Tech companies will headquarter anywhere but central America.
Well, not seeing too many here in Africa either.
> "Well, not seeing too many here in Africa either."
Microsoft has recently opened a development center in Kenya.
Microsoft Opens New HQ in Toronto
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Re: Microsoft Opens New HQ in Toronto
#12Are they going to pay enough for their developers to actually live near this Bay St office? Canadian developer salaries are abysmally low.
Not many Toronto datapoints on levels.fyi for Microsoft, but it looks like their median Canadian comp is $146k cad for data points in the last year. Which is probably enough to afford living in Toronto. The higher end (90th percentile) is $262k cad, which is definitely enough. However, that is lower than you’d probably get in Redmond, though I’m not sure by how much exactly.
Re: Microsoft Opens New HQ in Toronto
#13So is there an actual picture of the building and workspaces? I was hoping to see what a modern office looks like according to Microsoft.
Re: Microsoft Opens New HQ in Toronto
#14Is this an actual HQ or just another remote office?
Sounds like it’s a “Canadian HQ”, which is probably just branding for a large remote office with country specific operations based out of there.
Definitely feels like calling something an HQ is a press move though.
Re: Microsoft Opens New HQ in Toronto
#15Are they going to pay enough for their developers to actually live near this Bay St office? Canadian developer salaries are abysmally low.
Yea I’m surprised how little Microsoft pays in Vancouver according to levels.fyi.
If an American company paid 80% of American salary to Canadians they would have their pick of Canada’s top talent. This slowly appears to be happening with Meta jobs in Canada.
Canada has the same time zones, a similar culture, is geographically close, the same language, and excellent computer science/engineering programs.
What Canada doesn’t have is a strong venture capital pool, a culture of risk taking, or a domestic market of 330 million people which stifles new businesses.
Re: Microsoft Opens New HQ in Toronto
#16Are they going to pay enough for their developers to actually live near this Bay St office? Canadian developer salaries are abysmally low.
Yea I’m surprised how little Microsoft pays in Vancouver according to levels.fyi. If an American company paid 80% of American salary to Canadians they would have their pick of Canada’s top talent. This slowly appears to be happening with Meta jobs in Canada. Canada has the same time zones, a similar culture, is geographically close, the same language, and excellent computer science/engineering programs. What Canada d…
> What Canada doesn’t have is a strong venture capital pool, a culture of risk taking
I tried to raise a ~$300k seed round in Toronto in 2014. Most Canadian investors we met with wanted to see us have something like $10k/month in recurring revenue before considering an investment. We spent a week in SF and left with a $250k offer at a $4M valuation, when we were pre-revenue!
(We declined, and eventually our business failed (acquhired by a team in SF, though....). But still. Wow! What a difference!)
Re: Microsoft Opens New HQ in Toronto
#17Are they going to pay enough for their developers to actually live near this Bay St office? Canadian developer salaries are abysmally low.
Not many Toronto datapoints on levels.fyi for Microsoft, but it looks like their median Canadian comp is $146k cad for data points in the last year. Which is probably enough to afford living in Toronto. The higher end (90th percentile) is $262k cad, which is definitely enough. However, that is lower than you’d probably get in Redmond, though I’m not sure by how much exactly.
That p90 number (equivalent to 204k USD) looks like some typical SDE2 TCs in Redmond:
https://www.levels.fyi/company/Microsoft/salaries/Software-E...
Re: Microsoft Opens New HQ in Toronto
#18So is there an actual picture of the building and workspaces? I was hoping to see what a modern office looks like according to Microsoft.
Searching on Google Maps, it looks like the "HQ" is located inside Toronto-Dominion Centre, which is an office complex downtown, nothing too exciting to look at.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Centre
I'm sure if they had their own facade to show off they'd have a photo in the article.
Re: Microsoft Opens New HQ in Toronto
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they could deal with the huge transnational organized crime and drug trafficking problem then I sure there would be more people moving to the Central America region.
Transnational organized crime in Costa Rica? First time I've heard of that
Costa Rica has the same population as Metro Toronto and 15 times the rate of violent crime. It might be better than some of its neighbors but it doesn't remotely compare favorably to Europe or Canada.
Re: Microsoft Opens New HQ in Toronto
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not many Toronto datapoints on levels.fyi for Microsoft, but it looks like their median Canadian comp is $146k cad for data points in the last year. Which is probably enough to afford living in Toronto. The higher end (90th percentile) is $262k cad, which is definitely enough. However, that is lower than you’d probably get in Redmond, though I’m not sure by how much exactly.
That p90 number (equivalent to 204k USD) looks like some typical SDE2 TCs in Redmond: https://www.levels.fyi/company/Microsoft/salaries/Software-E...
Or less than a junior L3 in the bay area at google.