Banff if a funny town...
10 months ago I packed up all my stuff, crammed it unbelievably tightly into my car, and drove out here with a job and accomodation already in hand. I have yet to meet somebody else that did things that way.
Everybody else came out here on a whim with whatever they could carry on their backs, stayed in the hostels/B&Bs/street until they found a job, preferably one with a place to live inlcuded in the deal.
That's how "Banff" starts for most people - it's a funny town, almost a reflection of what it must have been like to move to a gold-boom town back in the 19th century, except the allure here isn't money - it's snow, alcohol, "anywhere but here", or the promise of a nearly responsibility-free existence. Then it's off with a pile of resumes (sometimes) until you get a job, usually that day. Nobody really cares what they do. Sure, everybody wants to serve tables at a restuarant for the cash, but in the end most anybody will take most any job - and they certainly have their pick.
I remember a year ago when I visited here to scope it out and look at the job market, I remember telling Bob that it seemed like I could "stand on a street corner, wave a resume in the air, and magically land a job. I had no idea how right I was.
It's a funny town. While so many places are struggling with massive unemployment, businesses here have to raise wages to exceedingly high levels ($17/hour to host in one instance that i know of) and advertise incentive programs to not only get staff, but keep them once they get here. It's the ever-present managerial danger of "the other side of the dence". If you don't like your job, no sweat! You quit and get the same money next door. Same at that job, and so on and so on. There's a paradigm shift at work here. People trade in jobs like poker chips and hold on to housing they can't afford and can't stand because it's either that or on the street.
I have one friend who is living with his ex-girlfriend in a studio appartment and sleeping in the same room/bed still. It's that or nothing. Employment but no housing.
And since one of the points of this town is that you can be a "grown-up" here without doing any actual growing up, unexpected things happen all the time. You don't ask for a vacation, you take one, sometimes with no notice (another friend just bought plane tickets to New York for 3 days from now about 3 days ago). Others work 2 jobs to support their nightly drinking at whichever pub is giving the locals rate tonight.
That's the thing - living is actually cheap (not rent). You lower your standards a little because you're not here to make a career for yourself or put money into your 401k; you're here to do something else and your job just pays for that. Another paradigm shift: You don't care how long you've been at your job, or what your job is, or whether or not you'd do it at home, you only care that you have some semblance of cash flow to support whatever the real reason you're out here. Nobody takes a job oppurtunity here in the same way that you do when you get promoted to VP of your company and have to move to Texas; you move here because you want to and who gives a crap what comes next. Aside from rent and food, most people have no bills. The rest of the money goes to hobbies.
That's Banff for you. In the last 10 months I've held three jobs, lived in three different places, and have seen an entire generation of friends come and go (I'm currently on friends Mk.II). This is now the 2nd job I've held where I am amongst the most senior staff, and this time after 3 months of work (Tony's took about 6). I have been to more going away parties than my entire tenure at Universiy, and the only time I've ever met more new people that I could call friends (or at least acquanitances) was Frosh Week in Univeristy.
This is not a town for someone who likes stability, constancy, or predictability. This town keeps you on your toes and doesn't let you sit down. It's a town where you're equally likely to have an adventure on top of a mountain as you are staying down in town if you keep your eyes open (and sometimes if you don't).
And that's Banff for you.
Everybody else came out here on a whim with whatever they could carry on their backs, stayed in the hostels/B&Bs/street until they found a job, preferably one with a place to live inlcuded in the deal.
That's how "Banff" starts for most people - it's a funny town, almost a reflection of what it must have been like to move to a gold-boom town back in the 19th century, except the allure here isn't money - it's snow, alcohol, "anywhere but here", or the promise of a nearly responsibility-free existence. Then it's off with a pile of resumes (sometimes) until you get a job, usually that day. Nobody really cares what they do. Sure, everybody wants to serve tables at a restuarant for the cash, but in the end most anybody will take most any job - and they certainly have their pick.
I remember a year ago when I visited here to scope it out and look at the job market, I remember telling Bob that it seemed like I could "stand on a street corner, wave a resume in the air, and magically land a job. I had no idea how right I was.
It's a funny town. While so many places are struggling with massive unemployment, businesses here have to raise wages to exceedingly high levels ($17/hour to host in one instance that i know of) and advertise incentive programs to not only get staff, but keep them once they get here. It's the ever-present managerial danger of "the other side of the dence". If you don't like your job, no sweat! You quit and get the same money next door. Same at that job, and so on and so on. There's a paradigm shift at work here. People trade in jobs like poker chips and hold on to housing they can't afford and can't stand because it's either that or on the street.
I have one friend who is living with his ex-girlfriend in a studio appartment and sleeping in the same room/bed still. It's that or nothing. Employment but no housing.
And since one of the points of this town is that you can be a "grown-up" here without doing any actual growing up, unexpected things happen all the time. You don't ask for a vacation, you take one, sometimes with no notice (another friend just bought plane tickets to New York for 3 days from now about 3 days ago). Others work 2 jobs to support their nightly drinking at whichever pub is giving the locals rate tonight.
That's the thing - living is actually cheap (not rent). You lower your standards a little because you're not here to make a career for yourself or put money into your 401k; you're here to do something else and your job just pays for that. Another paradigm shift: You don't care how long you've been at your job, or what your job is, or whether or not you'd do it at home, you only care that you have some semblance of cash flow to support whatever the real reason you're out here. Nobody takes a job oppurtunity here in the same way that you do when you get promoted to VP of your company and have to move to Texas; you move here because you want to and who gives a crap what comes next. Aside from rent and food, most people have no bills. The rest of the money goes to hobbies.
That's Banff for you. In the last 10 months I've held three jobs, lived in three different places, and have seen an entire generation of friends come and go (I'm currently on friends Mk.II). This is now the 2nd job I've held where I am amongst the most senior staff, and this time after 3 months of work (Tony's took about 6). I have been to more going away parties than my entire tenure at Universiy, and the only time I've ever met more new people that I could call friends (or at least acquanitances) was Frosh Week in Univeristy.
This is not a town for someone who likes stability, constancy, or predictability. This town keeps you on your toes and doesn't let you sit down. It's a town where you're equally likely to have an adventure on top of a mountain as you are staying down in town if you keep your eyes open (and sometimes if you don't).
And that's Banff for you.
posted by Anonymous at 2:46 PM
1 Comments:
Noah, you should have been a writer, or maybe yet. You are so creative. I thought I was reading a news article from a well seasoned reporter. Fascinating. Thank you. I'm packing.
love
mom
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