Could you briefly describe your experience with the V.I.E Program in general? Pyx4’s first experience with the V.I.E program took place before the company decided to open a subsidiary in Canada. In 2017, Gabin, our first volunteer, crossed the Atlantic to explore new business opportunities in North America. One year later, we decided to open […]
Pyx4’s first experience with the V.I.E program took place before the company decided to open a subsidiary in Canada. In 2017, Gabin, our first volunteer, crossed the Atlantic to explore new business opportunities in North America. One year later, we decided to open a subsidiary in Montreal, Canada’s tech hub.
More volunteers joined the team afterwards, mostly to provide support to the sales and web development teams. Some even became part of the core team. With the borders now reopening, two new developers will fly to Canada this summer.
The quality of the candidates! So far, the company has only been recruiting high-quality profiles thanks to the program, both for sales and web development roles. French business schools provide excellent training programs, allowing our volunteers to be immediately effective in their roles.
Pyx4 V.I.E recruits usually have previous professional experience, which makes adapting to their new role particularly easy. Web development as a field also has a major advantage: the processes (technology and methodology) and coding languages are the same all over the world. This makes it easy for qualified tech candidates to move around as there is no culture gap.
Overall, the company hired 5 volunteers who have always been a perfect fit thanks to the program. For a small company, it can be tough to attract talents: compensation is higher, and positions are more visible in large corporations. If you are a small team, you can work on company culture and other advantages to retain talents, but it is not always enough.
In Montreal, depending on their experience junior engineers can expect their salary to be at least 20 or 25% higher than a V.I.E, but participating in this program provides candidates with an international experience that can hardly be compared with a domestic position. In this context, the V.I.E program is an affordable opportunity to boost the visibility of job postings and recruit qualified candidates, perfectly suiting the needs of a small structure in its international development. For me, it is about finding the perfect balance, by selecting locals with knowledge of the local market for senior profiles, and V.I.Es for junior roles.
The length of the assignment fits our company’s needs very well: 24-months helps us to retain talents. Whenever we post a job offer, there are about 10 times more candidates for sales profiles than tech profiles. In fact, in tech and development fields, there is a gap between supply and demand, which means that developers tend to change companies very frequently to get the best job offer. Montreal’s job market is particularly fluid. I once paid a recruiting company $20 000 to hire someone who stayed only 6 months- and this happened not once, but twice! Unfortunately, it is the same for everyone in Montreal. A V.I.E contract offers a guarantee that the recruit is not going to leave the company after only few months in the position.
The volunteers are very enthusiastic and dynamic which boosts our team’s motivation. They also bring their culture into the fold which, once mixed with the local culture, stimulates the team overall and triggers innovation.
Go for it! You will find talented, motivated young professionals who will bring their own culture, knowledge, and new ideas to the company.
For candidates seeking a V.I.E contract in Canada and looking to work in the tech field, Montreal is the place to be, especially in Artificial Intelligence. If on top of that you speak English quite well, the chances of finding a great opportunity are huge!
