Toronto, Tennessee, New York,

Hello all

As I've mentioned several times I have been applying for jobs in America and Canada recently and I have heard back about some of them. I can't mention any of the companies involve obviously, so don't expect that.

I have been offered interviews for jobs in various locations, some of which I can have via Skype, others require me to actually go there......better hope my passport issues get sorted out soon then. 

Ontario

So let's go through my three prefered options.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada 

Well I've always said that my prefered country to move to is Canada. There signs are also pointing to my future being here. Every time I turn the TV there's a reference to Canada, which I take as a sign. Granted, there's always references to America as well, but you expect those.

There are several reasons for this.

• It's easier to get into (legally) than America
• Canada is a beautiful country
• The big cities in Canada aren't massive from my understanding. They're big, but not ridiculously big.
• Someone who I consider to be a close friend lives in Canada. So it'd be easier to go and she her (assuming she would want to of course)

So those are four reasons why Canada is my prefered option. Toronto is another good option because it's in Ontario, and Ontario's population is relatively small for a province of it's size with only 12 million people living there. The equivalent number can be made up from the populations of Lincolnshire and it's immediate surrounding counties.

If I ended up in Toronto, or anywhere in Ontario for that matter, I would be adding to the number of English people in that area, and bizarrely there are more English than there are Canadians in Ontario. To be more precise, at the last count there were 12,028,895 people living in Ontario, with the English taking up 24.7% of that population compared to just 23.0% Canadian, which is a bizarre fact.

Now the only problem with the offer of the job in Toronto is this has a big time constraint. I've had issues with my passport in the last few months and this has meant I've had to apply for a new one, so I'm having to go through the usual process, which takes quite some time. The interview is scheduled for the end of March but that doesn't leave a lot of time to get the passport sorted out. I could easily go for the quick-track option but there's guarantees it would be sorted by the time the interview would come off.

The job itself is nothing special though, certainly not compared to the other two I'm about to talk about. The wages aren't that great to be honest, the job itself isn't actually that good and would probably just be like any job I can get over here. To be honest I think the main reason I would want this job would be just to get into Canada and go from there.

Even if I don't get this role, I will continue to apply for roles in the area.



Tennessee



Memphis, Tennessee, America

The fact I initially spelt Tennessee incorrectly might not be the best start to an argument as to why I would consider moving there.

Much like Toronto/Ontario, there are several reasons why I would like to move to Memphis or anywhere in Tennessee.

• It's relatively small by American standards. Tennessee is the 36th largest American state.
• The population is also relatively small by American standards, with just under 6.5 million people living in the state.
• The other one of my two close friends live there and it would be nice to be within a reasonable distance of her, hopefully seeing her on a regular basis.

I'll be honest and say I don't know an awful lot about Memphis, or even Tennessee for that matter. I know the absolute basics but to be honest I had applied for the role here without actually noticing where it was. Maybe this, combined with that I couldn't spell it correctly, means this might not be a good option.

The good thing about the job offer from Memphis is that it's the highest wages out of the three I'm talking about in this blog, and out of the three, it's the job I want the most as it's a role in an industry that I am very familiar with. This is also a role where they are happy for me to be interviewed over Skype, meaning I don't have to worry about the cost of going over there for a role I might not get, and there's a hell of a lot more freedom with regards to the date.

However, the big obstacle will be the work permits and VISAs. As far as I understand it, getting into America when you're not in a specialist vocation (such as a doctor) is very difficult, and although the role I'm going for is sort of specialist due to the knowledge that's needed, it's knowledge that can be trained to anyone within a few weeks/months.



New York



New York, America

Start spreading the news

I'm leaving today

I want to be a part of it

New York....New York.

I think it's close on impossible for anyone in the civilised world to have not heard of New York. Arguably the greatest city in the world, New York has so many positives that it would take me a long time to write them....but here are a few.

• It's a city where there's a tourist attraction around virtually every corner.
• It's close to Canada, meaning that I could effectively get the best of both worlds.
• One of the furthest east cities in the country with excellent transport links back to England....just incase.

However, whilst there are plenty of good things about New York, I can certainly think of a lot of negatives.

• Only two cities in America have higher populations than New York. Just under 19 million people live in New York (if you include New Jersey). I got freaked out when I moved to Nottingham and that's a dwarf compared to New York.
• It has a strong reputation for crime.
• Strikes me as an unforgiven city. You make a mistake and it punishes you more than anyone other city would.

Out of the three, New York is by far my most reserved choice for a place to live because for every positive, there's a negative, whereas with the other two I run out of negatives pretty quickly.

However, whilst Toronto is my prefered location and Memphis is the one where the job fits my expertise, the job in New York is THE one that I want. It is working for a product that I love and I think that's an important thing when going for a job. It's a product that I am personally interested in and use on a regular basis.

Much like Memphis though, this role involves a VISA and all the other relevant permits, but unlike the job in Memphis, I have precisely zero experience in the industry that this job is in. No experience = No unique skillset = No chance. It amazes me they even gave me an interview because of this, don't get me wrong, I'm delighted to have been given an interview, but it seems strange that they have given that there's virtually no realistic chance I'd actually be able to do the job.

SO IN SUMMARY

Toronto - Near one of my closest friends, easiest to get into and beautiful location, but probably won't be able to actually go to the interview.

Memphis - Near one of my closest friends, a job where I have experience and expertise and a great wage, but I know nothing about the area and work permit and VISA might be an issue.

New York - Working for a product I have a personal interest and I have a good knowledge about the city, but the pure size of both the city and population would freak me out, and unlike the other two, I don't have a friend in the area and that means I don't have someone to fall back on just incase I have questions before I go.