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Canada historically is also one of the worst places to work in tech. Maybe it’s changed but I remember a decade ago tech jobs were paying a 1/4th of what they w
by infecto 12d ago
Canada historically is also one of the worst places to work in tech. Maybe it’s changed but I remember a decade ago tech jobs were paying a 1/4th of what they were in NYC/SF.
- bijowo1676 12d agoCanada was bad for tech specifically because of H1B. Now that H1B pathway is being blocked, Canada can build an alternative tech center and ecosystem. They can do it, Canada has very strong CS programs and is a birthplace of AI and deep learning
- embedding-shape 12d agoIf pay and money is the only thing you care about then yeah. But for the rest of us, none of the places are "the worst place to work in tech" as long as you're in the northern hemisphere. Take a look at what the pay is in Chile if it's so scary to you.
- bpt3 12d agoPay and money are why people work, so yeah they're pretty important.
- embedding-shape 12d agoMoney is just a tool to get what you actually want, the goal itself shouldn't be "more money", unless you want to miserable, because that hole you feel never gets filled by shoveling more money down it.
- bpt3 12d agoMore money generally equals more freedom, even if you don't know what you want specifically, but you're ultimately talking about a bigger, unrelated issue.
- infecto 12d agoNope, cost of living is what matters and at least at the time major Canadian metros were as if not more expensive than SF/NYC and got you a 1/4th of the pay. I am sure that’s attractive to some but sounds pretty miserable. Chile I imagine has pretty good cost of living economics. Anecdotally most of my friends in Latin and South America live upper middle class on software salaries.
- embedding-shape 12d ago> Anecdotally most of my friends in Latin and South America live upper middle class on software salaries And your North American friends do not? Please. The commonality is that software engineers all across the globe live pretty great, compared to their local peers. But of course, compare them to inflated NYC/SV salaries and everything looks like peanuts.
- infecto 12d agoSure. My point was historically Canada was pretty bad from a QOL perspective. Low salary and high cost of living. Not sure what you are trying to argue but have at it!
- embedding-shape 12d agoTrying to help you understand that Canada does not have "low salary" just because it's lower than NYC/SV, since apparently your software engineer buddies live an upper middle class life on software salaries, how "low" can it be then, especially if the cost of living is so high? Something doesn't make sense here.
- infecto 12d agoSorry I don’t understand why you need to be rude. Historically when I have looked, salaries were drastically lower while having materially similar costs of living. That may have changed though as I have not looked at it in the past years post covid and you have not provided any evidence that says otherwise other than simply being a jerk. Good luck!
- swat535 12d ago> pay and money is the only thing you care about then yeah Yes, pay and money matter. It's why people go to US rather than Canada. If you can only afford rent on a Canadian salary as a tech worker without much profit, why come here? Canada has bad weather, expensive large cities and an overworked health care sector. At least Europe has better weather and social services.
- disgruntledphd2 11d ago> At least Europe has better weather and social services. Europe is not a country, these vary wildly across members of the EU/UK/Europe more broadly. As an Irish person, I'd love if the weather and social services were better here.
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- passive 12d agoI've been working in Canada for US companies for decades, and pay-wise, it's gotten a lot better, though there's still a big difference. Never been tempted to move though.
- infecto 12d agoGood to hear. I just remember looking at big tech postings at the time with salaries around 60k but then looking at rents that were more expensive then SF and thinking no way.
- cvhc 12d agoIt's still bad. I got a 40%+ pay cut after being transferred from the Bay Area to Vancouver. It seems local companies pay even less than US big techs. And just search and see how Vancouver is regarded as one of the least affordable cities. Though I don't worry too much about the pay -- it's still a decent amount. It just sometimes makes me feel unfair when I'm doing the exact same job as my US colleagues.
- frumper 11d agoYou'd take a 40% pay cut, or more, going 20 miles east of the Bay Area.