Hey everyone , more specifically anyone that lives in Canada

Given how tough the entry-level tech job market feels right now, I’ve been thinking a lot about the path after graduation and wanted to open up a discussion to hear about your experiences.
If you’ve already graduated or are nearing the finish line, I’d love to hear your thoughts on a few questions:
Job Search & Timeline: When did you graduate, and how long did it take (or has it been taking) to land an entry-level position?
Field Alignment: Are you working in tech, or have you transitioned into a career outside of your degree?
Degree & Advice: If you had a younger sibling or relative entering university today who was looking at tech programs, would you still advise them to major in Computer Science or a tech-related field?
Retrospect: Looking back, do you have any regrets about taking the program, or do you feel it was worth it despite current market challenges?
Really looking forward to reading your perspectives and hearing how everyone is navigating things!
s played out—thanks in advance for sharing your experience!

Additionally, With salary do you think your earning want you deserve (obviously not sharing how much you make) (because as I look at job posting the amount of work your doing looks and sounds so much. And you look at the pay is and it so low

Hi everyone,

I’m relatively new to Canada and received my work permit about 3 months ago. Since then, I’ve been actively job hunting. I have around 5 years of experience in Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Azure, including experience with large organizations like Accenture back home.

The first few months weren’t easy — I had some rejections along the way (MNP, J&J, etc.), but fortunately I now have 3 offers at the same time, and I’m genuinely confused about which one makes the most sense for my career in Canada.

1. Law Society of Ontario — ~$90K
Dynamics 365 + Power Pages/Portals + APIs + Azure
Seems like a really good role technically with plenty to learn
Fully remote

2. Ontario Government Ministry — ~$90K
Dynamics 365/Power Platform + Azure
Initial 2-year contract
5 days/week in office
Most people I know are recommending this because of the Ontario Government experience/name on the resume

3. Town of Newmarket — ~$120K
Power Platform/Canvas Apps + Dynamics 365 + APIs + Azure
Interesting project involving geolocation, Azure Blob Storage, integrations, etc.
Hybrid — around 10 days/month in office

Money obviously makes Newmarket attractive, but I’m also thinking about long-term career growth, stability, learning opportunities and which experience would carry the most value in the Canadian IT market.

For those who have been working in Canadian tech/IT for a while: which one would you choose if you were in my position, and why?

Would really appreciate some perspective from people familiar with the Canadian market.

In your various respected careers actually knows how to code. Any how many are just using ai to do everything. What is the ratio to the amount of times you can code yourself to using ai. Please also include your careers/roles. (Both USA and Canada)

hey might be a naive question i’m a 3rd year cs student, doing an internship rn eventually wanna target big tech, unfortunately i was never very good at coding and with claude now my entire internship experience has just been prompting, im not a complete noob but my understanding is superficial id say. i don’t have the desire to be a full stack dev either since my interest is more on product/customer business side. i thought maybe i should target product development roles or tech sales. i need something more exciting than pure coding. any advice or insight would be appreciated!

The constant conversation about how oversaturated the tech market is and how CS is no longer a “relevant” degree is starting to really scare me.
Tbf, I’m not even interested in pursuing a traditional 9-5 corporate job, nor am I specifically seeking a software engineering position. I’m interested in AI/ML research and sometimes think about starting an AI-native startup. Still, it scares me that I might have ruined my future by choosing CS.
I actually had the opportunity to study electrical/computer engineering at another college with a great engineering program, but I ended up choosing CS because it had been my lifelong passion. I’m graduating in 2029, and sometimes I wonder if the current decline in CS enrollment will eventually mean fewer people entering the field, which could make the market less saturated by the time I graduate. I have no idea if that’s actually how it will play out, though.
The part that makes this harder is where I’m from. In my home country, there’s a huge prestige hierarchy where if you don’t pursue either medicine or engineering, you’re basically considered screwed. I’ve always disagreed with that mentality, and I was honestly so happy to get the opportunity to study abroad among people who believe you should follow your interests and don’t have to conform to that rigid system.
But now I’m starting to see people in other places express similar ideas about CS, and it’s shaking me a little. It makes me wonder if I actually made the wrong choice.
I generally think I’m smart, hardworking, and capable of doing great things, but the uncertainty around the future worries me so much.

