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In North America I would vote Montreal. It's 1/2 price of most American cities and 2x funner and cooler than almost any of them. LA and NYC have tons of cool, b
by sonnyblarney 8y ago
In North America I would vote Montreal. It's 1/2 price of most American cities and 2x funner and cooler than almost any of them. LA and NYC have tons of cool, but they are expensive and doing fun stuff is generally expensive. Not so Montreal. Mtl has way more going on than even SF ever had back in the day, and it's much bigger than Austin, Boulder/Colorado Springs etc. etc.. During the summer, Montreal has an unbelievable amount of stuff to do. Carnivals, festivals, just jammed back to back, overlapping one another all summer.
More students per capita than anywhere (depending on how you define 'city' because of course Boston is a big one, but Mtl has 5 Unis right down town within a few Km of each other).
And 1/2 of the city is French, and it's like being in another country.
It has an intellectual/creative tradition from French culture, also, it's actually a global leader in AI, and not just one of those cities making pompous statements: UMtl has the largest AI research facility in North America, and $100M in spending announced, and ElementAI has raised hundreds of millions so this is no joke.
But the winters are very cold. And salaries lag. And taxes are high. Healthcare is universal and you will get service ... but it's not as good as in the US when you are covered.
- blocked_again 8y agoHow easy is to get a job in Montreal if I am not from North America and don't have a Visa or PR?
- sonnyblarney 8y agoIf you are an American it's trivial if you have a technical degree. You get a TN visa at the border and can renew for up to 6 years.
- blocked_again 8y agoI am not an American.
- sonnyblarney 8y agoIt's probably easier than moving to the US, it's a points system, much easier if you have a job and a technical degree, but not trivial either. We have quite a lot of immigration.
- chrisper 8y agoI heard that the taxes are quite high in Canada and so is the cost of living. Can you shed some light on this?
- otalp 8y agoI did the math for Toronto(which is more expensive than Montreal). For a typical software engineer, taxes take away 25% of gross pay in Ontario while it's over 30% in California and New York. Cost of living is much less(by 30-40% if you rent) in Toronto compared to Cali/New York. Of course, you will also earn 40% less in USD. So it about evens out
- branchless 8y agoI did the math on SV, New York and Toronto, and I'm not in any of them. Hooray!
- localtalent 8y agoFrom what I've experienced, this is rapidly becoming untrue - CoL in Toronto has become very high, friends are paying comparable to what I paid in NYC but salaries are definitely lower. They're paying in CAD what I paid in USD, but are earning 20-30% less. Food is also more expensive (particularly eating out), on the whole, than NYC. Most new construction apartments are quite small, and the older, larger ones command a significant premium. You can move out of the downtown core (to North York, Scarborough, etc) but then you're committed to a long commute on the slow TTC or sitting in traffic on the 401. MTL is much cheaper, but salaries also lag even further.
- 8y ago
- barrow-rider 8y agoThe TN visa is good for 3 years at a time and can be renewed an unlimited number of times. It is NOT a path to Permanent Resident or Citizenship, however; you will have to get on a different visa for that (e.g. marry a local, get sponsored via non-TN work permit, etc). Also, definitely not trivial, even as an American with a technical degree. The paperwork & process isn't hard but getting a TN sponsor is non-trivial. Quebec also has their own immigration rules and you have to apply with them as well as with the Federal government. Not sure how TN's work in QC, but I know only Canadian PRs and Citizens can move there; if you're a temporary resident from outside of the province you need to talk to QC Immigration. Caveat: this is based on old NAFTA rules, not sure how they work or if there are changes under the recently-signed "NAFTA 2.0."
- philprx 8y agoCanada has an age pyramid problem: that means that young skilled people have an excellent chance of being selected for immigration.
- m_t 8y agoYou need a visa. Either a Travel+Toursim visa (depending if you're nationality of origin is eligible) or a Visa sponsored by an employer.
