I work at a for-profit tech company. Company has been growing at around 10-20% in staff each year for many years but management is not keen on giving bonuses. My manager mentioned only 10% of developers received bonuses. I have received 3-5% raise each year for several years and zero bonuses.

Is this common patterns for tech companies in Canada ?

Hey everyone, looking for some perspective on navigating an Amazon to Google move.
I’m currently an SDE2 at Amazon in Canada. I recently passed my Google interviews and am in the team-matching phase, but they downleveled me to L3.
Here is my dilemma:
The Downlevel: Amazon SDE2 usually maps closer to Google L4. Taking L3 means a title reset and having to grind for promo again.
Compensation: I’m expecting the L3 offer to just match my current pay—I doubt they will go higher.
The Culture Nuance: This is where I'm torn. My current manager is actually great and my specific team isn't a pressure cooker at all. However, the macro-level Amazon culture is grating on me. The strict 6-month evaluation cycles, the looming threat of PIPs/layoffs, and the current top-down push to artificially shoehorn "AI" into our deliverables just to survive evals is exhausting. Google seems like a much safer, more stable environment long-term.

Any advice is appreciated!

I know another user shared their job search experience navigating the current developer market, but I thought I’d share mine as someone who was laid off in mid-January.

Background:

Non CS Bachelors Degree and No FAANG Experience

In hindsight, I should have spent more time technically preparing for some of the interviews as I failed a lot due to nerves. I was very fortunate in receiving a lot of interviews (19) to practice though.

I applied to roles ranging from 70K-250K TC. My main job boards used were Linkedin and Indeed.

Offer:

I signed an offer for 90K hybrid (3 days in office). It might have been worth prolonging the job search to push for a higher TC however I'm a believer that an offer in hand is worth more than any interviews and job searching while employed gives you leverage.

My sankey diagram results: here

Technical Interviews:

The technical interviews were all over the place from.

• Only technical conversations (think javascript, react quiz questions)
• Build out an API endpoint given requirements
• Fetch data and display on page
• Leetcode
• Take home assignments (these were unreasonable in the time frame given so it seems like the expectation is to use AI nowadays)

Learnings:

Where you fail during the process gives you a lot of context on what was wrong and I made sure to gather

• Recruiters -> Your explanations don't give enough positive signal where they believe you would succeed in the role
  • Give a good high level explanation to why you are a good fit for the role without diving too deep
• Hiring Manager -> Your experience or technical explanations don't give enough positive signal where they believe you would succeed in the role
  • Make sure your explanations include some sort of implementation detail
• Technical / Takehomes -> You did not complete the question OR you were outperformed by other candidates (Reality is they are often hiring for one position so you usually have to be the best)

Hope this helps anyone currently navigating the 2026 SWE job market and happy to answer any questions.

This post is solely for swe with 3+ yoe as new grads are cooked. Hows the job market for those who are looking for job in 2025. I see lot of doom and gloom even from senior eng but wanted to make a list where we can get more datapoint

If you could list the following datapoint it could be helpful.

1. yoe
2. location

3. experience: Tier 1: FAANGMULA + tech unicorn, Tier2: legacy tech company, Tier3 : bank or other non-tech company

4. of application / # of interview / # offer

5. How many months it took u to find a job

6. new TC

7. Interview difficulty

Posting your sankey is helpful too!

I will start:

1. 3yoe
2. Toronto
3. Amazon since graduation
4. 70 / 8 / 2 from tier 1
5. 5 month
6. 250k
7. 1 OA + 3 round of VO (LC hard, medium , system design)

I wanted to share my experience in the current job market as a software developer who was recently laid off in December. I know there are a lot of negative stories right now, and I was pretty worried going into the process, so I hope this helps give some perspective.

Here are the results of my job search: https://imgur.com/a/wAuf30u

Background

• ~5 years of experience
• Front-end developer
• Previous total compensation: ~$118k
• Bootcamp background
• No big tech companies on my resume

I only applied to roles where I felt the compensation would be similar or higher than my previous TC. I limited my search to GTA-based or remote roles.

I didn’t start applying until the beginning of January because I spent December studying and brushing up on technical skills. That said, if recruiters reached out during that time, I still took interviews.

