trip I take, so I would probably only come back home one in a while, and of course for holidays.

The money is a serious attraction, I could really save up a lot of coin in a few years time and move back for good to Iceland. But I'm worried about a few things, being away from friends and family #1.. #2 is going from 5 weeks paid vacation to 2, which really is something I might be able to negotiate a bit.

My question is has anyone done anything similar before? If so I would love to hear your thoughts, if not I still would love to hear what people think, would I be happy working in a strange city, I'm not worried about making friends and socializing that's easy for me.

[Thor]

lol I'd pay for that.

Yeah man, I mean the value of the krona in Iceland is fine if I never leave the country, and the currency controls wont come off for a few more years, so thinking why not take a year or two and make real money.

[Table 5]

With your skill-set could you ever find work that allows you to work remotely? Even if it's freelance work to supplement your full-time income that makes up the difference. I would think there would be some good opportunities out there....and not just in Canada/Iceland.

Virtually all my clients are in a different country, but with the help of email/Skype etc, nobody seems to mind very much. It seems like with IT you might be able to do something similar.

[northcrunk]

If your looking to make money the maritimes isn't the best place, you would be much better off moving to Calgary where the wages are much higher and we are taxed less.

[Thor]

Calgary would not be an option, as Halifax is a short hop from home.

[Addick]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

If your looking to make money the maritimes isn't the best place, you would be much better off moving to Calgary where the wages are much higher and we are taxed less.

In addition to travel and time difference to Iceland, you also have to consider the higher cost of living in Calgary.

[Northendzone]

so by the time you consider wages, taxes and living expenses etc - how much ahead do you think you would be?

i suppose to some extent you would want to consider quality of life as well.

[Rudee]

It took my Nephew a year to find a decent paying job in Halifax when he moved there a couple years back. He's also in the IT sector. He had to work at a Canadian Tire store to pay the bills until he finally found suitable employment in his field.

[shane_c]

I've seen return flights as low as $420 taxes in. In the winter though it's insane. When I was looking last year it was higher than $2000.

If you have a job lined up here then I'd do it. But it can sometimes be hard to find work here so moving first and then looking for work might not be a good idea.

Yes you could probably go other places and make more money. We left Calgary and moved to Halifax and our quality of life is much higher. Our smaller house in Calgary with a postage size lot and neighbors 8 feet on either side of us was $110,000 more expensive than the larger home we purchased outside Halifax which is sitting on 2.1 acres (mostly treed). But it depends what you're looking for in life.

[HalifaxDrunk]

Come on over! We can drink and post the play-by-play whenever the NHL starts up again.

I would be surprised if you got shafted into 2 weeks vacation. I would asume with your experience you should be able to negotiate at least 4 weeks paid vacation here in the IT field.

I work for a local IT company but am a Manager, I don't do any coding. Unfortunately we are not looking to hire right now. I do have a couple contacts at Quest (now part of Dell) as I play on a ball team with them.
http://www.quest.com/ I will check with them.

There are quite a few IT jobs in and around the city. Like you said, the trip home wouldn't be too much of an issue. Plus more Flames fans in Halifax = good!

[Thor]

YAY thx HD!!

[Hans Landa]

When I decided "#### Ontario. I've had enough of this destroyed Hell Hole of traffic and stink" I was between Halifax and Calgary.

Halifax is in my home province, where every ounce of my family lives. I left there in 1999.
Calgary is where I have nobody and know nobody.

I chose Calgary. Moved here 9 months ago.
Nova Scotia's population is declining. Halifax proper is NOT cheap. Gas prices in Nova Scotia are among the highest in the country. $60-$70k a year won't go far out there in terms of saving money unless you have a spouse raking in the same income. To me, it's a great province to retire to. It's quiet. It's charming. Most young people move away, so when I'm a crotchety old man, I won't have to worry about shooting at young punks and claiming I thought they were deer.
If you want cheaper living (that's still kind of central to the rest of the province) you'd have to look for IT jobs (which are likely non-existent) in places like New Glasgow (biggest employers would be Sobeys, Michelin and Kimberly Clark) or Truro.

Unless you're looking at a map all the time, who cares how far you are from Iceland. If you can't drive there, a flight is a flight is a flight. And if you only get back once or twice a year a 3 hour flight vs. a 9 hour flight amounts for a dust speck of difference if you look at what an extra 6 hours is over the coarse of the nearly 8800 hours there are in a year.

I've lived more and done more in my spare time in the past 9 months than I have in the past 9 years (excluding 2005-2007 when I worked at a bar... I was living it up then). I owe it to the magnificence of Calgary's proximity to so much natural beauty. It's a massive incentive to enjoy a multitude of outdoor activities. Halifax will grow boring in short order unless you assume the lifestyle of an alcoholic and/or can afford a boat. Charming old bags and quiffs can only warm your heart so much before you feel like you're turning into them.


I've mentioned this in the past and I'll say it again... my wife was flat out NOT MOVING TO CALGARY. She's a mommy and daddy's girl. Lived at home until she was 30 and engaged. The thought of moving across the country to a place with no family or friends made her physically ill. Being in sales, I managed to sit her down in front of a stack of paper and had her sign her life away on buying a house out here. This was over a year ago.
Ask her now if she'd move back home to be closer to her family again... her response is "#### no! I love it here!". Her job out here is fun. She loves it. She loves her co-workers. It pays more. She has things to look forward to every weekend.

Choose life. Choose Calgary.

[Galakanokis]

If Calgary is too far I would image you would never consider Vancouver but is is booming for IT folk. In all honesty no one should ever really consider Vancouver but that is another story...

The VFX/animation work is crazy out here right now and good systems/IT help is hard to find. So many major players setting up shop or looking to expand. ILM, MPC, Sony, Pixar, Method, Digital Domain, Image Engine plus a tonne of smaller studios.

The server room I finished 6 months ago already needs to be expand in storage capacity and rendering, crazy.

Depending on skills and experience you would be looking to start out at $90k and above. Pipeline developers will make even more.

It's a bit of a hall for travel but as someone else mentioned a plane ride is a plane ride.


I should add I have never been to Halifax but I have spent a number of years in Nfld and if Halifax is anything like the rock it would be a wonderful place to spend sometime.

[Ozy_Flame]

I'm considering a job transfer to Vancouver, and I'm an IT consultant. My only hesitation is that if it doesn't work out job-wise in the long-term, Vancouver seems like a place where you'd be ####ed to find a new job. Seems like there is next to no career prospects out there unless you work for Calgary company willing to transfer you.

That said, if you are in IT, Thor, consider remote work as Table 5 mentioned. That is the plus side of our industry - you don't need to physically be somewhere to do your job unless you're doing physical server and infrastructure work really.

[FlamesAddiction]

I applied for a job in Halifax before.

I have never been there, but it looks like a really nice city. I doubt you will have many regrets.

Sorry, no real useful input.

[Thor]

Hmm good point on remote IT work, any recommendations on ways to search out these jobs, or favorite sites?

[Sr. Mints]

Can I have your job in Iceland?

[Galakanokis]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

I'm considering a job transfer to Vancouver, and I'm an IT consultant. My only hesitation is that if it doesn't work out job-wise in the long-term, Vancouver seems like a place where you'd be ####ed to find a new job. Seems like there is next to no career prospects out there unless you work for Calgary company willing to transfer you.

That said, if you are in IT, Thor, consider remote work as Table 5 mentioned. That is the plus side of our industry - you don't need to physically be somewhere to do your job unless you're doing physical server and infrastructure work really.

A link to BC tech jobs. There are a few.

http://www.bctechnology.com/statics/employmt.cfm