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Ding ding ding. We have a winner. While I've never ever considered moving to Vancouver, I get recruiter emails several times a month for companies in Vancouver
by rubiquity 11y ago
Ding ding ding. We have a winner. While I've never ever considered moving to Vancouver, I get recruiter emails several times a month for companies in Vancouver looking for Senior programmers to move there and only offering 80k to 110k CAD at the most. That is not nearly enough money to live in Vancouver. Enough to exist but not enough to live.
The problem as I understand it is that a ton of Vancouver's housing is occupied by children of mega rich people from Asia (mostly China) who are rich enough to not care what rent costs which drives rent up for everyone else. There's such a huge l mismatch between housing costs and salaries in Vancouver.
- yarrel 11y agos/occupied/owned/
- rubiquity 11y agoAh yes that is an important distinction.
- gearoidoc 11y agoCAD 110k is definitely enough to get a decent place, live comfortably and save some money in Vancouver. But then again 'decent' and 'comfortably' are subjective.
- vkou 11y agoYes, it's enough to rent in a decent place, live comfortably, and save ~20K/year. A senior engineer in Seattle can do the same, and save ~100K/year.
- gearoidoc 11y agoI'd love to live in your world! How much do you think senior engineers earn? Most people would do well to save 20% but even assuming people save 33% then you reckon senior engineers earn over 300k?
- vkou 11y agoSenior engineers at Microsoft/Amazon/Google earn ~200-400K USD. (All-in) If you can 'live well' in the more expensive Vancouver at a 110K CAD salary, you could easily save an extra 100-200K USD by moving to Seattle.
- gearoidoc 11y agoThose companies are very much outliers. Does those 3 all have development operations in Seattle? Your figures don't seem to stack up RE Google: https://www.glassdoor.ca/Salary/Google-Seattle-Salaries-EI_IE9079.0,6_IL.7,14_IM781.htm?&countryRedirect=true https://www.glassdoor.ca/Salary/Google-Seattle-Salaries-EI_I...
- tangentspace 11y agoYes, Amazon and Microsoft HQ are both in the Seattle area. Google has 2 locations here in Fremont and Kirkland. $200K+ for senior engineers sounds about right from people I've known who went to those companies. Housing is getting expensive, but you can still buy a small 3br for about $400K in my neighborhood just south of Bellevue, so saving $100K does sound plausible.
- zevyoura 11y ago"All-in" means total compensation (stock and bonus included), not just salary.
- vkou 11y agoThose GlassDoor salaries are cash. Stock and bonus add another 50-100%. My anecdotal experience with Vancouver is that some employers will throw you 15%, on a good year. Microsoft pays a bit less, but also employs ~30,000 people in the area.
- gearoidoc 11y ago50-100% sounds high for stock and bonus when you're on 200k+ but my main point was these companies are the exception, not the rule.
- edwinnathaniel 11y agoI know a company that pays fresh-grad $70k-$75k base salary with 10-15% bonus almost guaranteed base on company performance (there's a calculation behind it but the bonus amount is part of your package). Microsoft, Amazon, starting salary was 85-90k to 100k+ 2-3 years ago for 2 years - 5/7 years of experience. Salesforce Intermediate/borderline Senior SDET (SDET typically make less than SDE) starts from 100k base with a bunch of plus plus that can boost their income to 120k-140k. OpenDNS lurking well above $100k as well for intermediate developer. Mogo.ca pays their front-end dev $100k base and this is a small-medium size company. It's not the norm but thanks to US-based companies, salary is moving up and up.
- infinite8s 11y agoThat's in CAD, correct? The Canadian dollar isn't doing too well, and is expected to drop to around $.50 USD by year end.
- edwinnathaniel 11y agoBut we're talking about local issue so currency matters less for this topic.
- CountSessine 11y agoUnfortunately, Vancouver housing is being driven by international currencies. A low Canadian dollar makes houses in Vancouver a bargain for outsiders and even more unaffordable for anyone earning Canadian dollars.