Is Vancouver a Legitimate Tech Hub?

[csbvan]

I expect more competitive wages will be the result of this low unemployment in the industry. It's about time

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by csbvan

I expect more competitive wages will be the result of this low unemployment in the industry. It's about time

One can hope, as it's about time! Those experienced and skilled should now enjoy a very strong position to be negotiating salaries. Hopefully it all results in the averages going up, although such thing as "living wage" just doesn't exist in Vancouver...

[NetMapel]

Makes me wonder why aren't more Vancouverites and Canadians getting into tech. I work in visual effects here and it's actually quite tech-heavy and you can do VERY well with some programming skills. Pay is generally significantly above the average pay of Vancouver, and is generally an exciting field to be apart of. The industry is desperate to find more Canadian workers as well to reduce work visa expense and all that. However, we just simply cannot find enough Canadians to fill the roles. It feels like a good 60-70% of our industry is filled with international workers.

I can only imagine web dev and app developers probably pay more and are even more in need of Canadian workers.

[Aroundtheworld]

Originally Posted by NetMapel

Makes me wonder why aren't more Vancouverites and Canadians getting into tech. I work in visual effects here and it's actually quite tech-heavy and you can do VERY well with some programming skills. Pay is generally significantly above the average pay of Vancouver, and is generally an exciting field to be apart of. The industry is desperate to find more Canadian workers as well to reduce work visa expense and all that. However, we just simply cannot find enough Canadians to fill the roles. It feels like a good 60-70% of our industry is filled with international workers.

I can only imagine web dev and app developers probably pay more and are even more in need of Canadian workers.

I think our entire education and value system is messed up. We tell kids to go get a degree in arts and then after they get their bachelor's they find that it was a waste of money. The good thing is some of them are going to places like RED Academy and Lighthouse Labs that teach them skills the market actually needs. But there needs to be more.

[scryer]

Originally Posted by Aroundtheworld

I think our entire education and value system is messed up. We tell kids to go get a degree in arts and then after they get their bachelor's they find that it was a waste of money. The good thing is some of them are going to places like RED Academy and Lighthouse Labs that teach them skills the market actually needs. But there needs to be more.

Agreed... I feel that a lot of the millennials were approaching their futures with out-of-date values passed onto them by parents who had it good (economy-wise); no shade to the parents.

I also feel that a lot of education, in general, is out of date and (for the most part) a money-grab. Why offer a Philosophy degree when there is no future in it? I could really lay into the whole post-secondary education system in Canada and go on and on about how it's inefficient and how it hard-sells to young minds with no real promises, and how nowadays the entire post-secondary education system is now more strongly relying on international enrollment to stay open.... but I digress.

If there is a need for more graphic designers in Vancouver, there needs to be a stronger marketing campaign appealing to Vancouver locals about it. Just my two cents...

[Klazu]

I think it's a world-wide phenomenon in the Western societies. Millennials are not as eager to take the effort of pursuing studies in science anymore, even though the work situation in those professions is good and there is more than ever need for educated workforce in those areas.

There was actually an article on this in the Finnish state media few months ago where this was the the underlying root cause: many Millennials want to get by in life as easily as possible and few want to pursue sciences anymore. It is perceived being too difficult and requiring too much effort and many don't feel the need for that. Many also feels that education is not a guarantee of anything anymore and the welfare state will take care of them.

The situation in Finnish universities has got so bad that some of them have had to close faculties or cancel study programs due to lack of applicants. At the same time non-science programs enjoy an all-time reacord number of applicants ass those subjects are perceives being "interesting" and "fun".

It's not a good news for the export industry as lack of skilled workforce can become a major hurdle for national success over time, and this is a big worry in Finland. I think change in mentality among Millennials is also part of the reason in here as well.

[GlassCity]

There is nothing wrong with universities offering philosophy degrees. Let's not forget that originally universities were meant to be places of scholarly work, not a place to get you ready for a job. It is up to the students to decide which majors will serve them best moving forward.

