Spec me... an American rental car

It may be easier for you to come over as an IT person (as this is your skill set) and then change career when you are over. Either way if you want any information pop me an email (in trust).

Jon
 
Well I was talking to my uncle's wife about this, her brother is going over to Canada as an IT person, now apparently just as he got his application in they removed IT from the 'desired' skills list, it's no longer a priority apparently. It seems to me that, that doesn't mean you can't go, but having something on that list helps an awful lot. My uncle's wife and of course her brother are not British though, well she has British citizenship ...but she was born in Romania and her brother so far as I know only has Romanian citizenship. I don't know if that makes any difference mind, the only reason his wife got in though was because she is his wife, he went over as a British police officer and retrained as a Calgary police officer, apparently 20% of the Calgary city police force is British, would you believe.

I would be looking to go for a number of years yet anyway really, so I have time to change.

I will bear you in mind as someone I can ask about these things though, thanks for that ..eh! :p
 
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Moeks, i have no idea as to your financial circumstances, but i would imagine that you will find that there simply is not enough in the very hard manual graft that is electrical installation.

Where there is (good) money is in running a company providing it, and subcontracting the work (or indeed employing your own staff permanently), for this you do not need to be qualified yourself obviously.

I know this market quite well, i know people on both sides of the business, and i can tell you that there is little money in doing it yourself, and its bloody hard work....
 
Jez said:
Moeks, i have no idea as to your financial circumstances, but i would imagine that you will find that there simply is not enough in the very hard manual graft that is electrical installation.

Where there is (good) money is in running a company providing it, and subcontracting the work (or indeed employing your own staff permanently), for this you do not need to be qualified yourself obviously.

I know this market quite well, i know people on both sides of the business, and i can tell you that there is little money in doing it yourself, and its bloody hard work....
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Yep sod that pulling floorboards every day for 700 quid a week on a good week.
 
DiamondMark said:
Yep sod that pulling floorboards every day for 700 quid a week on a good week.
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Well without going into specifics, that's more than I get now tbh. The only reason I have as much cash as I do is that I live at home, although I do give a fair chunk of my income to my Mum as keep.

Just out of interest, what is it that you do Jez ?
 
Moeks said:
Well without going into specifics, that's more than I get now tbh. The only reason I have as much cash as I do is that I live at home, although I do give a fair chunk of my income to my Mum as keep.

Just out of interest, what is it that you do Jez ?
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Plenty of electricians not getting anywhere near that though, the one i have here doing my building at the moment is happy with 100 quid a day, very good, certified and all that.

It is hard work though.
 
Moeks said:
Well without going into specifics, that's more than I get now tbh. The only reason I have as much cash as I do is that I live at home, although I do give a fair chunk of my income to my Mum as keep.

Just out of interest, what is it that you do Jez ?
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Note he mentioned good week. The grafters i know think themselves very lucky if they can manage as much as that. Remember that this is pre tax too (although i will admit that your average self employed manual worker probably maintains an income tax burden of <10% in total).

It is very hard work, i know some people who will put in 60 hours in a week including paperwork and chasing up, only to earn that type of figure. They will then be knocked thousands when a client refuses to pay or delays, putting their average earnings right down. Want to take a 2 week holiday? That will be unpaid too of course.

My connection with this industry is knowing, and having been involved in the startup of a reasonably successful growing electrical installation company. Which now contracts 3 installers, one of whom is completing his apprenticeship through it. I also know many further self employed people through this, and people from all manner of other trades through them and through people running other companies.

I would be the first to recommend an apprenticeship to a 16 year old school leaver who perhaps is not academic, but to yourself? Well, i wouldn't do it. Its bloody hard work, for little return in the scheme of things.

Financially you are better off in a regular ~£35k job, which would also involve working half the time, and at half the pace, with sick pay, holiday pay, stability, etc.

20 years of being an electrical installer see's you starting to wind down the pace at which you can work, too, at which point the young ones will walk all over you. I know a fair few "old timers" i know who have practically given up and fallen back into very low level employed jobs due to this. They just cannot keep up as they are physically too tired after 20 or more years of it.
 
Jez said:
Note he mentioned good week. The grafters i know think themselves very lucky if they can manage as much as that. Remember that this is pre tax too (although i will admit that your average self employed manual worker probably maintains an income tax burden of <10% in total).

