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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

#251

Post by andrewzah »

triceratops wrote: post #205
andrewzah wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you’ll still come out far ahead the average senior software dev living in some midwestern city Come out far ahead how? I'm already pulling close to 6 figures, and I expect to reach $120-130k in a relatively short time period. Do I -need- to move to SV and live in much shittier conditions and have an insane cost of living just to earn some more money? ... I feel that remote work makes this an outdated concept (my co…

> Come out far ahead how? Check out levels.fyi. Moving to the Bay Area to work at a random startup makes little sense, but moving to one of the BigCos can be very financially rewarding. > I'm almost 24 and if I continue to manage my finances correctly, I should have my own spacious home by 25 Check out this comment someone made complaining how high the CoL is in the Bay Area, even for someone making $300k. https://ne…

That's certainly compelling, but it still comes with huge downsides like lack of space, having to live with roommates, not having any family nearby, not being able to work fully remotely, likely not having a healthy work-life balance, etc.

If I weren't working remotely, this would be more compelling I think.

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

#252

Post by blaser-waffle »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #156
sandworm101 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> nearly identical culture to the United States. Lol. Maybe a similar culture to some parts of California or Washington, and that is a stretch, but Vancouver is very very different than "the United States". Live in both for a while and all the little difference (the guns, health care, government, police, civil-military relations, the environment, land use, education etc) add up to markedly different approaches to li…

Strongly disagree. The difference between somewhere like Vancouver and Seattle is much smaller than the difference between somewhere like San Francisco and Tulsa. Statement is plenty accurate.

I'm an American living in Canada and I'd agree with this.

San Diego was far more different than Austin, TX, and considerably different than Ithaca, NY.

I'm still legally a WA resident, and having done a lot of time around Seattle, Everett, Bellingham, and Vancouver, I can tell you there are a lot of similarities. Seattle doesn't have the Aberdeen Mall, but in terms of attitude there isn't anything you can't find in Seattle.

Once you get out of the city, guns, religion, and skepticism of the urbanites is just as common as in the US -- standard Urban-Rural divide. Hell, even the "fly-over" provinces are conservative, just like in the US.

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

#253

Post by 52-6F-62 »

wolco wrote: post #244
52-6F-62 wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. In my example the $2000 CAD paid in Canada to taxes at the same income in Ontario versus California goes to fund one of the worlds highest ranked public education and healthcare systems. I’d call that a meaningful impact.

Healthcare is paid by the province. Take 42% of the province taxes only. Maybe $190. Most of the tax paid is federal. That means more of the $2000 goes to the military. Still think it's a good idea? A lot of health related causes could use the remaining 2000. And my 2000 figure is the difference you pay when making an extra 10,000 at the 100,000 level.

I think you've just been talking past me then, and not really responding.

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

#254

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

qeqeqeqe wrote: post #236
ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only mention I've been able to find online suggest that only about 1/3 of Google's workforce are in R&D: https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Google-employees-ar... " This information is most likely buried in Google’s annual report — the last one I could dig up is their 2015 fiscal year end report. According to the paper published by Google Inc and Alphabet Inc, there are 61,814 full-time employees with 23,33…

That source you cite literally says that "45% of Google employees are programmers."

He cites numbers from Google's previous financial reports (likely to be valid) and then adds a guess of 45% at the end (less likely to be valid). If you want to believe the guess, well, that's up to you.

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

#255

Post by jldugger »

laurencerowe wrote: post #231
jldugger wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The PERM / H1B figures only show base salary and exclude RSUs which for most big tech companies is the larger factor at senior and above levels. Netflix pay all cash so their PERM figures are much more representative and match the levels.fyi numbers pretty well, giving me confidence that those self reported figures are broadly accurate. (When comparing keep in mind Netflix hire only at senior software engineer level…

This is why a simplifying assumption was made with the 1:1 ratio of salary:RSUs. Obviously it matters when comparing two companies, but in this case the question was simply "who makes 600k" and the answer is 'probably nobody unless the stock did real gud'

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

#256

Post by jjohansson »

Sytten wrote: post #191
jjohansson wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2019, PDFTron, a Vancouver-based tech company, received a USD $71 million investment from Silversmith Capital Partners (a Tier 1 growth equity firm). Vancouver’s tech scene is exploding, with a number of top tier tech companies being based here (like Clio) and majors setting up dev offices (Shopify, Amazon, Microsoft).

