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Canada Facing 'Brain Drain' As Young Tech Talent Leaves For Silicon Valley (theglobeandmail.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Globe and Mail: Canada's best and brightest computer engineering graduates are leaving for jobs in Silicon Valley at alarmingly high rates, fueling a worse "brain drain" than the mass exodus by Canadian doctors two decades ago, according to a new study. The study, led by Zachary Spicer, a senior associate with the Munk School of Global Affairs' Innovation Policy Lab at University of Toronto, found one-in-four recent science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) graduates from three of the country's top universities -- University of Waterloo, University of British Columbia and U of T -- were working outside Canada. The numbers were higher for graduates of computer engineering and computer science (30 percent), engineering science (27 percent) and software engineering, where two out three graduates were working outside Canada, mostly in the United States. Nearly 44 percent of those working abroad were employed as software engineers, with Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Amazon listed as top employers.
Yeah, that describes it quite well.
" everyone insists that it's the greatest city on the planet."
I think the reason for this is quite simple: when you're young, you're surrounded by young people. Pretty much anywhere is the greatest place to be when you're surrounded and accepted by young people. (Barring war and disasters)
I experienced this in the 1990s, I was a 20-something doing equipment installations in factories in Poland and the Czech Republic. In my spare time I went out and was immediately welcomed and accepted by the local young people and I had a blast.
Now I'm in my 40s and life is now a mix between being invisible or viewed with suspicion. It's like humans have the life cycle of a barnacle. A few years floating around with millions of baby barnacles, then decades being attached to a house and marriage, and only seeing the 4 or 5 nearest barnacles while the ocean passes you by.
Mostly random stuff.
"Are you sure you're not talking about Canada in general?"
I haven't lived anywhere else in Canada, so I don't know.
"After all, tech is a highly mobile job."
It sure is, and from the employer's point of view this is great advantage, whereas as the employee, you have to physically move...
You must be young because selling a house and moving a family is not trivial. What do you do once you're in SV and somehow something better pops up yet somewhere else?
Mostly random stuff.
If you remove black people from the statistics, America's education system scores #3 in the world, instead of #16.
If you're white or asian, come on over.
It's difficult for people to understand that we are taxed like a socialist country but get services like a capitalist country. The corporate takeover of our government is slowly but surely happening, one step at a time.
Mostly random stuff.
Vancouver is getting as bad as San Fran is, especially with the homelessness and rampant public drug use. It was bad 10 years ago, it's gone downhill since then. Seriously, I fully get why young Canadians are trying to GTFO from Canada. The taxes are high but you see no return. Whether it's at the city, provincial, or federal level. The government(federal and many provincial governments) would rather throw money at illegals entering the country then help people who desperately need help. A person can be disabled, qualify for disability, and not get anything at all. No financial help, no training, no tax deferments. The number of disabled who now live full-time and dependent on their parents has gone through the roof. Workers Comp(WSIB) in the most populated province in Canada(Ontario) almost never pays out to workers who are injured on the job(94% refusal rate), so good luck if you get a life changing injury. If you need low income housing, in most places the wait is between 4-10 years. Healthcare quality is decreasing in nearly every province. It's becoming a rampant politically correct mess, where people fear speaking out on issues because we have a kangaroo court system that can fine you into oblivion and leave you financially ruined so you can't take it through the normal courts to try and clear it up. The current government is pushing anti-egalitarian laws, best example is their desire to modify the law on sexual assault so exculpatory evidence can't be used.
Energy prices are through the roof, but wages are stagnant. Gasoline, NG, electricity are massively expensive. Housing prices are touching the moon, and wages are stagnant. $500k for a 40 year old house, in areas where the media income is $41k, $1.8m house prices in $70k median income. Provincial governments are doing stupid things like trying to ban NG and oil for heating and forcing people to use electricity only. Again in Canada's most populous province(Ontario), the government had to ban winter disconnection of electricity for fear of people freezing to death. Roughly 1:5 people are 3 months or more behind on their electricity bills.
Many provincial governments(Liberal and NDP) are pushing "service industry" policies for jobs, and trying to push out manufacturing jobs. Ontario again, a great example. The same province, pushed $15/h minimum wage and in the first fiscal quarter after it was implemented the economy lost nearly 50k PT jobs, the high min. wage has basically stalled the economy.
Yep, I full get why they want to GTFO. And I live in Ontario.
Om, nomnomnom...