Ok – Everyone talks about how there is so much money to be made in Alberta, it’s the place to be. In fact, everyone talks about how anywhere but Atlantic Canada is the place to be to make money. Here is my question: how the hell do people find these jobs? I use multiple flagship job search websites and all I find in Alberta and Ontario are jobs looking for 5-10 years experience or jobs at Resturants. I have a degree in commerce and have been working in a professional job for hte last three years and moving up quite quickly… I want out of Nova Scotia – I wan’t to make a real salary and stop living pay cheque to pay cheque and get paid what my job deserves… I’m willing to relocate in a heartbeat for the right job but where do you find them? I’ve had one interview out of town a few years ago when I was stilla student but nothing since then… just interviews for low paying high effoirt fart jobs in HRM… someone help.. where did you allfind your big paying Alberta jobs?
This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2008.
I think a lot of the good professional jobs are not posted on the job search engines. Try researching companies you would be interested in working for and then contact them directly. Also, try networking a bit from the business you are in. Does your company have any contacts in Alberta or Ontario where a good reccomendation from you boss might carry some pull?Also, professional journals related to your field (or field specific websites) are also good places to find higer paying job opportunities.
There are a number of high quality recruitment firms through which many of the top companies post their positions – it’s much easier for them to do it that way. There are lots of shitty agencies too, but you can tell them apart pretty easily – I look for things like “best managed” awards, it’s usually a good indication of the quality of the help you’ll get.
where’d my post go? I just wrote a long thing and it never showed up…..:(
Try looking at job boards specifically for your field- that’s how I ended up with a job in a western boom town.but before you hoof it out west, maybe take a moment to think about what you’re doing. YES those salaries look nice, and would rock if you made them HERE, but out there? dollars don’t stretch as far.As I said, I worked in a boom town, in a professional career, and made just over 28 grand a year doing it (same field, similar position here I make just under 20 grand). BUT I was paying almost a grand a month for my craptacular apartment, and was stealing tuna from grocery stores in order to eat and be able to put gas in my car.Cities out west haven’t really kept up with the population boom- the cost of living is so high, and housing is so scare, landlords can anda re picky about who they rent to. And because there aren’t rent caps (and in fact if you dare to mention such a thing you probably will get branded a crazy communist who wants tod estroy free industry and capitalism in general), they can charge whatever they want, and increase it with very little notice to the tenant. What a lot of places did is rezone, instead of building affordable housing. this means private homeowners can rent out spaces in their houses- which helps them make mortgages that are out of this world (a high school principal told me he’s dealing with 15 year olds working 50 plus hours a week, in order to help their parents make their mortgages. these are not lower class, but middle class, average families!), and keeps some people from living in their cars in Walmart parking lot or, my favorite, freezing to death in parks in January or renting couches for 100 bucks a nights (seen all of those- most of these folks are employed and making money, just can’t find or afford an apartment or even a room). hypothetically these places are registered and regulated and brought up to code- but no one really checks into that. I spoke with one housing official who told me they are very very hestiant to close some places down, becuase that would put people out on the street. which means you end up in places like where I lived- a basement suite where I couldn’t control the heat, there wasn’t enough hot water (the heater was turned too low so mine hot water conked out after about 3 minutes 40 seconds- I timed it), I didn’t have a sink, I had a hotplate instead of a stove that would short out the apartment if it was plugged in at the same time as any other appliance (I used to ahve to unplug my fridge to use it) because the wiring couldn’t support the secondary suite, and I had a shower curtain instead of a door separating me from my landlords rec room. I cracked when my landlords husband started using my toilet. and this wasn’t just me lucking into a bad situation! I had a friend who’s bathroom ceiling was 90 per cent mould, in a legal apartment building, but the landlord wouldn’t or couldn’t fix it- it’s hard and expensive to get maintenace people in for small jobs, and they’re so busy and lucrative doing bigger ones.meanwhile, there are more pawn shops than grocery stores, and lots of people go out there and come back with more debt then cash because of the costs of living.so think about it before you go- the money may LOOK good, but the quality of life, and the amount of cash you’ll actually have to play with in real terms is something else entirely. since i moved back, I have a better apartmetn, and my quality of life is far far better becaues I can afford to live here, and it’s not always drive and fear that the boom is going to bust.so think long and hard before you make that move- in that land of western milk and honey, some of that milk is curdled.
