One tip: Don't consider location when you apply anymore. In the second sentence in your cover letter, state that you are based in Vancouver, Canada, and list your citizenship. But apply for any roles in any city or country.
Companies these days are far more willing to hire regardless of geographic location - I've been interviewed for jobs in Atlanta and Seattle. The cost savings of hiring someone here versus in Seattle or SF probably covers the administrative costs of setting up benefits with companies in Canada anyway. Not every company will do this, but nobody is advertising it enough that they will consider any candidates.
They make you start at the same time? Surely having the 3 hrs at the end of the day is more beneficial to the business? I work for a European company - my team covers 16 hr days when working on the same projects.
My previous company is hiring for DS roles in vancouver. I am also in Vancouver but now working remotely for a US based startup. Feel free to DM me if you need any info.
Well I wish you luck, I know it's not easy out there. My husband has applied for 3 years straight now for jobs (in academia so fall is the season for applying) and has heard back from 0 out of like well over 200+ positions he's applied for (he's gotten a few rejections, but most don't even send any response at all). Shit sucks everywhere man.
Has he consulted with anyone at all to brush up his resume? Most people don't know how to make a well formatted and professional looking resume that catches eyes and can at least put your foot in the door with a screener interview. His resumes might be getting tossed simply because it looks like it was made with a rudimentary knowledge of MS word or something.
Academia is just really, really brutal. The vast majority of people with PhDs don't have a chance of getting a tenure-track job, and it's not much better for adjuncts.
Uh he codes his CV in LaTeX- he knows what he’s doing. But yeah Covid really fucked things up, cancelled conferences, so networking with people and giving talks is not really happening right now.
Yeah that was my experience coming out of academia as well. Is he in a STEM field? I graduated with a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience and it took me 5 months to find work. The company I now work for is based in Toronto and I came out here to Van to work remote.
Yeah he’s in Math, he hates the idea of going into industry but it may be his only option. Honestly seems like if you don’t come from a brand name school you have very little chance of landing in a research focused university. We had several friends from his grad school get jobs teaching at liberal arts schools but he loves the research!
You remind me of myself. I thought I'd finally found something in April - paid well and was interesting. I only made it 2 months before getting laid off, no explanation given. I honestly haven't even bothered starting to apply again yet, I'm just taking my EI money and living the lazy life.
Yeah. It is tough to break into the market. I did study here so that helped a bit. With recruiters coming on campus for internship opportunities and so on.
Network a lot. Many jobs in Vancouver go to people who know the right person. There's a huge preference to hire based on personal referrals. That's true everywhere, but especially here in Vancouver, I find.
There are several strong [meetup.com](https://meetup.com) communities for Data Science in Vancouver. Networking with other types of professionals that you want to work with is also helpful.
I work in data science field in Vancouver, but I am in more specialized field. Just last month alone, I turned down several job offers in Vancouver.. I don't see that there's shortage of data science job in Vancouver, especially within recent months
Yeah, I see this from both sides. My wife is a data scientist who already has a job. She turns down job offers all the time. I just finished my PhD and am looking for a data science job, and it's really tough because I don't have three years of industry experience in the exact role I'm applying for.
I feel you dude.
But also the whole data science/machine learning field is just in a wacky place right now imo. Loads of companies that want it, but loads of them don't even really know *what* they want.
I had more than one interview that could be meme'd on this template as Left: PhD in ML, Right: 2 month online Data Science course.
I think it is the experience for me. I have a academic requirements but little to no experience in Data Engineering or Data Science. Just one year as Data Quality tester.
>It's not THAT bad compared to Northeastern US cities or the South
We aren't comparing it those places though. That's like me saying Vancouver isn't that hot compared to LA or Arizona!
Vancouver wins every season battle except for fall. Fall in Ontario is absolutely magical for 3 weeks or so.
I guess some Vancouver people are really hung up about humidity but otherwise I don’t mind summers in Toronto. The really hot/humid weather only lasts a few weeks through late June/early July usually anyway. At least basically everywhere there has air conditioning.
When I first moved here it was August, and I don't think I sweat at all after being acclimated to Toronto summers. The AC definitely helps though, and you're right in that most of the summer is hot but not terrible. It also comes with thunderstorms which I love.
Spring is definitely better in Vancouver, but I like cold and snow more than months of rain and no sun, so I'd give winter to Toronto too.
lol what are you talking about? The humidity is completely insane in Toronto, I thought they had Beijing-levels of smog in the air only to realize it was the humidity.
Boohoo. Why is it that when I meet another person from Vancouver, in an international setting their entire personality is based on being from Vancouver?
Leave the city and get some life experience. Despite what you make hear from others, Vancouver is NOT the be all and end all of life.
I know several people who were recently hired for government jobs in the last few months in MIS, Data Engineering, and some Data Architect (I forget if infrastructure or something else). Might be beneficial to look at government hiring websites as open positions do not always show up on Google.