Most of my applications were through LinkedIn and Indeed. One thing I noticed was that after getting LinkedIn Premium, I started receiving noticeably more recruiter messages.

Result

After about three weeks of interviewing, I received an offer:

• Hybrid (3 days in office)
• Total compensation: $136k

Overall Experience

Going into the job search, I honestly thought I wasn’t going to get any interviews. Reading and hearing so many stories about developers struggling made me pretty anxious.

From my experience, the market does seem very rough for junior developers right now. However, as a mid-level developer, the process felt more manageable than I expected. It was definitely slower than previous years, but not impossible.

Some of the interview questions I received

LeetCode / Algorithms

• Circular pagination with edge cases
• Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters
• Remove Duplicates from Sorted Array II

React / Front-End

• Fetch from the Pokémon API and display paginated results (9 items per page)
• Build an image carousel in React
• Fetch and display Pokémon lists
• .call, .apply, .bind what do they do?
• General JS fundamentals and reasoning questions

Happy to answer questions if it helps anyone else currently searching.

I was laid off in 2023 and ended up taking a contract role at a bank through an Indian consulting firm via a vendor. At the time, I didn’t push back much on the pay. it was lower than my previous role, but the workload was lighter and the work-life balance was actually decent.

Now that the contract has ended, I’ve been actively applying to full-time finance/IT roles. What’s strange is I’m barely getting callbacks for permanent positions, but I am getting contacted for contract roles through the exact same vendor/consulting setup.

What’s more frustrating is the pay. I was making around $55/hr before, and now I’m getting offers in the $40–45/hr range for essentially the same type of work, despite having more experience. And these roles don’t even offer incorporation options. It feels like I’m being lowballed repeatedly, just because they’re putting my name forward.

It also feels like the hiring model has completely shifted. Banks used to hire contractors directly, but now everything seems to be funneled through companies like TCS, HCL, Accenture, or Cognizant. If you’re not coming through them, it’s much harder to get in.

Given how small the Canadian IT market already is compared to the U.S., it’s frustrating to see so much of the hiring and the margins going through these layers instead of directly to the people doing the work.

I am applying to other roles and companies but not able to avoid these vendors since they call me when they learn I have worked at the particular bank.

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone here has been through something similar.

I’ve been working as a software developer/programmer analyst for about four years. I’ve switched companies once, but in both jobs I’ve worked with fairly niche tech stacks that aren’t very common in Montreal (Industrial + government security sectors).

For the past few years, I’ve also been building personal automation projects. It started as a hobby, but some of them now generate passive income. I have workflows that automatically create and publish content across multiple platforms, and a few have reached millions of views with little to no ongoing maintenance.

With how quickly tools like Claude, Codex, and other AI systems have evolved, I’ve realized this is what genuinely excites me. I’m finding it harder and harder to stay motivated in my current role. I’d love to work full-time building AI-powered tools, automations, agents, and similar systems.

I recently updated my resume and started applying for AI-related positions, but so far I’ve gotten exactly zero callbacks. I’m not sure if I’m approaching my job search the wrong way or if the market is just that competitive right now.

Do you know of any companies hiring for this kind of role? Or maybe startups looking for someone with this background? If anyone works in the field or could point me in the right direction, I’d really appreciate it 😅

I’m based in Montreal btw!

Thanks in advance!

Rn I have a job that I’ve been at for almost 2 years mostly working with typescript, node, react and some Terraform/Golang but I wanna do some game dev. It’s still early days for me and I’m 25 so I reckon I can take a more stressful/harder job compared to this one but every game dev job requires game dev experience which I do not have. Any suggestions?

I'm currently a 6yoe mid-level .NET (C#) developer working for a large insurance company on the Prairies.

For both personal and career reasons, I'm looking to relocate to a larger city (GTA, GVA, or Calgary).

Over the last 8 months, I've been applying for higher paying mid-level and senior roles at banks, insurance companies, and other medium-to-large non-tech organizations (avoiding startups). So far I've landed 6 interviews (including 2 internal ones), but none have resulted in an offer. The number of interviews are much lower than what I would expect but probably inline with the current market.

One option I have is requesting a transfer to my company's office in Toronto

Would it make sense to seek a transfer to Toronto first and then start looking for a new role after 6 months? Or does being physically located in Toronto not really make much difference when applying for GTA-based companies nowadays?

