Asking Toronto Tech Workers How Much They Really Make

What do you do for a living? I'm a software engineer at Shopify. How much do you make? >> between 120 and 140. And how long have you been a software engineer for? >> I have like about 2 years of experience. And what made you decide to become a software engineer? >> I just like enjoyed problem-solving, so then it kind of was like a career that matched with that. So, that's why I decided to go into it. What's a day in the life look like as a engineer at Shopify? >> My day consists of like some meetings. I'll have like certain deliverables that the team is trying to accomplish. And a lot of my day is like probably cloud code. So, yeah. >> That was my next question, which is how do you think AI has changed software engineering? >> I think like the main thing as a software engineer is try to be like really up-to-date with AI. Use AI as like a tool that makes you much more efficient. I think as long as you are using AI to the best of its abilities, you'll you'll be fine. >> What advice would you give for someone that wants to get into doing what you're doing? >> I think just start tinkering. There's a lot of like AI tools where you can like build like really cool stuff. So, you can see like the outcome of what you want to make like very quickly. So, I think like tinkering and prototyping is like really good thing to do. >> What do you do for a living? >> I'm a software engineer. >> How long have you been a software engineer? >> 5 years or so. >> How much do you make? >> Between 250 and 500. >> And what made you decide to pursue software engineering as a career? >> I love it. It was my passion since I was a kid. My parents also PhDs in mathematics and software. They didn't have to force me to do anything, but it was always something I enjoyed as a kid. I was okay at it. I was decent. So. >> So, it runs in the family. Yeah, it made sense. Did you study software engineering in school? >> Because I was a rebellious teenager, I decided not to do software just to like uh say [ __ ] you to my parents. >> [laughter] >> I did IV business at Western, and then I transitioned that into a software degree as well on the side. >> you got a more rounded skill set now. You understand the business and the technical side. The copium is real, but yes. What advice would you give to someone now with AI that wants to get into software engineering? >> It's a love of the game. With how startups are going, even with like big tech jobs like Google and Meta, you're working around the clock. And to stay on top of things, you're at home reading up articles. You're reading up like papers when you get interested in it. It's not saying that you have to do that, but often times I find success due to people who genuinely find themselves loving it. And I guess if you find the true interest in these kind of fields, it's what takes you really far. People can tell. >> What do you do for a living? >> I lead growth at NationCraft. We're a startup based in Toronto. We just raised our Series A. So, I do everything on the marketing side, but also on the content, and also building automations for go-to-market. >> do you make? >> I make between 130 and 160. What did you study? >> So, I studied economics and minored in computer science at McGill. >> That's amazing. How long have you been doing this for? >> About a year out of school. I used to be a VC investor at this fund in Canada, and so I just been in this role for around 4 months now. >> What made you transition from the VC to actually being in a startup, in the weeds, and doing growth? >> building is a lot more fun. And so, when you're an investor, you're kind of in this position where you're looking at a bunch of companies, but you don't really get to go hands-on. And so, I felt the itch to go and build for an important problem. >> How did you get your job? Did you do anything that was like out of the ordinary to stand out? >> think a lot of it is I kind of building my personal brand on Twitter and on LinkedIn. And so, I was very fortunate that I had an in. I knew someone that went to college with me at McGill. They actually made a role for me because, you know, initially I was going to go in and do operations, and then the founder was like, "Hey, you've been posting a lot. You've been doing events." And so, I hosted events in Montreal. They noticed that like I was doing events. They were like, "Come do events. Come do growth for us. Come build our brand." And so, that's what I'm doing at NationCraft. >> What advice would you give to someone that wants to get into startups and do what you're doing? >> I think just be curious. You know, I spent a lot of time, you know, reading about different startups, but most importantly understanding different roles. Like you can work as an engineer, you can work as a non-technical growth person. There's also a lot of roles in between. And so, I think the big misconception is thinking you just only have to be an engineer. What do you do for a living? >> I am a creator. What kind of creator? >> Tech and art videos. How much do you make? >> For my tech job, I was making around like a fortune mill per year, which is really good. As a creator, the income is variable. It depends on the season. I'm very selective with deals. I barely take any, so I could make a lot more. I'm pushing around half a mill this year. What made you decide to start making tech and art videos? >> I was in a club called Stanford XR. It's an AR/VR organization, and they wanted me to make a film for their hackathon, and I was so excited to do it, and I fell in love with video making. So, that's how it all started. >> And on the topic of brand deals, how do you go about it? Do you reach out to brands? Do they reach out to you? >> I get inbound mostly from brands. I don't reach out to brands. Do you think that's just because your content speaks for itself? >> Yeah, I think my content speaks for itself. When you reach out to a brand, you immediately lose leverage. Brands are always tapped in to creators that they want to work with. If you're one who's not already on the roster reaching out, you will not get a deal that is worth what you deserve. What advice would you give to someone that wants to be a creator? >> Really dial in to the things that you like. Because as a creator, you really need to think about personal brand and niche. And everyone has like either a niche or a bunch of like niches that they would enjoy creating about. And they also have a very specific personal brand, which is based on like the movies they like, you know, the games you like, the aesthetics that you're drawn to. Everyone has a very specific personal brand. So, just stay just tune in to like the things that you like and the things that interest you.