4 ms·

Still, I find the quality of life in Spain preferable. We have a government health system paid through taxes, no guns on the streets, not much pollution, amazin

Still, I find the quality of life in Spain preferable. We have a government health system paid through taxes, no guns on the streets, not much pollution, amazing public transport, 4 weeks holidays and good weather. I prefer having those things as a safety net instead of having to pay for them myself. I really love not needing a car here at all, I haven't driven in years. I was recently offered a job in silicon valley but despite the fact that I would make several times my current wage and the language would be better for me (I'm not a native here), I wouldn't consider it. Money isn't everything (and silicon valley is crazy expensive, it wouldn't amount to that much). It's about quality of life for me.

qaq 5y ago
I think you are really onto something truth is if you have 100K remote job in Spain you will hav better lifestyle than having 300K job in SV. If I only could convince my wife to move :(.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  I'm nowhere near 100K in Spain but I wouldn't make 300K in that job in SV either :) I think it would work out worse in SV though in terms of spending power. With the exception of tech toys which tend to be around the same price everywhere so relatively expensive in Spain. But I'd give up a lot. Being half a world away from family and also the other drawbacks I mentioned. No, I'm fine here.
  - qaq 5y ago
    I think with people getting more comfortable with remote teams getting a job for US entity from Spain should become easier.
    - GekkePrutser 5y ago
      It's possible, but there is the time difference thing, especially when it comes to the east coast. We have 6 hours to the east coast, 9 to the west coast. In Spain people like to start and finish late (having dinner at 9pm is normal!) but this difference is uncomfortably much. It's not really handy if you have to work US time, bring your kids to work, have a social life, etc. In my current job we're the "inbetweeners" between the India and US teams. We keep in touch with both because India and the US don't normally collaborate much due to an even worse timezone situation. Also, why would they bother paying US salaries to employees stationed in Spain? When I moved here from Ireland (also EU) my salary actually went down a bit :) And they already scaled me up a lot within my salary class, if I had come in here 'off the street' I would have made even less. Multinationals already have this scenario a lot and they pay local wages. People are willing to work here for local wages. And local conditions are mandatory here if you live here. Working for a US company and for US conditions while living here will not fly by EU law (the only exception is NGOs like the UN). So I don't think it will change too much to be honest. If anything it will provide more downward pressure on US salaries than upward pressure on the ones here.
  - TulliusCicero 5y ago
    > I'm nowhere near 100K in Spain but I wouldn't make 300K in that job in SV either :) I wouldn't discount yourself. A lot of people have this idea that becoming a senior engineer somewhere like Google must mean you're super elite, but as someone who's worked at Google for several years, I really don't think that's true. Google developers as a group are quite solid of course, but real 'rockstar' devs who just blow you away with their skill are a small minority even here.
eb0la 5y ago
Where do you live? If you have kids in Madrid it is almost mandatory to have a car. Imho the best place to live in Spain is in a 'capital de provicia': you have all the services the law mandates but it is not crowded.
- _abox 5y ago
  I live in Barcelona city but I have no kids. I often see whole school classes on the metro though, going on school trips. I think the metro is just fine for them. Also, walking everywhere is really feasible. I stopped using the metro for everything due to Corona. Though I picked it up again after getting the vaccine, I still retained the habit of walking. Barcelona is nice and compact, I can walk everywhere within an hour or so. Not sure about Madrid, I've only visited. If I had a car I wouldn't even know where to leave it to be honest. In my area there's no parking available except some highly expensive garages.

qaq 5y ago

I think you are really onto something truth is if you have 100K remote job in Spain you will hav better lifestyle than having 300K job in SV. If I only could convince my wife to move :(.

GekkePrutser 5y ago
I'm nowhere near 100K in Spain but I wouldn't make 300K in that job in SV either :) I think it would work out worse in SV though in terms of spending power. With the exception of tech toys which tend to be around the same price everywhere so relatively expensive in Spain. But I'd give up a lot. Being half a world away from family and also the other drawbacks I mentioned. No, I'm fine here.
- qaq 5y ago
  I think with people getting more comfortable with remote teams getting a job for US entity from Spain should become easier.
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    It's possible, but there is the time difference thing, especially when it comes to the east coast. We have 6 hours to the east coast, 9 to the west coast. In Spain people like to start and finish late (having dinner at 9pm is normal!) but this difference is uncomfortably much. It's not really handy if you have to work US time, bring your kids to work, have a social life, etc. In my current job we're the "inbetweeners" between the India and US teams. We keep in touch with both because India and the US don't normally collaborate much due to an even worse timezone situation. Also, why would they bother paying US salaries to employees stationed in Spain? When I moved here from Ireland (also EU) my salary actually went down a bit :) And they already scaled me up a lot within my salary class, if I had come in here 'off the street' I would have made even less. Multinationals already have this scenario a lot and they pay local wages. People are willing to work here for local wages. And local conditions are mandatory here if you live here. Working for a US company and for US conditions while living here will not fly by EU law (the only exception is NGOs like the UN). So I don't think it will change too much to be honest. If anything it will provide more downward pressure on US salaries than upward pressure on the ones here.
- TulliusCicero 5y ago
  > I'm nowhere near 100K in Spain but I wouldn't make 300K in that job in SV either :) I wouldn't discount yourself. A lot of people have this idea that becoming a senior engineer somewhere like Google must mean you're super elite, but as someone who's worked at Google for several years, I really don't think that's true. Google developers as a group are quite solid of course, but real 'rockstar' devs who just blow you away with their skill are a small minority even here.

eb0la 5y ago

Where do you live? If you have kids in Madrid it is almost mandatory to have a car. Imho the best place to live in Spain is in a 'capital de provicia': you have all the services the law mandates but it is not crowded.

_abox 5y ago
I live in Barcelona city but I have no kids. I often see whole school classes on the metro though, going on school trips. I think the metro is just fine for them. Also, walking everywhere is really feasible. I stopped using the metro for everything due to Corona. Though I picked it up again after getting the vaccine, I still retained the habit of walking. Barcelona is nice and compact, I can walk everywhere within an hour or so. Not sure about Madrid, I've only visited. If I had a car I wouldn't even know where to leave it to be honest. In my area there's no parking available except some highly expensive garages.