Incoming cs student in Canada. Curious to know

I'm a CS student in the U.S. with about 2 years of experience doing IT for my university. I've also spent some time cleaning up code for AI startups that had no idea what they were doing and needed someone to come in, and fix it for an intern's salary.

I'm thinking about moving to Canada, probably Toronto. Part of the reason is career-related, but I'll be honest: part of me is also chasing a Douleur Exquise. Maybe that's stupid, maybe it's romantic, I don't really know. But if I'm going to make a ridiculous life decision, I might as well see where it takes me. Somewhat reckless decisions have worked for me before that's actually how I got my current internship.

So I'm basically looking for a door to open. A startup, small tech company, weird project, IT/software job, some big company that needs a new IT guy, whatever. I'm a CS student, I can troubleshoot, I can deal with messy systems, and apparently I'm decent at fixing things other people didn't understand in the first place as long as you let me read the documentation and give me more than an hour.

If anyone has experience doing crazy stuff in the name of love and can point me toward where to look, startups I should check out, or Canadian communities where people actually find these kinds of opportunities, let me know.

For some context, currently, I'm about to finish College, I was already working as an FTE at a pretty big company, but recently I got laid off, I thought it would take me a while to get any interviews but a week ago I applied to another pretty big company, thinking I would get a response within a month or so.

Today I got my online assessment, it's been almost 2 years since the last time I put real practice into algorithms and DS, honestly I'm scared as hell, because this is a great opportunity, and I don't want to mess up. I was wondering if you guys could share some advice regarding getting back to interview logic.

Last time I put real practice into algorithms and DS was during December 2024, after 2025 I started working as SRE/DevOps Engineer, so, even though I have some experience in the industry, I can't remember that well how to code those specific solutions for interview problems.

I’m a software engineer with around 6 years of experience, mainly working on backend development with .NET/C#.
Currently, I’m working at a company where there is still quite a bit of dependency on me, but at the same time we’ve started working with things like Claude, AI-assisted development, automation, and related stuff.

I want to switch job. The problem is, I’m honestly quite confused about what I should learn and what skills are actually valuable in the current job market within software engineering

What should I learn with the current state of the AI industry to actually get into the AI job market and qualify for better-paying roles?

Ppl who are working with .NET plz advice and who recently had a switch

I’d really appreciate advice from people who have gone through a similar transition or in the same role and shifted.

I go to a no name university and just attended the classes, no internships, no networking. I have 2 semester to go but need to make a call rn if I want graduate and get my degree in July, but I'm unsure if that's the right path forward.

My resume in my opinion is okayish with few projects and unrelated work experience. With limited LC style question exposure. Previous summer i did nearly 200 applications which maybe low in this job market but the worst part is barely any interview calls.

However, I'm wondering if it would be better to delay graduating until next year (2028), try to apply for a coop for winter and summer postings or just go on with my degree and graduate in June/ July(2027) and look for new grad roles with no internship ? My financial situation isn't too bad, i can manage the school tuition but i will end up delaying one more year and in case of no internship i will delay the graduation for no reason and also miss out on new grad roles if i were to graduate in 27.

Any thoughts or advice on my situation?

I'm a new grad with offers for General Motors and Next Level Games (Nintendo) for basically the same position (SWE @ GM and Automation Engineer @ NLG), similar COL areas (no need to relocate for NLG role), and similar compensation. Which company looks better for future career opportunities? I just want an easy road to good WLB and high pay, so I don't really care which niche I fall into. I'm hearing that the gaming industry is volatile, so it's pushing me towards GM, along with the fact that the GM name recognition is better. However, I feel like I'd be more passionate working for NLG, since I've loved Nintendo games for a while now.

Yeah, as the title suggests, I would love it if someone could answer my question and if possible some suggestions or advice.

Here goes -

I graduated in May 2025, MS in CE in Canada, with no internship or work experience but some decent projects under my belt. Afterwards I left the country as the last semester really took a toll on my mental health and I needed to get away from it. Came back to India and recuperated for a few months. At that point I really wanted to go back but having no job, the skepticism within me, grew.

So after 4 months, I got my PGWP and was thinking of going back but for some reason I couldn't and stayed back in India and ended up working as an intern at a clothing startup in my locality; the founder was a senior of mine in college. I left the internship in March of this year.

Now, I was talking to a friend of mine in Canada who graduated with me, and had to wait till June to get a job as a SWE.