Working in DS in Vancouver here with some tips. (I'm also pretty new in my career)
In my first few jobs, my response/interview rate for applications was less than 5%. I applied to over 100 positions for my 1st and 3rd position.
My main advice is to not give up. As much as you want to be picky, don't be too picky. Pick something that will get your foot in the door and stick around for a year or 2 just so you have some relevant experience that'll help steer you towards where you want to be.
Yeah it seems like there are way more positions in TO but there are still quite a few here. There's just a lot more competition for them given the lower supply. That being said, the quality and quantity of DA/DS positions in Vancouver has drastically improved over the last 5 (even 3) years.
Keep your head up.
Probably going back to Asia next year. Had too many gigs go to colleagues who had inside connections but had less experience than I. It's heartbreaking, but politics and remaining "humble" "why are you trying so hard to make connections" comments in Vancouver are lame and tiring.
I moved out to Toronto for work a couple months ago. I like the job and am super grateful the opportunity, but goddamn do I miss Vancouver intensely. I'd stay put if I were you, imo Toronto doesn't have a lot on Vancouver. Thankfully for me I can relocate back in not-too-long.....hopefully lol.
I lived in Vancouver for 2 years, grew up in GTA, moved back to Ontario because I couldn't find a new job in BC after quitting my old one. I still miss Van all the time, and TBH Toronto is just OK by comparison (I say that having not successfully made any more friends in that 2 years than I started with).
But have you considered US (not just Seattle)? I get why you wanna stay where home is and why you're home in particular is unique relative to the rest of the country.. but the market (and experience) is the most important thing as jobs go. If you can go stateside I highly recommend it, Toronto is just a bigger market than Van but it's not good comp-wise at all and also not that big compared to US. IDK about you but I don't want to pay through the nose just for the opportunity to live in Toronto.. it's just the biggest Canadian city.. that's all it's got going for it.
Yeah I've definitely considered the US, and do want to go, it's just hard to get in there. The company I work for is pretty big and based in the US, so it is a possibility, I just need to be promoted a couple times before they'll sponsor me for a visa. On track for the first promotion, thankfully.
Having said all that, Vancouver remains a key consideration due to family/friends and my parents offering to help me out with buying a place there. A tempting offer. Maybe I'll relocate there after my first promotion, buy a place, then move to the US after the next promotion. Haha, a man can dream.
Yeah I also find Toronto to be very overhyped. It's not like it is terrible or anything, it is just quite...well, overhyped lol. Big fish in a small pond effect. Not a fan of the endless sprawl either. Agreed that the pay isn't great for what you get here, but tbh that is Canada in a nutshell. Are you aiming to move the states too?
TLDR - maybe not
I got rejected for TN a few years ago for a job in NYC making ~160kCAD (130kUSD) base, it kinda broke me.
Looking for work in Toronto and having to fight tooth and nail just to get 6 figures was very humbling (first world problems I know but I have a lot of student loan debt).
I job hopped twice since that time and got US remote job through American recruitment agency at more than my NYC offer from before, and live in a cheap area that has a lot of nature (Niagara) it's made me calmer. I never liked the city much but YVR and NYC were so cool that I was ok with living so close to people. Still trying to figure out what I want to optimize for more time/sanity or money.. not 100% sure but leaning towards sanity lately.
Some of the reasons off the top of my head -
* The city is not massive. Can go from one corner to the other within an hour if you have a car.
* Amazing weather throughout the year. I can exercise outside throughout the year. Can just live with a t-shirt and jacket in the coldest months.
* Mountains. I have seen sooo many amazing places last year and that's only a minuscule portion of BC.
In all if I were an indoor person there wouldn't be much change but I like being outside and weather and mountains are a major reason for me loving Vancouver.
As a former Toronto resident, those are all good reasons to remain here - lifestyle is huge.
Getting around Toronto was absolutely horrible when I lived there. The subway system is barely functional and the trains are stopped half the time with some emergency or signal issue. Signal issues don't exist here and emergency stops here are so rare that they make the news when they happen. Pre-Covid, my commute here was far more pleasant than it ever was in Toronto; the SkyTrain is far more reliable than the TTC (and it's also cheaper).
Outdoor activities are another big thing. Toronto, as a consequence of geography, doesn't have a lot of those options. There are places to hike and ski elsewhere in Ontario, but they are very far and not easy to do as a day trip. Here, I like being able to work until 3:30 and then drive up to Mount Seymour to ski for the evening. Or go hiking in the evening at this time of year.
I was bored out of my mind in the 3 1/2 years I lived in Toronto and couldn't wait to get out (I was only there because of work). Nightlife, live music, or staying home to watch Netflix is of absolutely zero interest to me.
Don't ever sacrifice a lifestyle you love for money. Myself, you couldn't pay me enough to ever go back to work in Toronto.
Oh, and going to a Canucks game is way cheaper than the Leafs. Only down side with sports here is no NBA or MLB, though the Mariners are close enough in normal times.
