Is Quebec a good province for software developers and engineers? Is the economy fast growing and thriving?
Having lived in Quebec for 10+ years, I am admittedly biased when I answer the common question from friends and peer of "Is Quebec a good province for software developers and engineers? Is the economy fast growing and thriving?", but still I would like for everyone to first get a glimpse into Chateau Frontenac in Quebec (credit to Wikimedia for a beautiful shot!)
Quebec is the second-most populous province in Canada with 8.2M residents with the majority living and working in Montreal (3.8M), Quebec City (765K), Gatineau (314K), and Sherbrooke (201K). Montreal is the most bilingual city in Quebec and Canada with almost 60% of the population able to speak both English and French, so I would suggest focusing your efforts on the Montreal downtown core and some areas of Quebec City as there is a great probability that you will be able to manage with only English. However, it would be fun for you to at least learn conversational French, they would appreciate it and it would help you acclimate to the new environment faster.
Quebec as a province is excellent for software development roles, as of today there are over 170+ small to medium size businesses looking for software developers (Front-End Developers, Full-Stack Engineers, DevOps Engineer, UX Designer, iOS Developer) and willing to offer partial equity stake at Montreal Startup Jobs. Depending on your background and willingness to relocate to the outskirts of Montreal, there are hundreds of relevant roles in software engineering and similar computer science fields: 189 Software Development Jobs in Quebec, Canada and Software DeveloperHere are the top Montreal Employers to give you an idea of who is highly ranked:
Montréal's Top Employers (2016):
- Air Canada
- BDC / Business Development Bank of Canada
- Bell Canada
- Canadian National Railway Company / CN
- CM Labs Simulations, Inc.
- Concordia University
- CSL Group Inc.
- Dassault Systèmes Canada Inc.
- Ericsson Canada Inc.
- Fednav Limited
- Fresche Solutions Inc.
- Genetec Inc.
- Gildan Activewear Inc.
- Ivanhoé Cambridge Inc.
- Jewish General Hospital
- L'Oréal Canada Inc.
- Laurentian Bank of Canada
- Laurentide Controls Ltd.
- Lundbeck Canada Inc.
- McGill University
- Merck Canada Inc.
- Morgan Stanley Services Canada Corp.
- National Bank of Canada
- Nuance Communications Canada Inc.
- Richter LLP
- Sanofi Canada
- Shriners Hospitals for Children
- Transat A.T. Inc.
- Université de Montréal
- Vigilant Global
Also, aside from the usual channels of job postings (i.e. Indeed, Monster, HotJobs, Workopolis, LinkedIn, and AngelList above) I would suggest trying to contact recruiting and staffing agencies as they would be the ideal match making service for a new entrant into Quebec:
Good luck!