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Jul
1
I’ve recently changed the commute. The second car has gone and in it’s place is transit and a scooter. It’s been a mixed experience, but on the whole a good one.
After a year of driving to and from Richmond I decided that I’d have enough of the line-ups along the Mary Hill Bypass and to get across the Queensborough bridge. A change was needed. It’s amazing how quickly one’s perspective changes. My final UK job involved a two and a half hour each way commute, not getting home until around 8pm. After a year of travelling to Richmond, I’m fed up with travelling for around 1 hour. Actually, another factor in the decision was the cost of running a second car.
Despite the cost of fuel being around 2/3rds of UK prices, when the maintenance and insurance are added in, the whole 2 car thing becomes a financial drain, or maybe more of a dollar diversion as the funds could be spent, saved or donated elsewhere. However, I wasn’t expecting to make the change quite as soon as I did.
My employer is moving from Richmond to Vancouver in November of 2010 and this was always going to be the prompt to review my commute. One weekend in May I decided that I’d sell the 2nd car. As the car was a manual transmission (we were a bifocal family with black and silver Focus’s/Foci?) and let’s face it, manual transmission and North America are 2 terms that don’t sit together comfortably, my thought was that the car could take an age to sell. So, on a warm Saturday morning I took a few snaps, and the Focus was duly put up for sale via Craigslist. I was not expecting to be car-less by the end of the weekend. First viewer, close to the asking price and that was it, no car.
So began a month of transit which became and still can be a slog. Life from Lesley to Loughheed or Braid Skytrain. Skytrain to 22nd St. Bus to work. The transit journey can be around an hour a a half, longer than by car, but at least I can sleep. During this time I developed a Plan B. Scoot.
I’d actually ridden my Ducati to the office a couple of times and as much fun as it was, the journey home was very heavy on the clutch hand as traffic could be very busy through New West. Wouldn’t life be easier with a scooter, no clutch and very manoeuvrable. Having decided to go for it I found myself torn between a classic Vespa and the modern Kymco Frost. In the end, the Kymco won out as I couldn’t justify the Vespa price tag and I managed to find a year old Kymco for a good price.
So, I now have options. The scoot’s a real hoot and I’m smiling on the ride. Not only that, I’m exploring other routes to work to keep me off the highways. My recent find has been River Road in Richmond. On a sunny morning, or late afternoon, the ride along the bank of the Fraser is wonderful, peaceful, scenic and a word away from the bustle of Highway 91.
I’ve changed the commute and it’s actually for the better as I’m smiling more and I get the chance to stop and take pics like the ones below.
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Apr
17
After months of trying to crack both the local job market and consulting market I finally resorted to my transferable skills to try and generate some regular income. But not for long.
A difficult decision had to be made after a huge disappointment. A 3-4 month contract that I’d been offered verbally last November was given to someone else as a full time role at the end of January. Regular income was needed and it was time to consider the what else can i do question. Fortunately, the Brit ex-pat network came to my aid and I managed to get an in with a local insurance company. Al I had to do was to pass my Level 1 exam and get licensed. Despite having a course recommended to me I decided to take the least cost option which was buy the notes, read them and take the exam. So, 2 weeks of reading later I sat the Level 1 exam and passed first go, clearing the 70% pass mark bar with relative ease. I was licensed to insure.
So, at the start of March I began working for a local broker in North Vancouver. This was not without its logistical difficulties as it meant a journey that was at worst, bus – Skytrain – Seabus – bus or at best, bus – Skytrain – bus. Come what may I was looking at 90 minutes travel time each way.
The people working in the office were friendly and helpful and in some ways it was good to be back in such an environment. I was getting up to speed quickly, as I should with a $12/hr position, and income was flowing, well, trickling really.
Since coming to Canada I’ve never written off my environmental skills and have kept faith that sooner or later my faith would be rewarded. What I wasn’t reckoning on was the swift change in fortunes.
At the tail end of last year I applied for a job with the BC Lotteries Corporation, bclc. Unfortunately the job went on hold, I was told until Spring/Summer. Around 10 days in to my new career I received notification that the bclc post was off hold and if I was still interested, bclc would like to telephone interview me the following week. A very good friend said to me in the past that one should always be researching one’s next position//project. So, I accepted the interview, was short-listed for round 2 and attended a face-to-face interview the following week. The great thing is that both interviews were out of working hours so that I could continue masquerading as an insurance agent whilst following up the opportunity.