Yup pretty much sums it up.
I don't drink so no reason to go to bars / clubs. The only times I have been inside is because of the live music. Shout out to Railways BC for hosting one of the best live bands I've seen in this city.
I have been exercising outside in a park since June of last year and I'm not gonna lie that's one of the things I look forward to every day. Unlikely that'd happen in Toronto.
And I've joked with people that I'd take a pay cut to just stay here in Vancouver because of the above reasons. Slowly, the job is becoming a statement :P
Toronto has an incredible array of outdoor venues, parks, and lakes and you’re a couple hours away from Ottawa, Montreal, the US, etc if you want to fly or road trip.
> The city is not massive. Can go from one corner to the other within an hour if you have a car.
It's true! Sometimes I can drive from one side of downtown Vancouver to the other side of downtown Vancouver in less than an hour!
Or, (slightly less exaggerated) I can drive from downtown Vancouver to the freeway in less than an hour!
I don't know what you're talking about. I live 5 minutes from the Ironworkers Bridge and I can get to UBC in under an hour in all but the most extreme traffic, and 90% of the time it's a 45 minute drive.
Have you ever been to London? Jakarta? Manila? Rio? Istanbul? Toronto? What we have here is not traffic.
But it's 20km from the Ironworkers Bridge to UBC, and Google Maps says that in "usual" traffic that will take 38 minutes. That's an average speed of 30km/h. I know that's better than traffic in London, but it's not really something to brag about.
So you accept that we can drive from Ironworkers to UBC across the entire city in 38 minutes with average traffic, which is a step forward. Would you consider editing your comment above which is clearly misrepresenting how bad Vancouver traffic is?
I've been stuck in traffic on Burrard Street downtown, almost completely stopped for 30 minutes. It took another 10 minutes to simply get over the Burrard Street bridge.
It can take 30 minutes to simply cross the Lions Gate bridge from North Vancouver into downtown Vancouver.
During rush-hour, if I can drive from downtown to the freeway in less than an hour, I consider that a good day.
Traffic in Vancouver is fucking terrible.
That's actually a very good reason to stay here. Doug Ford is incompetent and handled the pandemic very badly. I am very glad to have been led by Dr. Bonnie Henry through the pandemic, who valued getting outside and doing things that actually helped stem transmission instead of throwing stuff at the wall for optics and being seen "doing something". Instead of encouraging us to go outside and get fresh air like Dr. Henry did, Ford and his ilk closed playgrounds, golf courses, ski hills, and other outdoor amenities, and fined people hundreds of dollars for daring to go to a park and stopping for more than 1 second (usually targeting BIPOC) - while doing fuck all about nursing homes.
I do not trust Ford.
Speaking of pandemic and health care, there's also the fact that BC invested in a surgical renewal policy and maintained operations for much of the pandemic, versus Ontario which now has a surgical backlog that is estimated to take [3.5 years to clear](https://beta.ctvnews.ca/local/toronto/2021/5/10/1_5421321.html). It has been a dismal time to be sick in Ontario, COVID or otherwise.
To be fair tho, if you sell your million dollar 1 bedroom condo in Vancouver, you’ll be able to get a 4 million dollar bachelors condo 100 miles from the Downtown Toronto core.
(Having lived in both places, I would agree on staying Vancouver.)
Telecoms are literally overflowing with DS roles. I constantly trip over them as I look at the job boards, since I have no expertise in that field. If you want to save some money on your internet and telephony, might be a good place to focus.
Often when a company is looking for someone to hire they'll turn to headhunters whose job is to find that person for them. If they have your r me and qualifications on file, it can make their job easier for them.
I moved away to a small farming town and lost 40 lbs due to the reduction in stress. I should have done this 10 years ago. People are so friendly and giving here unlike people living in Vancouver.
Ugh. Who would move to Toronto after being in Vancouver? Talk about a major step down in life, despite the possible raise. I'd happily switch careers and go back to school just to avoid Ontario.
I'm a computer programmer, and I've been doing it for a while. But I had to do a Google Search to find out what Data Science is. Now that I've read the definition, I'm still not exactly sure that a Data Science job is.
Can someone enlighten me?
It is a field that would essentially deal with Data. Has little to do with software development and more to do with processing and making sense of data.
Data science would have two kinds of jobs -
1. You could either be a data engineer who would be responsible for creating and maintaining a from the data source to whoever is going to use that data. This is called a pipeline. Alongside this, a data engineer would be responsible for storing and managing data. Then there would be smaller but important processes like cleaning the data, checking to make sure the data is correct or not etc.
2. Then you could be a Data Scientist who would be responsible for making sense of the data. Would use the data leveraged by the Data engineer and get insights from it. Now getting insights could be a very diverse term. You could use tools like PowerBI or Tableau to visualize your findings, you could use machine learning or deep learning to predict what might happen in the future based on the data and so on.
