I am a Canadian who lives in Michigan. Here is why a comp sci major moves to US
1. Low salary compared to US 2. High Tax 3. Cant afford a house in Toronto 4. TN Visa makes easy to get a job in US.
Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
201–210 of 715 posts
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
Edmonton. I worked in MTV for 4 months, 4 months in Seattle, and I'm leaving on Monday to SV again for the summer.
That's not a Canada problem, that's an Edmonton problem. You'll have all the same complaints if you lived in Gary, Indiana.
Not entirely true.
Costs across Canada are getting pretty absurd. Air travel, mobile data, wages, shipping, consumer goods, housing, insurance https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/8gui6r/are_canadian...
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#203Canadian tech worker here. Base salary is 120k CAD in Calgary which is far above market rate but I am educated, experienced etc. That is 93k USD. I am looking to move to the USA because of higher salaries, but I am not 22 years old anymore and moving a family (with 2 earners) is no easy task. It falls on deaf ears though, 120k CAD is a good income, I can afford a house, cars, no debts etc so there is very little unde…
Definitely be aware of the current value/cost of CPP and OAS and the difference typical medical expenditures (both the normal ones things that contribute to out-of-pocket maximums, and catastrophic care risks). Not to discourage you, the pay difference might cover it and then some. Sounds like you know what you're doing, but just in case.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm wondering how that salary difference really is when comparing the cost of living of many Canadian cities vs Silicon Valley, the taxation rate and the social services provided (universal healthcare, etc).
The cost of living between Vancouver and Seattle is very comparable, especially when you account for your biggest input costs, housing, food & transportation. The Salaries most definitely are not. The biggies south of the border set the baseline salary for everyone; when they move north they match the existing, much lower rates. If I was a new-ish grad and wanted to stay in the PNW there's not a chance I'd pick Vanco…
I can't believe how much Vancouver has changed (as far as attractiveness for recent grads) over the last twenty years.
When I turned 20 in 1997, Vancouver seemed like a personal version of heaven. Rents were more expensive than where I'm from, but that increase was easily offset by the ability to easily double my salary. Real estate was heavy, but not so heavy that it seemed unobtainable. Add in what I perceived to be real opportunity to work in an interesting field, a highly educated workforce and the natural beauty and I was completely sold.
Today, even if I were twenty again, I can't think of a single legitimate reason why I would choose Vancouver over Seattle.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#205I'm surprised at the lack of answers that suggest a positive opinion about working in Canada. I personally love the health care and other social benefits, the winters, the multi-cultural city (Toronto), the people, and the lack of gun ownership, among many other things. SV strikes me as a monoculture. I don't want to live at my workplace. The opportunities are fewer but there's also higher demand. My workplace has be…
I eye roll at the "SV is a monoculture" as if somehow you could summarize 5 million people in a highly multicultural and dynamic region as a monoculture, but Toronto is so awesome. If you are finding your experience in the bay area is a monoculture, then it's only your own fault.
If you think Silicon Valley (and increasingly, parts of San Francisco) is not a monoculture, it's because you're a card-carrying member of the monocoluture and you don't know it.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which city in Canada are you studying in? Have you spent some time in SV?
Edmonton. I worked in MTV for 4 months, 4 months in Seattle, and I'm leaving on Monday to SV again for the summer.
Edmonton is my home town. There's better options here in the Toronto area and our winter is not so long. Forget what people out west say about it. It's mostly pretty good here, depending on what you're looking for. Vibrant city.
But SV will still pay almost double.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#207Canadian here. I get $65,000 USD from my remote American job. That's low enough that people on this forum snicker at me, and high enough that companies in the "tech town" that I live in physically wince when I tell them my salary expectation. I'd rather work locally, but what can I do?
I too am in Victoria. I used to be a hiring manager and had people turn down 6 figure (CAD) offers due to receiving a better one. Although there is admittedly a huge gap between the local companies, and the satellite offices of American companies. Look at KIXEYE, Change.org, Workday, Abe Books (Amazon subsidiary). They typically pay up to 50% more than the local companies, but also typically have higher expectations around skills and availability.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#208Canada is in a really tough spot here. I've always admired Canadian culture/values, and in the abstract, would love to live in Canada one day. However, as a Software developer, the compensation and opportunities that one can find in SF/Seattle/NYC dwarf anything in Canada. Until this changes, Canada is always going to lose its brightest engineers, which will in turn worsen the problem even further. Some solutions I c…
> who are hesitant to move to USA because of immigration restrictions. Where does this perception come from? Canada has stricter immigration rules than the USA. EDIT: Specifically what I'm talking about is that Canada only allows in immigrants who are economically desirable and speak English or French.
Most countries do. But the groupthink is that the USA is hostile to immigrants. Which doesn't explain all the immigrants (legal and otherwise).
There's also the cliche (spread by the internet and political groups) that conservative/Republicans/etc... are against all immigration. This is 90% incorrect.
I worked as support staff during a conference in Seattle of conservative business leaders around 2010. Their #1 topic of discussion was how to get more people into the country because they couldn't find enough workers with the right skills domestically. And no, it wasn't the tech sector that was hurting the most.
Apparently the problem the conservatives have isn't immigration as an umbrella policy. It's legal versus illegal methods (though some of the speakers advocated for both). Kind of eye-opening. I no longer believe the regurgitated talking points from either party.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#209Canadian tech worker here. Base salary is 120k CAD in Calgary which is far above market rate but I am educated, experienced etc. That is 93k USD. I am looking to move to the USA because of higher salaries, but I am not 22 years old anymore and moving a family (with 2 earners) is no easy task. It falls on deaf ears though, 120k CAD is a good income, I can afford a house, cars, no debts etc so there is very little unde…
In Silicon Valley, most likely you are not going to afford a house anyway.. .
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#21065.93% of Software Engineering graduates end up working in the US after graduation. Not a great statistic for Canada's tech industry.
I think something even stronger would be true if you asked about non-CA US states. Why would Canada, at 1/10th the US population, have more of an independent tech locus than does Texas (which has a population comparable to Canada)? Is this just a difference of nations re-distributing wealth internally but not between nations?
Texas (Austin, Dallas, Houston) has successfully attracted a huge amount of company headquarters and regional offices. There's a great cost of living, an existing talent pool, and great local entertainment culture, plus no income tax and great weather. Canada has none of this.