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Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

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Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#61

Post by raverbashing »

buzzkillington wrote: post #47
ttul wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you get into a senior role at one of the big tech firms, pay matches the valley. For lesser roles, Canada is cheaper, but the gap is closing rapidly as talent runs dry.

Senior roles in SF/NY pay >600k in total comp. I was flat out told there are no such jobs in Canada two years back. Has that changed?

Yes but not everybody can get to this level of compensation even in SF

If you can grow, you'll grow pretty much everywhere

I know the 600k sound tempting but it's not like it doesn't have any strings attached.

Getting paid, let's say 200k USD in Canada, might get you closer to owning your home than the 600k in SF

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#62

Post by skybrian »

gyulai wrote: post #53

...we've been having these kinds of headlines from local media outlets pretty much everywhere where FAANG have created/expanded presences. -- But it seems to me that these companies are extremely centralized and only decentralize to the extent that it is unavoidable (e.g. distributed data centers for reasons of latency) or that it captures special opportunities (e.g. Apple expanding in Munich right now, but doing onl…

Google has large engineering offices in major cities all over the world. Seattle, New York, Dublin, London, Zurich, Tokyo...

There are advantages to being at headquarters but it's not practical to move everyone to the SF Bay Area.

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#63

Post by unicornmama »

qeqeqeqe wrote: post #58
gyulai wrote: post #53

...we've been having these kinds of headlines from local media outlets pretty much everywhere where FAANG have created/expanded presences. -- But it seems to me that these companies are extremely centralized and only decentralize to the extent that it is unavoidable (e.g. distributed data centers for reasons of latency) or that it captures special opportunities (e.g. Apple expanding in Munich right now, but doing onl…

How is opening 5000 new jobs in Canada a sign that Google is "extremely centralized"? In regards to your Munich example, what exactly is the issue with that? If there's a large amount of talent in some area why wouldn't you want to try and compete for it? Anyway, I have a good feeling that office will grow soon, there's plenty of non-hardware and chip design talent in that area :) You do have to start somewhere thoug…

There’s no transparency on what the roles will be. Engineering? Accounting? Datacenter operations? Fly fishing?

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#64

Post by jldugger »

syedkarim wrote: post #56
halflings wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "senior roles"? Something like a "Senior Software Engineer"? (or more like a Senior Staff SWE / director) Can guarantee Senior Software Engineers don't make >600K in SF.

The above was referring to total comp. From what I have read, annual stock/RSU compensation is equivalent to salary. I have read that a $300,000 salary is not unheard of for a senior FAANG engineering role.

It's rather rare, from what I can tell. Esp. in the context of immigration, h1bdata can be useful. Google llc has precisely 1 software engineer certified at a salary above 300k. 250k, more achievable, with very senior status.

What really happens though is RSU appreciation. GOOG has more than doubled in the past 4 years. You are awarded X dollars of stock on hire and every annual review period, but that is converted into shares awarded every Y months. If you achieved a 1:1 salary:RSU vesting ratio, today that would probably be 1:2, a 50 percent pay raise.

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#65

Post by qeqeqeqe »

unicornmama wrote: post #63
qeqeqeqe wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is opening 5000 new jobs in Canada a sign that Google is "extremely centralized"? In regards to your Munich example, what exactly is the issue with that? If there's a large amount of talent in some area why wouldn't you want to try and compete for it? Anyway, I have a good feeling that office will grow soon, there's plenty of non-hardware and chip design talent in that area :) You do have to start somewhere thoug…

There’s no transparency on what the roles will be. Engineering? Accounting? Datacenter operations? Fly fishing?

It's obviously going to be mostly engineering, it's Google.

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#66

Post by gyulai »

qeqeqeqe wrote: post #58
gyulai wrote: post #53

...we've been having these kinds of headlines from local media outlets pretty much everywhere where FAANG have created/expanded presences. -- But it seems to me that these companies are extremely centralized and only decentralize to the extent that it is unavoidable (e.g. distributed data centers for reasons of latency) or that it captures special opportunities (e.g. Apple expanding in Munich right now, but doing onl…

How is opening 5000 new jobs in Canada a sign that Google is "extremely centralized"? In regards to your Munich example, what exactly is the issue with that? If there's a large amount of talent in some area why wouldn't you want to try and compete for it? Anyway, I have a good feeling that office will grow soon, there's plenty of non-hardware and chip design talent in that area :) You do have to start somewhere thoug…

5000 new jobs is not what the article is saying, but capacity to grow to 5000. I don't know how many they have now, and creating capacity to do something is not the same as actually doing it. Also, to put the number in perspective: 5000 would be only 4.3% of their global workforce, and my guess would be that Canada must actually be one of their biggest non-U.S. presences. (London also has a strong one for Google).

I'm also not saying that there's anything wrong with these companies expanding their presences outside the valley. (I would very much welcome it), only that we're not seeing enough of it right now to contradict the notion that these companies are still very much centralized. Maybe real estate prices and competition for tech talent will eventually force them to properly decentralize. But I could also see a scenario where those companies could put their might into play to overcome that resistance-level and allow them to continue growing while remaining centralized. It's simply too early to tell which way this thing is playing out.

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#67

Post by tanilama »

gyulai wrote: post #53

...we've been having these kinds of headlines from local media outlets pretty much everywhere where FAANG have created/expanded presences. -- But it seems to me that these companies are extremely centralized and only decentralize to the extent that it is unavoidable (e.g. distributed data centers for reasons of latency) or that it captures special opportunities (e.g. Apple expanding in Munich right now, but doing onl…

> I'd be willing to bet that non-Silicon Valley locations have predominantly more junior people, and that certain promotions are harder to get and will come with the necessity to move to the valley

This doesn't sound right TBH.

Most junior people are actually in HQ, because HQ has head counts and can offer to train them, while satellite office won't have so many HCs and usually there to snatch up experienced developers.

As to promotions to higher level, yes HQ are definitely better, but that is only because it is HQ, so critical decision is made there naturally.

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#68

Post by seanmcdirmid »

gyulai wrote: post #53

...we've been having these kinds of headlines from local media outlets pretty much everywhere where FAANG have created/expanded presences. -- But it seems to me that these companies are extremely centralized and only decentralize to the extent that it is unavoidable (e.g. distributed data centers for reasons of latency) or that it captures special opportunities (e.g. Apple expanding in Munich right now, but doing onl…

Google has been decentralized for a long time. Seattle, NYC, Zurich, and London are all big offices that are at least comparable to Mountain View, not to mention a bunch of other smaller but very serious offices.

Facebook, Google, and Apple all have large or rapidly growing presences in Seattle. It does the real estate market and traffic no good, but it is what it is.

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#69

Post by ulfw »

gyulai wrote: post #53

...we've been having these kinds of headlines from local media outlets pretty much everywhere where FAANG have created/expanded presences. -- But it seems to me that these companies are extremely centralized and only decentralize to the extent that it is unavoidable (e.g. distributed data centers for reasons of latency) or that it captures special opportunities (e.g. Apple expanding in Munich right now, but doing onl…

Competitors like Infineon?

They bought Infineon (through intels purchase of Infineons mobile chip assets years ago)

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#70

Post by ulfw »

qeqeqeqe wrote: post #65
unicornmama wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s no transparency on what the roles will be. Engineering? Accounting? Datacenter operations? Fly fishing?

It's obviously going to be mostly engineering, it's Google.

So fly fishing basically :)
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