Comment by sshrinivasan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sshrinivasan | Hacker News Reader

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Important to note that the article is talking about executives, not the riff-raff (by that I mean the software devs). Executives typically have families, kids, schools, mortgages etc, stuff that engineers like myself do not have in general. A 40 something exec vs a 25 year old engineer have very different requirements and lifestyles. Getting developers to come here (I live in Vancouver as a Senior Software Developer) is not too difficult, we offer a salary that's about 80% what you can get in silicon Valley, and you're not in Silicon Valley. To many (including myself) that's a good thing. I prefer a theoretically lower pay for a way better lifestyle, since I put value on my free time as well as my work time. Given the choice between 100k in Vancouver and 140k in San fucking Jose, to me its a no brainer to live here. And the people who believe you max out at 80k are flat out wrong, or are working for the wrong company. We are willing to pay 6 figures for a senior developer, and starting at 85k for a junior one, and we are a smallish company of about 45 people.

Salaries here are going up with the advent of bigger companies like MS, Amazon, Hootsuite etc, and it wont be long before 6 figures is just a baseline. However for executive level people, yeah I can see it being a really difficult option. Assuming you want a house and have 2 kids, thats like a minimum of 150k (1M for a house, childcare is a fucking nightmare at $1500 per kid per month) right there to even hope of having a decent lifestyle.

I really don't understand how you differentiate between a software developer and an executive this way. Plenty of devs have kids and are older than 25. Not all older people are execs. You also underestimate the current situation of the low Canadian dollar so you can't compare salaries on par. Also there is less income tax burden in the US. Also, as noted why not go work in Seattle, it's ALSO not Silicon Valley which having worked there I can understand why you might not like the living conditions.

Totally agree, cant really compare salaries. Im guessing with the CAD being beaten the way it is, Im making about 30% less than I would in the US. And like you said, I'm one of those with a wife and a kid, and not an exec. But I have a mortgage, childcare just like anyone else. Ans I can afford it no problem on my salary here.

Yeah, except that 140K USD is the equivalent of 182K CAD versus the 100K CAD you just quoted. So, you're not exactly comparing apples to apples there.

USD/CAD exchange is insane (1:1.3)

Right, but rents in SJ are 2k USD vs 1400 CAD for a perfectly acceptable 1 bedroom. So for renting a nice place, commuting 15 mins by public transit and living in Vancouver, still a pretty good tradeoff to some.

>I prefer a theoretically lower pay for a way better lifestyle

You are insane. Are you even being honest with yourself here? Why would you put up with less pay and higher cost of living? What better lifestyle is there to speak of that bigger cities south of the border doesn't provide you? The mountains and ocean? They got that over there too.

The only reason I think you might be saying this is the same thing people without any other choices say, that it is the best choice. This is textbook cognitive dissonance.

edit: well looks like you are a recruiter which explains a lot why you might be pushing this crazy idea. I've ever heard of Zymeworks Inc. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7337161.

Right, I forgot you have done a detailed study of every startup in existence! The fact that you haven't heard about us is totally irrelevant to my comment, I never claimed to work for a big famous company. In fact you proved my point even more: that a small, never heard of company (to people like you in a different field than mine) is paying their senior developers enough that I have no problem with it, even compared to larger companies.

And I can confidently say I am being honest with myself because I am actually doing exactly what I said. Live in Van, had options for 30% more pay in the US (at least) (Seattle and San Fran), took me less than 20 seconds to say no thanks.

Hahah you haven't really been to either silicon valley or vancouver have you?

have you heard of the edit button? try summarizing your incoherent thoughts in a neat single comment instead of three so I don't have to reply to them all.

yes I have been to both. yes I still think you are crazy. yes I've never heard of your company called Zymeworks Inc. which explains why it pays less (as you already mentioned it is even lower than what other senior positions in vancouver pays since it's a small company), yes it is significantly lower than US and by 60% if you factor in exchange rate. Your arrogant attitude doesn't help at all. You seem convinced that SV engineers can do more with less money. I don't think even skilled engineers would work for that kind of salary here in Vancouver but you might not be after quality but high turnover. Would anyone reading what you wrote and how you are behaving really convince people here and elsewhere to work for your company where they insist that people need to take less pay so they can have a better lifestyle? You don't need to do a study on every startup in existence because it'd be a waste of time especially since you've already mentioned you are amongst the bottom barrell in terms of pay compared to SV and local, might be a good company who knows but I've hard time believing you don't have any issues with bringing someone from SV to Vancouver that offers 60% less pay and same or more cost of living compared to SV. You really don't know what you are talking about.

Your arrogant attitude doesn't help at all.

"Physician, heal thyself"

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