It is very hard work, i know some people who will put in 60 hours in a week including paperwork and chasing up, only to earn that type of figure. They will then be knocked thousands when a client refuses to pay or delays, putting their average earnings right down. Want to take a 2 week holiday? That will be unpaid too of course.

My connection with this industry is knowing, and having been involved in the startup of a reasonably successful growing electrical installation company. Which now contracts 3 installers, one of whom is completing his apprenticeship through it. I also know many further self employed people through this, and people from all manner of other trades through them and through people running other companies.

I would be the first to recommend an apprenticeship to a 16 year old school leaver who perhaps is not academic, but to yourself? Well, i wouldn't do it. Its bloody hard work, for little return in the scheme of things.

Financially you are better off in a regular ~£35k job, which would also involve working half the time, and at half the pace, with sick pay, holiday pay, stability, etc.

20 years of being an electrical installer see's you starting to wind down the pace at which you can work, too, at which point the young ones will walk all over you. I know a fair few "old timers" i know who have practically given up and fallen back into very low level employed jobs due to this. They just cannot keep up as they are physically too tired after 20 or more years of it.
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A lot of people dont realise that, this electrician iv got here is working as hard as the bricklayers, but hasnt got a labourer.

Its back breaking work, im worn out watching, very strenuous!
 
You've seriously put me off now. I wouldn't say I'm an academic by any means but I have thus far lent that way really, although I've always been fairly practical too. I can do either, although my physical fitness isn't too great, I'd be the first to admit that. I'm just looking for another option to what I do now really, and something I could go to Canada with too and electrical work seemed the least objectionable to me.

I hadn't made any decisions anyway, I was just weighing my options and it seemed like as good an option as any, better than many really.

All my experience and most of my skills lie in IT though, maybe I should just look for something else in that regard somwhere, for now. Something that I can get on with myself, not being someone's phone slave and tech support monkey etc. I hate that crap.
 
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The reason you see thousands of Mexicans is for a couple of reasons - legally because of the NAFTA agreement between Mexico, the USA and Canada there is a shortcut working visa process where Mexicans can bring their dependents who aren't supposed to work...and illegally - there's an epically big land border between California and Mexico so there are thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants as the federal government isn't too concerned about deporting them, and business doesn't really care as long as it gets cheap labour - it's cracked down a bit now in terms of letting people in, but still something like 40% of Southern California is Hispanic at the moment.

Best bet for getting over here, if you aren't fortunate enough to hook up with an American chick is to either get a ton of money together and study here and while doing so hopefully get offers of employment etc, or try and work for a multi-national firm and start angling for a transfer to a US office. Or of course the uber-money route of setting up a million-dollar business employing a dozen Americans :p
 
Moeks said:
You've seriously put me off now. I wouldn't say I'm an academic by any means but I have thus far lent that way really, although I've always been fairly practical too. I can do either, although my physical fitness isn't too great, I'd be the first to admit that. I'm just looking for another option to what I do now really, and something I could go to Canada with too and electrical work seemed the least objectionable to me.

I hadn't made any decisions anyway, I was just weighing my options and it seemed like as good an option as any, better than many really.

All my experience and most of my skills lie in IT though, maybe I should just look for something else in that regard somwhere, for now. Something that I can get on with myself, not being someone's phone slave and tech support monkey etc. I hate that crap.
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Can you not go and work with your dad?
 
We've always avoided mixing work and family like that. I've never asked him and he's never asked me tbh. I think it's better that we work separately really.
 
The way I got a 3 year visa was through my employer as they have offices in the UK and US. To be able to get a greencard, my employer than has to sponsor me, pay around 10k and then wait 4 years or so.

The only other way you can easily get over is if you have close family already here, and then get them to sponsor you.
 
Hi Fox

My father is off to Phoenix in April and we've just checked Hertz and a Mustang is around £480 for two weeks. You mentioned before if you book using a certain credit card you get a discount what card was it?
 
I have just been driving around California and Arizona for just over a week. My female business partner arrived the day before me and hired the car. Did she pick a Mustang? an F150? no.......... a 2.5 litre VW Jetta!

To be honest it wasn't bad, although it was laggy when you put your foot down (guess that it is a bit of a naff auto box). Given that the cost was to be picked up by our client I would have applied a bit more imagination.
 
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