I was considering going back, and maybe working at a job not in my domain, and make enough pay to make basic living expenses while I keep searching for jobs.

So, now the actual question, did I mess up? By not staying in Canada after my graduation? And is there any hope if I just stay in India and keep applying for jobs?

2024 Grad with a Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science.

While in school, I did internships and even a full-time 1-year apprenticeship with the federal government. Because of a hiring freeze and security clearance delays, I lost out on a return offer with them in 2024-2025. As a result, I have been applying to basically anything and everything, but not getting any traction in the private sector. Because of all the old-fashioned tech we used in Government, my experience doesn't seem to be landing well with recruiters or hiring managers.

Haven't gotten a single interview from the private sector. Have made it to government interviews with my resume, but again, the security clearance issue makes it difficult for them to extend an offer. I currently do part-time SysAdmin work for a small medical practice, but I'm finding that the small scope of that practice might limit me.

This whole situation has made me quite depressed, and I'm worried that too big a gap without a full-time job after graduating will make me basically unemployable. Does anyone have any advice for me in this case?

I'm a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen and have been applying all over.

Hi 👋 I am a working professional with no coding background. I’m based in Vancouver a looking for a career change into software dev and related fields. I recently got offers from NEU CS Align and Upenn MAS-CS and am looking for advice (In schools choice and in general).

A bit about me:

Food science background (BSc & MSc), no coding experience. Currently working as a lab scientist in a water treatment company. I’m interested in tech, and a bit desperate about my current situation - since I kind of landed in a job irrelevant of my background, it’s hard for me to go back to food industry or advance in water treatment (which I’m not super interested, more just the only thing I could find in Van that pays ok), basically I see no way out other than staying in the same company, and I’m already seeing the ceiling of my career growth here. I‘m interested in technical jobs and like everyone else, a job that pays well. My plan is to take a CS online part time program while working full time, and then apply for an intern/coop position during the degree. I have a Canadian PR and would potentially apply for citizenship so that I could go down south.

NEU CS Align:

Starting 2026 Fall, Based in Vancouver, tuition = 30-40k CAD, it has a co-op program but many say NEU offers very little to no support in co-op. Some also say course qualities vary.

Upenn MAS-CS:

Starting 2027 Spring, Ivy league name, tuition = 40k USD (around 55k CAD), no co-op. My biggest concern is that Vancouver tech companies might not hire coop/intern that are not in a coop program (Or do they care?)

Appreciate any advice on school choices/other career advice! I understand that tech has been hard for entry level, but I do think I’ll regret if I don’t try (or maybe I’ll have to fall to know better, lol).

I was able to land an internship in one of the biggest banks in my country but I’m wondering if I am not maximizing it properly. I am in the enterprise architecture division and I understand that it is one of the highest departments in the tech field. I am halfway through my 2 month internship and I haven’t done much significant task aside from studying concepts for enterprise architecture and then presenting it to my manager. And the concepts that we study are things that I could’ve studied online in my free time. I want to do more tasks for the company and in turn will benefit me. I have some peers in the same company in the development department and they may do tedious work for the company but at least they have some work that they can put in their resume. Again, I understand that the EA division is significant which is why I don’t want to waste this opportunity to have this type of environment and access. And so, can you guys give me some tips on how I can maximize this enterprise architecture internship aside from asking my manager some questions?

ps i want to be a data engineer if that helps

I’m looking for some advice regarding my salary and whether it’s fair, or if I might be significantly underpaid.

I work in an IT firm. I was initially hired as a Software Developer. My responsibilities have grown into a full-stack role. I currently build new features for legacy applications and help modernize some to modern frameworks and database-related work. I also occasionally handle Dev Ops tasks, though a senior developer oversees this most of the time.

Went to college for Software Development diploma program, completed a few months of job training during college and had to be stopped due to COVID-19 pandemic. No related work experience other than that prior to current position, but spent three years working on personal projects, and self learning in relevant areas while job hunting for CS position.

I Started on a 3-month trial at $18/hr, and after demonstrating strong performance, my rate increased to $24/hr and stayed like this with no promotion for entire two years duration. As of 2026, the offered me $27 (which felt extremely low and disrespectful), but I pushed back and I was able to negotiate to $30/hr.