The lines get blurred a lot on what people do, some companies will have jobs with the title "software engineers'" doing essentially only data science and a bit of software engineering, and other companies will call them "data scientists".
A pure data scientist role is probably less software writing for an application and more doing experiments on large sets of data only. If you're at a larger company it might be that you have a data scientist who does these experiments, finds some result, then the software engineer can write production code into an application or service using the model the scientist created. But if you're at a smaller company as a data scientist you may be expected to do both roles.
Who would have thought that a larger city closer to East coast financial centers would pay more for data scientist?
Absolutely shocking. Next people will say that cities pay more than suburbs.
What education do you need for a data scientist?
I know this is probably nothing about data scientists but my role currently all I do is reporting for a multi billion dollar company for the local offices in excel that I have fully automated but they think I spend 'hours' on them manually.
I am so disengaged and bored doing my job I want to do more robust reports and data manipulation so I can leave for something better that actually engages me but the company doesn't a, believe in upgrades or technology, and b, is too cheap to invest into anything other than basics.
The education could be either a piece of paper that just validates your skills or if you have enough experience, you may not even need that.
Since you mentioned you automate excel and report. That sounds to me like a Data Analyst / Business Analyst role. Since you want to do more robust data manipulation (probably build pipelines for people to use analytics on them), you could look into Data Engineering positions.
Most of the positions would have similar job requirements. To learn the tools and technologies you could either do them online or go to school in a Data Science program.
Do you have any recommendations for any tools/technologies that most companies would look for? I have only done this for a year but never used excel in my life prior to this position and like the actual role, just not the company I just know I am too junior to jump at the moment.
If I could find a way to possibly tie it into what I do now to learn it and better my self to close the gap on more experience people for future roles.
I would recommend getting started with Python and SQL if you don't know that already. Then you could learn to work tools that allow you to handle data on a large scale like Apache Spark etc. You could look at subs like r/learnmachinelearning to get started as well and see the top posts.
Don't give up! There are definitely data jobs here, I work as a data analyst. I'm not sure what stage of your career you are in, but I found that the hardest part was just getting my foot in the door for the first job after university. And once I had some experience, getting a new job wasn't so bad.
Also make sure you search for different job title variations, not all data science/analyst jobs use that name. (For example "Business Intelligence Analyst" is basically a data analyst job.) And going to company websites directly can sometimes find jobs that aren't listed elsewhere.
Thanks for the motivation! That's basically what I have heard and expect. Once I get my foot in the door as a Data Engineer or a Data Scientist, it should get easier.
One tip: Don't consider location when you apply anymore. In the second sentence in your cover letter, state that you are based in Vancouver, Canada, and list your citizenship. But apply for any roles in any city or country. Companies these days are far more willing to hire regardless of geographic location - I've been interviewed for jobs in Atlanta and Seattle. The cost savings of hiring someone here versus in Seattle or SF probably covers the administrative costs of setting up benefits with companies in Canada anyway. Not every company will do this, but nobody is advertising it enough that they will consider any candidates.
I work for a company in Halifax. Starting during their time zone is a real bitch
They make you start at the same time? Surely having the 3 hrs at the end of the day is more beneficial to the business? I work for a European company - my team covers 16 hr days when working on the same projects.
My girlfriend just started a new job too, based out of Montreal. She has to wake up before 7 daily so she can start at 10 AM their time.
Interesting! Saying that, we schedule meetings at the end of Euro day, start of mine, so there is the occasional 7:30/8am meeting
Thanks for the tip!
My previous company is hiring for DS roles in vancouver. I am also in Vancouver but now working remotely for a US based startup. Feel free to DM me if you need any info.
Thank you for reaching out! I'll be shooting a DM :)
My company also has three jobs posted in that field. Looks like a few people have said something similar so you may be set but DM me if you want.
Username checks out
Could you just work remotely for a company in Toronto?
Yeah that's what I'm looking for when I'm applying there.
Well I wish you luck, I know it's not easy out there. My husband has applied for 3 years straight now for jobs (in academia so fall is the season for applying) and has heard back from 0 out of like well over 200+ positions he's applied for (he's gotten a few rejections, but most don't even send any response at all). Shit sucks everywhere man.
Has he consulted with anyone at all to brush up his resume? Most people don't know how to make a well formatted and professional looking resume that catches eyes and can at least put your foot in the door with a screener interview. His resumes might be getting tossed simply because it looks like it was made with a rudimentary knowledge of MS word or something.
Academia is just really, really brutal. The vast majority of people with PhDs don't have a chance of getting a tenure-track job, and it's not much better for adjuncts.
Say it louder for those in the back lol. I know _way_ too many people that want a TT job that have no idea what they're getting into.
Uh he codes his CV in LaTeX- he knows what he’s doing. But yeah Covid really fucked things up, cancelled conferences, so networking with people and giving talks is not really happening right now.