hedgyhog what are you talking about a “professional career, and made just over 28 grand” any professional type job should pay you well above 40G’s probably in the 50’s, 60’s or more in Alberta. So if you were a professional making 60G’s with lower income tax and no HST, the extra $200-300 a month more for rent would be worth it. A Proffesional career that only pays 20G’s here, I suggest you go back to school; I know high school only grads that make 30-40.Good luck wht the minimum wage “professional career” hedgyhog, maybe you should spend more of your time looking for a better job and less on this site responing to bitches. Get a real job.
ok, you have NO clue what I do for a living or my field!I can assure you not only am I university educated, but I make the average in my field right now. It’s badly paid, as an industry. Doens’t mean it’s not professional, or valuable, or that I’m not hardworking. Most peopel I encounter professional assume I make far far more than I do. Further I know LOTS of people in other professional fields who are making in the 30-40 range. should they be retraining too?seriously, stop talking out of your ass. if I was a call centre monkey or minimum wage flunky I wouldn’t have used the word professional. I’m not. My job is, I assure you, very very real, and not at all something someone just out of high school, or you I suspect, could do.
and ps, informat? what are you, the job police? you know exactly what every field ever makes huh? and if they make under that they’re not a professional job, is that right? You’re that omnipotent and perfect you know absolutly everything?well la de dah. that makes me wonder, oh all seeing all knowing one, why you missed the point of my post entirely- that ‘big money’ out west isn’t always that much more than what you’d make here, in real terms. so maybe the OP shouldn’t be fixating so much on location as much as the actual job, as alberta, in my experience, isn’t the dream ticket most people think it is. now go shuffle off to your job scrapping grease off a grill, and mumbling to yourself about how you know all there is to know about proffessionals. or better yet, panhandling on the street corner- that’s how you know so much isn’t it? getting change from all those suit-wearing passerbys doesn’t qualify you to judge who does nad who doesn’t have a ‘real’ job.
Who cares about the job, your willing to live in Alberta? Quality of life doesn’t just depend on an income.look into Vancouver, at least you’ll still have the Ocean.Good luck!
I’ve heard vancouver is very very nice as well- again, my point in all of this, which Informat seemed to have glossed over, was the OP shouldn’t be restricting themselves to just one region if they are in fact so willing to move. and take my advice, from my own experience- look at all the criteria that iwll make you happy and increase your quality of life, not just salary. money in the bank won’t help if you’re depressed because you hate your job/the city/are far away from family and friends/whatever.
I left NS in January for a job in Iqaluit Nunavut. I have a bachlors degree and a masters degree and was finding it very difficult to find work in NS. I applied for a job up here and it is fantastic! This is the land of opportunity and if you are looking for an adventure you would find that here as well. Job postings can be found at www. nunatsiaq.com and also http://www.gov.nu.ca. Good luck! 🙂
errr… bachelors degree… oops!
