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.