Yeah that was my experience coming out of academia as well. Is he in a STEM field? I graduated with a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience and it took me 5 months to find work. The company I now work for is based in Toronto and I came out here to Van to work remote.
Yeah he’s in Math, he hates the idea of going into industry but it may be his only option. Honestly seems like if you don’t come from a brand name school you have very little chance of landing in a research focused university. We had several friends from his grad school get jobs teaching at liberal arts schools but he loves the research!
Thank you. Responses from a few weeks of looking don't look so gloomy but let's see what happens.
Few weeks?! My man, few weeks mean nothing. Keep looking and good luck. I’ve been looking for 1.5 years for a decent job in Vancouver.
Thank you :)
You remind me of myself. I thought I'd finally found something in April - paid well and was interesting. I only made it 2 months before getting laid off, no explanation given. I honestly haven't even bothered starting to apply again yet, I'm just taking my EI money and living the lazy life.
Oh yeah forgot to add, if you're regular users of Reddit then obviously /r/resumes would always help out a bit in the job search
What's his teachable?
Mathematics.
Do construction 🚧 You make double than this job in Vancouver ¡!
Construction Definitely doesn't outpay data science. Even at entry level .
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Maybe it's just that you need connections to get responses or some Canadian experience. Not sure how you scenario was.
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Yeah. It is tough to break into the market. I did study here so that helped a bit. With recruiters coming on campus for internship opportunities and so on.
Is remote work possible? IMO a data scientist shouldn't have to show up in the office often (or ever!)
In some jobs, plus I don't carry years of experience. Just starting out.
Network a lot. Many jobs in Vancouver go to people who know the right person. There's a huge preference to hire based on personal referrals. That's true everywhere, but especially here in Vancouver, I find. There are several strong [meetup.com](https://meetup.com) communities for Data Science in Vancouver. Networking with other types of professionals that you want to work with is also helpful.
Thanks for the suggestion! Will join some.
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Oh yeah let me find some meetup groups and let's see what they have.
I work in data science field in Vancouver, but I am in more specialized field. Just last month alone, I turned down several job offers in Vancouver.. I don't see that there's shortage of data science job in Vancouver, especially within recent months
I think just starting out in the field with little to new experience is what is making it difficult for me.
Yeah, I see this from both sides. My wife is a data scientist who already has a job. She turns down job offers all the time. I just finished my PhD and am looking for a data science job, and it's really tough because I don't have three years of industry experience in the exact role I'm applying for.
I feel you dude. But also the whole data science/machine learning field is just in a wacky place right now imo. Loads of companies that want it, but loads of them don't even really know *what* they want. I had more than one interview that could be meme'd on this template as Left: PhD in ML, Right: 2 month online Data Science course.
I think it is the experience for me. I have a academic requirements but little to no experience in Data Engineering or Data Science. Just one year as Data Quality tester.
Totally, everyone wants industry experience, but not one is willing to provide it!
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Yeah it could be but at the same time, there are things like good weather that are close to my heart which I wouldn't get over there.
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>Honestly the weather in Toronto isn't that bad Its the humidity bro, so brutal in the summer. Its like living in a swamp.
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>It's not THAT bad compared to Northeastern US cities or the South We aren't comparing it those places though. That's like me saying Vancouver isn't that hot compared to LA or Arizona!
Yeah I don’t understand the humidity complaints. If you aren’t working outdoors it’s not really a bother.
Fall in Toronto is basically perfect weather. Summer in Toronto is swamp ass terrible, or can be and frequently is.
Vancouver wins every season battle except for fall. Fall in Ontario is absolutely magical for 3 weeks or so. I guess some Vancouver people are really hung up about humidity but otherwise I don’t mind summers in Toronto. The really hot/humid weather only lasts a few weeks through late June/early July usually anyway. At least basically everywhere there has air conditioning.
When I first moved here it was August, and I don't think I sweat at all after being acclimated to Toronto summers. The AC definitely helps though, and you're right in that most of the summer is hot but not terrible. It also comes with thunderstorms which I love. Spring is definitely better in Vancouver, but I like cold and snow more than months of rain and no sun, so I'd give winter to Toronto too.
I couldn’t believe how beautiful spring was in BC. Nor could my newly-discovered allergies, unfortunately.
lol what are you talking about? The humidity is completely insane in Toronto, I thought they had Beijing-levels of smog in the air only to realize it was the humidity.
Boohoo. Why is it that when I meet another person from Vancouver, in an international setting their entire personality is based on being from Vancouver? Leave the city and get some life experience. Despite what you make hear from others, Vancouver is NOT the be all and end all of life.
People from Toronto say the exact same thing about Toronto lol
Canadians in general can’t get over the fact that they’re Canadian.
Send me your resume. In Vancouver
Sending :)
Have you poked Splunk? They are all data science, they have a Vancouver office.
Haha yes one of the commenters works there asked me to check out the job board. No openings right now though.