As far as why Canadians aren't getting tech education, I think it's really over simplifying to say that it's because "kids these days" are lazy. Engineering remains a very popular and competitive program. My guess is, the industry hasn't marketed itself enough as a potential career the way that civil engineering has for example. Current students are willing to take on as much as it takes to achieve their goals; there is no shortage of people in STEM programs. The issue is that tech doesn't seem to be a popular goal.

[csbvan]

Originally Posted by Klazu

I think it's a world-wide phenomenon in the Western societies. Millennials are not as eager to take the effort of pursuing studies in science anymore, even though the work situation in those professions is good and there is more than ever need for educated workforce in those areas.

There was actually an article on this in the Finnish state media few months ago where this was the the underlying root cause: many Millennials want to get by in life as easily as possible and few want to pursue sciences anymore. It is perceived being too difficult and requiring too much effort and many don't feel the need for that. Many also feels that education is not a guarantee of anything anymore and the welfare state will take care of them.

The situation in Finnish universities has got so bad that some of them have had to close faculties or cancel study programs due to lack of applicants. At the same time non-science programs enjoy an all-time reacord number of applicants ass those subjects are perceives being "interesting" and "fun".

It's not a good news for the export industry as lack of skilled workforce can become a major hurdle for national success over time, and this is a big worry in Finland. I think change in mentality among Millennials is also part of the reason in here as well.

Sounds like a typical baby-boomer "damn kids these days!" type of article. We can't expect someone to force themselves into a discipline that they arent good at or are not interested in. Everyone needs a degree these days, the pool of students going into science and engineering is shrinking because universities are flooded with people who simply need a degree, because that is the new job market reality. We can't expect that most of these students will choose the sciences or engineering, those are disciplines that you truly have to be drawn to.

[dreambrother808]

I tried teaching myself how to code and hit a wall when I realized how boring and frustrating the work would actually be for my personality. I used to be a high achiever in maths and sciences as well.

Just because there are jobs doesn't mean that something can appeal to the masses.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Aroundtheworld

I think our entire education and value system is messed up. We tell kids to go get a degree in arts and then after they get their bachelor's they find that it was a waste of money. The good thing is some of them are going to places like RED Academy and Lighthouse Labs that teach them skills the market actually needs. But there needs to be more.

I am not impressed with the RED Academy and Lighthouse Labs graduates. I have interviewed a few of them and frankly they don't have the depths to tackle innovative demanding applications. They are ok building basic websites and simple apps. Nothing wrong with that given there are a lot of jobs out there that only require the basics. They generally don't have the skills to scale that into an enterprise solution or deal with the technical complexity of a bigger application.

I still see a lot of value in graduates with Computer Science BSc degrees. It varies from School to School. SFU has a great co-op program, UVic is the same. UBC struggles a bit with focus with a split between tech and something else (usually science). Even some of the programs like Engineering Physics produce people with a great set of skills.

I am from gen-X. But I do work with a few Millennials. I find Millennials just have different values, than past generations. In many ways they have a more realistic view of the world, and a willingness to commit and be part of things they believe in and pass on the ones they don't.

[casper]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

..... The issue is that tech doesn't seem to be a popular goal.

Tech is evolving away from being about Tech to being about society. Steve Case who founded AOL has a good book out called The Third Wave. I think he is on to something.

Most "Tech companies" these days are just regular business that are using tech to disrupt existing industries.

- Amazon, is a tech company. But it is retail reinvented. In many ways it has more in common with Hudson Bay and Sears than the rest of the tech industry.

- Uber is a tech company. But it is a taxi company. It just works differently and compensates its drivers differently.

- Expedia is a tech company. But is a travel agency. It just works differently.

- Tesla is a tech company, but it is a car company. It applies the same management style and thought process found in tech to making cars.

- A good percentage of thous small mom and pop web companies in town are just advertising agencies reinvented.

