How prestigious is a Shopify internship compared to US Tech?

[u/DaGrandmaster3]

Many students at UWaterloo get internships at Shopify and they typically go on to work at US big tech or other high tier tech ompanies like Uber, Ramp, Snowflake, and Airbnb.

In your honest opinion, how prestigious is a Shopify internship. I know ppl working there who are getting paid $46/hr for their internship (base plus stipend). For those who choose to convert to a full time position from their internship is pay much higher? Heard they dont pay as much as other tech companies but culture and wlb is so much better than any other company.

For those who did Shopify internships in 2025 or 2026, do you want to go back or do you plan on moving on? Just curious.

[u/Proper_Jeweler_9238]

everytime when I see a person worrying about prestige, I know he/she is from waterloo.

everytime when I see a person worrying about college tier, I know he/she is from India.

[u/Large-Translator-759 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, I agree with this a lot more now than I did when I was younger.

I used to care about prestige way more. I wanted the good company name, the title, the promotions, all the stuff that makes it look like your career is going somewhere. When you’re young, everyone around you is talking about career growth, comp, getting promoted, not getting stuck, making sure your resume looks better every couple of years. It gets in your head pretty easily.

.......then I lost someone close to me and it changed the way I looked at time...

After that, I started noticing how much of your life work can quietly take from you, especially when you’re chasing prestige. The “best” companies usually want a lot from you. Long hours, constant pressure, higher expectations, more politics, more competition, more meetings, more late messages, more stuff that somehow becomes urgent at 4:45 on a Friday.

And the super annoying part IME is that it follows you home. Even when you’re not working, you’re thinking about work. You’re checking Slack while eating dinner, looking at email on vacation, getting that Sunday afternoon feeling because you know Monday is coming. You might be making more money and moving up, but your brain is basically rented out all the time.

I think a lot of young people put up with that because prestige feels meaningful when you’re in your 20s. It feels good to say you work somewhere impressive. It feels good to get promoted. You feel like you’re winning. There’s also a lot of pressure to keep moving because if you stay somewhere too long or take an easier job, people make it sound like you’ve stopped trying....But after a while, you start seeing the tradeoff more clearly.

A job where you make decent money, like the people you work with, have a normal boss, and can log off without someone bothering you starts looking way better than it used to. Being able to go for dinner without checking your phone, take a trip without opening your laptop, or just have enough energy left after work to actually enjoy your evening becomes a pretty big deal.

There’s a reason so many people eventually end up wanting something calmer. A lot of people just realize that constantly climbing comes with a cost, and at some point that cost stops feeling worth it.

I also think some people spend years chasing achievement because they’re trying to prove something. Maybe to themselves, maybe to their parents, maybe because growing up they learned that being successful was how you got approval. That can keep you running for a long time. But once you stop needing your job to make you feel important, your priorities can change pretty fast.

Losing someone made that real for me. Companies move on. Your role gets filled. Your projects get handed to someone else. Everyone is sad for a bit, then work keeps going because that’s just how it works. Yourr actual life doesn’t work like that.

You don’t get another version of your parents at this age. You don’t get another version of your kids being little. You don’t get back all the random dinners, weekends, trips, birthdays, and boring normal days that you skipped because work was busy.

And work is always busy. There is always another project, another deadline, another quarter, another promotion cycle. These days I’d much rather have a decent salary, good coworkers, low stress, flexibility, and a boss who treats me like a normal person. I want to close my laptop and actually be done for the day.

Sorry ya'll for the really long post. Just seeing your comment really motivated me to post some of my perspective.

[u/Klutzy_Calendar676 → u/[deleted]]

This is a stupid take.

All things in life are like this. As you age, the things that matter to you change. That doesn’t mean that the things that mattered to you when you were young were stupid or wrong. I cared a lot about solving Rubiks Cubes when i was in middle school - like a LOT, was constantly practicing and watching YouTube videos. It seems silly now, but it was still worth it for me to build into who i am.

Worrying about prestige in your 20s and 30s is absolutely a valid concern, as it can set yourself up for the rest of your career. Landing a prestigious job right of university can literally mean a decade-early retirement, if not more. It should never be the ONLY thing that should matter, of course, but your reply to a genuine question is very condescending.

[u/nightly28 → u/[deleted]]

I mean, it really depends on what you’re prioritizing. Are you prioritizing better career opportunities and making more money? Then you should absolutely care about prestige, because unfortunately we live in a world where credentials and branding matter (and I’m saying that as someone who went to a no-name college and had to work my ass off to finally get a high salary).

You can definitely get great opportunities and make good money without caring about those things, but you’ll probably have to put in a lot more effort and have a bit more luck. Once you have a more recognizable name on your resume, it just becomes much easier to get interviews and access better paying opportunities.

But of course, people have different priorities and not everything is about work. If career opportunities and money aren’t that important to you, then I think it’s perfectly reasonable not to care much about prestige.

[u/nightly28 → u/Proper_Jeweler_9238]

I’ll ignore the subtle xenophobic comment and ask this instead: do you genuinely believe working at companies like Stripe doesn’t have future career benefits? And do you think studying at a top-tier university like Waterloo doesn’t open more opportunities when you’re starting your career?

