Vancouver jobs | tech sector | Your story

onworld

Hi folks,

Just wondering if anyone out there wants to share their story of finding work in the Vancouver tech sector. In particular those who are career orientated and were searching for work in the area in which they are qualified/experienced.

Did you find a job before arriving in Vancouver or after you arrived? Did you have to take a more junior role to get your foot in the door somewhere and work your way up? Did you get offered contracts or permanent roles? Did you use agencies and what level of success did you get from them? Things like that

Cheers!

fergusb

I started of contracting after I first arrived in Vancouver, got it through an agency and worked contracting for 6 months. However since contracting is a very grey area in terms of getting PR, I moved to a permanent role after the 6 months. There was a lot of contracting opportunities that I turned down moving to permanent.

I think contracting for a bit first definitely helps since its gets some local companies on you CV (resume), however that said its a fair bit of work setting up a company and dealing with all that for only a short period, so if you do intent to go for PR, I would skip contracting unless you have trouble getting a permanent job straight away.

I wouldn't necessarily say go for a junior role to get your foot in the door, go for a realistic role, in theory if you have experience, a degree/diploma and can give a good interview, you should be able to compete with any local for a role, so definitely don't sell yourself short.

Like I said I did go through an agency for the contracting (which is common), and for the permanent job it actually came through an agency as well by chance. However most tech companies are very active on Linkedin, so if you have a good profile and have it located in Vancouver you should get companies reaching out to you.

onworld

I've been in Vancouver a few months now and I've found things to be pretty slow. My most recent experience is kind of niche, so I've been applying for a broader range of roles which are not necessarily a perfect match. I think this is the root of my problem! I've come close but no offers as yet.

So far all of the companies I've interviewed with have been from direct applications or referrals, I've had no leads from agencies despite meeting with a few of them. I'm considering more junior roles now just to get working again, despite my 15 years experience.

circular flexing

The hiring process definitely moves a lot slower than you might be used to. Also (assuming you are in IEC), the temporary nature of your work permit and your lack of Canadian experience might be off putting to some employers. What area are you looking for a job in?

onworld

circular flexing wrote: »

The hiring process definitely moves a lot slower than you might be used to. Also (assuming you are in IEC), the temporary nature of your work permit and your lack of Canadian experience might be off putting to some employers. What area are you looking for a job in?

Definitely agree with your comments and this is a reason why I've considered applying for more junior roles.

The process is slower on average I feel. I've been called for an interview 5 weeks after applying in some cases, and some companies wait 2 weeks between round 1 and 2 interviews. Some companies do move fast though, but in my experience they are in the minority.

My background is mixed. I started off a front-end developer, moved into delivery management, then operations, and was most recently a technical lead/tech PM for an offshore (front-end) engineering vendor.

I arrived in the summer when it's slow. I've noticed things are picking up a bit now but was curious to hear of other peoples experiences too.

circular flexing

onworld wrote: »

Definitely agree with your comments and this is a reason why I've considered applying for more junior roles.

The process is slower on average I feel. I've been called for an interview 5 weeks after applying in some cases, and some companies wait 2 weeks between round 1 and 2 interviews. Some companies do move fast though, but in my experience they are in the minority.

My background is mixed. I started off a front-end developer, moved into delivery management, then operations, and was most recently a technical lead/tech PM for an offshore (front-end) engineering vendor.

I arrived in the summer when it's slow. I've noticed things are picking up a bit now but was curious to hear of other peoples experiences too.

The place I work for in Vancouver are hiring for some/all of those roles. If you want to PM me your cv, I can send it on.

AmyPL

Six months into my job here. I applied to about 15 tech companies before coming over in March, and also had one reach out to me via angel.co. The angel.co company scheduled a Skype interview straight away (and were quick to get back to me and let me know they wouldn't be continuing with the process). The company I now work for moved insanely fast- faster than any Irish company I've ever worked for! Within two weeks of my initial application I'd gone through 4 skype interviews and started work a week after arriving. This seems outside the norm- with most places the hiring process is pretty slow. Only two other companies eventually got back to me, one to schedule an interview and another let me know they were no longer hiring. I was told that most people get hired via referrals and not through the website, networking (ugh) seems to be a pretty important part of jobhunting here, but not necessarily a dealbreaker.

I'm an intermediate level web developer who was looking to go from agency work to a SaaS company and Vancouver had plenty of these that fit the bill. Pay wise, it was a big step up from me (I was being underpaid at home though) and is in line with industry standards from what I've heard. I won't be buying a house here any time soon but I'm comfortable. Career wise, it's probably a step up. Not a major jump but I have a lot more prospects and opportunities in this job that I have in previous jobs.

I would echo what fergusb said to not undersell yourself. Tech companies hire people from all over and your visa shouldn't be something that will be held against you. Go for the job you think you're able for, and big yourself up- I don't think that comes naturally to us Irish but they seem to love self-promotion here.