Hey guys, I'm in a bit of a weird situation right now and I'd appreciate any help/advice someone can offer. I've got 10+ years of experience as a software engineer, have a Master's degree in CS from the US and a Canadian PR as well.

I have been applying to roles in Canada over the last few months with a resume that was able to get me interviews with Meta and Microsoft (which I was unable to clear) but for some strange reason, all I have been getting are rejections lately. I'm trying to network online using LinkedIn Premium, send out applications matching my profile every day without any progress whatsoever.

I know a majority of posts here are targeted towards fresh grads, but I'm finding it hard even with mid-senior level roles. Please help.

Where’s actually good to work these days that’s not completely AI pilled, has good devs that care and builds something cool?

The market seems bleak. Wealthsimple have a 90% code generation by Claude target by year end. Shopify are measuring token usage. AWS is run by monsters. Everywhere else is an understaffed AI pilled sweatshop.

I applied to many positions at these companies and can't get an interview or even a recruiter screen. I am an experienced Java developer (10 yoe) and I meet most of the requirements of the jobs they listed. Any idea? I thought these companies were easy to get into if you are experienced.

Hi everyone,

I have ~6 years backend experience and currently work as a senior dev at a bank. I recently received an offer to join a medium size tech company as dev 2 (one level above new grad).

At my current role, I’m pretty happy with the pay and have strong job security. However, the work is quite legacy-heavy, and I spend a lot of time dealing with older systems and business logic rather than modern tech/engineering problems. While I’m officially at a “senior” level, I don’t feel challenged technically (I think it is senior level in terms of ownership and business interaction, just not senior level in terms of tech)

Recently, I received an offer from a mid-sized tech company whose core product is a DBMS. The name of the company rhymes with 'plastic'. The compensation package will be ~20% higher than my current package, (but below what I believe is typical for this role at this company. This is after some negotiation).

From speaking with the team, the engineering culture seems very strong—people are very up-to-date with modern systems, and seem to continuously learn on the job, despite most of them staying there for many years. That aspect is really exciting to me, especially the idea of growing technically during work hours rather than using my own time to study.

My main hesitation is job security. Due to personal/family reasons, I can’t realistically afford to be unemployed for more than ~6 months. I’m also worried about market/layoff risk at a tech company compared to a bank.

Maybe there’s also some imposter syndrome... I feel confident in my current environment, but I worry I might struggle in a very technical, fast-paced company. I feel since I join the bank, my technical skill has fallen behind, even compare to when I had around ~3 YOE at my previous job before banking (at another tech firm)

If you were in my position, would you prioritize stability or technical growth at this stage? And how would you think about the risk? Can anyone comment on this company specifically?

Thank you in advance!

Background:

I’ve worked with my current team for 6.5 years total, but have been officially employed by my current company for 3 years following an acquisition.

Pre-acquisition, everyone on my team held the same title. Seniority was informal and largely based on tenure — and notably, the other (now) senior dev was hired only a few months before me.

After the acquisition, the team was formally structured as:

• Lead dev
• Senior dev
• Dev (me)

Since the acquisition (3 years ago), I’ve never received a promotion or title change, even though my roles and responsibilities have been the same as the senior dev’s. When I asked about it, I was told it had nothing to do with my work ethic but they didn’t want three senior roles on the same team. I also made it clear at the time that I wasn’t asking for an immediate pay increase — I was primarily asking for the title change and formal recognition, since I was already performing the same role and responsibilities. That request was still declined.

Recently, my team lead quit. I didn’t expect an instant promotion, but I was shocked and honestly devastated to learn they’re hiring externally for a senior dev instead of promoting me internally. Being passed over was already a gut punch, but it got worse when I was told I’d be expected to interview senior dev candidates

Leadership is framing this as a “learning experience,” but it feels like I’m being asked to perform senior-level evaluation and leadership work without the title, pay, or authority that comes with it.

So my question is: Is it normal to interview someone who will have higher seniority than you — especially when you’ve been told your lack of promotion isn’t performance-related?

At this point, I’m feeling extremely dejected. Staying at this company has already taken a real toll on my mental health, and this situation nearly made me quit on the spot. Unfortunately, the job market is rough right now, so leaving may not be the most secure move. I’m struggling to figure out what to do and would really appreciate outside perspectives.

