r/cscareerquestionsCAD

deciding between the two for an internship

RBC as ML 8 months low 30s/hr

or
IBM data scientist 12/16 months high 30s/hr

I have 8 months total internship experience at other companies (loblaw, CBRE). i have already graduated

Wondering if RBC is better for RO? while IBM carried more leverage for future job if I would want to go for faang.

My main concern is that I would need to unprofessionally renege rbc offer if I choose IBM, So trying to find a reason to choose rbc.

I thought I wanted to do DS but I've realized SWE is my calling lol. I've had 2 internships swe focused and now starting fall I'm starting a DS position with the department of national defence. Im scared that DS would make it way harder to get swe positions for Summer 2026 since DS will be most recent experience and it's also a public sector and outside of that the private companies I previously interned at arent recognizable.

I'm aiming for a recognizable private swe internship but the last 3 weeks with this realization and situation I've been worried and anxious so any insight would be greatly appreciated!

New grad in Canada. I have a full-time SWE offer from a small company in BC, but I still have a couple other interview processes ongoing.

The employment agreement says that if I resign I have to provide 4 weeks’ written notice.

If I sign the offer and then receive a significantly better offer before my start date, how risky is it to back out before ever actually starting?

Mainly wondering:

• Has anyone here reneged on a signed Canadian offer with a similar notice clause? Any actual legal/financial consequences, or did it basically just burn the bridge?
• Does the 4-week resignation clause normally matter if employment hasn’t started yet?
• Has anyone ever had the company they reneged on try to contact their new employer or otherwise cause issues with the new job?

This isn’t through a university/co-op program.

Hello lovelies I would really appreciate some advice I cannot make up my mind on what to do. I study CS in Canada and am going into my 4th year. My program has 3 co-op terms total, and I've completed the first two at the same place. I have an entire year of experience there as they also kept me on part time for a bit. I love the role, and it has totally shaped my passions for future careers. I'd love to work there in future, and my boss said she would do her best to try and get something sorted for me. She also told me she would be happy to have me back for my last co-op, but that it might benefit me more for the future to try a different experience and have a different employer.

So, I'm deciding whether I should stay or go into the job market and try something else. I have to tell employer shortly, so I cannot use this job as a back-up if I don't find anything (job market is scary). Was wondering if anyone had a similar situation and what would be recommended? staying somewhere I know I love but have already done a year at in same role, or taking the risk of finding something else for my last co-op?

I’m 21F in Canada and technically should be going into my 4th year, but because I transferred, had to repeat some courses and failed a few, I’m basically only going into second-year CS now. I’m pretty burnt out and it sucks feeling this far behind when I started uni at 18 and only completed first year (and two second year) courses all these years.

I’m thinking about switching to a BA/BCom in IT. A lot of my credits would transfer, and I’ve looked at the courses/material and feel like I’d have a much better chance of actually doing well and not falling behind again. I’ll also be properly medicated for ADHD going forward so hopefully that helps too.

The main thing keeping me in CS is honestly fear. I don’t really have a strong interest in SWE but I’m worried it’s just the burnout talking and it’ll get more interesting later. I also keep hearing that CS can do almost everything that IT majors can do and a lot more and that I should just suck it up and finish it. When I look at job postings, I also see “CS degree” in their qualifications everywhere, including for jobs that aren’t necessarily SWE.

I’m not even 100% sure what I want to do career-wise yet, I had engineering as my next main interest but it’s almost impossible to change into that right now due to my gpa. I just know I want decent job prospects and I’d like to get my GPA up in case I want to do grad school later.

Would I actually be screwing myself over by switching to IT, especially in Canada/ontario? Does CS vs IT matter that much for non-SWE jobs once you have experience? I’m scared of leaving CS and regretting it, but also scared of wasting more time forcing myself through a degree I’m already struggling with.

2024 Grad with a Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science.

While in school, I did internships and even a full-time 1-year apprenticeship with the federal government. Because of a hiring freeze and security clearance delays due to being a first-generation immigrant from a traditionally high-risk country, I lost out on a return offer with them in 2024-2025. As a result, I have been applying to basically anything and everything, but not getting any traction in the private sector. Because of all the old-fashioned tech we used in Government, my experience doesn't seem to be landing well with recruiters or hiring managers.

Haven't gotten a single interview from the private sector. Have made it to government interviews with my resume, but again, the security clearance issue makes it difficult for them to extend an offer. I currently do part-time SysAdmin work for a small medical practice, but I'm finding that the small scope of that practice might limit me.

