Ranked third in terms of job growth in all of North America, Vancouver relies heavily on its tech industry for acclaim. Despite the testing times of Covid-19 the city managed to add around 12,900 jobs in the tech sector to ascertain a 21% growth in the 2019-2020 period. As per one of the new reports released by CBRE, amongst the 30 tech hubs surveyed, Vancouver stood out as one of the most robust and resilient tech markets in all of the United States and Canada combined.
Recent years have seen Vancouver being chosen for the setting up of new offices by some major tech conglomerates. Microsoft led the charge by establishing a brand new office. Following suit tech giants like Calabrio, Blackbird Interactive and Samsung have announced new offices to be opened shortly in Vancouver. Social media titan Facebook also has a downtown office on its cards. And Amazon is working towards its promise of creating 3000 new high-tech jobs by 2022. The new Digital Technology Supercluster is expected to join the tech sector which already boasts of names like Hootsuite and Slack. This firmly cements Vancouver’s name as one of the leading tech hubs around the globe.
These developments have laid bare one serious issue though. The lack of local tech talent has become painfully evident as the tech sector continues to grow by leaps and bounds. This has led to some serious interest in hiring tech specialists. But perhaps the most sought-after specialists in Vancouver today are UI (User Interface) or UX (User Experience) Designers.
Shaun Lemmer, a recruitment consultant/ partner at Benchmark Tech Recruitment echoes the same concern saying, “The UX space has definitely gained the most notable increase in demand over the last two or three years out of any skill set”.
Despite the British Columbia government’s pledge to invest $4.4 million with hopes of increasing the number of STEM graduates, experts foresee the talent crunch to only increase over time.
To battle this talent crunch there has been a rise in the number of UI/UX courses in Vancouver over the past few years. And as the tech companies are directly invested in these courses, with a number of their own employees taking up the courses, the quality of the courses is on par with some of the best that is available.
In conclusion, considering the kind of trajectory it is on, the demand for UI/UX designers is only going to rise in Vancouver over the coming years. Hence not only is Vancouver a good city for learning UI/UX design, but it is also one of the best cities to practice the same.
