Test Manager - Opportunities in Canada

Software industry can be highly competitive here. However not as competitive as our neighbour - the states.
Then again software industry is also extremely varied. There's different areas and some are currently more hot than the other. As you probably would probably know mobile is still very HOT. Then there is Big Data, Cloud computing and Security. There's also another side which is informatics that's also accelerating is in the area of medical computing, bioinformatics, and robotics. However these require very skilled individuals and probably with at least a masters degree (degrees in the area is preferable e.g. a Degree in Medicine, or Genetics etc.)

From my observation there are 2 streams of IT industry here. Mainstream which is your conventional Java, JEE, Mainframes, C#, Enterprise backend kind of thing. And then there's the "new age" IT stuff which are mobile, python, PIG, Hadoop, Big Data. The later is slowly getting assimilated by the former. Take for example IBM opened a Global Services centre here in Halifax, NS which is doing mobile development, testing and also Big Data stuff. But there are a lot of small start ups that in this (new age) area. I work with one them. Tip: Do not discount start ups, sometimes they pay better than big guns. It is not what you think!!

Given that I am from the same industry, I can tell you this -  until and unless you present a very niche skill set that's extremely rare, it would be a very hard sell to get a job offer. Take for example if you know MVS, MQ and Enterprise Security all combine - that's something that not many people have. But for new age IT stuff, most of the graduates from local university already come equipped with them. So for those, companies will be looking for locals or canadian grads first.

There's another perspective to things which is where you want to work. To answer this question you'll have to ask yourself another one which is - are you in for the short haul or lang haul? Meaning, do you plan to go back to Indian after all is said and done (a short 5 year stint) or stay, get your PR and eventually be a Canadian. If you are doing the later then what  you need to know is that think about your total cost of living and lifestyle. Typically destinations by folks from immigrants particularly from Asian countries are big and familiar ones like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, or Calgary. Know that these areas are over populated and also cost of living is higher in terms of home ownership. Then there's also the long commute to work. I am living and working in Halifax (population size 500K). I can buy and own a home for far lesser than if I were in Toronto and live only 5 minutes from office and 10 min from downtown. Annual salary though is btw 10-20% lesser than what you'll make in Toronto. (use http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/ to view what the COL is). But from my point of view has way better quality of life than if you lived in bigger cities. Tip2: Also competition will be less and everyone else wants to go to BIGGER cities

Here's another thing I normally would like to tell would be immigrants - open your eyes and try new things. If one is too fix in ones ways then perhaps its better to stay put

p.s. To know what someone makes roughly use the site: glassdoor or better still use Canada's Federal Gov's Jobbank site, http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/wage-outlook_s … ption=wage
That link allows you to search for jobs and arrange them by wages and according to region, plus a whole load of other stuff - try and explore it.

One last thing, given that you are a Test Manager, I am not sure how much you expect to be in the same role when here. I would advice to be able to adjust one's expectations so as to be happier with the potential outcomes. Take for example, I was in an Asst. Manager role prior to coming here and I started out as a Software Architect first here and now I am a Senior Consultant. Personally titles are simply labels. Until and unless you are made Director, General Manager, CTO, CEO or Partner, your title is almost worthless.