Software Developer

What developers make

Job Bank's national median works out to about $100,000 a year. Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa pay most. Big US tech companies with Canadian offices pay well above this range.

First job

Co-op students often earn $20 to $30 an hour before they even graduate.

Senior and beyond

Stock options and bonuses can add a lot at larger companies. Total pay at Shopify, Amazon or Google Canada can pass $250,000.

What it costs to get there

University computer science (CS) degree (4 yrs)

$8,000 to $15,000 a year

College diploma (2 to 3 yrs)

$4,000 to $8,000 a year

Coding bootcamp (3 to 6 months)

$10,000 to $20,000 total

Self-taught

Nearly free, but harder to get hired

Roughly, all in

$1,000 to $60,000

Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel

The low end is a self taught route on free material with a few paid courses, which genuinely does get people hired but takes longer and needs a portfolio to prove it. The high end is a four year computer science degree at one of the pricier schools such as Waterloo, Toronto or the University of British Columbia. A two or three year college diploma sits in between at roughly 8,000 to 24,000 dollars, and a coding bootcamp is 10,000 to 20,000 dollars for three to six months. These are alternatives, not steps, so you pick one rather than paying for all of them.

Waterloo, Toronto and University of British Columbia (UBC) computer science programs charge more than the average degree.

Perks common in tech

• Remote or hybrid work

  More common here than in almost any other field.

• Stock options or RSUs (restricted stock units, company shares you receive over time)

  Standard at startups and large tech companies.

• Learning budgets and conferences

• Flexible hours

  Output matters more than clock time at most shops.

The most common path

There is no single required route, but this one gets the most interviews.

1. 1

   High school

   Grades 11 and 12

   Take every math you can. Advanced Functions and Calculus are required for most computer science (CS) degrees. Computer science courses help but are not required.

2. 2

   Computer science or software engineering degree

   4 to 5 years with co-op

   Four years. Choose a school with co-op: Waterloo, Toronto, UBC (University of British Columbia), McGill, Concordia and many others alternate study and paid work terms.

3. 3

   Internships and side projects

   During school

   Employers care more about what you have built than your grades. A GitHub with real projects matters.

4. 4

   First job

   Final year

   New grad hiring happens in the fall for the following summer. Apply early.

Other ways in

Plenty of working developers took none of the steps above.

• College diploma

  2 or 3 year programs at Seneca, BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology), SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), Algonquin and others. Very job-focused.

• Bootcamp

  Intense 12 to 24 weeks. Works best if you already have a degree in something else.

• Self-taught

  Possible, and common. Requires a strong portfolio and a lot of discipline.

• Math, physics or engineering degree

  Many developers came from adjacent fields.

Time and money, at a glance

Years after high school

1 to 4, depending on the route

Typical admission average (computer science degree)

85% to 95%

Licence or exam required

None

Paid while training?

Yes, on co-op terms

Not a regulated profession

Anyone can call themselves a software developer. The title software engineer is legally restricted in some provinces to licensed professional engineers, which is why many companies say developer instead. In practice nobody needs a licence to write code for a living.

Things that raise your pay

• Cloud certifications

  Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. A few hundred dollars each, well regarded.

• A specialty

  Machine learning, security, mobile and infrastructure roles pay above generalist rates.

• Open source contributions

  Public proof that you can work in a real codebase.

• Working for a US company remotely

  Some Canadian developers earn US salaries from home.

Nice-to-haves

• Hackathons

  Free, fun, and a good line on a first resume.

• A master's degree

  Only needed for research or machine learning roles.

• Public speaking or writing

  Blog posts and talks build a reputation faster than you would think.

A typical day

A short morning stand-up meeting with your team, then hours of focused work: writing code, reviewing other people's code, fixing bugs, and figuring out why something broke. Some meetings with designers or product managers. Most developers work on a small piece of a much larger system and rarely build something from scratch.

The honest trade-offs

Work life

Typical hours

37 to 40 a week, flexible

Remote work

Very common

Physical demand

Low

Unionized

Almost never

Similar paths

• Civil EngineerRoads, bridges, water and buildings. A four-year degree, then a licence that lets you sign the drawings.
• Graphic DesignerLogos, websites, packaging, apps. A portfolio matters more than a diploma.
• Accountant (CPA)The money behind every business. A degree, a national exam, and a designation that travels.

Waterloo is famous for a reason

The University of Waterloo sends more students to Silicon Valley internships than any school outside the United States. Its co-op program is the model everyone else copies.

Canada's tech giant

Shopify, headquartered in Ottawa, was for a time the most valuable company in Canada. It employs thousands of developers, almost all remote.

Most developers do not have a computer science degree

Surveys of working developers consistently find that only around half studied computer science. The rest came from other degrees, college programs, bootcamps or taught themselves.

AI changed the job, not the demand

Coding assistants now write a lot of routine code. Employers still hire developers, but they expect you to be good at understanding systems and reviewing what the tools produce.