I've tried now and failed multiple times to make this move over my career. Primarily been interviewing with Tier 1 companies and not getting through, so I figure might make sense to try to get the attention of the Tier 2's to at least get into the market, but none have really reached out or accepted my applications.<p>Despite what the media wants you to think, Canada is not a good place to grow in IT and Software and ML. Best jobs here are being a part of a remote office for a FAANG or going to work for a Bank, or even just remote jobs for US companies since they'll pay you in USD which will mean you get an automatic 30% pay increase.<p>Pay is 2-3x less than the US, and CoL is about the same (especially if you want to buy something with a somewhat commutable distance to the major metros).<p>So my question to those who have successfully left later in their career (7-10 YOE), how did you manage it? What companies paid the most attention to you? What did your experience look like and how did you promote yourself if you weren't part of some hot startup like Shopify?<p>NOTE: I'm not here to argue the merits of the Canadian tech market. If you like it here, kudos to you and hope you find good growth opportunities.
I've worked with a lot of folks who have made the move from Canada to the US in the middle part of their careers. Knowing nothing else about your situation, there are two things they did that might be relevant to you:<p>1. Really specific area of expertise that was needed by whoever was hiring them. "IT, software, ML" is very broad, but if you have a keen interest in data engineering for computer vision (random example), then you'll find people keen to talk to you. Try to narrow yourself into a high-demand niche.<p>2. Have a good "portfolio" of successful projects. I don't know your resume, but if you're stuck at getting to the formal interviews (i.e., getting screened out by automatic filters or recruiters), then you likely have a weak resume. This doesn't mean you need to work for a hot startup; work on side projects that stand out and show you can ship code/products.<p>Finally, a word of caution --- Tier 1 companies in the US are fantastic. Depending on how you define them, "Tier 2" companies have a huge range in terms of pay, quality, etc. and you might be in for a bad surprise. Make sure to do your due diligence on the company, the city, and the specific team you'd be working in.<p>Source: I run a data science careers site at <a href="https://phaseai.com/" rel="nofollow">https://phaseai.com/</a> -- feel free to reach out if you have questions.
> Despite what the media wants you to think, Canada is not a good place to grow in IT and Software and ML.<p>There's more to life than money, friend. Cost of living is not the only metric for quality of life. Safety, unity, sanity, these are all things Canadian cities have over the majority of American cities.<p>I hope the increase in pay is worth it to you. For some of us, this is more than just a place to live and "grow in IT", it's a place we come from and build our lives in. From this perspective, your words are denigrating; no matter, those who seek their fortune down south are seldom missed for long.
Hi, I think you should not try to sell yourself as a Data Scientist. I have worked for many startups and in the past they felt they needed to hire a data scientist, however many of them are expected to be able to do data engineering/ devops. Automation with AWS/ Azure in addition to running their analytic workloads in whatever the latest and greatest is at the moment. Eventually the companies do not see value on that role and i have seen those rolls being chopped. If you know data engineering and manage full analytic pipelines in aws, and automation with terraform , cloudformation that will open up the doors for many roles. Hope that might give you some idea on how to market yourself here :)
Where are you getting stuck?<p>Getting hired, and hiring, is an acquisition funnel. Just like advertising through to making a sale.<p>Are you getting interviews? If not work on your resume, projects, and networking.<p>Are you not passing interviews? If so at what point in the process, phone screen, tech questions, or final offer?<p>Are companies saying no because you are in Canada? Target larger companies comfortable with the visa process.
Fwiw, I have been in the industry since 2008. I started in Canada. Have been living in the Bay Area for the last 5 yrs working for a FAANG company.<p>Am moving back to Canada this summer. The math for us (family of five) does not work in terms of ability to buy a house without spending an insane amount of time commuting
I'm a Canadian SWE who moved to the US in 2017. I was in my mid 30's at the time. I can't tell you how you can do it, but I can say how I did it.<p>I ended up getting a job offer via Triplebyte. The good thing with them is that they don't consider Canadians as needing a visa. They provided the lawyer assistance for arranging the TN visa documents. This may have changed. Triplebyte is much different than they were a few years ago.<p>Also, that year I had attended Pycon and got a lot of introductions to companies at their hiring event. When I was looking to make the move, I must have had 8 onsite interviews. I failed every one of them except the place that hired me.<p>This is because the interview process is much different compared to what I had in Canada. In Canada, it was basically a crapshoot. I never had any idea what to expect. Usually I just talked about some of my past projects and maybe had some easy programming question. US companies are more structured. You're usually gonna have around 2 coding rounds, 1 system design and 1 behavioural. You may think "I have 10 years of experience so I don't need to really prepare." I'm sorry but that would be wrong. You need to prepare more because a lot of the types of coding questions you get asked are things you rarely encounter on the job so your experience isn't going to help you for interviews much (except the behavioural and maybe partly the system design). You can complain about it but it won't help you achieve your goal.<p>I wanted to switch jobs again this year and I didn't want to have the same experience last time of failing so many onsites so this time I signed up for an interview prep program. There's a few available but I went with Interview Kickstart. It was 6 months of preparation but it was the first time in my life where I felt fully confident going into interviews. I knew what to expect so I didn't feel nervous and I had practiced mock interviews to get feedback and make adjustments. I've had 4 onsites with results so far and received interest from all of them for offers.<p>Completely agree with you about the career growth opportunities in the US. It's a major career regret of mine that I didn't move sooner. For specifics, when I left Canada I was making $90k CAD. I felt I was pretty close to the ceiling (not living in Toronto or Vancouver). The first US job doubled that but in USD and now these new offers have doubled that again. Plus the work is way more interesting and challenging.
Best of luck. Even applying from within the US to Data Scientist roles takes quite a while to get through. At least compared to a few years ago organizations are providing rejections rather than simply ghosting.
When I read your first paragraph I immediately think there's a challenge in your interview, whether that's an interpersonal or language barrier, or difference between the skillset showcased on your resume and the skillset you show in an interview. When was the last time you did a practice interview? Do you have a coach?
It sounds like a VISA problem for the tier II or smaller companies.<p>If you focus on the bigger tier I companies, you are getting interviews so your resume works. You are failing the interview/coding test. Do you have insight into which? Are you getting second interviews? Does the process stop after the coding test?
Canadian here who works in US tech -- not sure I have any general advice that would be helpful but with some more context about your specific skillset & situation I might be able to help. Feel free to reach out (email in my profile).
What’s a tier 1 company ? Did they provide any feedback as to why you didn’t get through?<p>Some in FAANG are starting to hire remotely in Canada such as Facebook. You can try that.
if getting to 2-3x pay by converting the USD->CAD then you have to convert the COL into CAD and it's much lower in Canada than the US. If you don't convert either then it's maybe just slightly cheaper in US, though in the markets where 2x non-converted comp exists, the COL is still probably higher.