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Specializing in creating and communicating concepts, implementing marketing strategies and developing interactive design solutions.
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Calgary is a progressive city but lags in use of social media.
Calgary has changed immensely in 8 years but thankfully, despite its growth, it hasn’t lost that small town friendliness. Ok maybe a little.
I recently re-located to Calgary from Vancouver for a couple of reasons. Apart from family, I decided to move because I was finding it surprisingly difficult to get work. Experienced freelancer’s and web people are many on the west coast. As a result of economics there are less jobs available especially in marketing.
As I started my job hunt in Calgary I began to notice some interesting things. I was pleased to have gotten through to a second interview and received 2 other call backs after sending out only 5 resume’s. I don’t think that there is a surplus of jobs in Calgary and my resume hasn’t changed. So why is it so much easier to find e-business work in Calgary compared to Vancouver?
While Calgary is considered a progressive city with more head offices than any other city in Canada it lags behind in some key area’s that define progressive. It’s almost as though the inherent negative qualities a progressive city can generate like snobbish, cold, remote, and non-social are the ways that Calgary lags. The qualities of friendliness, warmth, generorsity, down-to-earth and welcoming is one of the primary reasons I am leaving Vancouver. One of Calgary’s alias’ is “the big city with the small town feel”.
The growth in Stampede city has been quick. Very quick. So it will be interesting to see how long it takes for the “small town feel” to disintegrate into ….”big city feel”. Even more interesting is will Alberta politics ever be left?
Back to my secondary reason for leaving Vancouver – employment. For five years following tech schooling i made a really good living as a freelancer in Vancouver. Craigslist was my number one place for getting contracts for all sorts of things: web design, web development, online marketing, social marketing, print design and marketing collateral. Essentially an employment portal for e-business specialists like me. I also want to note that it isn’t just companies with a low budget posting job opportunities either. Full-time salaried positions by big companies are listed as well.
Calgary’s jobs are definitely not found on Craigslist. In fact, Calgary doesn’t really make much use of Craigslist at all. Calgary seems to love headhunters and monster. In line with this trend is that the general twitter population in Calgary and surrounding area’s is very small and includes mostly individuals. It shouldn’t be that surprising however because social media and marketing for business is very, very new to most people. It is one of the hottest topics around in business and trending circles.
I have seen small glimpses of the avant-guard organization in Calgary, to me symbolizing other layers of change are on the way. If I haven’t seen them on twitter or craigslist then how are they spotted. These organizations are still carrying out marketing plans despite the economic downfall.
As an e-business specialist this is a very good time to be living in ‘cow town’. I am excited to be here and be apart of a changing business landscape.
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