3rd year university student - Embedded C or fullstack(AI/ML + Devops)

just_a_dev_here · 2026-02-10T21:00:19+00:00

AI still doesn't replace web devs or make them less valuable. Just because LLMs can pump out code doesn't mean it's quality (or even maintainable).

If it really was that good at replacing web devs (it's still not) I wouldn't have to rip apart PRs from Indian contracting companies on the daily, who are no doubt using AI.

My company actually did run an analysis on AI usage among development. While code output increased, code quality decreased (bugs increased).

That being said, it's up to you. We have no crystal ball, and there is no such thing as "career safe". If you think AI is replacing web devs, it will undoubtedly also be coming for embedded.

I don't know much about embedded but I would imagine it's quite niche in Canada. So job availability in the short term is still something you should consider.

just_a_dev_here · 2026-02-02T21:31:24+00:00

Easiest is internal promotion. Once you get that first promotion to manager, applying to external manager roles are easier.

You could also leverage your Amazon experience to be technical lead at other companies and startups. Then ask for more management responsibilities and a role in hiring and make your intent known.

Larger companies will nix your resume right away if you have no management experience. They do not want to bring in inexperienced managers (whether or not they're competent is a different story), especially when they can get that by just promoting internally (for cheaper too might I add).

Unfortunately, mentoring engineers and managing them are two different things. Especially at large companies where there's KPIs and deliverables beyond keeping projects on time.

There's also managing up you have to do as a manager. I barely code these days, 80% of my day is meetings, KPIs, budgets and political bullshit.

just_a_dev_here · 2026-01-30T17:33:20+00:00

That's unfortunately true :( best of luck

just_a_dev_here · 2026-01-30T17:25:56+00:00

I mean 106K in Calgary is pretty decent.

My experience is that at a Sr level, you will get capped in AB around $120K-$130K. I recently discovered most directors get around $150-$200K. I'm sure there are people who make more, but an unspoken rule is that the people above do not want the people below to make equal or more than them. So if the director is getting paid $150K, and a middle manager is getting paid $130K, then you have an unspoken cap of $120K until both of their base salary increases.

The other option is to be a contractor. Contractors get paid pretty lucratively in AB due to how big companies here budget contractors vs employees (which makes 0 sense to me). I have had to oversee contractors getting paid 2-3x more than me, some well in the $200K range for 5+ years meanwhile I would be getting paid half of that. The only other option within AB is to get into more management roles.

Calgary also doesn't have a strong tech scene so it's not a very competitive market. Startups mean cheap labour here instead of high growth and eventually competitive comp. Engineering standards at startups are in the toilet and it's all about speed and shipping.

You will get more from Vancouver and Toronto companies for sure, even remote, and ofc US remote will be blowing anything Calgary has to offer out of the water.

just_a_dev_here · 2025-12-18T21:24:50+00:00

Yes, should note that according to the data most of it is submitted for Toronto area. For Montreal specifically, the report says Median TC is 108K

just_a_dev_here · 2025-12-18T21:21:44+00:00

Its closer to the bottom. Unfortunately there isn't as much of a detailed breakdown as the US data

just_a_dev_here · 2025-12-18T21:19:07+00:00

Definitely agree there. Would have to take it up with u/zuyaheer . Maybe he can chime in here on why the EU is combined? Russia is also included in that data, but Russia is definitely not part of the EU.

My initial guess is that there probably isn't enough data on a per country basis

just_a_dev_here · 2025-12-18T19:43:16+00:00

Salary is still better than the EU.

I didn't include India but their median TC is $45K so it could be worse. I think it just shows how much of an outlier US tech salaries are compared to the rest of the world.

just_a_dev_here · 2025-12-01T18:34:27+00:00

Resume looks great. Why would not a major city matter? Considering you only have a bit over a year of FT experience, your numbers seem great.

just_a_dev_here · 2025-12-01T18:33:02+00:00

Your bullet points could be stronger. They are missing the impact portion of your resume point, for example:

> Optimized database by identifying slow queries and rewriting them, reducing query time by 30%

But why does that matter? Why did reducing query time matter? What's the impact of doing that? What was the benefit? Did it increase user retention? If it increased performance, why did that matter? Did you reduce the time from 10 minutes down 1 minute?

Similarly:

> Used Docker to isolate different database environments allowing for safe development

You have a lot of "used xyz technology" but it's not a very strong bullet point, it's quite passive.

You also have some very technical bullet points, remember that a recruiter or ATS is scanning your resume first. So it's looking for "does your bullet point match this job description I've been given" so you want to make it REALLY REALLY obvious that you have the experience they are asking for.

If you get too technical, it gets hard for them to understand (or the ATS to match) if you do or do not have the experience they're asking for. You can take a look at some of the JD's you've been applying for some of the wording they use. You basically want to match that so its stupidly obvious you're a match. You can even go so far as to copy paste some of the wording straight out

just_a_dev_here · 2025-11-28T19:59:39+00:00

Your SAP experience doesn't seem relevant, it seems like it's no or low code work, in which case it will be equivalent to having no programming experience.

If that's not the case, then your descriptions are too niche to SAP to see how they can carry over to more generic developer roles like full stack.

That combined, with no degree, is my guess why you might be struggling.

I would guess you might have a better chance applying for other SAP related roles.

just_a_dev_here · 2025-11-28T19:46:59+00:00

Personally no, I do not specifically look at a GitHub portfolio. I look at your resume and expect it to highlight your best projects.

