5 ms·

When I worked for a big US company it was very clear- you open an office in Canada because it’s cheaper. So, probably not.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
>you open an office in Canada because it’s cheaper. Or, to hire international tech workers who you can't bring to your US office for visa reasons.
- bin_bash 4y ago
  Yes, this is right. Big Tech is mostly focused on Canada and EU because they can hire people from (chiefly) China and India without H1-Bs. According to a director I spoke with it’s because they can’t find enough qualified engineers, not to save money. Seems we should just be opening more offices in Hyderabad, I don’t know why that isn’t done more. Political security maybe?
  - somehnacct3757 4y ago
    Canada timezones are more desirable
  - ramraj07 4y ago
    Because it’s even harder to hire good tech workers in india now? Europe and Canada have far more talent at far cheaper price right now.
    - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
      >Europe and Canada have far more talent at far cheaper price right now. Depends, it's not just about the employees salaries. Some EU countries have pretty high taxes and high worker's rights so big tech actively avoids them. So in the grand scheme, Indian offices might yeld better return on their investment.
      - ramraj07 4y ago
        Not sure if you know what the ground realities in India are. Absolute unadjusted tech salaries are higher than in Canada or EU. And retention is really hard. EU workers have more rights so to speak but not clear to me how either of us can tell that’s still a dealbreaker.
        ChuckNorris89 4y ago
        I know and I wasn't contradicting you. I was saying that despite EU salaries being lower than Indian ones for the FAANGS, they might still prefer to expand in India and not the EU due to the EU's higher taxes, higher privacy and higher workers' rights.
      - Cthulhu_ 4y ago
        High (income) taxes isn't an issue for "big tech", even with the taxes the compensations they offer in the US are a multiple of what the average software engineer earns. Worker's rights is people telling on themselves, I don't think 40 hours / week and ~25 days off a year is unreasonable. No vacation or long hours just means people will do less at work. Anyway I know of plenty of people who landed remote jobs at US companies, or US-based companies opening offices within Europe. I mean most US companies operate through Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg anyway because of tax evasion.
        ChuckNorris89 4y ago
        >High (income) taxes isn't an issue for "big tech" Except high taxes its an issue though but for the company's taxes, not the employees' taxes. You even said it yourself later ["I mean most US companies operate through Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg anyway because of tax evasion"] it just so happens that the countries with low corporate taxes also have low income taxes and countries with high corporate taxes usually also have high income taxes. There's a reason why all big tech in EU is parked in those countries with low taxes and simple laws like Luxembourg, Ireland, Netherlands and not in countries with high taxes and complex laws like France, Belgium, Austria, etc. And no, most big tech don't really hire EU-wide remotely outside of their HQ country and a few select other countries since we have no standardized EU wide corporate and workers' laws so a lot of EU countries get left out due to their stricter laws.
  - freyr 4y ago
    Google is currently building its largest non-US office in Hyderabad. https://m.economictimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/google-begins-work-on-hyderabad-campus-largest-outside-its-headquarters/amp_articleshow/91153533.cms https://m.economictimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/go...
  - stingraycharles 4y ago
    Of course, if you offer more money, you’ll get a larger pool of candidates. I agree that there is scarcity on the market, but unless a company is really paying top salaries for their devs, they really cannot say that it’s not money.
    - bin_bash 4y ago
      I made about 650k last year and I'm not even staff-level. I don't think paying 750k is going to attract anyone new.
      - mdm12 4y ago
        At that point, you would think there would be some introspection with respect to the hiring process and the possibility of an alarming number of false negatives occurring due to absurd leetcode gauntlets. But, naaah...
        bin_bash 4y ago
        I completely agree
      - vostok 4y ago
        It might attract me. I work in a non tech role because, at the time I thought that tech paid less than my chosen industry. If I had known that I could make $750k in tech then the gap is small enough that the improved work life balance and lower stress might have tipped me to tech.
        cwaffles 4y ago
        What kind of career are you currently in?
        granshaw 4y ago
        Guessing medicine
  - nikanj 4y ago
    The Canadian government does all sorts of background checks on the workers, many of which be illegal for Google to do directly
curiousgal 4y ago
I thought that was standard all over the world but then I worked in finance in Europe, American banks pay literally twice as much as European banks in Europe.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

