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I would rather have temporary worker visas for startup employees. Our biggest labor problem has been the difficulty of getting programmers who didn't go to coll

I would rather have temporary worker visas for startup employees. Our biggest labor problem has been the difficulty of getting programmers who didn't go to college into the US. We'd move to Canada in a heartbeat if we could get the developers we wanted colocated with us. How about N temporary worker visas/amount of VC funding?

mwnz 13y ago
Having lived in numerous countries as a foreign programmer (neither from the U.S or Canada), I can assure you that it is significantly easier to move to Canada than the U.S. Their highly skilled migrant program is a lot more friendly to... highly skilled migrants. In fact, most countries are.
cunac 13y ago
Your complaint is because US based developers are expensive? I hope that you don't think developers in Canada are dime a dozen.
- danielsiders 13y ago
  No, I'd like to be able to bring awesome people from Russia, the Czech Republic, Israel, etc who often don't have college degrees. If Canada would let me do that, I'd move my startup to Canada.
  - cunac 13y ago
    Canadian IT labour market is not so bad so you should profit by fact of moving here and have access to current pool and relatively lower wages then in SV. Is should actually remove both of your pain points cost and qualified labor. Start packing :-)
    - danielsiders 13y ago
      The issue isn't general supply, but specific engineers. Half our team is Canadian now, but many of the people we'd like to work with but can't are located elsewhere and Canadian immigration law is very unfriendly to immigrants without college degrees.
- randomdata 13y ago
  Maybe not a dime a dozen, but developer pay in Canada does seem to be considerably lower. Up to 50-60% lower, according to others in a recent HN discussion.
  - orbitur 13y ago
    Compared to SF or NYC, I wouldn't argue. But the rest of the States?
    - randomdata 13y ago
      $60K seems to be typical in thriving tech areas of the country, and $40K outside. How does that compare to the general USA? You might be able to find $100K jobs in Toronto or Vancouver, but those areas have costs of living that is approaching SF and NYC.

mwnz 13y ago

Having lived in numerous countries as a foreign programmer (neither from the U.S or Canada), I can assure you that it is significantly easier to move to Canada than the U.S. Their highly skilled migrant program is a lot more friendly to... highly skilled migrants. In fact, most countries are.

cunac 13y ago

Your complaint is because US based developers are expensive? I hope that you don't think developers in Canada are dime a dozen.

danielsiders 13y ago
No, I'd like to be able to bring awesome people from Russia, the Czech Republic, Israel, etc who often don't have college degrees. If Canada would let me do that, I'd move my startup to Canada.
- cunac 13y ago
  Canadian IT labour market is not so bad so you should profit by fact of moving here and have access to current pool and relatively lower wages then in SV. Is should actually remove both of your pain points cost and qualified labor. Start packing :-)
  - danielsiders 13y ago
    The issue isn't general supply, but specific engineers. Half our team is Canadian now, but many of the people we'd like to work with but can't are located elsewhere and Canadian immigration law is very unfriendly to immigrants without college degrees.
randomdata 13y ago
Maybe not a dime a dozen, but developer pay in Canada does seem to be considerably lower. Up to 50-60% lower, according to others in a recent HN discussion.
- orbitur 13y ago
  Compared to SF or NYC, I wouldn't argue. But the rest of the States?
  - randomdata 13y ago
    $60K seems to be typical in thriving tech areas of the country, and $40K outside. How does that compare to the general USA? You might be able to find $100K jobs in Toronto or Vancouver, but those areas have costs of living that is approaching SF and NYC.