Me not being an American and not being physically present in the USA complicates things.
My understanding is that, because the US visa situation is the way it is (due to historical reasons), unless I'm an extraordinary candidate (I'm not) I'm not going to get a callback from any of their US offices. So these days I don't even bother applying to their US offices.
Anyway, as long as it's FAANG, it doesn't matter too much to me where it's located at.
Some of those FAANG and similar companies have offices in India, but AFAIK their focus in India isn't as much on engineering as compared to their US offices (I could be wrong here). And besides, it's pretty hard to get into their Indian offices anyway.
The few callbacks and interviews that I did get from FAANG and similar companies were actually from their UK/European offices (and I messed them up).
Still, I'm not going to give up yet and would keep trying.
Do I need to have a Canadian job offer before I apply for PR?
Assuming that I don't have a job offer, and I end up getting a PR anyway, then do I just fly to Canada and hunt for jobs there? It scares me to just go to a country without a job offer in hand.
From what I understand, getting a PR becomes easier if I already have a job offer. And conversely, getting a job offer is easier if I'm a permanent resident. It's like a chicken and egg problem :)
Also, my mindset has been that, if I'm taking the trouble to move to a different country for a job, that job better be an excellent job. But I also understand that I can get into a less excellent job in the beginning, and then look for other awesome jobs.
(Also, I'm not implying that there's anything "less" about a less exciting job; all I meant is that I don't have to move to Canada (or anywhere else) if I'm just going to end up being a Laravel developer, which I currently am).
Lots of uncertainties.
Also, if one is toying with the idea of moving countries, what are some other places a person in my shoes should consider moving to?
Well, I already happen to have an MS from a US university. So, the next logical step would be a PhD.
And PhD is a whole another beast. It's a commitment that I'll have to think hard and carefully about.
I've considered the idea of doing PhD in Canada before, at the University of Toronto, or the University of Waterloo; not for PLT, but for networks which I was into back in the day. I'm not into networks as much anymore.
Is McGill University known for PLT? The other university I've considered is TU-Delft in the Netherlands, which does some things in the field of PLT.
However, it's been over 3 years since I graduated, and I'm not sure if I'd get glowing letters of recommendation from my prior schools at this point. To top it off, my master's degree focus was on OS, networks, and cybersecurity (the "systems" stuff). So, I'm definitely not going to get anybody to praise my abilities in PLT.
Me not being an American and not being physically present in the USA complicates things.
My understanding is that, because the US visa situation is the way it is (due to historical reasons), unless I'm an extraordinary candidate (I'm not) I'm not going to get a callback from any of their US offices. So these days I don't even bother applying to their US offices.
Anyway, as long as it's FAANG, it doesn't matter too much to me where it's located at.
Some of those FAANG and similar companies have offices in India, but AFAIK their focus in India isn't as much on engineering as compared to their US offices (I could be wrong here). And besides, it's pretty hard to get into their Indian offices anyway.
The few callbacks and interviews that I did get from FAANG and similar companies were actually from their UK/European offices (and I messed them up).
Still, I'm not going to give up yet and would keep trying.