And btw, I’m not from Waterloo. I went to a college that basically no one knows and I didn’t even study computer science. I’m also not from India. I’m Canadian.

But the first half of my career was entirely at no-name companies. Once I moved to a reputable company, the difference in getting interviews was pretty obvious. Things just became much easier. Unfortunately, branding is a thing.

EDIT: for y’all downvoting me, feel free if you like stereotyping people, but at least answer my questions…? lol

[u/Proper_Jeweler_9238 → u/nightly28]

No, it's not xenophobic. It's just a pattern I noticed. I have good friends from India and all of them, I mean literally all of them, use `tier` to describe the school ranking and always worry about it.

[u/nightly28 → u/Proper_Jeweler_9238]

I mean… that’s still stereotyping. Having Indian friends who use the word “tier” doesn’t really justify assuming someone is Indian because they care about university rankings. I’m Canadian and I know plenty of Canadians who care about university prestige.

But honestly, that’s beside the point. My question was whether you actually disagree that university and company reputation can affect career opportunities. You still haven’t answered that.

[u/nightly28 → u/[deleted]]

Read my comment again and spend your whole Saturday trying to find where I said classism doesn’t exist in India.

My point is that assuming OP is Indian just because they care about university/company prestige is a dumb stereotype. It’s like assuming someone on this subreddit is a man just because most of your friends in tech are men. It’s lazy thinking.

Classism absolutely exists in India. That still doesn’t make it reasonable to assume someone is Indian because they care about prestige. It’s absurd that I need to explain this to grown adults in 2026.

And none of this really addresses the original point, which is whether university and company reputation affect career opportunities. Do you think university/company reputation affect career opportunities?

[u/nightly28 → u/[deleted]]

Lmao ok, this one actually got me because I’m Black…… Did you seriously assume I was White just because I said I’m Canadian?

I was literally calling out a racial stereotype and you somehow responded by making another racial assumption. To avoid saying something else, I’ll just say that’s a fascinating behaviour.

[u/nightly28 → u/[deleted]]

What a pathetic deflection. This thread went from moronic to embarrassing.

[u/Klutzy_Calendar676 → u/nightly28]

It’s not even subtle. OPs post is a very basic question about company prestige. And the first thing you’re thinking of is a “pattern” you noticed amongst Indians?

I swear, the people on this subreddit think more about Indians than the prime minister of India does.

[u/Key_Fishing9578 → u/nightly28]

Upvote your comment. People say its branding but I think its more like "vetting". HR trusts UWaterloo vetting system more than some random unis. Downvote me too strangers if you fail to see that but it is a real thing. Again, not Indian, not from Waterloo.

[u/nightly28 → u/Key_Fishing9578]

Yeah. And honestly that kinda sucks because a lot of talented people don’t get considered simply because they didn’t have those opportunities early in their careers. But that’s how the world works and people seem to get mad when you point it out? I think some people really believe we live in a purely meritocratic society or something.

They’re shooting the messenger 🫡

[u/EntropyRX]

This is not Asia. No one can thinks in terms of “prestige”, if you do a job you get paid a lot and you like, you’re winning. No one is going to reward you for getting lower pay to do less impactful work just because you had a “name” that you associated with “prestige” in your head.
Also; tech industry is changing super fast, the innovative company today can easily be the loser tomorrow, by the time the name is associated with good work it may already be too late to join.

[u/nightly28 → u/EntropyRX]

Yeah, it’s not as bad as in Asia, but resume branding is definitely a thing. I don’t think the difference between already top-tier companies matters that much (and that seems to be what OP is over-optimizing for). But delivering at Stripe versus delivering at some no-name company definitely has an impact. Having a company like Stripe or Airbnb on your resume makes it easier to get doors open in the future.

[u/SurelyNotLikeThis → u/EntropyRX]

People 100% consider prestige.

Having a respected tech company on your resume sets you apart from the massive applicant pool. Someone who's currently working in a no name company is not going to get as many recruiters dms and pass as many resume screens as a tier 1 company employee.

You also get paid much more for doing the same work for the most part, and have much more driven and skilled colleagues and well established processes to learn from in prestigious companies. This is important for early career.

[u/EntropyRX → u/SurelyNotLikeThis]

You have it upside down. People want to be paid well and do interesting work. Companies who offer that tends to have a better reputation. You’re now flipping it the Asian way that is I look for reputation before I look for good pay and interesting work.

[u/SurelyNotLikeThis → u/EntropyRX]

Name a company that's considered prestigious without good pay

[u/engineer_in_TO → u/SurelyNotLikeThis]

Tesla lmao

[u/SurelyNotLikeThis → u/engineer_in_TO]

I don't think they hire SDEs in Canada

[u/EntropyRX → u/SurelyNotLikeThis]

Amazon, microsoft, Tesla….

[u/SurelyNotLikeThis → u/EntropyRX]

Amazon pay is fine. Microsoft not so much but it will still open doors to higher paying jobs better than a bank or some random no name.

