
Ask HN: Do programmers without a degree struggle in Canada (Toronto)? - nikon
Do you struggle with employers being unhappy about the lack of degree? Specifically in Toronto.<p>As a self-taught dev contracting in London (UK), I usually have no problem getting work. Perhaps the finance industry is more insular than others - though I&#x27;ve never worked in it.<p>How do you find it?<p>Side note: does contracting exist there?
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chollida1
I"m in Toronto, and someone who routinely hires developers and quants. Lack of
a degree being an issue is very company specific.

If you are talking finance with a sell side bank, its probably a deal breaker
as they have large HR driven hiring processes.

If you are talking a buy side firm then its probably not an issue, though if
you are expected to have any sort of math competency then a lack of a degree
will probably put you under more scrutiny than you might otherwise be under.

Contracting is very real and very pervasive.

If you are attempting to contract in Canada from the UK then I'd imagine that
might be the issue as there isn't a real shortage of devs in Toronto right now
so I can see why companies might want to hire locally first.

I dedicate about 1 lunch a week to mentoring. If you are ever in Toronto and
want to chat, reach out to me, email in my profile.

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gesman
Working in Canada as a full-time employee usually accompanied by being low-
balled on your salary from many angles. If you negotiate higher salary - hold
you enthusiasm - you'll be the first on a list to be fired if things go soar
(which pretty much is a fact of life for most Canadian startups).

High paid people in Canada are working as a consultants mostly for US-based
entities or at an enterprises with a strong international exposure or as an
entrepreneurs with US- or international exposure themselves.

Being pure Canadian employee in Canada sucks and always sucked.

Degree matters in large companies due to regulations and they tends to hire
some extremely dinosauric skill verification firm to cause you major hassles
to verify your background.

Smaller companies just need to make sure your skill match your resume and
hence they'll bore you to death on their interviews with coding questions.

If you are hired, expect to become the one asking coding questions the very
next day :)

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stuxnet79
I'm a Toronto dev. Last interview I went to (at a startup) I was interviewed
by a high-school kid, who was picked up by the startup off the strength of his
GitHub and portfolio. I never got the job (had a freshly minted degree at the
time from the best university in Canada, with a plethora of side projects
too). If you have an extensive portfolio you will do fine in my opinion. Yes,
contracting exists but I don't have a lot of experience with it personally.

I also have a friend who went from doing low-level microcontroller work to
working in finance. Financial industry might be tougher to break in to without
a degree but if you know somebody there (as is typically the case with these
things) and you score an interview you will be on an equal playing field with
the devs with college degrees (again IMHO).

EDIT: A good thing you parenthesized London with (UK) as we have a London in
Southern Ontario not too far from TO.

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nibs
We hire devs in Toronto and area. I barely finished high school but have a lot
of marketable experience, but that is by far the exception. Lots of local
talent, from U of T and Waterloo in particular. We are the most educated city
in the most educated country in the world and in my experience, recruiters and
HR people won't even talk further if you don't have an undergrad. Finance (and
any other more corporate culture like services, audit, consulting) even more
so. The start-ups and hard tech companies less so, but there seems to be
enough qualified people to fill these needs at the time being. Mostly 6-12
month contracts although we do 4 sometimes. We mostly hire new grads though,
for some reason.

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CaptainPeacock
Large firms here, especially the banks, tend to put degree or other post
secondary education in Computer Science as a requirement. Though, I can't
speak to how much they care about that, or pay attention to it. I don't recall
seeing that requirement on job posting with smaller firms and start-ups.

Yes, contracting exists in Toronto. Many firms, large and small, often post
job openings for contract positions of anywhere from 3 months (uncommon, but
happens) to 6 months (very common) or a year (very common).

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wprapido
small to medium enterprises and startups don't seem to care. big enterprises
do care. speaking of contracting, the market is much better in the UK than in
canada. moving from either britain or the states to canada for work makes
little to no sense

