Canadian 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?
Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
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Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#212Canadian 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?
> people on this forum snicker at me I hope you just mean that metaphorically, but if it's actually happening, please let us know so we can scold them. Putting others down that pettily is a breach of civility. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I see it all the time, but don't have any examples specifically bookmarked.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Kinda unrelated to immigration, but I've heard Canadian border patrol is actually more harsh than American border control. Anyone with experience that can verify?
That would be considered unacceptable and unprofessional at U.S. border control.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#214Canadian 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…
Do Canadian companies make that much less money than American ones? Why should they get to pad their profit margins because 120k CAD is "good income"?
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
Canadian here (who lives outside of Canada but recently did a stint there for a bit) and this will sound negative but f-it. Canadian culture sucks when it comes to trying new things. Canada has some extra safety net but the culture is puritanical and conservative and nobody wants to go out on a limb and try something new and crazy. Not like Americans. Those that do are constantly questioned by everybody. The idea of…
The liberalness of Canada is overhyped. The reality is Canada is deeply conservative. It's possible to have universal health care and be conservative, that's only a oxymoron in the US. To quote this excellent article[1]: "the default setting of the Canadian male: a dull but stern dad, who, under a facade of apparent normalcy and common sense, conceals a reserve of barely contained hostility toward anyone who might ro…
Just being a conservative or a right-winger is bothersome and ignorant and dangerous and destructive and lots of bad things. What a way of seeing the world. :-)
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#216Maybe it's not only the money. In Silicon Valley, engineers are treated like stars, not sent to the basement with the worst office. In most cities, the business leaders run the show, and treat engineers as a commodity, to be added or disposed of when needed: "let's go faster by adding more engineers, who cares about the talent level, what's the difference".
Let's face it, today we are hard pressed to find almost any organization where IT/IS is not a critical part of the organization.
I think as organizations change to more modern, organic, less hierarchical structures, the importance of IT is changing. It is going from being a "separate concern" to an "integrated concern". New students are being taught technology at younger and younger ages, which means they can combine it with other fields of study, and thus "business" and "IT" are finally closer to being the same exact thing.
Right now, people are flocking to Silicon Valley with the currently somewhat true but somewhat misguided belief (IMHO) that "that is where all the smart people and opportunities are". It is not the ONLY place the smart people and opportunities are.
There are smart people and opportunities everywhere. Sure, if they cluster in one place, that's entirely possible and makes that place valuable. However, when the cost of living exceeds some natural limit, I suspect that it will be infeasible to continue to grow Silicon Valley further - and when that happens, the desire to save money and shave off expenses will naturally drive businesses, organizations and people to other areas.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#217Canadian 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…
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#218Canadian 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?
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Canada is very risk averse. There's money, but it's not flowing properly.
Canada is more "courageous" in some senses, but very conservative in others. I'd describe its adoption curve as flat in the beginning and then bending upwards.
Re: Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
#220Me and most of my engineering friends faced this decision 5 years ago. We all had to decide between offers from one of the big 5, or remaining in the Toronto-Waterloo region. I'm the only one who stayed. And that's only because I was presented with a really interesting opportunity not available to most. I can only speak to the University of Waterloo, but there was this idea that the only goal worth perusing was a cal…
It's not so much that people are paid better in the bay area, but the jobs are plentiful, more interesting, more opportunities. Endless opportunities in fact. Bay area best case scenario is top of the world. Founder of a world-wide renowned company. Best case scenario for being in waterloo: Founder of a huge telcom handset manufacturer until shifting markets cause massive failure written about in economics textbooks…
I'm sorry, but this is absolutely not true. Not only did the company you're talking about pay out incredibly well for its founders, but Waterloo is dramatically different today.