I have two offers for data scientist positions at Shopify and at TD, and the details of each are below. Both positions are in Canada and the dollar values are in CAD. Help me decide between the two! For context, I have a PhD and have 3 YOE working as a quant at TD. I'm trying to balance considering the TC with future career growth and potential. Shopify - Data Scientist TC ~ $163k/yr [this includes $75k (USD) of RSU vested over 3 years. It's not clear what happens after 3 yrs] Pros: Innovative company with lots of growth potential, high growth of stock, fun culture, better perks/benefits, good WLB Cons: Starting at an entry-level position despite my YOE and education, work is less ML based (20-30%), team is less academic TD - Senior Data Scientist (Data Scientist II) TC ~ $148k/yr + a solid pension plan which is hard to value exactly, but I estimate is worth ~$10k-15k/yr Pros: More senior title, focused mainly on ML work which seems more stimulating, team is very academic (lots of other PhDs), good WLB, culture at TD is friendly Cons: Bank can be bureaucratic and slow to innovate, have to pay into some benefits (e.g. pension, stock matching plan) #shopify #td #datascientist #offer
Shopify 100%. I've heard good things about their WLB, so I don't think you need to worry about that too much.
Hmm. You at being underpaid. You can make 100k more. Did you try fang or places like Uber ?
This * 100 or Shopify
I think the salaries are just a lot lower in Canada tbh
Shopify. You will get more recruiters pinging on Linkedin for FAANG.
That’s a good point, thanks
Ex-physicist? I just graduated with my physics PhD in Canada. How was your transition to industry? Shopify for sure. Finance will have older tech stack, compliance could be limiting, and banks like to play things safe. Shopify will have more tech cred and possibility for TC increase and jump to other tech firms.
Yepp, ex-physicist indeed. The transition to industry was pretty smooth. It took a lot of applications (~a few months of applying) to get the first gig, but other than that it's been straightforward. Congrats on the PhD! Thanks for your advice. This is the sentiment I'm getting. The only counterargument I see is that at TD they are building more complex models, including some deep learning models, so the type of experience is very constructive. Otherwise I agree that Shopify is the better company to work for, in terms of operations, career growth, and perception.
Thanks! What is the scope of the DL modes at TD? Is it something they would use in production or for decision-making? I'm just not sure what the impact will be. My friend who is DS at Scotia said that they are typically very conservative. Did you transition to DS from PhD recently? Could you expand on your prep? I didn't do any ML in my PhD so I've decided to go down the SWE route, but DS is still a possibility and a natural choice. It would require learning ML, Bayesian stats, ML libraries (to a deep level too it seems, judging from what employers are expecting nowadays?!)
FULL DISCLOSURE I am at Shopify. But, you're only gonna realize that pension benefit if you are willing to work there for 10-15yrs. That isn't a reason not to do it, but it should inform your decision.
Facing similar choice, was wondering what offer you ended up accepting?
What team was this for at TD? Was it Layer 6? I’m also a risk quant in model validation, I was wondering how you made the transition to Shopify as a DS as it’s a transition I’m interested in making sometime this year or next. I think I’ll have the chance to take on an ML validation project this year so I’m hoping that will give me a resume boost. Thanks!
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Does quant at TD pay well? I don’t hear much about that space in Canada. Go with Shopify btw, better upward trajectory if you work at a tech company.
TD quant pays reasonably well. I'm in risk though so my pay (TC ~ $130k) isn't as high as what you would make in Front Office. Thanks for your advice!