Maybe Canada !!!!!

roe

Just wanted to share this article with you guys !!!

http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/Communications-Infrastructure/a598c415-58f7-47b2-95d0-5925ccb04824.html

bighornsheep

dont rely too much on that information. Yes Canada's IT sector, and actually the entire economy is picking up, but that's PRIMARILY because of the strong dollar. Not because of other internal social, economic factors.

There other several STRONG markets in the country driving the IT backbone, Oil and Forestry in the West, Telecommunications & Hydro in Toronto/Ontario + Quebec etc. But overall, the IT market is still much smaller than in the states. Since they mentioned Toronto, and I live in Toronto, I'll give you a taste of what the 'reality' is.

Our ENTIRE province has a population of roughly 11Million, if you know your way around the states, that's like not even the population of LA metropolitian (which is only about half the population in LA).

Toronto, capital of the province has a population of under 3 million, and that's already the metropolitian area of Toronto. a made-up region the Greater Toronto Area including Toronto and other regions is just shy of 6 million. Which for most Americans just likely just a dot on the map.

We are having lots of exciting things happening, and IT is picking up because of our Toronto Wireless-MAN project, new subway grid, rebuilding of downtown habourfront etc. But hearing from my close circle of friends who's gone to the states, and STAYED, and observation of the situation up here. I wouldnt come over the border just to 'try your luck'. It is good (for us), but not THAT good for Americans to have to come up and get jobs.

But of course, all this is a VERY GENERAL and vague suggestion/comment, it all depends on your relational situation with Canada, perhaps you have more families here. It depends on where in the states you are from, perhaps Canada is 'better' for you for one reason or another.

But in summary, being in Canada, I can say that the IT market isn't that good here, nor does it look that good across the board in the world.

so the classic question, do people need to switch jobs?

mikey_b

Last job board I actually looked at had over 5000 IT job openings in Calgary - but beware, there is no where to live out there! 1 year minimum wait before buying a house and there is no rental properties available... If you do get a job out there it is important that the company provide you with a place to live in the meantime. Including build time for a new house, you could be living in a hotel for 18 months... $$$

But yeah, people actually ask you if you're in IT and if you want a job out there. A friend and I were in Calgary for a week long training seminar and we were walking around sporting IT gear (shirts mostly) and 4 different groups of people were just walked up to us asking if we were interested in working for them (including one group trying to woo us while we were wasted and eating hot wings at Hooters).

It's totally night-and-day compared to little ol' Winnipeg here... there are almost no good IT jobs here unless you work for IBM or EDS... all the other shops are small-time operations...