i got baited by all that stupid Alberta hype, too. ‘Alberta-the New World. Where the streets are paved with gold.’ Bull.the only high-paying jobs out there are the labour jobs on the rigs in Ft McMurray. NOBODY bothers to mention the fact that if you have a girlfriend tagging along with you, she’ll barely be able to pull in peanuts as a waitress.minimum wage is high than it is in NS, but NO ONE pays it. i went to 4 interviews before i finally found a job that would pay me the province’s min wage. they pay lots of money for the rig jobs because they wont be around forever. basically, it took my fiance and i six months and a lot of money to realize this was NOT a stable future for us. as Hedgyhog says, the cost of living is ASTRONOMICAL, and totally unregulated and if you look like a “Newfie” which is what they call anyone east of montreal, be prepared to have lots of doors slammed in your face. i am a college-educated woman, and was treated like welfare baby-mama trash simply because they saw Halifax, Nova scotia on my rental and job applications. Working as a barmaid in Alberta almost turned me off of the service industry forever. In Nova Scotia, people respect you if you have a job that you work hard at, a positive outlook on life, and good people around you. In Alberta, the ONLY thing people use to measure your success is how much you make at your job, the amount of things you have, and how much you paid for them. I would suggest to anyone considering the move to Alberta that you speak to someone who has been there and come back, as I have many friends who still write home about how much they love Alberta, however, instead of listing the amazing things they’re doing and seeing, they talk about the things their sugar daddies bought them, the new car they just maxed out 5 credit cards to buy, or the skeezy guy they boffed in the bathroom for free coke. I’ve never seen a true maritimer settle into the Alberta way of life and be truly happy. There is NO variety of people- the boys all wear graphic-print hoodies and skateboard shoes (even though they dont skateboard) and the girls ALL have 2-3 facial pericings and mile-high mall hair. everyone drinks Jagerbombs and drives big, giant souped-up trucks that they dont know the first THING about, and the tanning salons have line-ups that go out the door. a party in NS is everyone wearing tank tops or t shirts with jeans, some beer, and an old patio. in Alberta, it’s not a party unless there’s some gimmick like a party limo, hired strippers, or a $20 cover charge at a bar because they got some Canadian Idol guy to sit in their VIP for an hour.and long-winded rant aside, if you are looking for ANYTHING besides Rig work in Alberta right now for a high salary (or even over an hourly wage), you won’t find it. I found out way too late that all the stories you hear about “$20/hr” or “50 grand a year” jobs in Alberta are illusions of grandeur made up by homesick individuals who don’t want to admit they left the good (albeit slightly poorer) life back home to be slightly (and only VERY slightly) better off financially in a crap hole.
Nice rant – anony. I totally identify with much of what you say.There ARE however, really, really well paying jobs IF you’re somebody they want to hire, and not everybody falls in to this category. For me, it’s more than the money though – it’s the security of knowing that I’m not chained to one particular job. If something turns bad for me, I can walk into a similar position with much more ease than I could in Halifax. In Halifax, I felt like a slave. Here, I feel like a free agent, and the reduction of stress has been the saving grace of a sometimes hostile envoronment.
qwerty- thanks, i find i rant a lot when i find a bitch that strikes a chord. glad to see it can be appreciated at times!I hope you are able to find a comfortable lifestyle that makes you happy over there, but I also hope Nova Scotia can one day become a prosperous place that draws professionals like yourself back home so our future doesn’t look so bleek.
I think my big beef with Alberta honestly was this temorary culture they’ve got going. everyone is so transient, there to make a buck then move back to wherever they want to make a life……
MMmmmmm Jaeger Bombs!I have only been to Calgary and oh my God I hated that sterile, empty deserted wasteland of a city. Does anyone actually LIVE there? I didn’t see a soul outside of business hours. Blech.
Yeah, it’s pretty bleak. Zero character whatsover, and you have to dig real deep to find little pockets of personality… most of which is being torn down and replaced with office buildings.I think of Calgary as Canada’s entry level office – the place some people have to go to temporarily if they want to get ahead, but their ultimate goal is always somewhere else.Like Montreal. Montreal is cool.