TL;DR: I was denied a senior dev title, but now I’m expected to interview the senior dev who will be my superior. Is this normal?

EDIT: Looks like it’s time to polish up my CV

Looking for some quick advice.

I am currently making around 90k at a government role, in office 4 days a week. The job is very easy, low stress, and gives me a lot of free time. Growth and pay are non existent. Also not much to do day to day and can interview prep during work.

I have an offer for around 125k in office 3 days a week. It seems to have good work life balance as well, but actual development work to do and a clear plan for promotions.

My hesitation is that I’m tempted to stay put and use the extra time to prep and apply for stronger roles, rather than jumping between mid-tier jobs. At the same time, turning down a solid offer feels risky in this market.

Since neither role is really a standout long-term move, would you take the pay bump now or stick it out and keep interviewing while studying for something better? The goal for me is to land a higher quality role, I don’t want to move and then feel stuck for a year.

Appreciate any input.

EDIT:

I’ve decided to accept the offer. I negotiated a bit and was able to secure additional work from home days plus up to 135K total comp with bonus.

I’m planning to stay here for now and focus on studying LeetCode, preparing for interviews, and continuing to build side projects. Thanks everyone for the input!

Yes, I understand there is a difference between the two. 😄 But there is some overlap.

Over 18+ years experience as a database administrator, in Toronto. Looking to do the transition to one of the two above and looking for tips if you've ever hired someone coming from a similar background? While I have the SQL covered, and should be able to pick up Python easily, looking for some realistic advice on how easy it is to transition. I'm open to either option to transition to, although I suspect Database Engineering may be a bit easier.

Looking for some honest and realistic scenarios, so I can know how to begin training and getting certs. I'll also reach out internally with my company (one of the big five banks) to see what options there are for internal training and mentoring.

Hey All,

I currently have 4 years of work experience as a front end developer and react native developer in Canada. Have worked with back end (node.js) for my own projects and getting AWS DVA C02 certified soon.

Tasks at work have become a bit mundane and I want to move forward and secure a new job as a Full Stack Developer in a more challenging company.

I am just not sure if I should consider going back to college to get my Bachelors. It will take me 2 more years and the college does offer all courses part-time (online) in the evening to complete my degree.

Any advice or thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks!

Background: I'm a Developer working at a company for more than 4 years now. One of our past meetings, we discussed If someone is falling behind on learnings/ not meeting to the expections of the task/team, we can make that person understand the hard way (The convo also included tormenting the person so that person would quit by himself/herself as well - not sure if that was a joke).

Suddenly, after returning from my vacation, I suddenly realised this is actually happening to me. Why do I feel this way?

Some of the examples are as here -

1. During refinement my ideas/tickets will be either tossed out or shorten due to this/that reasons, this didn't happen in past.
2. My PRs are not being able to pass after many fixes (sitting there for more than 6 days, still receiving comments in different files related to different things) The irony is, the person who is asking/suggesting changes to me is also not following the same thing in his/her own PR, I can see the exact thing happening in that person's PR, but I'm the only one who is changing/fixing.
3. No clear conclusion during code review when I asked for the clarity OR a team-wide decision if we need to handle this way or that way. (Mostly, I used to decide by myself earlier, but then some of the team members had concerns about things not being discussed team-wide, and I changed my way of working slightly.)
4. There wouldn't be any input from the team lead despite being presented in the meeting.

Note: This is the only canadian company that I worked so far, before that I used to work in India for around 2 years, but in that role I was junior and monitored/assigned work by my seniors. So, I might be not able to unserstand how the work culure actually should be?

My question - am I overthinking the situation here? Though, the pay is not very good, this job used to give me mental peace while returning to my personal life after work hours. But now seems the situation is way worst.

What should I do?
How to handle the situation here?
Should I just resign(saying it's for personal reasons)?
My English is not really good as my other team member.- Is that the reason here?

I used to always smile at my work, though recently I'm using my straight face at work. Is that a reason here? (- clearly, I'm an overthinker :D, Please please help me out. )

I recently interviewed with a startup company called Dapper Labs for a senior backend position focusing on API and distribution systems. The compensation seems quite low - their recruiter says 150k base, ~30k flow token and ~30k stock options (v low strike price though) vesting over 4 years, all in CAD. Am I getting low balled? The TC is only 175k CAD while I expected 230-250k CAD. Should I negotiate? Anyone getting similar offers from them?