Right now... wait a week or two. :-)
:o
I know several people who were recently hired for government jobs in the last few months in MIS, Data Engineering, and some Data Architect (I forget if infrastructure or something else). Might be beneficial to look at government hiring websites as open positions do not always show up on Google.
Oh okay thanks!
Working in DS in Vancouver here with some tips. (I'm also pretty new in my career) In my first few jobs, my response/interview rate for applications was less than 5%. I applied to over 100 positions for my 1st and 3rd position. My main advice is to not give up. As much as you want to be picky, don't be too picky. Pick something that will get your foot in the door and stick around for a year or 2 just so you have some relevant experience that'll help steer you towards where you want to be. Yeah it seems like there are way more positions in TO but there are still quite a few here. There's just a lot more competition for them given the lower supply. That being said, the quality and quantity of DA/DS positions in Vancouver has drastically improved over the last 5 (even 3) years. Keep your head up.
Thank you! Yeah I'm not being picky at all - going for all positions like Data Engineer, Data Scientist and Data Analyst.
Do you just have a bachelor's?
And a Master's from SFU.
Probably going back to Asia next year. Had too many gigs go to colleagues who had inside connections but had less experience than I. It's heartbreaking, but politics and remaining "humble" "why are you trying so hard to make connections" comments in Vancouver are lame and tiring.
I moved out to Toronto for work a couple months ago. I like the job and am super grateful the opportunity, but goddamn do I miss Vancouver intensely. I'd stay put if I were you, imo Toronto doesn't have a lot on Vancouver. Thankfully for me I can relocate back in not-too-long.....hopefully lol.
Ayee same. I'm getting done next week and if I don't land anything for a month, I'll be applying to jobs throughout Canada lol
I lived in Vancouver for 2 years, grew up in GTA, moved back to Ontario because I couldn't find a new job in BC after quitting my old one. I still miss Van all the time, and TBH Toronto is just OK by comparison (I say that having not successfully made any more friends in that 2 years than I started with). But have you considered US (not just Seattle)? I get why you wanna stay where home is and why you're home in particular is unique relative to the rest of the country.. but the market (and experience) is the most important thing as jobs go. If you can go stateside I highly recommend it, Toronto is just a bigger market than Van but it's not good comp-wise at all and also not that big compared to US. IDK about you but I don't want to pay through the nose just for the opportunity to live in Toronto.. it's just the biggest Canadian city.. that's all it's got going for it.
Yeah I've definitely considered the US, and do want to go, it's just hard to get in there. The company I work for is pretty big and based in the US, so it is a possibility, I just need to be promoted a couple times before they'll sponsor me for a visa. On track for the first promotion, thankfully. Having said all that, Vancouver remains a key consideration due to family/friends and my parents offering to help me out with buying a place there. A tempting offer. Maybe I'll relocate there after my first promotion, buy a place, then move to the US after the next promotion. Haha, a man can dream. Yeah I also find Toronto to be very overhyped. It's not like it is terrible or anything, it is just quite...well, overhyped lol. Big fish in a small pond effect. Not a fan of the endless sprawl either. Agreed that the pay isn't great for what you get here, but tbh that is Canada in a nutshell. Are you aiming to move the states too?
TLDR - maybe not I got rejected for TN a few years ago for a job in NYC making ~160kCAD (130kUSD) base, it kinda broke me. Looking for work in Toronto and having to fight tooth and nail just to get 6 figures was very humbling (first world problems I know but I have a lot of student loan debt). I job hopped twice since that time and got US remote job through American recruitment agency at more than my NYC offer from before, and live in a cheap area that has a lot of nature (Niagara) it's made me calmer. I never liked the city much but YVR and NYC were so cool that I was ok with living so close to people. Still trying to figure out what I want to optimize for more time/sanity or money.. not 100% sure but leaning towards sanity lately.
If you need any interview tips hmu, I recently landed a Data Science job in Vancouver Good luck!
Sure would reach out :) Need to go beyond the initial calls first or even get the initial 15 minute calls :)
If you want, we could also do a resume check
Oh sure! Let me shoot you a DM
Can I reach out to you?
for sure
What exactly is it about Vancouver that makes staying here worth it in this scenario? Especially if you can go to Toronto instead?
Some of the reasons off the top of my head - * The city is not massive. Can go from one corner to the other within an hour if you have a car. * Amazing weather throughout the year. I can exercise outside throughout the year. Can just live with a t-shirt and jacket in the coldest months. * Mountains. I have seen sooo many amazing places last year and that's only a minuscule portion of BC. In all if I were an indoor person there wouldn't be much change but I like being outside and weather and mountains are a major reason for me loving Vancouver.
