Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?

#51

Post by kingkongjaffa » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 5:53 PM UTC

hourislate wrote: post #26

My business partner for one of his other ventures, hired a kid who finished a degree from University of Waterloo in NANO Technology Eng as a lab tech for a starting salary of 48k. It seems like his prospects were very limited. I'm not sure if it's his career choice or if it's related to the high levels of underemployment in the Toronto tech industry in general.

Traditional engineering, especially academic, is not very well paid compared to software engineering jobs.

Source: I skipped out on a Mechanical engineering PhD to join industry for better $$, I then skipped out on Mechanical engineering industry for better w/l balance and $$ working from home in a tech role.

Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?

#52

Post by dleslie » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

bawolff wrote: post #50

mthoms wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I think Vancouver is an exception to the parent's comment. It's certainly true in Calgary, Toronto, Montreal etc (IMHO).

Its certainly an exception on the winter front. How walkable cities are are going to vary by city. Vancouver is very walkable. Also if you live somewhere up north, its not going to be that walkable even with a great bus system, because waiting for the bus in -30 sucks.

Eh, it's a dry cold. I've a good friend working in Nunavut right now and she walks to work. The trick is that her rental is nestled in the center of town; and the town is so small that there's no need for a car.

Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?

#53

Post by TheBiffer » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 5:58 PM UTC

dleslie wrote: post #47

jayparth wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best jobs? Granted I don't know what "the best jobs" are in Victoria, but that seems surprising. Are there big tech offices in Victoria? If there aren't good jobs there then it's a different story.

There's hardly anything in Victoria. It's a Government and Retirement town. Edit: apparently my perspective is dated; see the replies.

No so. Victoria has a thriving software community.

Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?

#54

Post by chrisfosterelli » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 6:02 PM UTC

dleslie wrote: post #47

jayparth wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best jobs? Granted I don't know what "the best jobs" are in Victoria, but that seems surprising. Are there big tech offices in Victoria? If there aren't good jobs there then it's a different story.

There's hardly anything in Victoria. It's a Government and Retirement town. Edit: apparently my perspective is dated; see the replies.

Tech is the city's biggest industry.

https://www.victoriachamber.ca/about-victoria.html

Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?

#55

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 6:02 PM UTC

TheBiffer wrote: post #53

dleslie wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's hardly anything in Victoria. It's a Government and Retirement town. Edit: apparently my perspective is dated; see the replies.

No so. Victoria has a thriving software community.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?

#56

Post by chrisfosterelli » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

jayparth wrote: post #42

dleslie wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They said it was the beginning of their career. Particularly on the island, in Victoria, it's quite possible for an entry level position to earn only around 33,000 to 45,000 CDN.

The best jobs? Granted I don't know what "the best jobs" are in Victoria, but that seems surprising. Are there big tech offices in Victoria? If there aren't good jobs there then it's a different story.

There's a significant amount of startups / medium companies / consultancies but no "heavy hitter" offices like FAMGA, which is probably a driver behind the state of salaries. There is some Amazon presence through an acquisition they made on ABE books. Though there's also lots of remote workers here too for big companies like Github / etc.

Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?

#57

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 6:08 PM UTC

thinkingkong wrote: post #6

Vancouver and Toronto are developing rather robust local economies. Vancouvers is more satellite offices for large American companies like Amazon (15k). Shopify announced prior to Covid that they were opening an office with 1000 people. A large portion of the jobs here have traditionally been as a visa clearing house prior to having people move to the main campus but there are lots of locals. The biggest challenge in…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?

#58

Post by dleslie » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 6:11 PM UTC

chrisfosterelli wrote: post #54

dleslie wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's hardly anything in Victoria. It's a Government and Retirement town. Edit: apparently my perspective is dated; see the replies.

Tech is the city's biggest industry. https://www.victoriachamber.ca/about-victoria.html

Was just reading this; sounds like tech started becoming a growth industry recently. Neat!

https://www.vicnews.com/business/booming-tech-sector-in-grea...

Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?

#59

Post by eswat » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 6:12 PM UTC

Past how robust the tech scene is in your desired location, you also have to ask how the pandemic will affect your time outside of work. ie: Montréal will be just as boring as Ottawa in terms of the nightlife scene for a while.

Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?

#60

Post by mardifoufs » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 6:13 PM UTC

Maven911 wrote: post #39

loufe wrote: post #22

If you're considering Montréal, do your research before. French language is not a requirement to get by day-to-day in the city (though elsewhere in the province is another story). We have a decent tech sector with some big companies like CAE, Mindgeek, and Hopper. There is also a respectable AI research scene and an incresing amount of startups in the city. If you're open to learning French (a good chunk of jobs requ…

What would you say are the wages for different types of tech roles and seniority in Montreal? And how accessible are those to non-native French speakers?

Your salary is probably going to be lower in Montreal, but it's much cheaper city to live in than Vancouver or Toronto. There are high paying jobs if you know where to find them, but it seems to me like a lot of the software engineers I've come across here are a little less "ambitious" and don't mind settling for a smaller salary if it means more stability. It's also very taboo here to talk about your salary (sometimes even to your SO?) but that's changing and I think it's not unique to Quebec at all.

In my experience, and purely anecdotally, I've really witnessed a 2 speeds system where some people are very highly paid (120k+, keep in mind you can buy a condo in the middle of downtown for 300k) and some are getting very (40-50k) low salaries for the same amount of experience, same alma matter and probably even the same skill . How you sell yourself is always a huge factor in how much you get paid, sure, but the difference is particularly striking in Montreal imo.

As for seniority, most of the teams I've seen are very young with very dynamic leads. The industry is booming right now ( or was booming before march, I'm not sure now).