Cutting things short, I was invited to meet one of the VP’s at bclc’s headquarters in Kamloops a few days later. Unless I broke wind at the wrong time, I was in. But, another hurdle needed to be negotiated, I was due to be working the day I was invited to Kamloops (which is around 200 miles from where I live). So, deep breath and I resigned my insurance job before absolutely knowing that the bclc post was mine.
As it turned out, everything was fine. I was offered the job and I take up the role of Environmental Sustainability Specialist with bclc in May.
Oh, and my journey to Kamloops was pretty spectacular as I flew across the coastal mountains with Pacific Coastal Airlines. Four passengers in a 19 seater on the outward journey, three passengers in an 11 seater for the return flight. More pics are on Facebook.
Sep
14
Catching up on the post
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Over the next few days I’ll be posting quite a few catch up stories.
I thought long and hard about going back over the last few months and posting about the things I’ve been up to with the family. Although these events have long gone and the pics are on Picasa for all to see, I’ve decided to post as a way of reminding myself about what we’ve achieved as a family over our first 12 months in Canada.
Life here continues to be a tough nut to crack, but we remain positive (most of the time), knowing that possibly the hardest part of the transition is now over. So many other immigrants have told me that year 1 is the make or break year, and we’re now in year 2. The lads are amazingly settled, have great new friends, are enjoying life socially and in Elliot’s case, starting to build a new future outside of school.
Lesley and I continue to try to grow our own businesses and generate small amounts of income whilst remaining open to full time employment opportunities. However, it’s part of the process and we’re determined to see it through.
My observation is that not many people emigrate at our age with kids as it means giving up years of security and in some ways certainty. But maybe that’s what it’s about, pushing beyond ‘vanilla’. We’ve one life and it tends to be the ‘what if’s’ that people reflect upon later in life.
So, if you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?
Oct
20
Hidden treasure
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As a follow up to my last post I thought I’d add that help is at hand for all professional job hunters in the Vancouver area. However, it’s a case of unearthing the buried treasure. There seems to be a multitude of Provincial and National Government funded programmes that the intrepid professional job hunter can tap in to.
I was at a British Expats Meet up group last month and struck up a conversation with a guy that was having similar problems in finding employment. He mentioned that he’d been to the north shore YWCA for a 6 day course for professional status immigrants, the PTW workshops. So I called the YWCA and was asked to contact Vancouver Family Services as I’d need a referral to sign up for the workshops. Next step was to meet with a Case Manager in the Employment Services team to discus options for the job hunt. It was at this meeting that I really started to discover the buried treasure.
Even though I’d been to a Canadian Human Resources centre to ask about what assistance was available to new immigrants, nothing was mentioned about the YWCA or FSGV, or for that matter, any other agency providing assistance to job hunters.
Anyway, following a discussion with my newly appointed case manager I was presented with a range of funded programmes that I could tap in to, the most interesting being a 10 day Successful Contracting and Consulting (SCC) course. My next step is to attend the SCC and follow it up with the PTW to learn all I can about how the local market works. If I find employment, fine, if I don’t I’ll be geared up for self-employment.
So, despite the transition penalty help is at hand. It’s a case of don’t give up, network, make contacts, take advantage of funded programmes, whatever it takes to beat the statistics.
Oct
19
Is it naivety or could I have prepared better than I did?
What’s become very apparent is that Canadian employers do not offer a level playing field to new entrants. I’ve been told stories about professional people arriving, seeking employment and ending up in the land of under-employment (in jobs far below their potential). So how does this happen? It seems that new entrants are purely and simply discriminated against.
The first hurdle is getting professional and educational credentials accepted. For example, I have Chartered Environmentalist status in the UK, however in Canada I can apply to be a practitioner in training and after 2 years apply for full status as long as I can prove my 10 years UK experience. The alternative is to re-qualify through a Canadian educational establishment, despite me having a post graduate diploma.
The next hurdle is not having Canadian experience. It appears that international experience counts for little. I was browsing an article in the Canadian Immigrant publication entitled the transition penalty and it was sobering reading. This links in with the recently reported stats that within the first 5 years from landing, new immigrants are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as Canadians .
So, if you’re thinking of making the move to Canada I would suggest:
- • Make sure you have a job offer, or
- • Plan to go self-employed, be an entrepreneur or similar, or
- • Be prepared to accept a lower standard of job just to get that vital Canadian experience, or
- • Retrain for the construction industry
The way things are really begs the question, why do the Canadian Government allow trained, qualified and experienced professionals in to the country when that group of people will struggle to add anything to the economy other than another digit on the jobless figures.
