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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

#91

Post by mav3rick »

thinkloop wrote: post #50
GhostVII wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Canada is losing far more people to the US than the other way around, at least at the higher end of the market. Canadian salaries just aren't competitive at that level.

The US is the NBA, the stars definitely do go there. A pretty good life strategy is to work in the states from 30-45 while you're young and healthy, then come back to Canada for peace and safety to raise your family. I've seen a few people do that. I'm not sure it ends up being that bad for Canada. On the one hand they lose stars during their productive years, on the other hand they come back during their spending ye…

Most of these people don't create jobs when they move back. So yes, it is bad for Canada.

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

#93

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

gyulai wrote: post #74
ulfw wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Infineon is a publicly-traded company. A part of Infineon was sold to Intel, who in turn sold a part of that to Apple. Anyway: The long-standing presence of Infineon and a whole ecosystem around it (business partners, educational opportunity, etc.) means that Munich has hardware talent, and despite Munich being the most expensive and high-paying city in Germany (next to Frankfurt), salaries are still low, and real es…

>real estate is still cheap, compared to the valley

Everything in the world is cheap compared to the Valley, that any comparison is pretty much a meme at this point.

You can't possibly tell me with a straight face that Munich real estate is cheap even when you account for local salaries.

Munich is the embodiment of the Bay Area in Germany when accounting for living costs, except without the high paying jobs. I have multiple friends who moved there to work in engineering after graduating and they're starting to move elsewhere once they enter their 30s because they got tired of living in shared apartments(WGs) and realized they could never afford to buy anything worthy of having a family unless you're lucky enough to get into an executive position at a top company since ICs there aren't valued as much as they are in the valley so their salaries stay low and job hopping for better pay is frowned upon.

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

#94

Post by wolco »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #46
wolco wrote: 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

In Ontario at 100k your marginal tax rate is 43%.

You get a 10,000 raise you get 5,700.

Not exactly 50% but pretty close. Add in a healthcare levy at $900 or less and things are getting closer.

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

#95

Post by ta416425 »

ttul wrote: post #76
buzzkillington wrote: post #47

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.

So who in Toronto is paying senior or staff developers with 10 years of experience the local equivalent of >$400k USD (in lower cost cities than NYC/SF)?

I left Toronto immediately after my Master's, but have multiple extremely talented friends who feel they've topped out at well under half that.

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

#96

Post by ta416425 »

smnrchrds wrote: post #15
jessriedel wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-...

As an aside, I passionately hate that graph. It implies that Canadian tech salaries are abnormally low. I wish it was either showing just the US, or included more countries than just US and Canada. Had they included London, Sydney, Berlin, Amsterdam, etc. in the graph, it would have showed that Canadian salaries are in line with and towards the higher end of world salaries except US, and that US salaries are a huge o…

Fact of the matter is good talent can choose between Canada and the US, and it's pretty easy for a Canadian engineer (especially early in their career) to move to the US to work. The US is close to Canada geographically and culturally so of course it's going to be the logical alternative. Especially when the pay is so much better. Of course no one from Vancouver or Toronto will move to Sydney or Berlin for best-in-class career prospects. You go to the USA for that, so long as you're willing to stomach the environment.

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

#97

Post by ta416425 »

ialyos wrote: post #81
prlambert wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 beca…

The number of engineers at Google Toronto is so small that they're the exception that proves the rule, though. For all intents and purposes beyond some very special cases (and the Hinton stuff) you can treat the site as having no engineering.

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

#99

Post by memory_vandal »

gyulai wrote: post #66
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…

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'…

here here!!!

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

#100

Post by arcosdev »

frandroid wrote: post #28
prlambert wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes there still would be: weather. There's literally no place in Canada that doesn't have a generally unpleasant outdoor experience for at least half the year. I say that as a proud Canadian. It's honestly the main thing holding my family from moving back. My wife is from Vancouver and hates snow. I'm from Calgary and can't take rain (I did 3 winters straight in Vancouver promising myself to never do another until I…

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?

Huh? Toronto's weather is all over the map. One second its -17C, next it's flooding, in the summer 35C+ happens on the regular. Toronto has crazy weather.
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