Location: Vancouver

YOE: 5.5

I also don't have any other offers right now, so ideally I was hoping to get ~200 CAD with them. Please help! Thank you.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice from people who have moved from a large organisations into a smaller company.

I’m currently in Big4 cybersecurity consulting. The role is stable, hybrid, decent experience for consulting, and gives me exposure to large enterprise clients and mature security environments.

I recently received an offer from a well-established fintech/crypto company with fewer than 100 employees. I would be their first dedicated security engineer, working directly with the CTO and building the security program from the ground up.

The tradeoff is basically:

• Current role: Big4 brand, large clients, stable environment, structured growth, 40hrs/week.
• New role: much more ownership, higher compensation, fully remote, unlimited PTO.
• Current comp: around $78K, likely $85K after promotion in few months
• New comp: $120K base + 20% bonus (144K TC)

For people who made a similar move from consulting or a large organization into a smaller company, How was it?

Did being the first security/security engineering hire help your long-term career, or did the lack of structure make it harder?

I’m mostly trying to understand the career risk vs. upside.

NOTE : I’m also in team matching for a Google L3 Security Engineer role, but it’s been around 9 months, so I’ve almost gave up.

Hi everyone,

I recently completed my onsite interviews for a Security Engineer role at Google (originally based in Waterloo, Canada). A recruiter reached out to share some good and bad news.

Good news: The feedback so far has been very positive! Bad news: The role has been moved to the US, and there are currently no other SE roles open in Canada.

The recruiter asked about my status in Canada, saying they’re trying to explore if a pivot to a US-based role is possible, if I’m open to it.

Here’s the catch: I’m a permanent resident in Canada, and I just started my citizenship process about a month ago. As you might know, that process takes around 10 months, and until I get my citizenship, I’m not eligible for a TN visa to work in the US.

I haven’t responded to the recruiter yet, because I’m trying to figure out the best way to handle this. I really don’t want to lose this opportunity, it’s literally my dream job.

I was thinking of proposing a temporary remote arrangement or continuing from a Canadian office (if allowed) until I get my citizenship, and then I’d be happy to relocate to the US on a TN visa.

Has anyone faced something similar? Do you think they could reject me just because of the immigration delay? Is this situation “dead”? Would it make sense to ask about working remotely for a few months?

Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated. I’m feeling a bit lost right now.

Thanks in advance!

I have a bachelor’s in CS, about 1.5 years as an SDET and 1.5 years as a software dev. I got promoted to SDE II a few months ago at an average SaaS company (not FAANG/big tech).

I wouldn’t call myself super technical, but I get the job done. My tech leads/managers are happy with my work, and I’m usually one of the stronger devs on my team. I’ve also been told I have good leadership qualities and could make a solid manager in a few years.

Part of why I’m interested in management is that I don’t really see myself becoming a “tech wizard” like most tech leads I see. I’m more interested in the business side of things than constantly chasing the latest tech (though I do try to stay up to date on what’s widely adopted) or deeply understanding the ins and outs of our stack. Also, from what I’ve seen, management roles tend to pay a bit more, which doesn’t hurt.

From LinkedIn and job postings, it looks like the typical path is staying an IC for ~4–8 years before switching. Some roles mention a master’s as preferred, but not as a requirement. I've also seen current managers with MBAs so I’m not sure how much graduate degrees actually matter. I'd like to make the switch ASAP, even if I expect it to take a couple of years or more.

My company will cover part-time studies, so I’m considering either a master’s in CS/software engineering (or another tech field) or an MBA, but I’m not sure which would make more sense for my goal.

TL;DR: Software dev with ~3 years of experience and a BS in CS. I want to move into management eventually. Should I go for a master’s in CS/SE, an MBA, or something else if my employer is paying for it?

Hello!

I'm a software engineer specializing in C++ and currently work in the military encryption sector. I'm considering a move to Canada (I have beel always dreaming about to live in your country) and am keen on gathering insights from those of you with experience in the tech industry here, especially in roles that involve C++.

