So, as I’ve written, I had an interview for the Managers job where I work. It would have been a big step up and it would be a challenging position for sure. The only real issue was that the job is based in Ontario and worse (possibly) yet, in Toronto.
I applied for it, although when I applied, I was not sure if I wanted to move back to Ontario or not. I figured the experience of the job interview process would be a good one. I had the interview this past Thursday and it went well.
Over the weekend, I looked at all of the pros and cons regarding moving back to Ontario. The pros list wasn’t very long and some of them were pretty lame, I didn’t want the list to be so dang short. The cons list was hefty, to say the least. On Friday, I was in the mind-set that I planned on moving back to Ontario. I contacted a real estate friend of mine in Toronto and he sent some listings for rentals. I was shocked at the prices.
As any reader of my blog knows, I have three dogs so I wasn’t looking for a one-bedroom apartment. I wanted a house, within 30 minute transit ride of the downtown office. There were lots available. One was very promising, it was about a 7 minute walk to the office. The catch? It was $3750 a month. Wow… The most I have ever spent on rent is $1600 and that was for a townhouse in Calgary and it was likely over-priced. I crunched some numbers and based on what I believe I would have started at with the new job, I could have afforded it, barely, but it would have left me with almost nothing at the end of the month. I quickly decided that living in downtown Toronto was not going to happen.
I expanded my search to Oakville and Burlington and the rental prices were much more acceptable. I found a good 3-bedroom house, right on Lake Ontario and it was going for $2200 a month, much more reasonable, although still very pricy. I was a little shocked at the prices of rentals and how much they’ve gone up since I last lived in Ontario.
I wasn’t overly excited about commuting to work again. Right now, I have it pretty good, my commute, from the couch, is about 20 feet. If I was to live in Burlington, I would be looking at an hour, at least, one-way door to door. That’s not really that bad, in the grand scheme of things but still, that’s an extra two hours a day that I am not home. The dogs would be on their own from somewhere around 7am until likely 6pm, a long haul for a dog. I could have installed a doggie-door and trained them on how to use it, or paid for someone to come over and take them for walks, I likely could have made it work.
I also thought about other issues, or differences in Ontario when compared to Alberta. The summers are long and hot and humid – I don’t particularly care for hot and humid and Hera (my Shepherd) would have hated the summers, she hates it when it’s 22C and there isn’t any humidity in Alberta. Twix would have been happy with the temperatures, she loves to be warm and I am sure saying goodbye to Alberta winters would have been number one on her list. Blondie started her life out in Ontario and I am sure would have adjusted to it quickly enough.
I would have paid more for rent, electricity, natural gas, gas for the car, insurance and then you add on 8% PST to everything else you buy, it was looking less and less favourable.
I thought about all of this over the weekend and talked to a number of people to see what they thought as well, I wanted to get different opinions. Well, turns out, I didn’t get many different opinions, it was pretty much unanimous that I should stay in Alberta and that would mean turning down this job, should it be offered to me.
By Sunday night, I had pretty much decided that I would not be returning to Ontario. On Monday morning, I talked to the two most senior people in IT to let them know that I had decided to withdraw my name from contention for the new job. I was told, and I sort of wish that I hadn’t been, that I was going to be offered the job as they liked that I had the BDO advantage and could hit the ground running. I felt pretty good that they were willing to place their faith in me and I did feel a little bad for possibly letting them down, but, I am still in a good job and still able to help the company out.
So, I will not be returning, not now anyway, other than a planned two week (nearly) trip in October for our IT Conference. I am looking forward to that trip for sure. And to whoever is hired into the position, I wish you the best of luck. I will be seeing if I could have done a better job.
Kevin's Ramblings... 