I just can't believe tech companies in Canada don't realize/aren't willing to just pay the price for top engineers. Like, how can they be such cheapskates? One day I'll start a company in Waterloo and address this problem.
That is a pattern I've noticed in Canada in contrast to the US in fact; We settle for "good enough" or "profitable" but not the "moonshots" or strive to be "the best".
Whether in tech, business, or even global influence, we are a "middle power" and we seem happy about it (my high school politics teacher explains that this is a result of constantly being the US's little brother). This makes me immensely unhappy, and I hope to make Canada more ambitious one day.
The main problem is investment. You just don't have the investment capital in Canada that you can get in the U.S. I'm not just talking tech, but throughout the economy. Lots of successful Canadian SMEs get bought out by Americans because there's no one here who has the balls to invest in them. In many cases, their (head) offices are moved to the U.S., further reducing the economic impact they had here and making the U.S. economy stronger. Canada is a perpetual SME incubator feeding the U.S. economy.
Software investment is probably the only sector that is undercapitalized in Canada.
Of course commodities and the financial system to support them as well as local consumer banking have that funding. All nations do.
It is the 'soft' economy outside of that where the differences lie.
You know something funny I've learned recently? The top three owners of the 4 largest Canadian banks are... Each other.
> Mining
That's a really good counterexample. As for oil, how much of it is really Canadian-owned and developed, though?
He stated that they have a "cut the tall trees" mentality, and doesn't believe he could have been successful had he stayed in Canada.
I moved from India (Mumbai) when I was 10, to grow up in Vancouver. I've previously worked in NY, and I now work in Seattle (you can guess where), but think about moving back to Vancouver all the time to live a life of "mediocrity" and "underachieving".
In both India and America, the mindset is "If you're not first you're last", but my mindset after growing up in Vancouver: "I don't need to be first, I just need to hold my own and stay with the pack". For some reason (unclear how/when/why I learned this) growing up in Canada: 1. I learned to feel guilty for my successes (lol make it go away!). 2. I learnt very quickly, that getting one rank higher at something competitive keeps getting exponentially harder (i.e. I'd be less happy). To sum it up: Its not just about victory, but the balance of effort to victory, and the happiness from being a part of a community that counts.
However, its hard to reconcile. The Indian/American mentalities in me, especially about career, are very much a part of me. I think I compromised on "I don't need to be first, but should be at least 1 or 2 std deviations above median". As a result, I don't work in NY or SF, I live in Seattle, for the money but have a great work life balance, thinking every now and then if its it the right time to move back to Vancouver.
They live in the Bay Area, LA, NYC and more.
Also a century of political monotony didn't help.
I hope OP does start that company in Waterloo to kickstart the whole process.
I think pay statistics from multiple companies would be mcuh stronger for your argument..
It takes multiple companies all making bay-area-style profits to create upward pressure on labor prices to end up with bay-area-style salaries.
You have completely changed your goalposts. I will remind you of your previous points:
1. Canadian companies don't make much money so they can't afford high salaries
2. Canadian companies don't forecast they will have high growth after expensive hires.
Please tell me if I have misinterpreted your comment.
My primary point was "The motivation to pay more for talent is to make more money" (quoting myself). Companies won't pay top dollar if they don't think they will make more money by hiring top talent (#2 above), or they don't have the money to afford the top talent (#1 above), or...let me add #3:
Companies won't pay more for top talent if they can acquire that talent for cheaper (which happens when there is no competition for that talent). Tho #3 is kind of a metafeature - the ecosystem needed for #3 to be satisfied requires many companies that all satisfy #1 and #2.
Even In India Google/MSFT pay atleast 25k$ annually to new hires (not including stocks), Purchasing power wise that is around 100k$, right where the US salaries are.
US interns get paid around 6-8k a month, let's be generous and say 9k$. Are you saying that as a full time dev you could only earn 3k$ a month? Looks like you could earn more as a garbage truck driver?
Top end dev pay is about $100K here, especially in the web space. Average would be $60-$75K. And that's Canadian!
Because even European startups seems to work out better
Maybe Canadian companies are different, but companies in Slovenia simply can't pay their engineers 150k salaries even if they wanted to. So many people move.