The biggest challenge in tech in Canada is salaries. Youre paid less and then youre paid in CAD which is around 70% of USD. Then you factor in high house prices in both Toronto and Vancouver and things arent so great.
If youre willing to live outside these areas then there are lots of opportunities. Canada as a country in general is great, but it has its own set of issues. Namely a lame resource extraction based economy and a hyper willingness to sell all its assets - information economy and otherwise - at discount prices to boost jobs.
There is a growing tech community in Vancouver. There are more traditional tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Apple. There’s also film and games companies like Industrial Light and Magic, Sony Pictures Imageworks and more... It’s definitely no Bay Area in terms of number of gigs or pay, and the cost of living is almost as high, but again, I felt much happier there. It’s obviously subjective and unquantifiable, but something to research and consider too.
They are far less in Canada, a $200K CAD ($150K USD) tech job is rare, actually, $150K CAD ($112K USD) are also uncommon.
Best job opportunities are in high COL locations (Vancouver, Toronto), followed by Montreal. But unlike the USA the compensation (for MOST employees) in those markets is only moderately higher than lower COL locations. (Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg...etc).
Base salary is much higher in the US. To give you an idea: at year 8 of my career my salary is technically $52,000 Canadian per year. I've had people in the Seattle telling me that number should be nearer to $100,000 USD. And my $51,000 Canadian translates to $34,000 USD when the conversation rate is considered. The difference grows when you consider that the US typically has a lower tax rate then Canada and that many US employers are usually willing to provides benefits that would cover services that normally the government would be paying for.
That said, I'm only speaking as someone that works in QA and the city I live in does not have as strong a tech industry as those in British Columbia, Ontario, or Quebec.
Lots of Canadians here will suggest to move to the United States for higher pay and better opportunitites.
But if you are from a developing country, then moving to the USA is very convulted and not an easy option for you like it is for Canadians.
So, If you that is your situation, then Canada is an exciting option and you might be able to work for a lot of US companies that have Canadian options.
Been working here for a decade and the tech economy is the best it's ever been.
Big cos like Amazon, Microsoft have set up shop in Vancouver and are here to stay. They provide a nice fallback option to any sort of smaller startups that don't pan out.
The games industry has bounced back in a big way too. The multi thousand capacity EA Games studio in Burnaby is full and they've had to get off site offices.
Add on the standard benefits of Canada:
* free universal healthcare means being an entrepeneur is easy.
* reasonable gun regulations (no concealed carry nonsense)
* generally more progressive governments than USA.
Pay on average is lower, but comes with a higher degree of social security and stability. Of course, Canada is not without its own racist past or present, but it's not quite as "on display" as the US. Our previous prime minister tried to have a "barbaric cultural practices" hotline which was essentially a dogwhistle to more Islamophobic elements of the Conservative party base.
That being said, I'm thankful that our police aren't tear gassing protesters in Ottawa so that Trudeau can have a photoshoot.
The tech industry in general isn't as large as the US, but does carry a lot of talent. Places to note are Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal and...maybe Calgary? I'm not so sure about the data science field myself, but I do know that most large tech firms around here do carry an analytics team.
Edit to add: like others have noted, COL is high in Toronto and Vancouver. That being said, I absolutely loved living in Vancouver and would move back there from Waterloo in a heartbeat. If you're able to land a job and afford living there (or more likely in another Lower Mainland city), I would recommend it.
I am from India - getting a US visa/green card is too much trouble. I started at a tech company in Canada at 70K Cad annually in 2008. The salary went up to 120k by 2016.
In these 8 years - I went from a work permit to Canadian citizen. Also started a family with kids.
I moved to Bay Area in 2016 for a non-Faang company at 200K USD annual total compensation. Moved to Faang in 2018 and comp is 400k USD.
Will move back to Canada by 2020/21 and am counting on my company allowing remote due to covid. Yes it will be a salary cut but that’s fine. I want to raise my kids in Canada.
Bay Area experience is worth it - financially and technical too
Long term it depends on you
The city has a low cost of living, high provincial taxes, but a top notch cultural scene, bar scene, festival scene, etc.
If not Montréal, Toronto or Vancouver have their callings but most tech folks I studied with headed off to the states for higher wages - but I imagine many of them will return with stacked savings accounts at some point. As someone else pointed out, Waterloo is a special case and might be worth looking at, too.
London, I know is about half of US if you look at FAANG comps and you have higher taxation compared to a city like Seattle.