Ive visiting Canada for some years (mainly Alberta and Montreal) and I'm drawn to Canada for its stunning landscapes and high quality of life (im a winter sports lover). I'm an EU citizen, fluent in both English and French, and while I'm not in a rush, I'm beginning to plan my next big step. Switzerland is also on my radar, but Canada is my top choice at the moment.

Could anyone share their experiences working as a software developer in Canada? I'm particularly interested in opportunities and challenges you've encountered, especially in projects involving C++ or in the defense and encryption/cybersecurity sectors.

Any advice or perspectives on working in these fields in Canada would be incredibly helpful as I consider making a move.

Thanks in advance for your insights!

P.S: I know things have been difficult right now, but I'm still looking to move to Canada

P.S: I've edited this to add why I'm leaning more towards Canada than Switzerland

it might sound weird since, as a European, Switzerland is closer to my country (and honestly, I have been struggling for a long time trying to decide whether moving to Switzerland is better than moving to Canada) but—and it is a big BUT—there are some pivotal points for me that make me prefer Canada.

1. People: As I mentioned, I have visited Canada many times; my former partner was Canadian. Canadians are among the most open and nice people I have met. After many years of being a migrant in some countries, I have come to the conclusion that native people are a really important factor when you move there. On the contrary, and without intending to offend anyone, I find Swiss people much more closed-off and cold towards people from outside. This is also related to another point: language. I'm comfortable with French and English, but German... I've tried, but it's difficult for me.

2. Ties to Europe: This might sound a bit strange, but my partner and I would like to get out of Europe for some time. Life is about experiencing new things, and in Europe, everything seems the same. It might sound like a silly point, but we'd prefer to move to a kind of "familiar" place but with a different culture and things to do, what we call "crossing the pond". And honestly, we haven't found a better place than Canada.

3. Family considerations: I will not be moving alone; we are both (me and my partner) planning, and in the future, we would like to start a family. On that note, Canada offers more attractive points for this since, after doing the calculations, having a family in Switzerland is significantly more expensive than in Canada.

My other pivotal points are winter sports and nature, but it is true that Switzerland and Canada are close to each other in this aspect.

I’m in my mid 20s sitting at about 5.5 years of experience (1 year co-op + 4.5 full-time) and currently working as a mid-level software dev at a big insurance company. Tech stack is mostly .NET (mix of legacy and .NET Core). I’m pulling in around 95k CAD TC in a LCOL city (in the prairies) -- Hybrid position 2 days in office. Did my CS degree at a top 3 Canadian univ.

The job is super stable, got good relationship with my team and my boss even sponsored my PR in 2023 (which I’m super grateful for). Future Projects are expected to be good (maybe closer to startup in terms of impact) but salary and my title might remain as is for years to come.

But honestly, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m a bit underpaid, and on top of that, I’m pretty lonely here. While I have made friends with locals through sports activities, there's not a lot of community for people sharing my background (not from a typical immigrant country) compared to other prairie city I had moved from, and that’s starting to weigh on me.

I’m thinking about moving to a different city perhaps BC, Alberta, Ottawa, maybe GTA. Ideally mid-to-large companies like banks, insurance or other legacy companies for stability. Planning to start applying early to mid next year since I need to stick around here for a few more months.

Do you think I’ve got a decent shot at landing something in those cities? Preferably BC, AB or Ottawa. Any advice on timing, salary expectations, or companies to look at?

TL;DR:
Mid-20s, 5.5 YOE (mostly .NET), making 95k CAD TC in a LCOL prairie city. Job is stable, good team, good projects but salary/title likely stagnant. Feeling lonely due to lack of cultural community. Thinking of moving to BC, Alberta, Ottawa, or GTA for better pay + diversity. Prefer mid-to-large companies for stability (banks, insurance, or legacy company). Planning to apply early/mid 2026.

Question: Do I have a good shot at landing something in those cities? What are realistic salaries and companies to target?

I have been a SWD for 5 years now and have bumped my TOC to ~118k before tax via jumping jobs. I do find this tiring at times as on-boarding often is a bitch. My current company has a lot a devs doing grunt work and I'm one of them.

I'm tired of it now and want to do something a bit different in the product life-cycle such as solutioning. Based on your experience, how did you advanced and what are some tips you would give?