That's really good news and we need more of it for sure. But looking at objective total $ invested (and growth), it does not paint the same picture. Those examples are still exceptions rather than the new norm, we just don't have that many (would-be) unicorns/fast-growing companies. Even if we did, I am still unsure the salaries would go up and most companies don't give equity... I am rather pessimistic about this te…

True, but Canada has roughly the same population as California. So objective total may not be the best metric.

Clio raised $330 million last year.

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

#257

Post by criddell »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #241
criddell wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your advice at the end is good but I would add that you shouldn't let others take advantage of you. People aren't being paid $200k-$2M / year for reasons of charity. They get paid that much because their contribution to the company is higher than that.

>Your advice at the end is good but I would add that you shouldn't let others take advantage of you. Everybody is being taken advantage of if you think about it, especially if you're a salaried employee. Hell, if you ask Googlers earning $600k they'll think they're being taken advantage of. If you ask CEOs of F500 companies they'll also think they're being take advantage of. If you ask Multi-Billionaires with offshor…

> Everybody is being taken advantage of if you think about it, especially if you're a salaried employee.

I disagree.

If you think every employer is going to take advantage of you, then you should start a business and become self-employed.

I'm very happy working where I do. I'm well paid and genuinely like the people I work with. I've been here for 20 years now.

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

#258

Post by blaser-waffle »

loufe wrote: post #110
torgian wrote: post #102

It seems to me they’re doing it partially because it’s cheaper in Canada ( compared to the US dollar ) as far as salaries, etc go. Pretty soon, rent is going to be too high for someone making 100k Canadian ( if it isn’t already )

The dollar is likely a factor, as you mention. But from their list of cities only Toronto has a crisis of home affordability. Montreal is still within sane levels and Waterloo is not too much worse.

Montreal has a crazy-low cost of living for what is otherwise a fantastic city. Been there three times now and all were grand.

Part of it is that QC has crazy high taxes, which drives down demand and keeps the big money in VAN or YYZ, and also that there are a lot of open / in demand jobs in the QC. They offer decent salaries -- but they want people who are bilingual or purely Francophone. I get weekly notices from LinkedIn for Data Center Mgmt roles around MTL -- HydroQuebec = cheap power and therefore cheap colo -- but I don't speak enough French.

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

#259

Post by laurencerowe »

jldugger wrote: post #255
laurencerowe wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The PERM / H1B figures only show base salary and exclude RSUs which for most big tech companies is the larger factor at senior and above levels. Netflix pay all cash so their PERM figures are much more representative and match the levels.fyi numbers pretty well, giving me confidence that those self reported figures are broadly accurate. (When comparing keep in mind Netflix hire only at senior software engineer level…

This is why a simplifying assumption was made with the 1:1 ratio of salary:RSUs. Obviously it matters when comparing two companies, but in this case the question was simply "who makes 600k" and the answer is 'probably nobody unless the stock did real gud'

The salary:stock ratio increases the higher Your level. 600k would likely be an L7 offer, though you could reach that at a lower level through stock appreciation.

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

#260

Post by ryanwaggoner »

andrewzah wrote: post #251
triceratops wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Come out far ahead how? Check out levels.fyi. Moving to the Bay Area to work at a random startup makes little sense, but moving to one of the BigCos can be very financially rewarding. > I'm almost 24 and if I continue to manage my finances correctly, I should have my own spacious home by 25 Check out this comment someone made complaining how high the CoL is in the Bay Area, even for someone making $300k. https://ne…

That's certainly compelling, but it still comes with huge downsides like lack of space, having to live with roommates, not having any family nearby, not being able to work fully remotely, likely not having a healthy work-life balance, etc. If I weren't working remotely, this would be more compelling I think.

Lack of space is subjective, you certainly don’t have to have roommates if you make $300k, and work/life balance is above average at many of these companies. That said, remote work is more rare, and flights from SF to SC to visit family are a pain.

I think the bigger issue for many people is probably cultural. I’ve loved my time in SF and NYC because I love cities, am fairly liberal-minded, don’t mind small living space, and don’t really care about living near extended family. Working remotely from a sprawling home in a small town near family is the opposite of what I want for my life. YMMV!

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