°µÍø½ûÇø

Hi Pushpa,

This is a question that's very close to me and am passionate about as I am in the same field.

Obviously you are going to get more job openings in bigger cities like Toronto or GTA / Calgary / Vancouver or even Edmonton / Montreal. But know this, IT jobs doesn't require you to be physically stationed in those big cities and with internet and in the age of cloud computing, you can work from any remote location. So, in the past 5 years or so, there's a surge in IT startups appearing in smaller cities like Halifax, Moncton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Saint Johns, Regina, etc. Granted, you might be getting a little bit lower wages if you went for the jobs in the smaller cities - perhaps about 10-20% (depending also on which level you are coming in).

I already responded to someone in another forum about this - /forum/viewtopic.php?id=372349#1946770

I've said before and I am saying it again, Canada lacks IT talent, so the more they can get their hands on people like us, the better. The question on your part coming over here is - are you in it for the long haul or the short haul. Overall quality of life, which includes price of homes, cost of living, daily commute etc. you got to consider these things and for me, it is for this reason that I choose a smaller city like Halifax. And here's another tip and from my observation, if you are coming in as a senior with niche talent, go for the small startups or small-medium sized companies rather than large corporate ones like NTT/ IBM/ Oracle - you'll get more bargaining power for compensation. Big companies are notorious for pushing wages down especially for folks from other countries, particularly from South Asia/ ASEAN.

Here is a write up on the best places to be in Canada which was recently publish in Money Sense magazine.
Canadas Best Places to Live 2014: Time to think small -
Canadas Best Places to Live 2014: Full Ranking


Good luck

Hi Pushpa.latha379 and welcome to °µÍø½ûÇø

I have created a new thread with your post on the Canada forum for more visibility.

Thanks,

Priscilla

Thx Priscilla

Ontario

Hi,

I can't really compare, but I live in Montreal and there are plenty of opportunities here.
I am hearing the same about Ottawa, and I have heard the suburb of Kanata to be referred to as the Canadian Silicon Valley :-)

The problem with jobs you can do remotely is that they can be done from India just as well (no offense).
I wish I could live on a farm and telecommute one day too...

Canada's also been looked at as a great candidate for near-shoring,
Often times outsourcing to further places pose more risk and thus there seem to be an increase number of large cooperation bringing back their work to this region. I know JP Morgan, Chase, and healthcare org (forgot the name) outsourcing to NTT which has a big setup here in Halifax. There's also IBM which just setup shop here too after inking a deal with the NS government. Plus they are setting up their Global Center of Excellence for Big Data Analytics here.

Don't limit your options to just the big guns of Ontario, Alberta or BC. Other provinces too can be a good bet. You have to consider your overall. Just yesterday in GlobalNews, the canada real estate association announced that home prices soared for whole of Canada. But when you break it down, actually the only reason for the gain is due to 3 major cities, Vancouver up 4.3%, Calgary up to 10.1% and Greater Toronto up 7.1%. Most other cities remained flat.

szocske, in smaller city like Halifax commuting is not a big problem. Jams are rare or really not as big like the ones in Montreal. Sadly, there's less things in downtown here than there. I even hear of ppl living in Chester (near the ocean, 80kms away) or even in Windsor, NS (closer to the farming areas) and driving to the city. Home prices are cheaper and with much more land moving beyond the suburbs.

well said Philipyeo