In the US what is interesting is the business centers for all of these companies is San Francisco. It is not New York or the east coast.

Discouraging kids to get into tech amounts to discouraging kids to get into the new economy.

[christmas]

Dailyhive article

Vancouver-based Hootsuite is cashflow positive after 8 years

Sometimes it just takes a little time.

Vancouver-based billion-dollar company Hootsuite announced today that they have become cash-flow positive after eight years in business. The company has been growing at a rapid pace since 2008, having amassed $250 million in investments and growing from 70 employees in 2012 to nearly 1,000 in 2016.

The so-called “unicorn” can now officially say they have a rainy-day fund.

“Becoming cash flow positive is a validation of our approach, and everyone at Hootsuite is part of our success,” said CEO Ryan Holmes in a statement emailed to Daily Hive. “We have thoughtfully and purposefully built a business that is changing the world, and we will continue to do that with even greater energy and focus.”

Read more at : http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/hootsuite-cashflow-positive

[Genauso]

I'm not interested in talking politics here, but suffice it to say that at the national government level Canada is out of phase with the United States.

A number of initiatives over the last decade have been made to reduce the competitive barriers of launching and growing 'tech' companies in Canada. Nevertheless, Vancouver has not converged economically with Seattle or San Francisco because the large players there felt no reason to leave behind where they found success.



Thankfully being less reward driven resulted in the funding of Geoffrey Hinton's lab in Artificial Intelligence at University of Toronto (he came to Canada because there was stable funding, and it wasn't paid for by the military). This spawned other academic pioneering labs at McGill and University of Alberta.

So Google, Baidu, Facebook, Microsoft, Nvidia, automakers, have money to invest, and the infant industry still requires cooperation across company lines. Conferences and coffee are not optional.

It's just idle chatter at the moment, but there is talk of moving meetings outside the United States. There will be many personal favorites, but I think Canada is the neutral crossroads if it comes down to that. This is a good chance for Vancouver and the convention center to make deeper inroads that began with hosting SIGGRAPH and TED conferences.

If the Federal Government can bankroll Toronto International Film Festival into being relevant, then it should make room for Vancouver's initiatives given that BC has been snubbed in favor of the funding announcements they made to universities in the last year.

[csbvan]

Immigration is vital to the tech industry, and so it will be interesting to see how much more competitive Vancouver becomes in the coming months and years (or more properly, how much less competitive the US will become).

[jollyburger]

Or how badly Vancouver does even with an immigration edge over the United States.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Genauso

I'm not interested in talking politics here, but suffice it to say that at the national government level Canada is out of phase with the United States.

A number of initiatives over the last decade have been made to reduce the competitive barriers of launching and growing 'tech' companies in Canada. Nevertheless, Vancouver has not converged economically with Seattle or San Francisco because the large players there felt no reason to leave behind where they found success.



Thankfully being less reward driven resulted in the funding of Geoffrey Hinton's lab in Artificial Intelligence at University of Toronto (he came to Canada because there was stable funding, and it wasn't paid for by the military). This spawned other academic pioneering labs at McGill and University of Alberta.

So Google, Baidu, Facebook, Microsoft, Nvidia, automakers, have money to invest, and the infant industry still requires cooperation across company lines. Conferences and coffee are not optional.

It's just idle chatter at the moment, but there is talk of moving meetings outside the United States. There will be many personal favorites, but I think Canada is the neutral crossroads if it comes down to that. This is a good chance for Vancouver and the convention center to make deeper inroads that began with hosting SIGGRAPH and TED conferences.

If the Federal Government can bankroll Toronto International Film Festival into being relevant, then it should make room for Vancouver's initiatives given that BC has been snubbed in favor of the funding announcements they made to universities in the last year.

Moving meetings is all well and good but why not move the whole company? And there are 300k Canadians working in Silicon Valley, how many of those will return to Canada.