Zurich, is about 70% with lower tax but a very high CoL
You can make a living and have a comfortable lifestyle in Canada, but it is not the best place to create or build wealth. It's where to be if you bring it with you.
Given the small and dispersed distribution of the population, startup level growth mainly comes from access to the US market. Access to the US market tends to mean being HQ'd there, so you get quite a few "offshored," engineering and development shops to take advantage of the currency, SRED tax credits, COL and salary differences, where the US HQ handles the revenue, product management, marketing, equity, M&A and other business decisions.
The two main markets for enterprise products and dev are Toronto and Ottawa. There are only five notable banks with offices across the country and around the world, who share a largely homogeneous enterprise tech culture. Health care is a public sector business, and there is lots of opportunity to make a living in health care tech, but it is managed as a sprawling enterprise centralized economy that acts as a ceiling on growth. There are some notable examples, but they use Canada as a proving ground before going to market in the US.
The way most entrepreneurial money appears to be made in Canada is by operating "recruiting and consulting firms," which provide institutions with arms length contractors that they can add and remove at will instead of dealing with the challenges of employees.
Quality of life compared to american cities in decline is incomparably better. The hard part is affording it. Owning a an actual house near a metropolitan area is out of reach for first time home buyers, and places with affordable housing are outside commuting distance from anywhere that does software development. Short term rentals have sent rents skyrocketing everywhere within a 90-minute drive to Toronto.
If you are already on the property ladder where you are, using that as leverage to buy a place here is the best way to do it. If you are not, it's smarter to get the capital from selling your first house as a downpayment to get you into something in Canada, as real estate is basically the only way for working people to build wealth.
The quality of life in Canada is wonderful if you can make the numbers work. Vancouver and Toronto offer different things so I'd research which one suits you better. They're both amazing in their own way.
I can't speak for Montreal which has its own unique culture unfamiliar to me, but I believe it's comparable to Vancouver and Toronto, and cost of living is better. It's a very distinct place.
Smaller, more affordable cities you could consider are Ottawa, Waterloo, and Victoria. They each come with their own trade-offs but have decent tech industries. Victoria is only really affordable compared to Vancouver/Toronto but it's a very idyllic small city if that's what you're after.
Is now a good time for anything? If you go through temp work permit or immigration route, these things were not fast before, they sure are even slower now.
If you do move, Toronto, Waterloo, Vancouver, Ottawa are good places in that order. Do not know much about Montreal, but outside of those you will be having a hard time finding anything.
Data science - I cannot speak much about it, but if you want to do that, governement and healthcare is probably your best bet.
However not everyone is looking to work in a FAANG or to live in the USA.
Canadá has a thriving tech scene and you will have a better quality of life and pay than about everywhere else in the world that isn’t a FAANG in the USA
- Director and above level PM can earn above: $140K CAD and beyond in major cities like Toronto.
- Sr. PM can earn: above $100K CAD easily but harder to be above $150K CAD.
- Bay Area - based on the current conversations I have: - Sr. PM or PM in a FAANG type company or startup: around $170K USD - Director level PM can be above $200K USD
The reason I say this is because Canada's tech scene is largely comprised of US companies near-shoring operations for cost reductions and with remote work on the rise my view is that Canada's tech scene is now in a super fragile state.
There's a significant incentive for Canadian tech workers to work remotely for US companies and similarly there's a massive incentive for US companies to hire Canadians on Canadian salaries remotely.
Uber, Facebook, Google, Amazon etc. had expansion in Canada planned but I wouldn't be surprised if this changes radically in the coming months. Shopify already announced it was going fully remote and then offered what were previously Canadian-only jobs out to the Americas entirely. It's not unfathomable that other Canadian companies will do the same.
If remote succeeds, I cannot see what incentive would drive the further expansion of the local tech scene in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal etc. Meetups and similar only worked because people were forced to be in the city, they were held directly after work and usually offered some sort of food/beverages as a substitute to having to sort out dinner. If the requirement to be in the city falls or is removed entirely, I cannot see what will incentivize locals to get together in a common location at anywhere near the same frequency as before.
I'd recommend seeing how the rest of the year / start of next year plays out before planning anything concrete.
It seems like his prospects were very limited. I'm not sure if it's his career choice or if it's related to the high levels of underemployment in the Toronto tech industry in general.
I've had some luck working remotely in Canada for US companies - tax treatment of stock options is worse and they typically have few or no benefits for Canadians. On the other hand, you can have a significantly higher take home if you find the right employer.