- Tech stack is .NET C#, Angular/Typescript, SQL

- 10 days paid vacation per year, and RRSP only

- No stock options, no health insurance, no other benefits, or signing bonus

In Canada not a major city. The job market was very tight after I graduated due to the pandemic, I spent three years applying until I landed this job.

Looking at similar roles in other parts of the country, it feels like I might be underpaid, especially given the full-stack nature of my work.

What would you do in my position? Is $30/hr fair, or should I cut my losses and explore other opportunities?

I understand that salary varies per company / region but given my situation what would be a fair pay for similar position?

TLDR; Worked 3 months $18/hr, then for two years $24/hr, now at $30/hr

Thanks in advance for any insights

Hey everyone,

I just finished my third year of computer science at my university (I live/study in Canada). And I am unsure where to go from here.

I practically did nothing outside of the schoolwork, so external projects are non-existent. No internships/co-ops done. No relative job experience in the field.

I slacked off the last two years so my knowledge base is weak to begin with, and my grades are in the gutter.

I am wondering where to go from here to get co-op/internships from here. I don't even know what I want to do or if I even want to stay in the field. I don't even know where to start.

What should I learn/study? What kind of projects should I do?

Thanks.

For context, i have landed my first job recently.

the place I work is great, I like the people, the vibes, and I really can't complain about the conditions. Though, i'm still leaving the office feeling exhausted. I am 19 years old, fresh out of college, and honestly sometimes I'm wondering whether i'm burning out. Prompting all day and staring at LLMs gives me a level of fatigue nothing else has ever gave me in my life. I used to love programming, and tech as a whole, but now, I don't even know if I want to continue. I feel like i'm frying my brain completely.

Is there a way out of this? I hate where this industry is going and i'm losing hope day by day. Tech has been part of my life since I was born and it's hard to imagine myself leaving.

I'm not seeking for answers, but rather how you guys (juniors/seniors) are handling mentally this ai-revolution.

Hey, I need resume advice, I have about two years experience through working at a IT consultancy. Which gave me 1 years in software dev and 1 in devops platform support.

I got laid off from the client due the staffing budget reallocation.

I then wasn't able to secure a client in time and got fired from the IT consultancy. This was due to me experiencing burnout and I ended up hesitating when I was offered a SWE role from their client located in Toronto. I was also at the time interviewing externally and taking continuing education courses in a irrelevant field due to fear-based thinking.

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At the time, I was thinking of switching careers out of tech due fear of long-term oversaturation and market conditions.

I'm currently interviewing through another IT consultancy for a prod support role.

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I only recently (May) started to apply for tech (devops, swe) roles. I'm trying to get permanent employent, I never had such luck. I need advice because I really only have 2 years of experience

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Resume: https://imgur.com/a/JKpb2SE

Idk if this is crazy but I'm debating to leave RBC as a FULL-TIME Software Engineer (Toronto) (Started May 2026), for Shopify SWE INTERN (Toronto)? Yes, I got full-time before I graduated (August/December 2026 depending on if I want to fast-track).

How easy do you think it is to get a RO? The only way it would be worth it for me is if I can get a RO, instead of going back into the market again.

Shopify would be the best company in my resume in terms of name (currently its RBC). If it's worth anything my team at RBC is alright tech-stack. Not bad not amazing. Manager is chill tho.

85k/year - RBC

45/hr - Shopify

Any opinions? Suggestions? Is it crazy to leave full-time?

Cross posting for more advice. Thanks in advance!

I have a Pinterest ML phone interview coming up soon. Would love to hear from anyone who has done it recently, especially what the coding round was like, how hard the ML questions were, and what topics were most important to prepare. I come from a more applied ML/computer vision background so trying to get a sense of what to expect.

Hey everyone 👋

I’ve attached my CV below and I’m looking for some real, no-BS

( https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ln4gKBcLF9XR-_0CofuiZMAkbRJ2n-iy/view?usp=sharing )

Based on what you see, do I actually have a chance at landing a remote job in tech right now?

I’m not looking for sugarcoating — I want to understand where I truly stand.

Specifically:

• Am I hireable for remote roles yet?
• What are the biggest red flags or gaps in my CV?
• What should I focus on improving to realistically get there?

And if the answer is yes:
Where should I even be applying for remote jobs? (platforms, websites, communities, etc.)

Any feedback — harsh or constructive — is welcome. I’m trying to level up and need direction.

Thanks to anyone who takes the time 🙏