u/Renovatio_Imperii wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
TC wise probably Stripe, Wish, Doordash, Meta or Google?
u/michaelnovatireplied·
Oh didn't know Stripe's office was open, yeah Stripe is great! I know lots of awesome people there.
u/agentbobR wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
None of those Canadian companies pay even close to American big tech/unicorns, and big techs have a presence now in Canada so my top companies aren't really different from someone living in the bay area (Google, Meta, Stripe, Bolt, etc).
u/michaelnovatireplied·
Yeah my understanding has been that the salaries are significantly lower in Canada. Like Amazon's new grad salary is something like 110-120K CAD (\~93K USD) and in the USA it's around 130Kish USD... which is a massive difference. and the market and ranges are also pretty crazy right now in the USA (some new grads are getting up to 150K USD).
u/Nice-Adhesiveness-86 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
joined Facebook in 2007... that's crazy. no offense but guess you `FIRE` already ?
u/michaelnovatireplied·
I joined in 2009, but close enough haha. Yeah I was there when it was cool, and left shortly after the 2016 election when the sentiment towards FB turned negative. Yeah my stock 100X'd so I have to say it worked out quite well. There is lot more inequality here compared to Canada and what "money" means has changed a lot in my mind. More so than the comp though, it was really a magical experience where my what I was good at was a great fit for Facebook at the time. I learned so much, contributed a lot, and made a lot of lifelong friends.
u/Itchy-Ad8471 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Any tips for new grads? Lots of options out there, but hard to know what to jump into
u/michaelnovatireplied·
\#1 tip if you want a job out of school (rather than academia) is do internships during school.
If you are one of the strongest candidates out of school, e.g. a top ranked Waterloo grad with 6 top tier coops, the companies I would target in Toronto would be: Stripe, Google, Meta, 1Password, Snap, Twitter, Uber, possibly Amazon (I know some of these aren't hiring right now). Faire is up and coming too in Waterloo. Airbnb for remote.
But I would probably suggest you try to go to SF or NYC on TN status and get a little more ingrained in the tech culture.
If you don't have any/many internships and didn't go to one of the top CS/eng programs in the country, I would still target the above, but you might find these just a little more approachable (but still hard and good companies!): Microsoft, Shopify, Autodesk, AMD, IBM, Hubspot.
Then if those are out of reach, the telcos and banks!
u/Itchy-Ad8471 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Oh damn, thanks for the fast response. I guess I was more asking about startups vs established companies, sectors, etc. But reading your post, yeah, I see that BigTech^TM is the way to go!
u/michaelnovatireplied·
Early stage startups are a bit tough. If you want to explore some options look at Hatchways.
I normally have three rules to evaluation startups:
1. Look at the funding and the stage. Stage B, C, D+ is probably better for a first job out of school. A and Seed is a bit early and case by case and fit is important.
2. Investors. Looking for top tier recognizable investors. There isn't a universal list, but like people consistently on top 10 lists. e.g. Sequoia, A16z, Greylock, Benchmark
3. Founders. As an engineer you want to see at least one founder with a very strong 5+ year FAANG-level background and very strong career trajectory.
u/miskas357 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Amazon is ~160K for returning new grads this year.
u/michaelnovatireplied·
It keeps going up! You mean USD in the USA right? Or is that in Canada?
u/miskas357 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
CAD in Canada :)
u/michaelnovatireplied·
Wow, thanks for sharing.
u/jakethe-newbie wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
1T6 Indy here, former EngSci dropout lol. Still trying to breaking into tech after all these years.
u/michaelnovatireplied·
Are you a writing software, or doing data science? Brother was Indy and works at top gaming company doing data analysis and it data analysis seemed like a good fit.
u/deepfiz wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Ya, wish is just for competing offers. Company outlook is horrible.
u/michaelnovatireplied·
I know two people there that I think left. But yeah don't go there until they sort out their fraud stuff. New articles keep coming out that look bad, so let it settle and see what it looks like then.
u/jakethe-newbie wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
I work in accounting but mostly on integration/testing of financial systems and write reporting packages using those or in VBA/SQL
u/michaelnovatireplied·
Yeah look at a Business Analyst or Data Analyst roles at big tech. Shopify could be a good bridge.