college or master degree?
Q1: I have a cs bachelor degree in Taiwan, is it worth it to study cpa and learned again what I have learned in order to get a job in Toronto?
Q2: I heard that it is all about project. Is it worth to study 3yr cpa instead of 2yr cpp just for co-ops?
Q3: The reason why I don't want to choose master degree is that, I hope to communicate with people more and integrate myself into Canadian culture more, instead just studying and writing thesis, is my decision rasional or not?
please comment your opinion below thx!
7 Replies
Most of us are just starting out in the industry, so having co op experience helps a lot. If you already have experience in the field, idk if co op will be worth that much
A master's degree will always carry more weight than a college like Seneca, whether you have projects and coop or not, it's not even comparable tbh. I don't see why you won't be able to integrate when doing masters in a university. Academically speaking, If you do want an easy time, then go for college, otherwise university all day any day.
Q1: Probably not. And not because you will learn the same stuff again, but because it will not offer you a competitive advantage in the job market. Your CS bachelor is more valuable on your resume than any Seneca degree. CPA/CPP requires you invest time and money, and I believe it will offer you exactly zero benefit with regards to finding work.
Q2: I don't think so. Seneca co-op gives you a job board (similar to LinkedIn/Indeed), and most of the jobs on the Seneca job board can be found on LinkedIn/Indeed, meaning you will not see many exclusive job postings. It also will require an extra 8 months of your time and $500-1000 for the Seneca job board. Spend that time on your own projects instead. If you are looking to work in Toronto (and Canada/US in general), education is important, but it's the projects that will get you the job offers. A degree just gets you 10 seconds of attention, without projects you are just like the thousands of other applicants who have nothing to show aside from their education.
Q3: This is a reasonable decision. Keep in mind Canada is a country of immigrants, so there is no single "Canadian Culture", there are many different races/religions/cultures here. Seneca will certainly give you some exposure in that sense, but whether it's worth the time/money for that purpose is debatable. There are certainly more cost and time effective ways of achieving this goal.
The main reason for coming to a college like Seneca as an international student is because it's easy, therefore you can get the Post Graduation Work Permit without much effort. So while it's not worth it to study "to learn," it's worth it to study here "to get a job." Look up the LMIA, it's a requirement for companies to hire foreign workers, a majority of people have trouble finding a job here that can grant them a work permit.
However, you can first try searching for "software engineering LMIA jobs" on google and see if you can pass any interviews. If so, that would definitely be cheaper and faster than applying at Seneca. Your other option would be to apply to a company you already have history with (for example, if you worked at Amazon USA, they could easily help you transition to Amazon Canada).
Otherwise, it's a good tactic to apply here as a student so you can find work easily afterwards, I did the same. You don't need a masters in my opinion.
If you want the fastest way to come to canada and stay here, I would say just apply to seneca
Ummm, sorry but LMIA is not a real requirement for companies to hire international students with post grad work permit. It's definitely great to have, but most employers don't want to take those "extra" steps to get LMIA for their employees.
If you plan on getting a permanent residency, a full time permanent job in your field (NOC 0, 1 or 2) and 1 year exp will suffice.
Im talking about without PGWP though
Ahh I see, that makes sense