If you like lower pay, higher taxes, outrageous house prices and long winters you'll love it.
Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?
71–80 of 119 posts
Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
> My top earning friends in Canada of the same experience level earn 2 - 4 times less than me and my peers here 2 is possible, 4 seems like a big stretch. Are you really comparing apples to apples? Or are you working for Google and comparing against someone working for a random consultancy firm in Victoria? In Montréal, top software developers salaries are around 200K CAD, a bit more if you go at Google, and Montreal…
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.
At the risk of sounding like I'm boasting, I'll share concrete figures. I earn about $285k USD (~$380k CAD) as an L4 SWE at a FANG company. My top earning friends in BC work at companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Juul and earn about $60-$120k CAD.
Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?
#73Earlier 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.
At the risk of sounding like I'm boasting, I'll share concrete figures. I earn about $285k USD (~$380k CAD) as an L4 SWE at a FANG company. My top earning friends in BC work at companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Juul and earn about $60-$120k CAD.
Then you're probably an outlier; that's well outside of the normal for software engineers in California based on data I can find.
Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?
#74Earlier 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.
At the risk of sounding like I'm boasting, I'll share concrete figures. I earn about $285k USD (~$380k CAD) as an L4 SWE at a FANG company. My top earning friends in BC work at companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Juul and earn about $60-$120k CAD.
Thanks for sharing this. People don't realize, and often refuse to believe, how large this gap has gotten. (Patio11 has written about that quite a bit.) It's...crazy.
Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?
#75Vancouver 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…
The biggest issue in Canada is a lack of imagination and risk taking by the capitalist class. They would rather stick to what they know, digging rocks and sand out of the ground.
That's harsh and put in a flamebaity rather than interest-furthering way (which, please don't on HN!) but I think it's true that Canada is more risk-averse than the US. If you think about it, that can be traced straight back to the founding of the two countries. The two populations even self-selected for risk tolerance to some extent. (I'm talking about English-speaking Canada.)
Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
At the risk of sounding like I'm boasting, I'll share concrete figures. I earn about $285k USD (~$380k CAD) as an L4 SWE at a FANG company. My top earning friends in BC work at companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Juul and earn about $60-$120k CAD.
Then you're probably an outlier; that's well outside of the normal for software engineers in California based on data I can find.
FAANG engineers are the highest paid 10% of software engineers in California.
Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then you're probably an outlier; that's well outside of the normal for software engineers in California based on data I can find.
FAANG engineers are the highest paid 10% of software engineers in California.
Sure, but not every software engineer in California is a FAANG engineer; and even among FAANG engineers that stated salary is rather high.
It's not particularly useful to make claims that one can earn enormous amounts by changing region without also acknowledging that such an opportunity is only available to a small minority.
Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?
#78I'm a Canadian software that moved from Victoria, BC to San Francisco, CA to begin my career two years ago. My top earning friends in Canada of the same experience level earn 2 - 4 times less than me and my peers here. I'm saving significantly more here than them too even after a much higher cost of living. The quality of life here is worse though in some ways. Most of all I miss the politeness and generally less hos…
> My top earning friends in Canada of the same experience level earn 2 - 4 times less than me and my peers here 2 is possible, 4 seems like a big stretch. Are you really comparing apples to apples? Or are you working for Google and comparing against someone working for a random consultancy firm in Victoria? In Montréal, top software developers salaries are around 200K CAD, a bit more if you go at Google, and Montreal…
200K CAD is basically unheard in Montreal for the IC. I know only one person with total compensation like that and she is kind of tech manager. 135K Cad is very high in Montreal for IC, median for the senior developer is around 90k, 100K considered very good.
Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
FAANG engineers are the highest paid 10% of software engineers in California.
Sure, but not every software engineer in California is a FAANG engineer; and even among FAANG engineers that stated salary is rather high. It's not particularly useful to make claims that one can earn enormous amounts by changing region without also acknowledging that such an opportunity is only available to a small minority.
Among FAANG engineers $285K is not high.
Re: Ask HN: Canada for tech jobs?
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your salary is probably going to be lower in Montreal, but it's much cheaper city to live in than Vancouver or Toronto. There are high paying jobs if you know where to find them, but it seems to me like a lot of the software engineers I've come across here are a little less "ambitious" and don't mind settling for a smaller salary if it means more stability. It's also very taboo here to talk about your salary (sometim…
Thanks for the detailed info!
Agree with the OP.
To add on to this, from someone who is actually living in Montreal.. Quebec has the highest tax rates in Canada.
To give you an idea, the majority of software engineers here make between: 70k-95k.
This means you should be ready live with around 4-6k/mo after taxes.
The rent is still cheap, but not as cheap as you think, a descent apartment will cost you ~1,200$/mo.
The healthcare is (almost) free, you still have to pay the government ~200-400$ year if you're not on a private plan. But it's nowhere near the US.
Also French really is a requirement, especially when dealing with the government.