Posted on: 18-01-05 23:11:03
I know there have been a few posts on Calgary, but thought I would start another thread on this comparing Calgary and Toronto. I made a landing in Toronto last year and returned to NJ. Thinking of moving within the next couple of months, and still undecided between Toronto & Calgary.
I found Toronto too crowded and the competition too stiff. Calgary seems to have so many plusses - least tax, no pst, less crowded, lower cost of living, maybe more opportunities?? Plus the great Rockies!
FYI - I'm in software development (been in US for 5 years), and I know Toronto has a lot more IT jobs than anywhere in Canada, but Calgary (and Edmonton as well) does seem to have some opportunities too.
Downside - the cold weather (but isn't Toronto cold as well?), the long days in summer and more importantly short days in winter. Anything else?
Any Calgarians in IT here?? How is the outlook for IT in Calgary?
How about Torontonians? What do you say, esp with IT? Yes, the opportunities are certainly more, but so is the competition and the cost of living, right?
At the moment, my heart seems to be leaning towards Calgary, but the mind says play it safe and go to Toronto!!
Would appreciate any ideas on this..
IT is good in Calgary.
The scope is limited and but so are the resources.
So if you have what calgary (I mean the IT Industry here needs) I am sure employers will go out of the way to get you here.
Since you are in North America I am sure you may have looked at monster and workopolis specifically search for Calgary area...
Edmonton has some good openings too. But it is more cold then Calgary, which is very exciting with the Chinooks.
BTW: This week is great (19 - 25 Jan) with low single digit tempretures. Today is +10 and all the snow is gone.
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I am member of a Yahoo group in Calgary.
Based on the messages I see posted, IT doesn't seem to be very hot there currently.
Until about 8 months back, there seemed to be hopes of demand being created, but it has sorta cooled off.
The best ways to find jobs is to network with people in the same field as you and use them as references.
It will be great if someone can recommend you to their own companies - it seems that very few jobs are actually being advertised and opened publically.
The weather may or may not be a factor - depends on how optimistic you are and well you adapt to situations.
A person who is not flexible can complain even in Florida, and one can even make the best of it in Yellowknife 
Send me a PM and I will send you information about a few Calgary based groups, as well as a few recruiter contacts there.
Can't promise much because as I said things are pretty slack there, but you never know.
Give it a shot !
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"Mah deah, there is much more money to be made in the destruction of civilization than in building it up."
-- Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind"
Thanks so much for the insight, rp_0999 and patrickm. The information is very helpful. I have been researching information on calgary from some previous postings in CD as well.
One thing I observed during my job-hunt is this - There are about a 100 IT jobs advertised (in workopolis/monster) in Toronto/GTA to about 20 in Calgary. However, I had applied for about 50+ positions in Toronto, meticulously formatting my resume each time to reflect the specific job advertised, but have hardly received any response.
I then started applying for 6 positions in Calgary since last month, stating in my resume & covering letter that I will be moving to Calgary in Feb/March, and there have been 2 responses from recruiters saying that they want only local candidates right now, but that I could get in touch with them once I landed in Calgary. This is not much, but atleast some Calgary recruiters have responded back!
Again, like patrickm mentioned in another post, applying from outside of Canada (or even out of province!) probably puts off employers/recruiters. Also, maybe some of those jobs are probably outdated.
Patrickm - I sent you a pm as well. Thanks again!
Quote:That is exactly what I had observed as well.
Orginally posted by jughead
One thing I observed during my job-hunt is this - There are about a 100 IT jobs advertised (in workopolis/monster) in Toronto/GTA to about 20 in Calgary. However, I had applied for about 50+ positions in Toronto, meticulously formatting my resume each time to reflect the specific job advertised, but have hardly received any response.
Recruiters, esp. in Toronto, are wary of prospective immigrants making "sales pitch" from abroad, esp. USA.
Most recruiters simply don't believe that the person will move to Canada !
In my case, the ratio of advertised job I found was 100:10:2 for Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver respectively.
Quote:There are some IT jobs going around indeed, but those get mostly filled with existing employee referrals.
I then started applying for 6 positions in Calgary since last month, stating in my resume & covering letter that I will be moving to Calgary in Feb/March, and there have been 2 responses from recruiters saying that they want only local candidates right now, but that I could get in touch with them once I landed in Calgary. This is not much, but atleast some Calgary recruiters have responded back!
Some might get advertised in local newspapers, but those are only open for local candidates with local references.
I have found the following skills to be in relatively greater demand in Calgary currently - AS/400, Mainframe, CICS, PowerBuilder, Oracle.
This is based on the postings in the Calgary Yahoo Groups.
I think it is very important to have local contacts and references in you are serious about landing in Calgary.
I will read your PM shortly and respond by email.
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"Mah deah, there is much more money to be made in the destruction of civilization than in building it up."
-- Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind"
Thanks Pratickm. BTW, I checked out CalgaryITGroups. The messages posted there weren't encouraging at all! Like you said, it is not a very active group. But wouldn't that mean that there are not too many unemployed IT people in Calgary? 
(maybe that is an optimistic way of looking at it!)
As for the skillsets, unfortunately, I'm not into any of these mentioned. I'm more into Java, Smalltalk, Web Applications, Microsoft Technologies etc..
Guess that is back to square one in deciding between Calgary & Toronto! I'll probably finalize over the weekend! Somehow I had a feeling that Calgary would be a better bet, contrary to the statistical advantages of Toronto.
Quote:
Orginally posted by jughead
Thanks Pratickm. BTW, I checked out CalgaryITGroups. The messages posted there weren't encouraging at all! Like you said, it is not a very active group. But wouldn't that mean that there are not too many unemployed IT people in Calgary?
that is not the case.I have been following the discussions in both the IT group and the regular Calgary group for over a year now.
There is very limited demand for software developers there right now.
IT is a very broad area and includes other specialised areas like network professionals, computer based financial analysts and specialised consultants like SAP, ORACLE financials and JD Edwards.
There are openings for such professionals, especially in the ONG industries.
However, most (if not all) of those positions are filled up either by employee referrals or local candidates.
There is very limited demand for generic software developers like Java, Visual Basic and Miccro$oft languages.
That does not mean that a person cannot get a good job there with those skills - it is just that you would need a local reference or contact there.
I would say landing there in Calgary/Edmonton without knowing anyone and not having any local contacts who can refer you to their companies is highly optimistic.
You may get lucky, who knows - it really depends on the amount of risk you are willing to take.
Quote:
Guess that is back to square one in deciding between Calgary & Toronto! I'll probably finalize over the weekend! Somehow I had a feeling that Calgary would be a better bet, contrary to the statistical advantages of Toronto.
When immigrating, normally the first priority is job, rather than the location.
You can apply for jobs in all major cities and centers of business, like Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary etc. and once you are settled you can start checking out Alberta.
If you get a job in Calgary at the first try, then great !
Else, you can always take a job somewhere else and then try later - it will be easier (not easy, just easier) to find a job in Calgary once you are settled in Canada - if you are really serious.
Or you can try and join a company that has a branch office in Calgary and ask for a transfer once you have established yourself.
I am just curious - where in the US are you from?
You know, it is not really easy to settle in a city which has such extreme weather.
People who have lived in Calgary/Edmonton for a while get used to it and even love it - but for a newcomers, it can be rough at least for the first year.
P.S. I got your PM and will send you the references later - it is on my home computer.
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"Mah deah, there is much more money to be made in the destruction of civilization than in building it up."
-- Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind"
