Job prospects for a software developer in Halifax, Nova Scotia

April 8, 2013 11:18 AM

We currently live in Alberta and are planning to move to Halifax in about a year and a half (summer 2014). Right now I am a junior developer/system analyst doing Oracle/PL/SQL and Java at a large insurance company making $52,000. I am really afraid that I am going to have a hard time finding a job in Halifax, and that my salary will be very significantly lower.

I know the cost of housing and daycare will be cheaper, but that food and gas are higher. Basically, we will be going into a situation where our cost of living will be higher and our earnings will be lower. Our expenses right now come out to about $4500, but we rent and we are planning to buy a house in Halifax.

Can anyone tell me anything about my job prospects out there and what my earnings might be? I already know that my husband's (who is a scaffolder) are not the greatest, at least until the big shipyard contract gets going in full swing.

posted by kitcat to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Have you looked on your corporate website to see if you can transfer your job there? Have you gone on LinkedIn and looked for jobs with your qualifications?

Frankly a lot of developer/analyst jobs can be done remotely, so as long as you have good internet, you have a decent chance of getting work.

Join your programming community. I'm in the Salesforce.com community and people are constantly looking for folks with specific skill sets for remote positions. See if there are groups on Linked in for Oracle/PL/SQL on Linkedin (There must be, I'm in 3 Salesforce.com groups!)

I guess this all begs the question, why would you move to an area where you'll pay more and make less with few job prospects?

I'm sure you have your reasons, but you need to research this a bit more. Moving to a place you can't afford is not a move up in the world.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:29 AM on April 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Why? Family. But I am certainly having second thoughts.
posted by kitcat at 11:30 AM on April 8, 2013

Best answer: CGI has a large-ish shop in Halifax, and I know a junior who moved there from Victoria and got a job (she moved back to Victoria because, let's face it, it's the best place to live in Canada).

This scraper site seems to prove my point IRT dev jobs in Halifax: CGI comes up a number of times.

http://www.techjobshalifax.com/

Manta has a list of "IT" companies in Halifax:

http://www.manta.com/world/North+America/Canada/Nova+Scotia/information_technology--G4/
posted by KokuRyu at 11:31 AM on April 8, 2013

Check your mefimail.
posted by chrillsicka at 11:32 AM on April 8, 2013

Best answer: I'm developer in halifax. You can mefi mail me if you have more q's.

You will probably be making about the same.

The ships won't be started up for years- the Irving is selected as the sole supplier, but the number of ships and their blue prints have to be finalized.

IBM is starting up a center here, but its still under construction.
posted by exois at 6:15 PM on April 8, 2013

Best answer: There are also lots of these questions on reddit - Reddit-> Halifax/Jobs
posted by exois at 7:33 AM on April 9, 2013