I worked for a Canadian company that's absolutely hemmoraging talent because they refuse to pay well. I'm now paid about 50% more to work remotely for a US company in an environment that is far far more fitting of my life goals of being with my kids as they grow up.
It's beyond bizarre to watch them continue to refuse to pay anyone properly despite their imminent collapse.
It's bizarre. Even Amazon Seattle pays 2x the salaries of Amazon Vancouver, even although they are separated by only 200km and are the same company! I ask every Canadian developer I meet, why are you still here? I like living in Canada, so I work remotely even although I don't really like remote work. Instant 70% raise.
Yeah I've had a number of jobs I turned down because I simply don't want to live in the US. There's just something about the calm nature of where I live that's worth a lot to me.
There are a lot of calm nature locations in the U.S., I'm just sayin'. You won't make Silicon Valley wages, but you may still have an improvement looking in alternative city centers with varying proximity to nature: Austin, Chicago, Boston, Denver, Salt Lake City
Is there any difficulty in working across the border like that? I work for a Canadian company due to having my roots here and find the thought of dealing with remote work in another country intimidating. Is it much hassle?
I setup a company and structure the employment as a contractor with no benefits. Most companies are happy to structure things that way, and all jobs are basically at will employment anyway, so there's little practical difference. US companies are used to spending a lot on benefits, so you can negotiate a higher salary instead.
Compared to what you do every single day at work, it's not really much trouble at all.
It's been completely painless because the company is using a Canadian company to handle my salary and tax info, and they got me Canadian extended health insurance.
It's actually kind of awesome. They bump up my Canadian salary to match their USD official salary any time the exchange rate goes bonkers. So the more Trump does Trump, the more I'm paid.
It's not for everyone. It's definitely for me. I see my family every lunch. I can just wander off and go so stuff with them if I'm not feeling it, and then just do some work at another time. I've counted all the "moments" so far in my son's life that I'm so glad I didn't miss but would have at a traditional job: 106 since February.
There's remote job boards like https://weworkremotely.com/, you can filter by remote on stackoverflow, and search remote in the monthly HN who's hiring thread.
Remote work is not for everyone, and you have to be self-motivated and disciplined. It can be a lot harder to get work-life separation.
Other than that it's no different than looking for any other kind of job, you want a strong resume and to practice the coding interview and assignments.
But stay away from companies that have a Canadian presence, they often have a Canadian HR department that sets Canadian level salary guides. If you do interview with a company like that, be clear up front that you're looking for a US level salary, not a Canadian one.
Wish I did. I think it helped that I have a very unique skillset: web dev + robotics + GIS. So when I reach out I generally get quite a bit of excitement in return.
The Great Recession caused a huge disruption in the labor market for 7 years. Companies got used to having all the bargaining chips.
My company my brother works for put in place a lot of policies during that time frame that no longer make sense. Things like making it hard to give employees raises. And setting Byzantine salary ranges based on job title.
To complicate matters, when I was a student in the public school system, economics lessons were eschewed by teachings that salary is determined by skill level, starting with the lowest skilled workers being paid minimum wage and increasing from there.
Now that my age cohort is older and the ones who are now often running the businesses, I expect many of them are still hanging onto those false ideas. If they see the work as requiring low to medium skill, they are only going to offer low to medium pay as that is what they were taught they are supposed to do.
That's completely fair. They're struggling in a lot of ways. They've always insisted that they're simply not underpaying for any external reason and claim that's what everyone is worth. But maybe the truth is that their model can't afford to pay engineers properly. Which is a pretty bad model for a tech startup. Because then all your talent leaves, which all but dooms you.
I was in a similar boat. I worked for Canadian companies 2003 up until 2011. From there I have worked exclusively for US based companies, while I work out of my home office in Canada (Quebec). At my last job, we were acquired by a big company that had a Canadian (Ontario) presence and at that moment the gravy train stopped. Working remotely from another province meant I had to pay 2 provincial taxes throughout the year (I got some back at tax time) and forced benefits costs and I was forced to receive a Canadian standard salary, just as the US -> CAD exchange rate started increasing from $1.09 to $1.4x. I was netting exactly 50%... I got out of there pretty quick to go back to having US-Only based clients and will never go back.
It's not perfect, and there are always trade-off no matter what your choice:
US Remote pros
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- (US in general) Salary is higher and competitive
- When exchange rate is good, it's so good
- you can enjoy all the benefits of living in this great country of Canada while not worrying about salary
- you generally have to work as a contractor, which generally means you have more autonomy and say in how/when you work.
US Remote cons
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- You generally have to negotiate to have your Canadian holidays, and you work during American ones. Employers don't always go for this one.
- Canadian benefits/rights employment laws do not apply to you, and your job can be terminated without cause really. You are not protected by Canadian labor laws. I have been openly discriminated against (according to Canadian labor laws) and had to take it. In my US employer's defense, there was no such comparable US standard that their company was held to. I looked into it, my choice was to accept it and move on or leave.
- In 7 years working for US based companies with American colleagues, each with their own employment stories, I have come to realize that American companies work their employees to the bone, compared to Canadian companies. I have had to work 60-80 hour weeks before (for one company) and had to fight to be compensated even for time in lieu (1 hour for 1 hour), which really annoyed the owner. You may have to work weekends, you may be called in during holidays, I've had surprise deadlines for surprise features for an upcoming trade show in a week. Not negotiable. All this can be acceptable if you REALLY love your job, and/or you are compensated for it, but if not, you will hate your life when this happens.
- you have to take care of your own taxes, since you are a contractor. But tbh, the difference in salary is so vast that I hire an accounting firm to take care of it all, and I still come out way ahead (more so if you consider all the professional advice that has saved me money)
CAN Pros
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- You are entitled to benefits (this can also be a con, since the average person would spend less in a given year if they only had to pay for procedures/appointments etc... as they come up)
- you are protected by labor laws
- you have automatic deposits
- you have automatic tax deductions
- you have your Canadian holidays EVEN when it falls on a weekend and you have to take it on the Monday
CAN Cons
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- Salary is just silly small. Especially in the Maritime provinces and Quebec. Quebec is a surprising one, but many attribute this to the vast majority of employees being monolingual, speaking only French, thus not being qualified to work in other provinces without learning English first. Employers then theoretically have candidates at a disadvantage and exploit them by paying them WELL below industry standards. Don't like it? Move.
- Remote-exclusive work is very rare and many companies frown on the idea. Canada is so crazy behind the times in this area.
Those are really the only 2 cons for working in Canada that I have seen. Unfortunately the salary one is so bad that it makes working in Canada just not worth it at all imo. Choices
It's beyond bizarre to watch them continue to refuse to pay anyone properly despite their imminent collapse.