I'm relocating from the Bay Area after in a few months and am wondering how salaries compare. Here in the Bay 100k is pretty good but not uncommon by any stretch, mainly due to the cost of housing. What do you think the quality of life would be in Vancouver for this salary range? Thanks in advance.

 

If you're making 6 figures in Vancouver, you're doing really quite well. Housing isn't exactly cheap in Vancouver but for quick reference, a 2 bedroom 800 sq/ft ish condo downtown would cost a little less than 400,000.

 

Thanks for the info. But since I'm a family man with a wife, 19 month old, and another kid on the way come Dec., I'll probably be looking for a place outside of downtown. Probably somewhere near Burnaby to be close to the office. Given that info, do you still think things are going to be confy? Here in the Bay Area everything is expensive so even mid 100k can sometimes feel tight. Again mainly because of the cost of housing. But we are making the move to Vancouver for the lower crime rate, better schools, and hopefully more relaxed lifestyle, so a pay cut wasn't an issue for me. Though I just want to be sure that we're not going from 1 rat race to another in terms of cost of living

 

Housing in Burnaby tend to be cheaper and probably one of the more affordable areas in Vancouver. FYI. Housing prices tend to decrease as you go from west to east in Vancouver. One other thing, if your salary is going to be your sole family income, you'll still be comfortable but you won't be living the high life by any means. Also try to avoid living in an area by a skytrain station. These areas are convenient but are often highcrime areas.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. We went into this knowing I would be taking a pay cut, but we're hoping that being able to live close to work, having better schools, being in a safer city, and having a job that allows me to spend more time with the family all add up to being worth it. On paper it is definitely better but we just need to make sure the above becomes true BTW, know of any good neighborhoods in the 600 to 650k Canadian range in or near Burnaby? Would love to find a single detached home in a neighborhood close to small shops and restaurants. Thanks again.

 

Check here: http://www.acinet.org/acinet/select_...id=13&soccode=

 

I say North Van would be a much much better choice. Burnaby is a bit ghetto in my opinion, but North Van is awesome and just a quick drive over the bridge to get to Burnaby.

 

I actually live in Burnaby and I can say there are quite a few of areas that is in your price range, as a matter of fact, if you look at the Burnaby Heights area (where I live), it is within that price range and is one of the better neighbourhood in Burnaby, very convinent, look nice, low crime.

will you be bringing your Z?

 

Thank you for your input. My wife and I are coming up tomorrow for the week to look around and I'll definitely keep your feedback in mind. And of course I will be bringing the Z just not till the middle of Jan when we move up full time.

 

Will you be looking at the Burnaby area?
Funny I actually work in the area as a Finacial Planner at Royal Bank, if you need information about housing/financing or need some information on setting up banking/investments , don't hesititate to let me know. you can email me at gary.z.fung@rbc.com

 

Yes, we are starting our home search in the Burnaby area since it's closest to the office. Our goal is to stay within 15 minutes to work as my last commute was pretty long. Our agent did mention that North Vancouver is nice but she said the bridge can get very messy during an accident. Have you seen / experienced this? What other areas would you reccomend given the distance criteria? I'll definitely hit you up regarding the banking questions once we are up there, I appreciate your help. As it stands I'll be up there this coming week and the last week of Nov. then I'll work from home till Jan 15th which is our projected move date.

 

Your agent is right about the bridge, If you are working in the Vancouver/Burnaby area I would avoid living across the bridge at N. Van at all cost. Basically there's only 2 bridges connecting N van/W.Van to Vancouver/Burnaby, sometimes things do happen at one of those and things get really interesting on the other bridge.

where is your office and what do you do btw?

 

Thanks for the info. My family and I are actually up here in Burnaby for the week. She's out right now taking a neighborhood tour with an agent, checking out East Vancouver, North Burnaby, and perhaps Port Moody though that's a little farther out then we were expecting. I make video games and am working out of the EA Burnaby campus.

 

Oh, that's awesome. My friend works in EA as well, his name is Brian Lee, maybe he'll become one of your future co-workers. Hope you settle in soon, and please don't hesitate to ask me anything.

 

hrm, I have a couple of friends working out at EA as well. Are you a software engineer or in graphic designs?

 

Neither actually. I'm on the production end.

 

I couldn't help but jump into this convo. I made another thread asking about work permits in Canada, but I'll ask here instead.

apharmdb: I'm a software engineer and I'm interested in moving to Vancouver. Was it hard for you to get a work permit? Did EA first have to sponsor you before you could start any of the paper work?

BTW, how did you find the job opening? Monster and Dice concentrate on American jobs so I couldn't find anything in Vancouver through those sites. Oh...if you know of any openings with EA Canada for development work, please let me know

 

Not sure about other companies and how they handle work visas, but EA makes things very very easy. Mine is still going through the application process but I'm actually working out of the Redwood Shores office till it goes through. HR says about 8 - 12 weeks which works perfectly with my time frame and our plan is to move up full time around mid Jan. EA Canada has their own web site that can be reached off the ea.com site, but I would reccomend going thorugh a tech recruiter is possible as they will beat down doors for you (if they are good). As for my case, I was recruited direcetly by EA HR as I worked for a competitor the company saw as a threat, so it was easier for me to get into the door. Let me know what you are interested in engineering / game wise and I'll check the internal job board. I'm currently back in California but have access via VPN. I've only been there for a week but my impressions of both the city and company are very positive.

 

funny...I'm moving to the bay area from vancouver on jan. 15th...might see u on the highway lol...

anyways port moody would be too far for u I think...and east vancouver is g-h-e-t-t-o. just IMO of course . I live in Richmond...its a pretty nice place too. I'm personally not a fan of the east side, but if you have to, burnaby>east vancouver. Due to the crime rates and the people around... Good luck man.

 

That's great to hear they're making it easy for you. I was thinking it would be a much harder process, but not with EA apparently.

I was thinking of getting a tech recruiter to work for me since I've heard it's much more effective. Unfortunately for me, the tech recruiters I know on a first name basis only recruit locally in Denver.

I really appreciate you offering to look through the internal job postings at EA for me. I'm a certified Microsoft .NET developer, which I'm not sure if that's what EA's development team is looking for (I assume the development is done in C++ like a lot of other game development). BUT...it would be a dream to work for EA, so honestly anything I'd be qualified for I'd be happy with. I can send you my resume...I don't know if that would help me or not.