[u/EntropyRX → u/SurelyNotLikeThis]

Amazon pays below other tech companies and has a TERRIBLE and toxic work culture and wlb.
Then of course, if you’re talking about the banks… LOL I said good pay and work you like, surely not the profile of a bloody Canadian bank IT org, they’re basically a sweatshop

[u/SurelyNotLikeThis → u/EntropyRX]

Amazon pays below other PRESTIGIOUS companies lol, when I worked there as an L4 I was bringing home close to 175k a year, which was honestly pretty good money for someone with little experience. WLB wasn't great, but I hear it's better than stripe and coin base.

Banks are s pretty good representation of a normal, average company in terms of pay and work.

[u/Klutzy_Calendar676 → u/EntropyRX]

Amazon pays 150k CAD for new grads, basically all cash since their stock is liquid. How is that not “good pay”

[u/procrastinatewhynot → u/EntropyRX]

I agree. I used to think that way before graduating from uni. Then I interned at multiple big tech firms. It’s really just a name on your cv. People were miserable doing on calls for critical stuff. You start to realize some things are just not for you. It’s not all about climbing a ladder up.

[u/nightly28 → u/procrastinatewhynot]

Maybe because you interned at multiple big tech companies you don’t realize how much of a career benefit it can be. I went from a no-name companies career to big tech and the difference in the opportunities available to me was night and day once I had a reputable company on my resume.

[u/Shitty_Shpee → u/EntropyRX]

Prestige only matters in one area and that’s landing future interviews on resume strength alone without referrals

[u/nightly28]

“compared to US tech” that’s a huge range of companies. What are the other options?

Also, I’d probably compare the teams you would work (if you know) because that also matters.

But in general, yes, Shopify has a good brand for your resume.

[u/DaGrandmaster3 → u/nightly28]

How about the likes of airbnb, uber, snowflake, stripe, ramp, bree, and hubspot? How about tesla?

[u/SurelyNotLikeThis → u/DaGrandmaster3]

I think Shopify is a tier below Uber, snowflake, stripe and Airbnb in terms of pay and prestige in Canada.

[u/Automatic_Act_5809 → u/DaGrandmaster3]

At that level its better to compare Shopify, Ramp, Databricks etc on the team, scope and what you ship than some vague prestige ranking. Ramp stands out more if you want a faster moving fintech environment and a team where you can have more impact on the product

[u/nightly28 → u/DaGrandmaster3]

I’d say they are somewhat around the same tier (except for Bree, I don’t know this one. And I think Hubspot is not very known compared to the others, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad place to work).

If these are the options, I’d probably prioritize based on the team/type of work you would do instead of prestige.

[u/SurelyNotLikeThis]

Ignore the folks who's telling you to ignore prestige. Company prestige is incredibly important especially for an internship. Try to get into the biggest name company you can, it's what will set you apart from your peers, much more than some random personal projects.

That being said I would say Shopify is good enough of a name. The pay for a fulltime employee in Canada isn't quite tier 1, but it's right below it. For an internship on your resume, that's a good enough name to open doors. I would compare it similarly to Amazon.

[u/nightly28 → u/SurelyNotLikeThis]

This 100%

[u/KhangarooFinance]

1. Any experience now is good
   
2. You can look at full time salaries on levels.fyi.
   
3. wlb is largely team/org dependent.

[u/CarelessObject1709]

I’m interning there rn and I would say it’s prestigious solely by the fact that everyone I work with is super smart and knowledgeable and innovative. It feels good to work with people like that bc it pushes you to be better everyday. Also new grad pay at Shopify(~140K) is very close to FAANG(~150K) from what I’ve seen AND it’s remote. And if you want to go into office you can, it’s super nice and there’s free food and drinks. I’ve been to some FAANG offices in Canada and it’s nothing compared to the Shopify office and there is no free food.

[u/Rumicon]

11 years experience in the industry. Everyone telling you prestige doesn’t matter is wrong. At all the companies I’ve worked for interns and new grads were chosen from uot or Waterloo as a rule with exceptions made occasionally. One of the exceptions was if the candidate had internships at companies that were considered to have good engineering culture.

Shopify is well respected in the industry but it’s a rung down from us tech in terms of prestige. It will get you interviews. It has a good reputation.

Shopify pay is lower than the top us tech companies. Culture and wlb have deteriorated. I would choose more money especially early in career.

[u/nightly28 → u/Rumicon]

Most people here telling OP “don’t care about prestige” are living in la-la land.

[u/ghost_slippers]

fwiw it's also a great company to learn at

[u/jcdan3]

You can dm me I'm a full swe here

[u/MLCosplay]

Comparable to decent US companies. Garbage leadership so might be a bad look for serious teams in the future but great if you want FAANG/unicorns in the future.

[u/Interesting_Beyond97]

😂😂😂😂😂 loo kids ong insufferable

[u/Barbecue-Ribs]

Its good. Not as good as some names like Google, but better than banks.

[u/DefiantStomach5720]

Your issue with Shopify shouldn't be because of prestige. Your issue with Shopify should be that they use a super niche programming language that no other tech company uses.

[u/asapbones0114]

How old are you?