could you be more specific about what tech field you are talking about?
I too am a tech worker in Canada, but most of the jobs in my field (Kernel programmer) are starting at about 75K or so (or at least they were in 2018 when I was new), and compared to most of my peers I’m taking the passion route that pays a bit less. My wife went the dev ops route and found a similar starting salary and had I sold my soul to app dev (and the type of shop that hires only university grads) I would be looking at around 90K or so starting salary. 5 years on we are both making 115KCAD or so.
If I look at my alma maters’ coop statistics, I can see that even first year coop positions are going for an average of 20CAD/hr (so equivalent to ~40K a year) (and those numbers tend be skewed down since they include general math degrees, which have less market value).
So Either a lot has changed in the last 5 years (Job market seems to have cooled off a fair amount, but judging by my linkedin tech jobs are still very much in demand), you are talking about a tech job that doesn’t require a university degree, or their are extenuating circumstances that are making you less desirable. If it is the third there are generally quite a lot you can do to mitigate that, biggest among them being to build your portfolio (protip, small finished and/or published projects are much more impressive than large half done ones).
Without doxxing myself or giving away too much info, I am in UX and business analysis. I’m not coding (sometimes but sparingly). Maybe that’s where I’m going wrong.
My field is basically the bridge between devs and the client. Need enough technical knowledge to come up with software features to implement and enough people/business/process knowledge to make it work and temper expectations with all parties.
Feels like I should have just specialized in one thing instead of combining as that’s where all the money is.
Ah, I think most of this thread is using STEM and “Tech” a bit too interchangeably unfortunately. This makes a lot more sense I think unfortunately.
I think your career seems very skewed towards experience unfortunately, those sorts of dev/client relations positions can be extremely well paying but only late in your career. You might find it easier to start if you try the Project Manager route and then side grade into the analyst role you want. I’m no expert here, but I think there are some PM certs you can get to get over the no experience hump there.
I’d argue I work in tech as my role is very technical and deals with agile software development. I run scrums with developers and meet with non-tech savvy clients to translate their demands into actual workable software features (along with the overall experience and UI elements+testing).
Not really a PM role as my strengths are more technical than people/project managing. Thanks for the kind words!
could you be more specific about what tech field you are talking about?
I too am a tech worker in Canada, but most of the jobs in my field (Kernel programmer) are starting at about 75K or so (or at least they were in 2018 when I was new), and compared to most of my peers I’m taking the passion route that pays a bit less. My wife went the dev ops route and found a similar starting salary and had I sold my soul to app dev (and the type of shop that hires only university grads) I would be looking at around 90K or so starting salary. 5 years on we are both making 115KCAD or so.
If I look at my alma maters’ coop statistics, I can see that even first year coop positions are going for an average of 20CAD/hr (so equivalent to ~40K a year) (and those numbers tend be skewed down since they include general math degrees, which have less market value).
So Either a lot has changed in the last 5 years (Job market seems to have cooled off a fair amount, but judging by my linkedin tech jobs are still very much in demand), you are talking about a tech job that doesn’t require a university degree, or their are extenuating circumstances that are making you less desirable. If it is the third there are generally quite a lot you can do to mitigate that, biggest among them being to build your portfolio (protip, small finished and/or published projects are much more impressive than large half done ones).
Without doxxing myself or giving away too much info, I am in UX and business analysis. I’m not coding (sometimes but sparingly). Maybe that’s where I’m going wrong.
My field is basically the bridge between devs and the client. Need enough technical knowledge to come up with software features to implement and enough people/business/process knowledge to make it work and temper expectations with all parties.
Feels like I should have just specialized in one thing instead of combining as that’s where all the money is.
Ah, I think most of this thread is using STEM and “Tech” a bit too interchangeably unfortunately. This makes a lot more sense I think unfortunately.
I think your career seems very skewed towards experience unfortunately, those sorts of dev/client relations positions can be extremely well paying but only late in your career. You might find it easier to start if you try the Project Manager route and then side grade into the analyst role you want. I’m no expert here, but I think there are some PM certs you can get to get over the no experience hump there.
Keep your chin up and good luck!
I’d argue I work in tech as my role is very technical and deals with agile software development. I run scrums with developers and meet with non-tech savvy clients to translate their demands into actual workable software features (along with the overall experience and UI elements+testing).
Not really a PM role as my strengths are more technical than people/project managing. Thanks for the kind words!