Threads social network user Tetyana Mowatt, who moved from Ukraine to Canada 15 years ago, asked about job placement recommendations for her 22-year-old son, who has completed his studies in Computer Science. What do IT professionals advise?
Threads social network user Tetyana Mowatt, who moved from Ukraine to Canada 15 years ago, asked about job placement recommendations for her 22-year-old son, who has completed his studies in Computer Science. What do IT professionals advise?
According to Mowatt, her son was educated in Canada and is currently actively looking for a job. «Submitting resumes everywhere, silence. What’s happening in the job market? If there are any recommendations, I would be very grateful. His first language is English, but he also understands and speaks Ukrainian», — the woman wrote.
She added that her son is looking for a job as a developer and is not considering employment in the US. Tetyana Mowatt’s post received over 250 comments; many IT professionals noted that the market was «falling» and advised filling their resumes with pet projects.
«I’ll say this as an experienced developer. Just because he graduated from computer science, no one will hire him. Gone are the days when 'oh, you know how to hold a mouse in your hand — you’ve got a job.' Nowadays, to get into IT, you need to have a shitty portfolio, know shit, and be able to do no less», — noted a user with the nickname dobrynin.alex.
According to him, «no one will look at an empty resume,» so it is necessary to work on many pet projects that solve real problems.
«From my experience looking for a job in IT, this can mean a few things.
1) total inflexibility — I want to work only with this stack and nothing else, and they hire specialists with 5+ years of experience and interns are not needed as a class;
2) there is work, but not in your city, and you are too lazy to move;
3) problems with your resume — contact a consultant;
4) a very narrow specialty», — wrote a user with the nickname talaras.
«The labor market is in shit. Since 2022, there have been a lot of layoffs, if you just graduated from university/college, you have to storm intern positions, but they were still recruiting for this summer in the fall. There is a certain period of eligibility for interns. Otherwise, employers are not interested in ambition. Sometimes even experience is not very interesting — networking often makes the best decisions, you need to continue communicating with peers and someone will chime in that there is a job», — says user katya_horets.
«It’s hard in Canada: the company where I work has 60+ developers with low competence, which means the market is static. Plus, the French-speaking provinces are jealous of the English-speaking ones, implicitly, but it definitely exists. It’s no longer enough to simply learn the sequence of actions, as it was a couple of years ago, and declare yourself a developer. You need a train of thought: I’m an expert in AI, biology, open source, and so on», — user drjeston pointed out.
He advised looking for a job in Ukraine, where there is also great competition, but «it will still be easier to hire an individual entrepreneur from here without legal obstacles.»
«Your son in Canada, purely conditionally, will cost the employer $10,000 and he will still need to be mentored for a couple of years. For this money, you can outsource two Indians with experience. If you already need a specialist in Canada, it is easier to transfer a ready-made lead or architect with 15+ years of experience from Ukraine or India», — says user mix.elena.
According to her, IT specialists will earn well in Ukraine, India, and «similar locations,» but starting an IT career in the US or Canada is much more difficult.
Tetyana Mowatt thanked her for the advice, and noted that the 57,000 views of her post indicate that it’s not just her son who is looking for a job.
«My son has never asked me for help in finding a job, and why would he require a mother who knows nothing about it? But as a caring mother, I just wondered what the job market was like», — the woman wrote.
In her opinion, the discussion was useful for many young people aged 25-30 who are looking for work and who «need support like never before».