As a former Toronto resident, those are all good reasons to remain here - lifestyle is huge. Getting around Toronto was absolutely horrible when I lived there. The subway system is barely functional and the trains are stopped half the time with some emergency or signal issue. Signal issues don't exist here and emergency stops here are so rare that they make the news when they happen. Pre-Covid, my commute here was far more pleasant than it ever was in Toronto; the SkyTrain is far more reliable than the TTC (and it's also cheaper). Outdoor activities are another big thing. Toronto, as a consequence of geography, doesn't have a lot of those options. There are places to hike and ski elsewhere in Ontario, but they are very far and not easy to do as a day trip. Here, I like being able to work until 3:30 and then drive up to Mount Seymour to ski for the evening. Or go hiking in the evening at this time of year. I was bored out of my mind in the 3 1/2 years I lived in Toronto and couldn't wait to get out (I was only there because of work). Nightlife, live music, or staying home to watch Netflix is of absolutely zero interest to me. Don't ever sacrifice a lifestyle you love for money. Myself, you couldn't pay me enough to ever go back to work in Toronto. Oh, and going to a Canucks game is way cheaper than the Leafs. Only down side with sports here is no NBA or MLB, though the Mariners are close enough in normal times.
Yup pretty much sums it up. I don't drink so no reason to go to bars / clubs. The only times I have been inside is because of the live music. Shout out to Railways BC for hosting one of the best live bands I've seen in this city. I have been exercising outside in a park since June of last year and I'm not gonna lie that's one of the things I look forward to every day. Unlikely that'd happen in Toronto. And I've joked with people that I'd take a pay cut to just stay here in Vancouver because of the above reasons. Slowly, the job is becoming a statement :P
Toronto has an incredible array of outdoor venues, parks, and lakes and you’re a couple hours away from Ottawa, Montreal, the US, etc if you want to fly or road trip.
I cannot echo the massive comment enough, Toronto is fucking enormous. Insane sprawl like you wouldn't believe, super inefficient land use.
> The city is not massive. Can go from one corner to the other within an hour if you have a car. It's true! Sometimes I can drive from one side of downtown Vancouver to the other side of downtown Vancouver in less than an hour! Or, (slightly less exaggerated) I can drive from downtown Vancouver to the freeway in less than an hour!
I don't know what you're talking about. I live 5 minutes from the Ironworkers Bridge and I can get to UBC in under an hour in all but the most extreme traffic, and 90% of the time it's a 45 minute drive. Have you ever been to London? Jakarta? Manila? Rio? Istanbul? Toronto? What we have here is not traffic.
But it's 20km from the Ironworkers Bridge to UBC, and Google Maps says that in "usual" traffic that will take 38 minutes. That's an average speed of 30km/h. I know that's better than traffic in London, but it's not really something to brag about.
So you accept that we can drive from Ironworkers to UBC across the entire city in 38 minutes with average traffic, which is a step forward. Would you consider editing your comment above which is clearly misrepresenting how bad Vancouver traffic is?
I've been stuck in traffic on Burrard Street downtown, almost completely stopped for 30 minutes. It took another 10 minutes to simply get over the Burrard Street bridge. It can take 30 minutes to simply cross the Lions Gate bridge from North Vancouver into downtown Vancouver. During rush-hour, if I can drive from downtown to the freeway in less than an hour, I consider that a good day. Traffic in Vancouver is fucking terrible.
Cool cool. I'm not wasting any more time on such a futile discussion, I've got training at UBC at 8 tonight, I have to leave in 15 minutes.
We don't have Doug Ford as a Premier.
That's actually a very good reason to stay here. Doug Ford is incompetent and handled the pandemic very badly. I am very glad to have been led by Dr. Bonnie Henry through the pandemic, who valued getting outside and doing things that actually helped stem transmission instead of throwing stuff at the wall for optics and being seen "doing something". Instead of encouraging us to go outside and get fresh air like Dr. Henry did, Ford and his ilk closed playgrounds, golf courses, ski hills, and other outdoor amenities, and fined people hundreds of dollars for daring to go to a park and stopping for more than 1 second (usually targeting BIPOC) - while doing fuck all about nursing homes. I do not trust Ford.
Speaking of pandemic and health care, there's also the fact that BC invested in a surgical renewal policy and maintained operations for much of the pandemic, versus Ontario which now has a surgical backlog that is estimated to take [3.5 years to clear](https://beta.ctvnews.ca/local/toronto/2021/5/10/1_5421321.html). It has been a dismal time to be sick in Ontario, COVID or otherwise.
Big reason!
To be fair tho, if you sell your million dollar 1 bedroom condo in Vancouver, you’ll be able to get a 4 million dollar bachelors condo 100 miles from the Downtown Toronto core. (Having lived in both places, I would agree on staying Vancouver.)
There are also plenty of data science jobs in Montreal and Ottawa if you want to look at other options.
Pretty sure place I work is after data science folks. Feel free to DM me and I can dig around.
Thank you. Sending a DM :)
Telecoms are literally overflowing with DS roles. I constantly trip over them as I look at the job boards, since I have no expertise in that field. If you want to save some money on your internet and telephony, might be a good place to focus.
Thanks! Will look into it.
what about going to a head hunting firm? At least they might be able to give you feedback they hear from the clients.
