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Have you considered working remotely for a US company? I know a guy making €7 or 8,000 per month, after tax, living in Paris. Best of both worlds: amazing quali
by charlesdm 10y ago
Have you considered working remotely for a US company? I know a guy making €7 or 8,000 per month, after tax, living in Paris. Best of both worlds: amazing quality of living, cheap cost of living + healthcare, lots of spending (or investing) money! Seems to be working well for him.
- jules 10y agoIs the cost of living in Paris less than a normal US city?
- fchollet 10y agoParis is much less expensive than the bay area, but more expensive than the average US city. In fact, it's barely less expensive than NYC, one of the most expensive US cities. Also, if you are working remotely you cannot command a bay area salary.
- gorkemyurt 10y agoSo you are saying NYC is much less expensive than Bay Area?
- fchollet 10y agoYes. Specifically, rents are much higher in SF/SV than in NYC. SF has even higher rent than Manhattan. Most of NYC (not Manhattan or Williamsburg) can be quite reasonable.
- feklar 10y agoDoes SF gave rent brokers you have to go through? Manhattan you have to pay first/last rent to a broker plus deposit you need around 8-$12k to sign any lease up front
- eshvk 10y agoI moved from SF to Manhattan and found the prices and the process of finding an apartment easier. Most of my San Francisco friends dare not move or move to Oakland. People move here in NYC all the time, paying roughly the same in rent accounting for yearly inflation related increases.
- cylinder 10y agoNo not really. Anywhere "reasonable" will have poor quality housing and 1hr commutes on the horrible subway system.
- api 10y agoYes, especially since car ownership is optional in NYC.
- ryanSrich 10y agoNYC is significantly cheaper than SF.
- AndyNemmity 10y agoYou can command a bay area salary. There are a lot of companies out there who cannot find skills because everyone is in the bay area, and want to work at the coolest company possible. There are a lot of uncool companies who need those same skills, and will pay to get them. Hell, they pay consultants far more to fly in and do the work if they can't find someone remotely.
- chii 10y agowould you be willing to name some of those companies who need and will pay for said skills? I think it's time programmers get away from the propaganda of the big 5 being cool, which artificially supresses the market imho.
- AndyNemmity 10y agoLook at any advertisement. That company needs skilled technical people. Naming companies just puts undue focus on them, when there are so many.
- lacion 10y agoi been remote for the last 6 years working on 2 different bay area companies. on both occasions i commanded a Bay Area salary. still do. remote from Spain.
- Gravityvi 10y agoHi, spanish dev here. Currently working in London and looking at options after Brexit referendum. How do you get paid by US companies if you don't live there? Do they hire you as freelancer? Do you have to open a USD bank account in Spain or do you need one in the USA and then transfer the money over to your spanish account? Thanks.
- g4k 10y agoNo.
- charlesdm 10y agoIn this case, not much. I was referring to Spain wrt the cost of living, my bad.
- vemv 10y agoThanks for the reminder! Of course from time to time I consider the possibility. There's no particular reason why I don't give it a shot, other than the global competition for US remote gigs. Probably it's easier when you specialise in a niche language - which I'm doing lately!
- agumonkey 10y agoIs he a very special kind of dev ? Why would an US company go to that length to hire someone.
- smsm42 10y agoI know a lot of US companies hiring remotely. Two reasons: 1) costs (you're not competing with Google and Facebook on salary, at least not directly) and somewhat related 2) bigger applicant pool. This is especially true if you're looking for specific skills - much easier to find somebody if you're looking at 10x market. For many developer positions, having a person in the office is not much better than having remote employee, and may be both more expensive. You don't really have to be "very special", just plain good, and there are a lot of good developers all over the globe.
- emilburzo 10y agoWhere does one find these companies? Almost all remote job posts that I find end with "(US only)" Example: https://hnjobs.emilburzo.com/#remote%20%22us%20only%22 https://hnjobs.emilburzo.com/#remote%20%22us%20only%22
- AndyNemmity 10y agoUsually people get the job while in the US, become well liked and needed, then move where ever they damn well please.
- rurban 10y agoOr have to move because of H1B which ends after 3 years, and it's pure luck to get an extension in time. That's how I ended back in Germany doing remote for US.
- smsm42 10y agoUnfortunately I can't give good advice as I know most of these people after they were hired, and didn't ask them how they were hired. I know there are companies doing that, and social networks are also very useful in it, otherwise there are companies like http://www.safeguardworld.com/ http://www.safeguardworld.com/ (just one I know, not a recommendation since I never worked with it, but I know some people who did and found good remote jobs) which usually help connecting employers and employees.
- muse900 10y agoI find that salary excessive tbh. I understand working remotely for a US company and get a US based salary, truth is that the companies that will do that are mostly startups and I don't think they have the funds for high end salaries. Except if you are a genius dev and they do need you and you go off and tell them that you want to work from home and live in another Country. I do think though you can get jobs that pay around 2000-3000 euros a month when working remotely, although you have to be very patient as it is some kind of contracting, I mean you won't exactly get all the employment rights you would get if you lived and worked at the country that the company is set.
- themartorana 10y ago2000-3000 Euro/month is incredibly low. Fresh devs around here go for $50k+ annually, and experience costs 6 figures easily (and I'm in Philadelphia, I'm not talking SF/NY numbers). Edit (pressed submit early): some companies use remote workers to reduce costs, but I wouldn't expect to pay such a low $36k max in Europe. Remote, if managed well, is just as good as in-house. You're not worth significantly less.
- yulaow 10y agoYou have to consider that here in a lot of sud-west EU states 3000e/month allow you to live VERY GOOD even in the main cities. Cost of life here is extremly low compared to that of SV.
- gleenn 10y agoI think that's very true, but it still seems a little crazy that you're doing the same work and getting paid 20-25% of a SV job.
- yulaow 10y agoIt depends also on how many hours do you work. Here is pretty common you never go over 38hours week, and if you have to you are compensated very well (1.5~2.5 x normal hour rate). For what I read (but probably there is a little bias in it) in SV there is a partially workcentered style of life when you have to work often >60h with a salaried contract (that, btw, here in EU they do not exist... you are paid with an explicit amount of hours per week in your contract). For example reading the book of Elon Musk it seems he asks constantly for 80/90h/w working also on the weekend. Consider also that. Oh and also you have not to pay anything for healtcare. Basically, as other have already said, if you manage to live in Italy-France-Spain-Portugal-Germany and you are capable to get a remote work for a company in US you will have a incredibly high level of life here.
- 13of40 10y agoSame here. I know at least 4 people who are making six figure (US) salaries working for a US company from Europe. All for the same company and it's kind of hard to get in, but still...
- radicality 10y agoWhat's the company if I may ask? Or at least the niche. Thanks!
- pyvpx 10y agohow did they come across these remote-friendly positions?
- tluyben2 10y agoMost of my friends find those hard to get; seems the way US guys do interviews is very unlike here.
- hibikir 10y agoAmazing remote jobs exist: I have one. The problem is to find a company that has those remote jobs AND will hire people they don't have a huge background on. I know a recruiter at a company like that that worked on a point system: Barring a recommendation, to pass his bar you had to have 5 years of experience in the industry for what he considered a major tech company, a degree from a top university, and a history of promotions during those years. So he is fine with hiring all over the world, as long as you had already worked at trendy Silicon Valley companies for a while (In practice, using them as a recruiting filter). So, for all intents and purposes, the only people passing that bar would be people that already had a great job. Someone with talent but without pedigree would not even get an interview.