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by csbvan

Immigration is vital to the tech industry, and so it will be interesting to see how much more competitive Vancouver becomes in the coming months and years (or more properly, how much less competitive the US will become).

I could not disagree more with this statement. Talent is important, immigration can in fact be harmful. The reason the Canadian tech industry is hurting is because of immigration policies flooded the market with cheap workers and pushing wages down and driving away talent. The reason the Canadian tech industry is not doing well is because of mass immigration that brings in a disproportionate number of "tech" workers from the developing world and a systematic abuse of the TFW program. All, and I mean all Canadian talent tries to head south. Precisely because the labor market up hear is unfair and stacked against them as a result of Canada's immigration and TFW policies. If you think the market up hear is bad right now it will only get worse if the Liberals continue pushing the talent out of Canada and undermining the quality and stability of our tech industry by flooding it with cheap foreign workers.

[csbvan]

Originally Posted by cornholio

I could not disagree more with this statement. Talent is important, immigration can in fact be harmful. The reason the Canadian tech industry is hurting is because of immigration policies flooded the market with cheap workers and pushing wages down and driving away talent. The reason the Canadian tech industry is not doing well is because of mass immigration that brings in a disproportionate number of "tech" workers from the developing world and a systematic abuse of the TFW program. All, and I mean all Canadian talent tries to head south. Precisely because the labor market up hear is unfair and stacked against them as a result of Canada's immigration and TFW policies. If you think the market up hear is bad right now it will only get worse if the Liberals continue pushing the talent out of Canada and undermining the quality and stability of our tech industry by flooding it with cheap foreign workers.

Sorry, but tech companies are fighting for immigration talent (Canada and the U.S. just don't put out enough engineers). Some 40% of Silicon Valley startups have an immigrant founder. If it weren't for easy immigration laws, Vancouver wouldn't have a tech industry. It's our competitive advantage. Even Silicon Valley has an incredibly high percentage of foreign born workers.

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by Genauso

I'm not interested in talking politics here, but suffice it to say that at the national government level Canada is out of phase with the United States.

A number of initiatives over the last decade have been made to reduce the competitive barriers of launching and growing 'tech' companies in Canada. Nevertheless, Vancouver has not converged economically with Seattle or San Francisco because the large players there felt no reason to leave behind where they found success.



Thankfully being less reward driven resulted in the funding of Geoffrey Hinton's lab in Artificial Intelligence at University of Toronto (he came to Canada because there was stable funding, and it wasn't paid for by the military). This spawned other academic pioneering labs at McGill and University of Alberta.

So Google, Baidu, Facebook, Microsoft, Nvidia, automakers, have money to invest, and the infant industry still requires cooperation across company lines. Conferences and coffee are not optional.

It's just idle chatter at the moment, but there is talk of moving meetings outside the United States. There will be many personal favorites, but I think Canada is the neutral crossroads if it comes down to that. This is a good chance for Vancouver and the convention center to make deeper inroads that began with hosting SIGGRAPH and TED conferences.

If the Federal Government can bankroll Toronto International Film Festival into being relevant, then it should make room for Vancouver's initiatives given that BC has been snubbed in favor of the funding announcements they made to universities in the last year.

Not a chance - corporations are required to make maximum profit. If they move it will be to tax havens where no one benefits. e.g. Facebook to Ireland.

[Migrant_Coconut]

And housing prices aren't helping - in fact, they're scaring off potential tech investment.

“Tech companies are looking to get out altogether because their staff are just saying they are fed up. They can never get a home in Vancouver and that’s a real deterrent,” Duhaime says. “It’s demotivating. We want these people to stay, they could be the next Google. We need to look at Vancouver as a whole over the next 20 years and how we can have affordable housing.”

Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite, argues the city’s housing crisis is now so acute it threatens to damage the city’s “world-beating” technology and creative industries, as well as other key sectors. It could turn the city, he warns, into “an economic ghost town with no viable economy, other than a service industry catering to wealthy residents and tourists.”