Jobs - tips for Québec (Montréal/Ville de Québec)

General Discussions
#1

Bonjour mes amis!

It’s been a long, long time since I last logged in here… glad to see the same old guys around, developping fun stuff, and the community stronger than ever. Congratulations, guys!

I’ll be moving from Brazil do Québec next january, and I’ll be studying a bit of French for a while, maybe even a MBA to extend my graduation, before looking seriously for jobs. I’ll be taking this time off the corporative Java development market to see where I want my career to go in the next few years.

That said, I’d like to get some inside info on the Montréal/V. de Québec java market from you guys, if you have any advice to give. If you could give some insights on the game development market, that’d be superb. I saw some offerings from FRIMA (V. de Québec). Any other small/medium sized studios worth mentioning?

Je peux parler Français, si vouz préférez. Je ne suis pas courant, mais…

#2

I don’t know much about the scene in Montreal but Quebec really invested in making itself dev-shop friendly beginning like 20 years ago. The results are paying off and there are some serious big studios in Montreal including Ubisoft and many others are uprooting and moving there.

#3

you could also consider Bluberi, in Drummondville. that’s halfway between Montreal and Quebec.
they’re developing games for casinos and such, and I’m pretty sure they use Java.

#4

Thanks for the tips, guys. I appreciate it.

I’ve visited a workshop that Ville de Québec had set up here in Brazil, end of October. The city brought representatives, which showed how much interested they were in bring more people to their labour market, and they made a case about the investiments the city made in the technological sector in the past years. It was also clear that they were “trying” to “persuade” the future immigrants to choose Ville de Québec over Montréal, which is the most common destination declared during the immigration process.

They also made it clear that they felt quality of life in V. de Québec is higher than in Montréal, but I believe that perception depends mostly on the point of view of what is important for each person and his/her family. In the end, as charming as the proposal from V. de Québec was, the fact is that I do see more (java) offers in Montréal than V. de Québec, be it on the game dev market or not. And it seems to me, the offers in Montréal are of ‘higher quality’ (i.e, more promising/interesting) than those of V. de Québec.

And so, I remain biased towards Montréal… if anyone has something to say about this, please give me your two cents :slight_smile:

#5

Note that the population of Montreal is roughly 4M and Quebec City is 800k… I don’t know the exact numbers but Montreal is at least 3x bigger.

But yeah, it depends on your tastes. From my personal visits both seem like excellent cities but I have never lived in either.

#6

Montreal population is more around 2 million, but it’s still crowded. if you drive, you’ll regret living in Montreal. lots of traffic, nowhere to park. the bus and subway are not always reliable. also, housing is over-priced. personnaly, I would choose Quebec City, but right now,
I prefer my little home town of Drummondville, about a 50k population.

#7

Right now, as an immigrant on his first steps in Québec, I need to focus on essentially in two major goals:

  • (Keep) studying French as it is the official language in Québec
  • Stay where the demand for Java developers/architects is higher, and where my skills would apply best

I have absolutely no problem with smaller cities; as a matter of fact, I enjoy the quiet life a lot, and would move to such a city as quickly as possible, if a good job offer would be available. But I am skeptic about the number and quality of job offers in such areas - specially in my condition: expat with intermediate French. Besides, my wife is a trader (import/export), and she needs to stay close to bigger cities too. That’s why I polarized our landing between Montréal and Québec city. That will be so at least until I get a better idea of the whole picture.

What do you say, about the availability of (Java) jobs in smaller cities around Montréal/Québec city?

#8

[quote]What do you say, about the availability of (Java) jobs in smaller cities around Montréal/Québec city?
[/quote]
to be honest, I really don’t know. I have a full time job and happy with it, so I don’t search very often for job availability.
I don’t see a lot of job offerings in the classified ads, but that’s probably because it’s so easy to fill those jobs that announcing them
is not needed.

search for jobboom on google, you’ll find a web site that’ll help you in your job search in Canada.

#9

I’ve been using jobboom and indeed for a while. I can’t apply to any jobs until the permanent residence permit is issued, so the only use I make of them right now is to try and establish a strategy for my landing - which companies to approach, and in which order :slight_smile:

Thanks for all the input, it is much appreciated!

#10

“Je peux parler Français si vous le souhaitez. Je ne le parle pas couramment, mais…”

#11

Tous les deux ont tort!

@psychopat316
Please change your image, only I’m David Spade around here and you’ll confuse A LOT of people :slight_smile: