Expat Community > Canada

sylhos
Joined 2011
Posts: 1

Calgary vs Vancouver vs Victoria for a Software Engineer

13 years ago

Hello everyone.
I am a Software Engineer when Software development and IT project management experience. I have worked with international companies all my professional life, so I expect to quickly understand the so called "Canadian business culture and experience".
I am hispanic, 34, with a 3y/o girl and wife. Our family was approved as PR and we "checked-in" through Calgary, but we didn't stay long due to family issues we had to come back and attend.
Now I am considering to go back but never had the chance to really estimate expenses or evaluate the market. We are looking for a city with the following conditions:
- Good weather: We prefer central and west of Canada for that reason. We can stand cold, but do not like annual cold fronts frequencies in other cities.
- Family oriented and clean: Our country of origin has come short in terms of open areas (parks, etc) and has filled almost every spot with buildings.
- Affordable for an average lifestyle: We are not europeans. Our taste for dining or clothing is not of brands but primarily quality (gap for example), but we like to eat out on the weekends and occasionally watch a hockey game, a rock concert or go to the movies. Again, pretty average I believe.
We like to do short family trips and love the parks for bike riding, skating, tennis playing, hockey. Good air and safety to enjoy those activities is a very good plus for us.

In terms of professional growth, I understand you can't get to where you want to be immediately, but I want to be able to provide for my family the best I can. My wife is a dentist, but her english needs some refreshment, plus her activity is regulated, so it may take her some time to help me with the family income. Still, she has very good experience managing personnel, working on HR and is very willing to continue her professional growth.

Here are the concrete questions:
1. Which of these cities you think best meet the mentioned needs, considering my profession and our lifestyle.
2. What would be a good salary to make a living? We live in a 1900sqft apartment (that truly feels like 1700 due to wasted space architecture) and intend to look for a place near the 1600sqft in Canada, since we have extra space here to host visitors. Oh, I don't know how hard is to get a house loan, so we will start by renting.

I seriously appreciate all the information you can provide us, as it determines the amount of effort I will spend looking for a job and housing in the particular city.

Thank you for sharing!

Vic

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