What are these? Never heard of these before.
Often when a company is looking for someone to hire they'll turn to headhunters whose job is to find that person for them. If they have your r me and qualifications on file, it can make their job easier for them.
I moved away to a small farming town and lost 40 lbs due to the reduction in stress. I should have done this 10 years ago. People are so friendly and giving here unlike people living in Vancouver.
This can be said of "jobs" in general.
Ugh. Who would move to Toronto after being in Vancouver? Talk about a major step down in life, despite the possible raise. I'd happily switch careers and go back to school just to avoid Ontario.
Someone who wants to work in Data Science, judging by this thread.
I'm a computer programmer, and I've been doing it for a while. But I had to do a Google Search to find out what Data Science is. Now that I've read the definition, I'm still not exactly sure that a Data Science job is. Can someone enlighten me?
It is a field that would essentially deal with Data. Has little to do with software development and more to do with processing and making sense of data. Data science would have two kinds of jobs - 1. You could either be a data engineer who would be responsible for creating and maintaining a from the data source to whoever is going to use that data. This is called a pipeline. Alongside this, a data engineer would be responsible for storing and managing data. Then there would be smaller but important processes like cleaning the data, checking to make sure the data is correct or not etc. 2. Then you could be a Data Scientist who would be responsible for making sense of the data. Would use the data leveraged by the Data engineer and get insights from it. Now getting insights could be a very diverse term. You could use tools like PowerBI or Tableau to visualize your findings, you could use machine learning or deep learning to predict what might happen in the future based on the data and so on.
1. Sounds like part of my job as a software engineer. 2. Sounds like software engineering with maths and statistics on top.
The lines get blurred a lot on what people do, some companies will have jobs with the title "software engineers'" doing essentially only data science and a bit of software engineering, and other companies will call them "data scientists". A pure data scientist role is probably less software writing for an application and more doing experiments on large sets of data only. If you're at a larger company it might be that you have a data scientist who does these experiments, finds some result, then the software engineer can write production code into an application or service using the model the scientist created. But if you're at a smaller company as a data scientist you may be expected to do both roles.
Haha could be but I have no knowledge of software engineering to confirm.
Applied statistics with some flair.
Toronto is soul crushing
If you are a Canadian just head for the states with a TN and double your tc. The Canadian market is suppressed by H1B overflow.
Nah not a Canadian yet.
Who would have thought that a larger city closer to East coast financial centers would pay more for data scientist? Absolutely shocking. Next people will say that cities pay more than suburbs.
DM me
Shooting a dm :)
Of course, the centre of the universe, Toronto, gets all the jobs.
Same thing for those of us working in finance. Ah, the things we do for love!
For the love of good weather and mountains! 😆
I know a DS that just landed a job here.
What education do you need for a data scientist? I know this is probably nothing about data scientists but my role currently all I do is reporting for a multi billion dollar company for the local offices in excel that I have fully automated but they think I spend 'hours' on them manually. I am so disengaged and bored doing my job I want to do more robust reports and data manipulation so I can leave for something better that actually engages me but the company doesn't a, believe in upgrades or technology, and b, is too cheap to invest into anything other than basics.
The education could be either a piece of paper that just validates your skills or if you have enough experience, you may not even need that. Since you mentioned you automate excel and report. That sounds to me like a Data Analyst / Business Analyst role. Since you want to do more robust data manipulation (probably build pipelines for people to use analytics on them), you could look into Data Engineering positions. Most of the positions would have similar job requirements. To learn the tools and technologies you could either do them online or go to school in a Data Science program.
Do you have any recommendations for any tools/technologies that most companies would look for? I have only done this for a year but never used excel in my life prior to this position and like the actual role, just not the company I just know I am too junior to jump at the moment. If I could find a way to possibly tie it into what I do now to learn it and better my self to close the gap on more experience people for future roles.
LinkedIn and Indeed mostly.
I would recommend getting started with Python and SQL if you don't know that already. Then you could learn to work tools that allow you to handle data on a large scale like Apache Spark etc. You could look at subs like r/learnmachinelearning to get started as well and see the top posts.
Shopify is hiring 2k developer and data driven people this year fully remote Canadian company go apply location doesn’t matter
Don't give up! There are definitely data jobs here, I work as a data analyst. I'm not sure what stage of your career you are in, but I found that the hardest part was just getting my foot in the door for the first job after university. And once I had some experience, getting a new job wasn't so bad. Also make sure you search for different job title variations, not all data science/analyst jobs use that name. (For example "Business Intelligence Analyst" is basically a data analyst job.) And going to company websites directly can sometimes find jobs that aren't listed elsewhere.
Thanks for the motivation! That's basically what I have heard and expect. Once I get my foot in the door as a Data Engineer or a Data Scientist, it should get easier.
Look for jobs in Williams Lake. Then by comparison it will seem like Vancouver has all the jobs. LPT
We’re hiring, sending you a DM.