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Barcelona - one of the best all-around cities in the world (climate/culture/architecture/world proximity/quality of living/beach/mountains) and a growing tech s
by siquick 8y ago
Barcelona - one of the best all-around cities in the world (climate/culture/architecture/world proximity/quality of living/beach/mountains) and a growing tech scene.
Very easy to pick up development work here for a local company, you won't be required to know Spanish/Catalan for a job. The only downsides are that the pay is relatively low (€43k average for SE) and it can be quite difficult to find a place to live without local contacts.
Edit - on the intellectual front, I am the least qualified person in my friend group with a lowly Bachelors in Computer Science. Most people have a minimum of Masters with PHDs being pretty prevalent.
- cleansy 8y agoI second this. But definitely try to get a remote SE job there. The pay is laughable compared to for example Berlin. Which is also a great city to work and live in.
- p2detar 8y agoNot sure if it is much of an English-speaking friendly place, though. After visiting Barcelona and Valencia, I definitely think that without learning Spanish one can hardly thrive in these cities.
- siquick 8y agoIf you move to a city and don't attempt to learn the local language then yes you won't get the full experience. But you can definitely get away with minimal Spanish here, being seen to be making an effort is more important than fluency.
- collyw 8y agoI have been here for ten years and managed up until the last year with English speaking jobs.
- cleansy 8y agoI have a different experience. It's easy to live there without speaking spanish. However, you should not move there if you don't want to learn it at all. In fact don't move outside any non-english speaking countries if you don't want to learn the local language. ;)
- bogdanu 8y agoI saw some jobs in Berlin that payed around 70K Eur. Assuming it's before taxes, it means that after taxes it's around 3.8k/month; a bit low if you ask me. I know pay is not the only factor, but heck, I make half in my home country, but the living costs are far lower (and I don't even pay rent).
- oblio 8y agoSalaries all over Europe are like that. Except for London (maybe) or Switzerland. Don't compare them to Silicon Valley or the US in general, you'll be disappointed.
- itsthejb 8y agoAre you comparing that salary to US salaries? Because the still relatively low cost of living in Berlin makes that anything but low
- krautsourced 8y ago70k is anything but low in Berlin. It is actually really, really high. For reference see here (monthly before tax) https://www.morgenpost.de/bin/bmo-213539703.jpg https://www.morgenpost.de/bin/bmo-213539703.jpg With that amount of money one could afford a very sweet place to live easily, and still have plenty of spending money for intellectual pursuits or whatever. Speaking English is no issue here, at least in the "hip" parts of town. Would I say it's the best place to live? Probably not (Switzerland would probably rank higher), but one could do a lot worse. And with a decent IT job it's easy living. Dirt cheap compared to Silicon Valley prices.
- stagas 8y agoBarcelona is an amazing city to live in but with the recent Airbnb market growing the rents have become way too expensive. You should expect around 1200 euro/month for small apartment for a single person.
- lrem 8y agoWhat about the recent independence trouble?
- HelloNurse 8y agoIt is only "trouble" if you are involved.
- iagovar 8y agoBarcelona doesn't fit at all. Housing is expensive in comparison to local wages, people in Spain is not confortable speaking english. TBH Barcelona doesn't match any of the criteria, he should be living in the US or a commonwealth country.
- sanedigital 8y agoIn the rest of Spain sure, but in Barcelona, in the tech & design communities, everyone speaks English. I just got back from a three day design festival in Madrid and all of the studios present from Barcelona spoke English perfectly.
- spectaclepiece 8y agoI lived in Barcelona for eight years and I would not say that my experience was that the intellectual atmosphere was very high. In my view excessive tourism and Catalan nationalism play a negative role on both the intellectual and cultural spheres.
- alt_f4 8y agoBarcelona is not one of the best all-around cities for sure. 1) climate -- not moderate, only good if you enjoy extremely hot summers 2) culture -- obscured by the tourism industry in the city. Pretty much all restaurants try to rip you off, public parks charge entry for certain areas, everything culture-related is aimed and priced for tourists. 3) architecture -- nice, but not really exceptional. buildings really tight together in the city center. 4) quality of living - very high cost of life, low local salaries 5) EXTREMELY dirty. Diesel car pollution makes the air toxic and unbearable. No walking culture, everyone drives everywhere (which makes sense, the air is toxic) I would not move there.
- function_seven 8y agoHow would you compare it to Madrid?
- the_clarence 8y agoMadrid is a thousand times better. You feel the spanish culture everywhere you go. You’re also not suffocating in Barcelona’s tourism.
- atoav 8y agoThe reason for Barcelona not having as much spanish culture might be that they are catalan..
- sanedigital 8y agoThere's no one "Spanish" culture. "Catalan" culture is just one of the many facets that make the "Spanish" culture as a whole. Barcelona isn't any more different from Madrid than Valencia, Sevilla, or Bilbao are. Basque, Valencian, and Andalusian culture are a just as "strong" and unique as Catalan.
- sonnyblarney 8y agoBarca has a specific kind of interesting architecture in places, but in others ... it's like ugly blocks of buildings from the 1960's. It's an odd town.
- antaviana 8y agoOne clarification: Gross salaries in Spain are not as gross as in other countries. For example, a salary advertised as EUR 45K in Spain does not include taxes and benefits (mostly unemployment insurance and medical) paid by the company. So a SE with a gross salary of EUR45K directly costs the company employing here some EUR60K (i.e. some USD70). The employee full cost to the company is never konwn to the employee (some 30% is somewhat hidden), unlike in other countries such as France. I guess it helps government to appear they do more with less taxes seen by their voters. There are other indirect benefits, such as layoff benefits. If a Spanish company fires you without cause, it is liable to pay you 33 days per year worked. I'm mentioning because comparing gross salaries in different countries, is a bit like comparing apples to samsungs.
- village-idiot 8y agoA month per year worked is awesome, but that seems insanely expensive. How can anyone afford to hire anyone with that risk?
- antaviana 8y agoBy offering a smaller nominal gross salaries than in “wild west” countries.
- village-idiot 8y agoAh, that makes sense. A conscious choice to trade high salaries for high security, I assume?
- antaviana 8y agoA more paternalistic approach by the state. It adds more protection by law for the population less likely to purchase such protection out of their pocket. It’s probably less efficient but less ruthless for those who do not know any better and could easily become homeless shortly after losing a job.
- 8y ago
- jpkeisala 8y agoI cannot think better place in Europe than Barcelona to live. I used to live there for 5 years. Now I am living in Copenhagen. In Barcelona weather is perfect, great food and culture. Good connections everywhere. Cosmopolitan. However, recent nationalism movement on the region puts toll on all this.
- baby 8y agoBarcelona is the worst place you can go to in Spain, it's just filled with tourism and lacks culture and identity. Go to Madrid.
- gcj 8y agoBarcelona is very expensive, though