Is migrating to Canada good option for Software professional

[kateg]

Most Canadian citizens move to work in US because of the benefit offered to them by NAFTA, a TN visa: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/a-tn-visa-the-us-from-mexico-canada-who-qualifies.html

That's incorrect.

Second, after 4 years, a PR can become a citizen and leverage the TN visa to work for a US employer directly. I believe there are plenty of opportunities for IT because of proximity to US, and this is a big advantage compared to Australia or NZ that don't have such big market like US nearby.

Canadian Permanent Residency is for people who want to make Canada their home. I have a good deal of dislike for those who use it as a backdoor means of entering the United States - people like that take a slot that was intended for someone who wanted to make Canada their permanent home, and Canada invests significant time and expense in those people.

To become a Canadian Citizen, they now require a certification that one is planning to intend to reside in Canada. If you are planning on moving to the US, you are lying.

 

[kateg]

You made it sound like Canadian citizens are flooding across the borders and creating many vacancies for new immigrants. This massive flood simply isn't taking place. I was born in Canada, have more friends than I can name who are in IT (I've worked in IT myself) and can only think of one who relocated to the US.

I know of one guy here in Canada who did that. He moved back.

 

[kateg]

You can check here, till someone replies with personal experience.

Software Engineer :https://www.glassdoor.ca/Salaries/calgary-software-developer-salary-SRCH_IL.0,7_IM970_KO8,26.htm


IT Manager: https://www.glassdoor.ca/Salaries/calgary-it-manager-salary-SRCH_IL.0,7_IM970_KO8,18.htm

My developer position here started at about CAD $85,000. To put that in perspective, I made around $150,000 USD in New York City, and around $100,000 USD in Arizona.

 

[NitinGupta]

My developer position here started at about CAD $85,000. To put that in perspective, I made around $150,000 USD in New York City, and around $100,000 USD in Arizona.

Hi Kateg; how much exp do you have as of now? and i didnt got your calculation which put CAD $85k = USD 150k??

 

[Ichowdhury]

How is the market for people in the general line?
By this I mean people from the call centre background, or people mostly into the customer service sector?
Do they stand a good chance of getting decent jobs in Canada?
If yes, then which provinces should be the main focus?
Looking for suggestions from experienced folks.

 

[chiyakam]

Hi Kateg; how much exp do you have as of now? and i didnt got your calculation which put CAD $85k = USD 150k??

I don't think he's equating the two salaries - he's just mentioning the salaries in three different places drawn by him at his developer level job.

 

[kateg]

Hi Kateg; how much exp do you have as of now? and i didnt got your calculation which put CAD $85k = USD 150k??

Different jobs. Comparing wages in the US versus Canada. Canada is not the place for high wages (though I would still rather be here than in the United States). I included them for comparison purposes - wages in Canada are (on the higher end) about half what they would be in the US, and lower than many other nations as well.

I have nearly 20 years of programming experience, in over a dozen different languages. I'm one of the few Zend Certified PHP Engineers in BC. I have business, management, and sales experience, as well as some hardware experience as well.

Eh, what the heck - here's my LinkedIn profile.

 

[StAnger]

Other than Oil and gas sector, everything seems alrighty.

 

[Zoide]

numbers given in the above links doesn't seems very promising. with these numbers i think i should stick with my current job

Where do you currently work?

 

[number411]

My developer position here started at about CAD $85,000. To put that in perspective, I made around $150,000 USD in New York City, and around $100,000 USD in Arizona.

Thank you. This is very humbling, indeed.

 

[Zoide]

My developer position here started at about CAD $85,000. To put that in perspective, I made around $150,000 USD in New York City, and around $100,000 USD in Arizona.

For you, what made it worth moving despite the much lower salary?

I don't know how the exchange rate was back then, but nowadays $85,000 CAD is ~$61,400 USD! Compared to $150,000 or even $100,000, that's a huge cut.

 

[dks2323]

@NitinGupta.....This is the same question I asked myself before moving to Canada in 2014....
Well, there are many opportunities in Canada for IT professionals....and I mean it....but it all depends how good YOU are to grab those....so ask yourself if you are competent enough to get a job....don't be surprised if you get a Manager's role (the same what you are doing right now) as soon as you land here or you might have to struggle to get a job for months....

I moved from US to Canada in 2014 (I worked in US for about 6 years) and I am happy that I made that decision....so everybody in Canada is not trying to move to US.....of course US is a bigger market with more number of jobs but is not it obvious....US population is 10 times Canadian population (320 million as compared to 35 million) so of course there are more jobs and more competition.....

The only disadvantage in Canada for IT professional is that you might have to restrict yourself to certain Provinces/places as you don't find IT jobs everywhere (and this is just my perspective and it may be absolutely wrong)...

The salary links provided in another post are average salaries so again its up to YOU that how YOU sell yourself....I have about 8.5 years of IT experience and I am making around 135K per annum working (as a contractor) as a business analyst/technical architect for a bank....my wife has 9+ years of IT experience and she is earning around 100K working (Permanent) as QA lead for a big retail chain of Canada....