>you open an office in Canada because it’s cheaper. Or, to hire international tech workers who you can't bring to your US office for visa reasons.

bin_bash 4y ago
Yes, this is right. Big Tech is mostly focused on Canada and EU because they can hire people from (chiefly) China and India without H1-Bs. According to a director I spoke with it’s because they can’t find enough qualified engineers, not to save money. Seems we should just be opening more offices in Hyderabad, I don’t know why that isn’t done more. Political security maybe?
- somehnacct3757 4y ago
  Canada timezones are more desirable
- ramraj07 4y ago
  Because it’s even harder to hire good tech workers in india now? Europe and Canada have far more talent at far cheaper price right now.
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    >Europe and Canada have far more talent at far cheaper price right now. Depends, it's not just about the employees salaries. Some EU countries have pretty high taxes and high worker's rights so big tech actively avoids them. So in the grand scheme, Indian offices might yeld better return on their investment.
    - ramraj07 4y ago
      Not sure if you know what the ground realities in India are. Absolute unadjusted tech salaries are higher than in Canada or EU. And retention is really hard. EU workers have more rights so to speak but not clear to me how either of us can tell that’s still a dealbreaker.
      - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
        I know and I wasn't contradicting you. I was saying that despite EU salaries being lower than Indian ones for the FAANGS, they might still prefer to expand in India and not the EU due to the EU's higher taxes, higher privacy and higher workers' rights.
    - Cthulhu_ 4y ago
      High (income) taxes isn't an issue for "big tech", even with the taxes the compensations they offer in the US are a multiple of what the average software engineer earns. Worker's rights is people telling on themselves, I don't think 40 hours / week and ~25 days off a year is unreasonable. No vacation or long hours just means people will do less at work. Anyway I know of plenty of people who landed remote jobs at US companies, or US-based companies opening offices within Europe. I mean most US companies operate through Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg anyway because of tax evasion.
      - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
        >High (income) taxes isn't an issue for "big tech" Except high taxes its an issue though but for the company's taxes, not the employees' taxes. You even said it yourself later ["I mean most US companies operate through Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg anyway because of tax evasion"] it just so happens that the countries with low corporate taxes also have low income taxes and countries with high corporate taxes usually also have high income taxes. There's a reason why all big tech in EU is parked in those countries with low taxes and simple laws like Luxembourg, Ireland, Netherlands and not in countries with high taxes and complex laws like France, Belgium, Austria, etc. And no, most big tech don't really hire EU-wide remotely outside of their HQ country and a few select other countries since we have no standardized EU wide corporate and workers' laws so a lot of EU countries get left out due to their stricter laws.
- freyr 4y ago
  Google is currently building its largest non-US office in Hyderabad. https://m.economictimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/google-begins-work-on-hyderabad-campus-largest-outside-its-headquarters/amp_articleshow/91153533.cms https://m.economictimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/go...
- stingraycharles 4y ago
  Of course, if you offer more money, you’ll get a larger pool of candidates. I agree that there is scarcity on the market, but unless a company is really paying top salaries for their devs, they really cannot say that it’s not money.
  - bin_bash 4y ago
    I made about 650k last year and I'm not even staff-level. I don't think paying 750k is going to attract anyone new.
    - mdm12 4y ago
      At that point, you would think there would be some introspection with respect to the hiring process and the possibility of an alarming number of false negatives occurring due to absurd leetcode gauntlets. But, naaah...
      - bin_bash 4y ago
        I completely agree
    - vostok 4y ago
      It might attract me. I work in a non tech role because, at the time I thought that tech paid less than my chosen industry. If I had known that I could make $750k in tech then the gap is small enough that the improved work life balance and lower stress might have tipped me to tech.
      - cwaffles 4y ago
        What kind of career are you currently in?
        granshaw 4y ago
        Guessing medicine
- nikanj 4y ago
  The Canadian government does all sorts of background checks on the workers, many of which be illegal for Google to do directly

curiousgal 4y ago

I thought that was standard all over the world but then I worked in finance in Europe, American banks pay literally twice as much as European banks in Europe.