- enjoyitasus 8y agoI would agree. Montreal has relatively good infrastructure and also good housing options for families and singles alike. It’s small compared to these tier 1 cities in Western Europe but it’s great, people are nice and are bilingual. The winters are extremely cold but if you don’t mind that it’s fine. Not sure about the salaries but I hear they are lower but so is the cost of living.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago"It’s small compared to these tier 1 cities in Western Europe" Only London and Paris are much bigger. Mtl is about 4 million people, it's almost the same size as Madrid or Berlin or Barca. A little smaller than Amsterdam but really bigger than most else. But it's tier 2 size in North America, but a strong tier 2. It's really weird how people in NA don't know about Montreal. It kills most places for culture.
- raverbashing 8y agoI agree with GP's assessment of Mtl, just wanting to make a point on the size. Montreal metro is 4 million. But Montreal has a special dynamic, by fact of being an island. It's not as well connected as Manhattam. So there are two "bumps", one north and one south (Montreal has its own definition of North/South, btw)
- sonnyblarney 8y agoIt's as well connected. Also, the 'division' is not geographic, it's cultural. East Montreal is French, West is English and it's bizarre how little social crossing there is. I live among the French and they don't even know about major things happening in the West Side.
- raverbashing 8y agoI'm saying the island is not well connected with the South/North side It will get better when they build the new bridge though
- Serow225 8y agoI <3 Montreal :)
- zaptheimpaler 8y agoAny recommendations on companies that do exciting things and treat people well in Montreal?
- aiouy 8y agoShakepay is hiring a full stack dev in Montreal: https://medium.com/shakepay/shakepay-is-hiring-a-3rd-full-stack-developer-in-montreal-dc22a8b347a6 https://medium.com/shakepay/shakepay-is-hiring-a-3rd-full-st... Happy to chat about what it's like to live in Montreal if anyone's curious.
- nyxtom 8y agoI've been curious about Montreal for some time now. Though given that we have a small toddler (age 3) moving is a lot more involved and more thoroughly planned out. I explored Montreal through Google Maps quite extensively, marking all the coffee shops/chocolate shops/restaurants/and parks that we might visit. I am curious about living there quite a lot and wonder if any other family has moved there in the tech field.
- lecha 8y agoDialogue is hiring (dialogue.co)
- HelgeSeetzen 8y agoMontreal is a great choice indeed. I am originally from Europe (Germany, short time in Holland) and have built tech companies on the West Coast (Vancouver, SF). After a decade on the West Coast, I moved to Montreal in 2010. Really enjoyable city with a great mix of high quality of life, culture and massive diversity (which in my opinion - even more so that universities - is the cause of the "intellectual" environment that you seek). My outfit, TandemLaunch, has built 20+ deep tech companies in Montreal with people from all over the globe (some 40+ countries of origin). Depending on your background, there might be opportunities for you in one of those. Our companies range from early stage to those with 100+ employees so there are opportunities along the entire risk/reward spectrum (see here http://www.tandemlaunch.com/#portfolio http://www.tandemlaunch.com/#portfolio). Obviously there are plenty of other great companies in Montreal as well. Happy to help with any local insights if you are considering this beautiful city (including with immigration since we have literally done this 100+ times). cheers Helge
- randomsearch 8y agoWhat's "deep tech"?
- milaresearcher 8y agoBy deep tech he means tech companies backed by patents or defensible intellectual property. Technology businesses enabled by research or new ideas, not another chat app. He was a research physicist that worked on developing High-Dynamic Range screens, so he's interested in businesses kinda like that.
- HelgeSeetzen 8y agoAs the previous reply kindly indicates, I am talking about more fundamental technology development. Basically the R of R&D and not just development. For example, our portfolio includes companies like Stratuscent which is using tech from NASA to develop an "electronic nose" using machine learning, Aerial which extracts people's position/activities by analysing wifi signals, Airy3D which is developing a novel image sensor that can capture 2D/3D/lightfield all in one package, etc.. We work with 50+ universities across the globe on the fundamental research and then incorporate the results in new tech companies like those above. Great fun :)
- baby 8y agoI think I would agree, Montreal is the nicest city I've been in north america (perhaps with Ottawa) but the cold is definitely a deal breaker for me.