But if money is your only criteria to immigrate to any other country then please do not leave your home country...you are going to miss many more things....

@KateG.....Thanks for being on this forum and provide your valuable inputs.....

 

[okbangaram]

My developer position here started at about CAD $85,000. To put that in perspective, I made around $150,000 USD in New York City, and around $100,000 USD in Arizona.

This about sums up the situation regarding the difference between CAN and US in terms of pay scale.
So, $60k USD in Canada translates to $150k in NYC and I am pretty sure its roughly around that much in the SV too.

There is a massive brain drain going on from Canada into the US for talented students from top Canadian Universities.

Posting some comments from hacker news here.

CoolGuySteve 580 days ago

One of the worst things about tech in Canada is that the salaries are ridiculously low compared to the US. I made 2-3x as much by moving to California and then another integer coefficient greater than one when I moved to New York.

gabbo 580 days ago

I don't even live in CA/NY (so my gross pay multiple isn't quite as high, but income net tax/cost of living is pretty great) and there's just no comparison. I probably make 60-80% more total comp in the USA than I would expect in a major Canadian city, and that's not even accounting for higher taxes (depending on state/province), frothy Canadian real estate valuations, and higher consumer prices almost across the board.
But Canada sure is a great place to live and I miss it dearly. I still hope to move back one day.

potatolicious 580 days ago

I went Canada -> Seattle -> SF -> NYC. Here's a datapoint:
- Seattle salaries were ~70% higher than what I would've gotten in Canada at the time (mostly looking at Toronto area market, though it's all fairly similar)
- SF salaries were ~30% higher than Seattle. I didn't know it at the time but that meant I took an effective pay cut. My total comp was about 1.8x what I would receive in Canada at the time.
- NYC salaries were another ~30% higher than SF (64% higher than Seattle). Cost of living here is lower than SF (weirdly enough), so I effectively got a large raise moving. I've been here for a while, and looking at the Canadian market now I'd reckon I'm about 2.2x higher than a similar position in Canada.
All of the above were done while staying in the same "field" - i.e., did not go into finance. And all of the above assumes I'd be fetching top-10th-percentile salaries for my position in Canada (itself far from a guarantee). If I do "just average" for compensation in Canada my NYC salary would be about 2.6x.
The one overarching trend is that the gap widens as you gain experience and seniority. Canadian salaries never catches up, and in fact continues to fall further and further behind as you go up the ladder.
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jgh 580 days ago

I can vouch for the 2x from Canada->California, I'm making more than 2x what I did in Canada (Toronto) now. I don't know about the 3x or 4x, maybe sillysaurus was making like $30k in Canada before, or maybe he's just some kind of superstar that gets paid $250k/year.
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serge2k 580 days ago

I got a 1.7 times increase (+ better tax situation) by moving from BC to Seattle. Positions at the same level.
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zizee 580 days ago

Is cost of living comparable?
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activepeanut 580 days ago

Vancouver is more expensive than Seattle.
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potatolicious 580 days ago

......
- all but 2 people in my graduating cohort are writing code in the US.
You are welcome to delude yourself into thinking that "real" Canadians don't value a high salary, but in reality it's causing a massive brain out of the country.

Bottomline is this: You will make more money in the US when compared to Canada for similar positions. The trend of talented and ambitious people moving to the US from Canada for better pay and opportunities does not seem to be declining.

Note: All these are individual perspectives but collectively, they do seem to portray a consistent and coherent picture.

 

[dks2323]

There is absolutely no denying in the fact that US has more jobs and much higher pay scales....Nobody is denying and this is very obvious....

The question is if Canada has opportunities for software professionals and the answer is YES......

 

[kateg]

For you, what made it worth moving despite the much lower salary?

The police in Canada have never threatened to kill me. I don't have to worry about losing insurance, and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills (like I did in the US). I don't have to worry about getting sued in business, and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills (like I did in the US).

The people are nicer, the air is cleaner, and I am a nationalist - I firmly believe that the government of a country has an obligation to it's people, those who it elect it, and pay their taxes to fund it. Canada, while not perfect, works to take care of it's citizens much more than the United States does.

I'm gay. I'm married. In the time I lived in the United States, when I crossed state borders, I was unmarried in the eyes of the State and the federal governments, married by the State but not the federal government, married federally but not by the State, married by both the State and the federal government, civil unioned by the State and unmarried by the federal government, and civil unioned by the State and married by the federal government. I had years where my wife and I had to prepare our taxes 6 different ways, and had politicians running on a platform of stripping my marriage.

We married in Canada 6 years ago - when the US said "go away", Canada said "welcome".

It took me a few years to be in a position where I could immigrate - I believe that it's important that immigrants not take jobs from Canadians. I had to develop my skills, and specialize to the point where I can come and create jobs (or help others who have been unable to find employees).

It's still a land of opportunity. Shortly after landing, I managed to win a competition with $50,000 for my new business[/b]. I have some technology which I have developed that will really help solve some problems with hacking, and Canada has tax credits, loans, and other assistance that makes it easier for entrepreneurs doing unique things. In the US, it's easier to get investors, but here we invest in our own.

There is more to life than money.