Who are the best tech employers in Canada? LinkedIn has the answers

LinkedIn has released its annual list of the top 25 companies in Canada that people are eager to work for, and seven tech-related companies have made this year’s list.

Among the top 25 were Shopify Inc. (#8), Bell Canada (#11), Telus Corp. (#14), International Business Machines Corporation (#15), Amazon.com Inc. (#16), Salesforce.com Inc. (#17), Alphabet Inc. (#25).

The list was put together by analyzing the billions of actions that people take on LinkedIn, more specifically the engagement they make with companies on the platform (e.g. viewing a companies page, responding to a job opening, how long they have listed that company as an employer on their profile).

Laura Lorenzetti, editor for LinkedIn, said the trend she noticed among the tech companies who made the list was a focus on improving and diversifying the skills of its existing employees.

“One trend that we are seeing, especially among companies in the IT sector in Canada, is investment in upskilling talent. Companies are investing in learning programs skills training in order to future-proof their workforce for the jobs of the future,” said Lorenzetti. “These companies are investing in their employees and creating opportunities where professionals can thrive and that’s being noticed by job seekers.”

Shopify (#8)

Employees in Canada: unknown

Top locations in Canada: Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal

Positions needed: Engineering, Media and Communication, Information Technology

Skills needed: AngularJS, React.js, Machine Learning

What they are doing to attract employees: Shopify is trying to attract foreign talent through its Android Bootcamp, which teaches individuals with development experience how to build an Android App.

Bell (#11)

Employees in Canada: 51,700

Top locations in Canada: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa

Positions needed: Sales, Information Technology, Engineering

Skills needed: C++, Linux, Java

What they are doing to attract employees: Bell is trying to support the veterans of Canada through its “Hire a Veteran” program. This initiative has given veterans across Canada hiring priority and has led to over 250 veterans or spouses of veterans being hired since it launched in 2013.

Telus (#14)

Employees in Canada: 53,600

Top locations in Canada: Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal

Positions needed: Sales, Information Technology, Engineering

Skills needed: Digital Marketing, JavaScript, HTML

IBM (#15)

Employees in Canada: unknown

Top locations in Canada: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa

Positions needed: Engineering, Information Technology, Program and Project Management

Skills needed: C#, Python, MySQL

What they are doing to attract employees: IBM is trying to change the status quo that requires employees in top companies to have a bachelor’s degree. Dubbed “New Collar” jobs, it has resulted in over a third of IBM’s employees across the world not having four-year degrees.

Amazon (#16)

Employees in Canada: 10,000

Top locations in Canada: Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary

Positions needed: Operations, Engineering, Sales

Skills needed: Sales Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Satisfaction

What they are doing to attract employees: Recently Amazon announced it would be opening a new facility in Vancouver by 2022. This, along with the expansion of its current Vancouver office, is expected to bring in 3,000 new tech jobs.

Salesforce (#17)

Employees in Canada: 1,400

Top locations in Canada: Toronto, Fredericton, Montreal

Positions needed: Sales, Engineering, Business Development

Skills needed: Human Resources, Market Research, Cold Calling

What they are doing to attract employees: In an effort to expand its local workforce, office space, and data center capacity, it announced in 2018 that it will be investing $2 billion USD into its Canadian operations over the next five years.

Alphabet (#25)

Employees in Canada: unknown

Top locations in Canada: Toronto, Kitchener, Montreal

Positions needed: Engineering, Media and Communication, Sales

Skills needed: Troubleshooting, Data Structures, Matlab

What they are doing to attract employees: It opened its first Canadian cloud platform region in Montreal last year and has invested $4.5 million over the past three years in the Montreal Institute for Machine Learning at the Université de Montréal; signaling a desire to expand its operations into Canada while nurturing Canadian talent.