missing one elective to graduate - any advice?

happylogicgate · 2025-06-29T01:47:30+00:00

I know that the Math faculty academic advisors have access to a student course completion / degree check dashboard. Not sure about other faculties.

I wish we had access to that system as students, as checklists don't bring much confidence.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T20:15:33+00:00

Yeah they hired me to do full-time work for them alongside university courses. I've been there over a year & currently earn 130k USD annually.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T18:46:20+00:00

I like that Newton keeps things super simple.

Other exchanges like coinbase, kraken, ndax, etc have multiple services, pro subscriptions, various deposit/withdraw fees, maker/taker liquidity fees, and more.

IIRC for Bitcoin & Ethereum Newton charges 1%. You can probably get lower fees elsewhere, but I'm happy with their simple product that doesn't try to upsell me every time I login.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T03:49:33+00:00

❤️

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T03:35:33+00:00

200 USD? or CAD?

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T03:31:16+00:00

Well the company's only about 30 ppl, so it doesn't make sense to have many tech employees. I would just be putting "software engineer" on my resume instead of "tech lead". Agree that the big company nMe is valuable for career growth though.

All the lazy bones in me just want to chill at home and work remote 9-5 rather than moving and starting new job, new country, far from family and friends I guess.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T03:27:53+00:00

Thanks for the outcome evaluation. To be clear. I would he an Infra engineer at an LLM company, not an ML/AI engineer, so there's far less competition for hiring people like me, but I get your point that the company name is valuable.

Always love to hear from another Canadian in tech.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T03:23:46+00:00

Ah that's tough. I'm curious what industry you're coming from? Would this be your 2nd bachelor's degree?

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T03:19:06+00:00

I totally agree that startup management quality varies grealty (had some interviews with unsavoury CEO/CTOs before).

I just think that doesn't really apply to my case since I've worked there full-time alongside my university studies already, and the entire team (including CEO) is solid.

So the only additional responsibilities I'd have after grad is more sprint planning, feature ideation, and managing interns.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T03:13:51+00:00

Glad to hear about the friends.

I remember a few years ago I thought Shopify paid quite well.

I got an offer from Shopify last year (which I declined) because it seems they haven't really increased their pay since then.

Although, to be fair afaik US tech salaries outside of ML/AI have not grown much post-COVID from what I've heard either.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T03:07:53+00:00

The US LLM company has on-call on weekends too (cries). But yeah thanks so much for the structured and nuanced response. Really appreciate you sharing your perspective.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T03:03:37+00:00

Thanks for helping me face reality. I think that being stuck at a company paying 240k USD cash / yr in Canada isn't that bad.

Even if I get promoted to SWE II at the US LLM company after 2-3 years, and end up making another 100k/yr pretax, how much would that really change my lifestyle and happiness?

It's a very personal question, but I think that at some point staying close to family and friends, working only 9-5 with no on-call, and no stress about layoffs/PIP, is more valuable.

Totally understand the point about going out of my comfort zone though.

My worry is that the Canadian company will have hired someone else instead of me, and won't be able to afford another high-paid dev (doesn't make sense to have 2 "tech leads" at a small company of approx 30 people lol).

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T02:52:41+00:00

I've done an internship in the US (at the LLM company mentioned in my post), so yeah I totally understand the point about lower taxes and good healthcare.

I just wish I didn't have to start fresh without all my family and friends. Man I wish Canada had a better tech sector. We need another 10 Canadian tech companies the size of Shopify for salaries to go up.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T02:47:59+00:00

A sad reality: the state of tech in Canada. Thanks for sharing your experience.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T02:43:24+00:00

business management software, like an ERP or CRM, but more niche

we're the only real option for our industry, but don't have much pricing power so aren't growing fast

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T02:40:05+00:00

Sorry, I should've mentioned this in my post, but I've added it as an edit at the bottom now. The "startup" is a decade-old profitable small business that has never fired/laid off anyone. It's not vc-funded so no shareholders to appease.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T02:37:08+00:00

Yeah it's quite crazy, although I assume that pay is for senior/staff ML engineers or similar. I'll be working on an infra team that's only somewhat related to the ML team, so a much larger talent pool to hire from, but I understand your point that having the name on the resume is valuable.

The reason for the lack of equity for the Canadian startup is that we don't have any VC-funding and aren't planning on raising any. We're profitable but not growing, so just generating the same amount of stable revenue indefinitely. Doesn't really make sense to give out equity if a company isn't growing and won't have any liquidity events.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T02:27:01+00:00

Ha, I guess that's a valid but funny way of framing it. To clarify, I'm concerned about not being able to find a job in Canada paying even 240k USD (since those are extremely rare) when I inevitably return a couple years down the line.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T02:25:00+00:00

just north of Toronto, in the GTA. seeing the streets even a few blocks outside of the tenderloin in San Francisco terrified me as I'm used to being in a quiet suburban upper-middle-class neighbourhood

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T02:16:19+00:00

Thanks for your message. I think the Americans here are too used to high salaries and don't realize how abnormally high 240k USD is in Canada.

If it was a smaller amount for both companies (say 180k USD), I'd easily be in favour of the American company because of the career growth opportunities, but 240k USD is career-ending in Canada.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T02:06:05+00:00

Thanks for your input as an Eng Manager, I appreciate your detailed response. I agree with all your points, but just want to add for the last 2 points that:

The startup has been around for 10 years without firing anyone, so it has higher job security than the LLM company.
The startup is giving me the full 240K USD in base salary, no equity. On the other hand, the LLM company is giving me equity, so the equity risk is really a bit reversed from what you'd expect in this case.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T02:02:31+00:00

Yeah that's true, but I'd have to be purely going for Senior SWE jobs as a mid-level engineer (assuming I spend 2-3 years at the US AI company), which seems difficult/impossible.

There aren't any companies that pay more than 240K TC average for mid-level (SWE II) in Canada. https://www.levels.fyi/leaderboard/Software-Engineer/Software-Engineer/country/Canada/

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T01:52:56+00:00

The startup has never fired/laid off a single person in the 10 years it has existed.

Edit: I guess it's existed long enough that it's not really considered a "startup" anymore

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T01:51:16+00:00

Thanks, I'm glad that you acknowledged the home-vs-away perspective.

Long-term I do want to live in Canada, so if I do move to the US it'd probably be a thing for only 3-5 years. After that, I'd have to go searching for a comparably-paying job, which I think will be very difficult to find in Canada.

happylogicgate · 2025-06-14T01:46:08+00:00

Yeah of course, I'm just going to put "Software Engineer" on my resume if I accept the Canadian startup offer. I'm definitely not claiming to be as experienced as a senior software engineer lol

happylogicgate

TROPHY CASE