Is Vancouver a Legitimate Tech Hub?

[YVR_Future]

Op-Ed: This is the one thing stopping Vancouver from becoming a mega tech hub
http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vanco...ion-ian-crosby

The author argues that insufficient tech education is hampering Vancouver's tech industry.

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by YVR_Future

Op-Ed: This is the one thing stopping Vancouver from becoming a mega tech hub
http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vanco...ion-ian-crosby

The author argues that insufficient tech education is hampering Vancouver's tech industry.

I work in the industry with a hr angle. Vancouver is becoming a cheap outsourcing hub for second and third grade projects. Basically the scraps that no one wants to throw their top resources at. It is not exactly a good thing. Hardly any major projects are being moved here and the quality of the jobs and wages is naturally lack luster. Having said that getting jobs is better then nothing even if the type of jobs ensure Vancouver remains a dumping ground for second and third tier projects.

In regards to this article I think it is quite good. Except that it tip toes around a problem that is close to heart for me.

Young Canadians want good jobs, but instead, we are steering them into underemployment and financial hardship by giving them the wrong skills and saddling them with debt.

I agree with the first half, not so much the second half. That is because the biggest cause of underemployment and financial hardship is not Canadians having the wrong skills, its because of mass immigration suppressing wages and increasing competition for all jobs. A young Canadian engineer coming out of school is at a disadvantage to young Indian engineer coming in from India with a couple years of questionable experience and a ability to take a rock bottom wage. It very demotivating and there are plenty of Canadian engineers with high potential that have been passed over to the point that their knowledge has degraded and they have become stuck in low tier jobs that will never develop their skills. Also this leads to obvious brain drain as well of those that are smart enough and proactive enough to leave before they fall into the same trap.

For engineers you absolutely have to get into top tier work right away otherwise your talents are at risk of for ever being wasted. Once you get stuck in a low tiered job good luck, it becomes a perpetual cycle. Dont think Canadian graduates in Vancouver have it easy, its very difficult for many to get into that first important job that takes them on the right path. Here in Prague which is also a outsourcing hub (though there are some large home grown companies now) at least its easy for local engineers to get into appropriate jobs right and start honing their skills and reaching their potential. Its much much harder in Vancouver, trust me. For the reasons I mentioned.

[Aroundtheworld]

Originally Posted by YVR_Future

Op-Ed: This is the one thing stopping Vancouver from becoming a mega tech hub
http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vanco...ion-ian-crosby

The author argues that insufficient tech education is hampering Vancouver's tech industry.

I read the article and I was shocked at UBC's policy, but not surprised over all given my experience. Less than 2000 software engineers per year? That's insane.

As a founder of a tech company as a non-technical, I've found that finding good tech talent is incredibly difficult and is one of the things that kills startups here. I was lucky to find someone good, but they didn't come from Vancouver, they came from abroad.

[Alex Mackinnon]

Originally Posted by Aroundtheworld

I read the article and I was shocked at UBC's policy, but not surprised over all given my experience. Less than 2000 software engineers per year? That's insane.

As a founder of a tech company as a non-technical, I've found that finding good tech talent is incredibly difficult and is one of the things that kills startups here. I was lucky to find someone good, but they didn't come from Vancouver, they came from abroad.

It's less than 2000 total in the program. Since an undergrad is 4 to 5 years, that's 400-500 grads per year.

Computer and electrical engineering are already the largest engineering faculties. The program doubled in size just before I started my undergrad in 2005. CompSci and EE/CE are separate headcounts though.

[whatnext]

Well this is embarrassing. Apparently a big part of the city's bid to woo Amazon HQ2 was "we underpay our tech workers"!

After the failed bid proposal was posted online, observers questioned why the city would highlight that its tech workers have the 'lowest wages of all North American tech hubs'

Vancouver officials are defending their decision to tout the bottom-barrel pay of the city’s tech workers in their bid to get online retailer Amazon to build a second headquarters on the West Coast, saying it was one of their “strongest economic arguments.”...

http://theprovince.com/news/canada/c...6-64077c28b744

[casper]

Originally Posted by Aroundtheworld

I read the article and I was shocked at UBC's policy, but not surprised over all given my experience. Less than 2000 software engineers per year? That's insane.

As a founder of a tech company as a non-technical, I've found that finding good tech talent is incredibly difficult and is one of the things that kills startups here. I was lucky to find someone good, but they didn't come from Vancouver, they came from abroad.

SFU has always been more focused on creating software engineers and computer science majors than UBC. The SFU program is highly respected in the industry. Add to that the host of other institutions including Capilano and BCIT.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Well this is embarrassing. Apparently a big part of the city's bid to woo Amazon HQ2 was "we underpay our tech workers"!

After the failed bid proposal was posted online, observers questioned why the city would highlight that its tech workers have the 'lowest wages of all North American tech hubs'

Vancouver officials are defending their decision to tout the bottom-barrel pay of the city’s tech workers in their bid to get online retailer Amazon to build a second headquarters on the West Coast, saying it was one of their “strongest economic arguments.”...

http://theprovince.com/news/canada/c...6-64077c28b744

I definitely see both sides of this.

For sakes of a business proposal to entice a large company, I definitely think its important to be selling cheap wages.

China didn't become the manufacturing hub of the world because workers get paid a lot. They (used to be) cheapest in world and relatively skilled.

Debating if this is a positive overall is an entirely different matter - this argument was presented in the vacuum of creating a value proposition to Amazon.