I've worked for 7 years and I quitted my company in Japan. I plan to enter a company at Vancouver or Seattle. I have some questions. Would you give answers to my questions? (Q1)How much is the average salary of a programmer after taxes in Canada or United States? I was surprised at the following article. http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/416/the_game_industry_salary_survey_.php?page=2 This salary is much higher than that one in Japan. Are the taxes heavier? Incidentally, my salary is $61,000 a year, but I got only $43,000 after taxes. (Q2)What is the difference about the development workflow between United States and Canada? Vancouver is close to Seattle. Is the workflow similar? (Q3)How is the living conditions(i.e. rent, vacation and working hours) for developer?

Quote: Original post by osakimiu

(Q1)How much is the average salary of a programmer after taxes in Canada or United States?

(Q2)What is the difference about the development workflow between United States and Canada?


(Q3)How is the living conditions(i.e. rent, vacation and working hours) for developer?

(Q1) Depends on your experience and the company. Do research.

(Q2) Do more research. I don't think there will be many differences since the countries are similar.

(Q3) It depends on where you live and who you work for. After you drop dead from researching have someone apply CPR and then do more research.

Konnichiwa, "Osakimiu," you wrote:

(Q1)How much is the average salary of a programmer after taxes in Canada or United States?

The Salary Survey tells you the average salary. I can't tell you about Canadian taxes, but in the U.S. a salary of $61K would be taxed $11.7K - so I guess the tax is a little lower here than in Japan.

(Q2)What is the difference about the development workflow between United States and Canada?

No difference between those two. But VERY different from Japan. We use detailed game design documents here.

(Q3)How is the living conditions(i.e. rent, vacation and working hours) for developer?

Rent - better than Japan.
Working hours - the same as Japan, maybe slightly lower.
Vacation - less than Japan. (US - I don't know about Canada.)

Thank you for your answer, LmT.

> (Q1) Depends on your experience and the company. Do research.

I've searched GAMASUTRA Job center. Many companies don't write about a salary. Some companies show a salary but cheaper than the one of the above articles. I'd like to know actually conditions about each developer.


> (Q2) Do more research. I don't think there will be many differences since the countries are similar.

It is benefitable.

> (Q3) It depends on where you live and who you work for. After you drop dead from researching have someone apply CPR and then do more research.

Thank you for your advice!

Quote: Original post by osakimiu
Thank you for your answer, LmT.

> (Q1) Depends on your experience and the company. Do research.

I've searched GAMASUTRA Job center. Many companies don't write about a salary. Some companies show a salary but cheaper than the one of the above articles. I'd like to know actually conditions about each developer.

There is an annual game salary survey that they publish.
Search Google for different years, such as "game salary survey 2007" and "game salary survey 2006", back to 2004 or so.

There is the free information that they publish, along with a very detailed report that they sell but has stuff you don't need.



None of the questions have a simple answer.

The development style between Japan and North America are quite different. I've never worked in Japan but have worked closely with several people who came from there. The biggest difference in my opinion is the different focuses on schedule, quality, and feature content.

Quality of life is different at every company, as I'm sure it is in Japan.

Working hours and work conditions are different everywhere. Every city has a slightly different cost of living, and you can choose to live on the expensive side or cheap side. Every company has a different culture that sets the tone. Every company is different, with different management styles, pay schedules, and . Every project is different, with their own demands, problems, and successes. Every team is different, with their own personality styles and morale.

As with any job, you need to carefully research the individual studio. Beware of generalizations about megacorps. Within a large company (Electronic Arts, Microsoft Game Studios, Activision, THQ, etc.) each individual studio is very different from each other. For those, be especially careful that you find out actual facts about the recent behavior of the specific studio, not general horror stories you find online.

Konnichiwa, Tom!

Thank you for your advice!

>(Q1)How much is the average salary of a programmer after taxes in Canada or >United States?
>
>The Salary Survey tells you the average salary. I can't tell you about >Canadian taxes, but in the U.S. a salary of $61K would be taxed $11.7K - so I >guess the tax is a little lower here than in Japan.

It is concrete example! The U.S. tax is nearly equal to Japan.



>(Q2)What is the difference about the development workflow between United >States and Canada?
>
>No difference between those two. But VERY different from Japan. We use >detailed game design documents here.

It is an useful information. In some projects, we didn't make game design documents. Each programmer decided game design freely.



>(Q3)How is the living conditions(i.e. rent, vacation and working hours) for >developer?
>
>Rent - better than Japan.
>Working hours - the same as Japan, maybe slightly lower.
>Vacation - less than Japan. (US - I don't know about Canada.)

Developers are busy in the world.

Hello, Frob!

> There is an annual game salary survey that they publish.
Search Google for different years, such as "game salary survey 2007" and "game salary survey 2006", back to 2004 or so.
There is the free information that they publish, along with a very detailed report that they sell but has stuff you don't need.

I can get other annual report. Thank you.


> The development style between Japan and North America are quite different. I've never worked in Japan but have worked closely with several people who came from there. The biggest difference in my opinion is the different focuses on schedule, quality, and feature content.

I think many companies don't manage schedule and quality in Japan.
In a past project, we didn't know deadline because the deadline was the day when the director was satisfied. The development costs were more and more expensive!


> Quality of life is different at every company, as I'm sure it is in Japan.
> Every city has a slightly different cost of living, and you can choose to live on the expensive side or cheap side.

In Japan, most game companies gether around Tokyo or Osaka in Japan, then quatlity of life is same and I can't choose on cheaper side.


> Every company is different, with different management styles, pay schedules, and
I misunderstood. I guessed that most game developers were exempt employee in North America.


> Every project is different, with their own demands, problems, and successes. Every team is different, with their own personality styles and morale.

I will ask these things when I will be interviewed.


> As with any job, you need to carefully research the individual studio. Beware of generalizations about megacorps. Within a large company (Electronic Arts, Microsoft Game Studios, Activision, THQ, etc.) each individual studio is very different from each other. For those, be especially careful that you find out actual facts about the recent behavior of the specific studio, not general horror stories you find online.

I was surprised at "ea_spouse"! Because the same incident occurred in my company (but we got little salary by prescription.)
A few people who worked in E.A. Canada said that working conditions on E.A. are better than my company.
At any rate, I will do more research.


Thank you for your very useful advice!