This whole situation has made me quite depressed, and I'm worried that too big a gap without a full-time job after graduating will make me basically unemployable. Does anyone have any advice for me in this case?

I'm a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen and have been applying all over.

Canadian IT contractor, incorporated, been out of contract for three months.

Contract A: interviewed six weeks ago. After the interview I left a message on their HR line asking about the outcome. No reply at all. Then last Friday, out of nowhere, they call to say I'm selected. My guess is they went through other candidates first or someone backed out. Three months, fully onsite, at the low end of what I'd normally take.

I interviewed for this role 1.5 months ago. After the interview, I followed up with the HR contact but was completely ghosted. They suddenly reached out last Friday with an offer (I suspect their preferred candidates fell through). The agency pressured me heavily, saying the market is slow, they didn't want the client to interview more people, and I needed the income. Feeling cornered after a 3-month gap, I accepted. It starts this coming Monday. They also wouldn't put terms in writing until I said yes verbally. I accepted after about two days. Start date is Monday.

Contract B: different agency, much more professional the whole way through. Pays about 40% more per hour, six months to start with a real chance of extension, and it's hybrid instead of five days onsite. The end client is a household-name global company, so it carries far more weight on a resume than A does. Same domain as with Contract B, but the project scope is genuinely better and would build the experience I want more of. Final interview is done and they told me they'll confirm tomorrow whether I got it.

So tomorrow I might find out I'm holding a much better contract that starts after I've already committed to a worse one. Better rate, double the initial term, better brand, better work, and I get my commute back.

My Dilemma:

If Company B gives me the official offer tomorrow, should I take it and back out of Company A?

I feel bad about reneging, but the agency for Offer A forced me to accept within 48 hours and had previously ghosted me for over a month. The 40% per hr difference, hybrid flexibility, and longer contract length for Offer B are huge for me right now.

What is the best way to handle this without causing massive professional fallout? Has anyone been in a similar situation with an INC contract?

Not trying to screw anyone over. I just don't want to lose a much better six months because I was rushed into a two-day decision while unemployed.

I'm a software engineering major trying to decide between two paths. The first is staying at my current school and switching into computer engineering + AI. My school has basically no name recognition. The second is transferring to a school in the top 30 in the world overall, though it isn't strongly ranked in CS specifically, and doing CS+AI there.

Some background on me. Software has been boring me lately and my interest in embedded systems keeps growing. The roles I'm aiming for are software engineering, quant dev, and ML engineering. Worth saying up front: I don't actually want embedded or robotics roles. I see hardware as a foundation I'd never build on my own rather than a career path, which is part of why I'm second guessing the computer engineering option.

One thing specific to my current school is that the winter terms have session long team projects built into the curriculum. They're genuinely technical, which should be a plus. The catch is that the first one was extremely time consuming and ate into the time I'd set aside for internship hunting. AI tools also aren't permitted on these projects, so I worry the finished work ends up looking unimpressive by current standards.

I'm mostly interested in hearing different angles here so I can make the best decision I can. If you've been in a similar spot, or see something I'm not weighing properly, I'd appreciate the perspective.

Since banks are a major employer of CS people in Canada, which do you think is the best or worst to work at?

I’m a software developer in Montreal with almost 3 years of experience.

My first job post graduation was mostly Java at a consultancy. I worked with Vert.x and general backend/application logic, but it was an internal project, not really a production system with a meaningful user base. I didn’t get much real experience with databases, authentication, deployment, cloud infrastructure, production monitoring, etc. Then I got laid off afer the company couldn't place me on a project after clients were getting rare and only specifically request senior devs.

I then spent about a year unemployed and had a very difficult time getting another Java job. Eventually Lockheed Martin hired me. During my unemployment period that was also when I pursued and got the AWS Solutions Architect certification and have built Spring Boot/AWS projects myself for my portfolio, but I have never used those technologies professionally in production.

At Lockheed, I’ve worked with both Java and some C++. The work is legitimate software engineering, but it’s very simulation-specific. For example, we build frameworks/libraries containing the logic that controls simulated components, states, events, subcomponents, how different pieces interact with each other to reproduce the behavior of whatever system is being simulated, and interactions between different units. But this is not a server-side application that gets deployed and serves a user base; ultimately, it is part of an executable simulation program.

So I’m getting experience with Java/C++, OOP, design patterns, debugging, testing, large codebases, frameworks and complex domain logic.

What I am NOT getting is the experience I see in a huge percentage of Java jobs: Spring Boot, REST APIs, SQL/databases, authentication/authorization, Docker/Kubernetes, AWS, deployment, production servers, monitoring and supporting real users.