Jammie, you haven’t been there recently. Calgary used to be a clean and neighborly city. Now it’s chalk full of too many people, cars, pollution, attitude and drugs. There used to be a reasonable balance in the region, consider the size of the city. Any charm my home town had is gone forever. I’ll never go back. They ruined it.
the whole province, for me at least, felt like a giant strip mall. souless and corproate, where the only things to do were buy things or spend money.at least here, there is tons to do for free and spending is not a requirement of fun…
Ugh, when did I become the defender of Alberta? It’s true, hedgy, everything you’rre saying, and jammie too. *But* there is fun to be had wherever you go, and good people; in some places however, it takes ALOT more effort uncovering those things. I think the most rewarding thing for me will be the knowing if I can eek out some kind of pleasant existence HERE, everthying after this will be a breeze.And I’m very much looking forward to the “after”; I pity the fools who moved out here to get ahead and got sucked into the keeping up game and find themselves in a 40 year mortgage in a $500,000 house, worth $200,000 tops.
Agreed on Montreal Qwerty. Possibly my favorite city. But Vancouver is in the running too.Kay at least some attitude and drugs would suggest some life! I saw NO ONE after 6 in a most parts of town. I’ve have honestly never visited a single city or even large town that was nearly as desolate as Calgary is in the evening. It felt like one of those post-apocalyptic movies.
I’m stupefied by your Calgary experience, Jammie. I only recently relocated to the HRM and found Sunday shopping to be a new idea. I’m downtown Dartmouth and have to travel to find a convenience store open past 8pm…Maybe you were really visiting Airdrie, Red Deer, Lethbriodge or Medicine Hat? There’s an awful lot of nothing between towns/cities in AB.
qwerty, yeah there are some nice people- to find them, look outside the cities to rural people, or better yet stick with the large pockets of displaced maritimers you will encounter.But you just illustrated my point nicely: you’re looking forward to the after. out there, that’s all anyone looks forward too! I foudn it very very lonely because no one was really planning on being there for the long term. people ddidn’t seem to get that invested in their jobs beyond a pay cheque, because they were just jobs, not careers. cliques are hard to break into, and while you’ll meet lots of peopel it is hard to make actual friends, as people are always expecting others to just pick up and leave (happens allt he time). everything there is temporary.and that leads to huge amounts of bitterness from people who ARE there to stay, as they see all these eastern interlopers as arriving just to make a buck, and get out with the spoils.it makes for a hard place for culture to grow. I’m not saying it can’t, just prepare yourself for a bleak stint while you’re there. it won’t be like the east where people are friendly and make eye contact at cross walks and you can walk around cities with a sense of history. Out there, ‘old’ is from the 50’s, and people keep mroe to themselves. It’s tough to swallow. so by all means go, but go with your eyes open, and talk to as many people as you cana bout the city you’re going to before you go, to get a real sense of it.oh, and don’t move your furniture- the easier it is to get out, the better off financially you’ll be if and when you crack (not saying you will just from my own experience peopel don’t usually leave on good terms so much as burn out, explode, and flee in terror and hatred).
No kay I was in Calgary for a week last September. I was staying downtown, but traveled to other more or less central areas and then to some of the suburban areas. It was a total wasteland. Everyone told me to go to 17th ave and OK there was a bit more going on there, but overall the city was totally deserted after 6. I mean yeah Halifax can be quiet during the weekdays, but it’s only a quarter the size of Calgary.I love Vancouver because it’s just brimming over with life almost 24 hours a day. People everywhere and such great energy there!
“it won’t be like the east where people are friendly and make eye contact”Warning… don’t look sideways at the friendly people in the east because you’ll get your ass kicked! The friendly people of the east consider the ability to knock someone’s teeth in as a personal virtue.Yeah, be careful and go with eyes wide open.
to prove my point check out this bitch… and there are many more like it:http://thecoast.ca/FBPubGoToSource.lasso?-token.specificitem=21645.113118
Gotta agree with you on that one Kay! I have found especially in the rural areas of some parts of the Maritimes that the yocals are in fact very hostile. And seemingly shit-scared of strangers. It’s this really bizarro Deliverance thing.