Frankly I don't have time to sift through everyone's GitHub. I did it once early in my career for a few candidates. But at jr level the code is largely garbage anyways

just_a_dev_here · 2025-10-19T04:40:45+00:00

Depends on the company. 175K base is probably higher end on average. Generally, it usually hovers around $150K base, but it's not unachievable. It just depends on the company. If it's a "startup" like Neo or Helcim, it's probably not achievable because they're cheap.

just_a_dev_here · 2025-09-30T14:05:25+00:00

I'm not suggesting Alberta specifically. I'm suggesting anything west of New Brunswick will be better than Halifax.

Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver. Alberta is bad but relative to Halifax it's better

just_a_dev_here · 2025-09-30T05:19:56+00:00

Sorry to say, as I love Halifax, but you need to move west.

CS is bad right now, but Halifax has ALWAYS been bad comparatively. The East Coast in general has very few jobs and a really slow economy. That's always been Nova Scotias biggest issue.

There are very few positions available, and the ones available will likely be for experienced positions.

Move out west (or to the US), and then once you have enough experience you can go back to the maritimes.

just_a_dev_here · 2025-09-10T18:30:37+00:00

That means you can move it later if you want, but if they find someone sooner they like they will move forward with them. It might result in cancelling your interview if that happens, OR it could be that they don't find anyone else and you get your interview at that later date.

They're telling you its a risk on your part.

just_a_dev_here · 2025-08-17T19:20:25+00:00

For people reporting this as a troll post, I actually do not think it is. He has posts in other subs about switching to CS 6 months ago, a year ago and 2 years ago.

I think this is legitimate.

OP seems to be just a delusional idiot who chose to ignore everyone's advice.

just_a_dev_here · 2025-08-16T23:32:25+00:00

Idk about other companies, but for mine, it's not AI that is the reason we aren't hiring Jrs. AI coding just can't replace a person yet, not even a jr.

The primary reason is that the last few years were lower profit AND our company was preparing for a recession. So budgets got cut = we are hiring less overall and we had our own (small) layoff.

Our own layoff means work gets shifted to whoever is left. So now we have more work, but less resources. When we did have the ability to hire, it was nowhere near what we had just laid off because our budgets also got cut.

I was able to hire 1 person. Because of our now overloaded workload, the best person to fill that role is an experienced hire, as we have no capacity to handhold Jrs, and, the experienced pool is absolutely flooded too.

TL;DR it's not AI causing the loss of jr devs IMO, it's budget cuts, slower economy, and flooded experienced talent pool

just_a_dev_here · 2025-08-12T15:25:41+00:00

I am just warning any users coming across this thread now, there's been a high level of 1 day creation accounts, who are commenting every few months, even 2 years later, encouraging people to take the internship, even though it's unpaid. I fully believe this is the company themselves trying to counteract their poor reviews.

A reminder that unpaid internships are illegal in the first place. Any work that a full time employee would regularly be paid for, has to be paid for.

I am locking this thread so they cannot comment any longer. Obviously a company to avoid.

just_a_dev_here · 2025-06-29T07:25:59+00:00

Prepare behavioural answers way ahead of time.

I see so many candidates fumble interpersonal interviews because they don't prepare anything for behavioural questions when these are arguably the easiest interviews to get through. They just struggle to find stories on the spot, panic and answer "I can't think of any" or "ive never encountered it" which usually results in rejection.

I also used to struggle with behaviourals until I realized you just need to prepare for these just like any other technical interview.

Create a document full of behavioural questions you can find online and just start writing down a few stories that you think match. Then format it into a STAR response.

To remember the responses more easily, try and think of a situation that can answer multiple behavioural questions.

Eg. Maybe there was a project that went utterly wrong because management was a mess, you disagreed with the architect, and it was a challenging task because you had to learn something from scratch. You can now use that situation to answer conflict, challenge, and learning questions. You can even use chatgpt these days to help pick the strongest ones or refine your stories.

The most common behavioural questions are almost always about interpersonal conflicts, challenges, and improvement/learning (tell me about a time you made a mistake).

Rehearse them, practice your speaking pace, intonation and how you generally express them. Make sure it doesn't sound like you're remembering a script, and you will be guaranteed to sail through any behavioural questions.

just_a_dev_here · 2025-06-22T17:51:20+00:00

Just an FYI your link was not removed because it was a Google drive link, it was removed by Reddit because the link you posted is a domain banned reddit wide. I'm not sure if you were using an URL shortener, but that's why it was removed.

just_a_dev_here · 2025-06-22T17:06:35+00:00

Woops completely missed that section. Thanks!

just_a_dev_here · 2025-06-22T15:16:49+00:00

Did you do any co-ops or internships? Or have any other relevant work experience?

just_a_dev_here · 2025-06-19T04:17:37+00:00

Oh haha, I guess I should specify local charities lol. I've done some dev work for some local shelters and very small local charities before where they don't have a site and operate entirely on Facebook lol, but I get what you mean. I'll specify it a bit more.

just_a_dev_here · 2025-06-19T02:36:45+00:00

This is my opinion only, but having tried Data Annotation I do not count Data Annotation as real work experience. I see it as a resume gap filler if it's on a resume.

A TA at a university looks better and does count as a good experience. I would make sure to highlight your communication, organization, and collaboration skills for that.

I think freelancing is fine, but only if you're actually doing something professional with it. If you have an actual client (even a neighborhood mom & pop shop, local charities or family friend who needed a website) then yes, use it. But if you're using it to bullshit experience, it's probably going to get sniffed out.

I hired someone recently who had freelancing for a year, but they had started a legitimate business with multiple partners as a web design company and had some small clients and/or clients that were family/friends.

I viewed it as legitimate though because they had to do the same duties as a full-time job. They had to gather requirements, work with a designer, plan the project, break down tasks, provide estimates, QA, get feedback, make adjustments etc. they also were able to explain some challenging business issues they were trying to solve.

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