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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.
Apr
16
Rip off Canada
Filed Under Cars, Life | Leave a Comment
We recently had an issue with a door mirror on the car which led to a perfect example of how “rip off Britain” can be equalled by “rip off Canada”.
Unfortunately, whilst backing out of the garage, a door mirror was snapped from it’s mounting by someone other than myself. The car, a Ford Focus, has exceptionally cheap door mirrors in the North American market. Whereas the Euro models come with a hinged fitting, locally, the door mirrors are just mounted in a single moulded piece of plastic, which of course makes them very vulnerable to any impact.
So, what would be the cost of a replacement fitting? It was time to trawl the web. Surprisingly, most of the on-line sources were from south of the border. However, with a price of $40 US, I wasn’t complaining, even after the exchange rate adjustments.
I then thought that I may as well try a local scrap yard as the prices for used parts must be even better. Imagine the shock of being told that a used door mirror would set me back the princely sum of $125 Canadian. The guy at Ralph’s wasn’t bothered that I could source them on line for around a third of the price – take it or leave it.
Having recovered from the shock I wondered what the price of a new part would be so I phoned my local Ford dealer. A brand new item would be around $175 including taxes. The used fitting from Ralph’s was obviously a bargain!
Time to head back to the virtual world. Things became a little more awkward at this point. A number of suppliers south of the border would not ship international, so no delivery to Canada. I did find a couple of places that had a work around that doubled the price, however, it would still be less than buying used from a scrap yard.
How about Canadian on-line suppliers? Having got fed up being on hold for ages and only getting through to voice mail I finally spoke to a person at one supplier who advised that the mirror would have to come from their US warehouse and would be $111 US. So, that would be $111 for the $40 part then. Great.
Hmm, back to the drawing board. I then thought about checking out UK suppliers as the replacement fitting would be hinged, but I then remembered that the concave/convex issue would mean the mirrors would be the wrong way around. Ah, we have friends in Germany, maybe that would be the way to resolve the problem – right mirrors and hinged. Prices were certainly higher than the US part, but still not as expensive as Canada.
In the end and despite thinking it wouldn’t work the damaged fitting was super-glued back together and amazingly enough it’s holding out. Should I need to replace the part, I’ll probably head south for the day as I can probably still save money even after fuel, food etc.
So, Canadian consumers, why are you letting yourselves be ripped off like this?
