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

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81–90 of 266 posts

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

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toronto has none of Vancouver's rain and almost none of Calgary's snow. I wear running shoes for all save maybe 3 or 4 weeks of winter. -15 is considered a deep freeze and happens about 3 times per winter. What are you waiting for?

My wife is a UofT grad, so spent 4 years in Toronto. That's where her snow feelings come from – she still tells stories of marching to class in -20C and snow. It may not be Calgary, but it's not California either. Maybe we're wimps, but such is the situation we find ourselves in! Maybe we'll be back some day. Toronto is the most likely. On topic for the parent – we're both Googlers but right now Google has no tech em…

That isn't true. Downtown Toronto has multiple Google engineers. I know one in brain and one in cloud. One has been in TO for ~2.5 years, the other for 1 year. As far as I know the only way to get into the office is by special permission. One of them only got their role because they said they were quitting due to the waterloo commute.

Fwiw I'm a Canadian that just signed a Google offer to work out of downtown SF because I hate the winter too. I think people care more or less about the weather based on their hobbies / interests.

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

#82
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we're not seeing enough of it right now to contradict the notion that these companies are still very much centralized. What are you basing this on, and what would be enough ? 4.3%, if indeed happens that way, would be a substantial portion. They already have significant presence in NYC, Seattle/Kirkland, London, Zurich, LA, Hyderabad, Dublin, Tokyo, Austin, etc. A few thousand here and a few thousand there add up q…

The numbers in the article are country-level, and you're responding by saying things about cities. NYC, Seattle and LA are all in the U.S. They're centralized inside the U.S. at the city-level to Mountain View. They're centralized within the English-speaking world at the country-level to the U.S. They're centralized globally w.r.t. language communities to the English-speaking world.

dis is wrong about google. They is kirkland 100% not mountain view in any way whatsoever.

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

#83
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, that has changed.

Nice, I'll definitely try again. I can't handle the 30C+ days.

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

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheap? These Canadian cities? The cost of living is insane and tech hiring competition is already intense. It’s not going to be cheap to hire anyone there.

Software engineer salaries are significantly lower than in the US. > The median Canadian “Software Engineer” salary is CA$72,000. The median US salary is US$91,000.... The cost of living in Vancouver is about 4.8% higher than Austin. While the median Software Engineer salary in Austin is 40% higher than Vancouver when accounting for the exchange rate. https://medium.com/@sprice/more-canadian-software-engineers-...

That’s just less than astronomically expensive not cheap. If they were after cheap they’d go to Berlin or London - that’s cheaper than Canadian cities for cost of labour.

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

#85
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.

Yeah but at Seattle is building housing. Unlike SF and most of the Bay Area...

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

#86
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Where in Canada? Winnipeg? That's not where these offices are going.

Google's announcement was 1000 Montreal, 1000 Toronto, 3000 Kitchener-Waterloo. Montreal and KW being the engineering locations. Both Montreal and KW have much more reasonable housing, and are far cheaper than Toronto/Vancouver.

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

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 i…

I think the RSUs and bonuses aren’t included in those H1B data reports. Anyone L5 and higher (as well as many L4s) at Google is pulling in at least 300k in total liquid compensation per year.

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

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

That's high, but not crazy high. A Staff Engineer at a FAANG can make ~$500k. See:

https://www.levels.fyi/# (L6 at Google, for instance.)

I know engineers in Canada who are making similar amounts. There's not a lot but it's not nonexistent.

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

#89
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Add in the 50% taxes it really makes things very expensive.

We don’t pay 50% in tax... Even at the higher income scales

Marginal tax gets above 50% pretty quickly. For example Ontario takes a bit about 200k a year to get >50%. For average tax rate yes you’ll need a lot more. 800k a year gets you pretty close at 49.1%. Sounds like a lot but that’s “only” 600k usd at today’s exchange rate. High but in the ball park of a staff level engineer at Facebook or google.

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

#90
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we're not seeing enough of it right now to contradict the notion that these companies are still very much centralized. What are you basing this on, and what would be enough ? 4.3%, if indeed happens that way, would be a substantial portion. They already have significant presence in NYC, Seattle/Kirkland, London, Zurich, LA, Hyderabad, Dublin, Tokyo, Austin, etc. A few thousand here and a few thousand there add up q…

The numbers in the article are country-level, and you're responding by saying things about cities. NYC, Seattle and LA are all in the U.S. They're centralized inside the U.S. at the city-level to Mountain View. They're centralized within the English-speaking world at the country-level to the U.S. They're centralized globally w.r.t. language communities to the English-speaking world.

You have no basis for your comment, no numbers, sources etc. Zurich, London, Tokyo all have very senior levels and many important teams. Canada is growing to those levels as well. Do your research before burying a hatchet.
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