My concern is what happens if I stay in this type of Lockheed role for another 3–5 years. I could theoretically have 6–8 years of “software engineering experience” while still having little professional experience with the stack that most Java/backend employers seem to want.

For software engineers who have worked at Lockheed Martin or similar defense/simulation companies:

Did you ever feel boxed into defense/simulation software?

How transferable was your experience when you tried to leave?

Did employers value the fact that you had several years of professional Java/C++ experience even if the domain and stack were completely different?

Did you have to take a title/salary reduction to move into mainstream backend/cloud development?

Would you recommend staying in this type of role long term, or trying to pivot while still relatively early-career?

And specifically for Canadian developers: does having a Canadian security clearance materially improve the long-term career options enough to make defense specialization worthwhile?

I’m also trying to figure out how to close the gap while keeping my current job. Is there any realistic side hustle, freelance work, small B2B software service, contract work, open-source contribution, or other way to get real experience with Spring Boot, SQL, APIs, authentication, AWS, deployment and actual users?

I’m specifically not looking for another tutorial or portfolio project that sits unused on GitHub. I’ve already done that. Ideally, I’d like something where a real customer or business actually uses the software and possibly pays for it, so I can develop production skills while also generating some side income.

If you were in my position, what would you actually do over the next 1–2 years?

I’m not planning to quit without another job. I’m trying to decide what career direction to deliberately build while I still have a stable position.

*apologies if you already saw this in a different subreddit.*

Took a bit of courage and getting over embarrassment to write this. I graduated with a design degree few months agoand i have experience in 3D animation before that so I can do a couple of things like design, motion graphics, anything with cameras and etc. also learned basics of front end development in college.

But because of the way things are right now and because of how bleak and uncertain the future is, I've been thinking about pivoting to tech or any other field. something that I can self-learn for a year or a year and a half. not particularly fascinated about trades and also can't go to college in any realm of possibility due to being broke.

When I first thought of it, the first thing that came to my mind was to become a full-stack developer because we did learn a lot of front-end development in college even though the program was more design focused. But as I started researching, all I saw was how people who went to college and universities to become a full-stack developer were not finding any jobs. As with the case with many other tech fields. I found out that not a lot of people are hiring juniors in the current market. That killed any of my remaining hopes I had, because why would anybody hire a self-taught junior, while there are people who actually went to college for that?

So yeah, I feel like I hit the dead end again and don't know what to do. which way to go. how to approach this incomprehensible maze of life. And being a 25-year-old, I feel stupid because the world says that I have plenty of time, but somehow, I feel like I'm running out of it.

Hey guys!

I'm a Java Full Stack Dev with 7 years of experience and I'm getting very few interviews here and there, but nothing actually solid. I know that the market is currently shot everywhere, but never expected it to be this worse.

At times, I thought about switching careers even at the cost of doing professional courses/certifications, but companies need experience, so that brought me back to square one.

I'm seriously considering applying for IT admin/technician roles, but that would be a different domain, and given my experience I don't know whether I'll get considered for these kind of roles.

Advice?

I’m looking for some outside perspective on a potential career move.

I currently work in technology at a large financial institution in Canada. I’ve been there for several years and earn roughly $135K CAD base, plus a bonus, benefits and a retirement match.

The job is relatively stable, but I’m starting to feel stagnant. There has been more offshoring and restructuring, and I’m not sure staying longer will meaningfully improve my skills or earning potential.

I’m now interviewing for a fully remote identity and security engineering role at a private fintech company. The work sounds more modern and hands-on, and the remote setup is appealing. However, the company operates in a more volatile industry and has had layoffs (less than the financial institution though), 150 last year at prospective employer vs 2500 at current), so I assume the risk is higher than at my current employer.

I don’t have a final offer yet, but I’m trying to decide what compensation would make the move worthwhile. I’m thinking I would need at least $175K CAD base, plus bonus, equity and decent benefits.

The company also offers flexible or unlimited PTO rather than a fixed vacation allowance. I’m curious whether that is genuinely a benefit or whether employees often end up taking less time off.

For anyone who has moved from a large, established company to a private fintech or tech company:

• Did the increased compensation and career growth justify the reduced stability?
• How much of a pay increase would you require?
• Is flexible or unlimited PTO generally a benefit or a red flag?
• How much weight would you give to equity in a private company?
• Would you make this move while planning to apply for a mortgage within the next year?

I’m not desperate to leave, so staying where I am and continuing to interview is also an option.