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A good software engineer in SF with ~5 years experience takes home more than 3 years of top tier French pay in 1 year, so 3 years of parental leave doesn't soun
by mgraczyk 4y ago
A good software engineer in SF with ~5 years experience takes home more than 3 years of top tier French pay in 1 year, so 3 years of parental leave doesn't sound so good to me.
- YZF 4y agoIt's really not as simple as that. For example, typically an employer is not allowed to fire you/let you go for going on parental leave. This hypothetical SF engineer is unlikely to get his old job back after 3 years. What are e.g. your health insurance and rental costs in SF during the 3 years you're off? In many countries all workers have certain benefits by law, this affects the society as a whole so you get benefits from that. Even if this specific engineer is better off, which isn't that clear, they're still impacted by society as a whole.
- mgraczyk 4y agoIt's pretty easy to get a job as a software engineer in SF. If you're above median you can easily get 5 offers in a few weeks. The costs are irrelevant, you can move anywhere for those three years.
- GekkePrutser 4y agoThe costs are not really irrelevant, you'd still want to be in a place you'd like to live, right?
- mgraczyk 4y agoI mean that the cost of living in SF isn't relevant because you can move. I'm claiming that if you're top ~25% software engineer with 5+ years of experience, you're much better off working for one year in SF, then moving to France for 3 years vs moving to France and working with 3 years parental leave. You'll have way more money at the end of 4 years if you spend a year in SF.
- ben_w 4y agoI very briefly looked at SF, and decided that if I were to work there, I would want to commute via Cessna. Because at first glance, SF rents are so bad that learning to fly and owning a small aircraft isn't immediately obviously the more expensive option, like it would be in Europe.
- mgraczyk 4y agoI walk to work and buying a new car every year + gas + insurance + parking would be less than 10% of my income, whereas I would need to save for years to buy a plane and couldn't possibly afford the upkeep and storage here. So seems like a pretty silly comparison.
- hiptobecubic 4y ago"Just pack up your life and move to another zipcode if you want to have a baby" is such an SF answer it's almost a parody of itself.
- mgraczyk 4y agoI'm not suggesting anybody do that, I'm suggesting that people move to SF for work because the pay makes up for the perks you get elsewhere. Europeans software engineers are better off moving to SF, working for a year, then moving back. Many people do this, mostly for multiple years.
- triceratops 4y agoAt the top end, life in the US blows life in any other country out of the water. Outside that, you're better off in Western or Northern Europe, or Canada.
- UncleMeat 4y agoSure, if you work in the hottest and most pampered industry in the country and work in the most high paying region in the country you'll make a lot of money and end up rich. And America is great for the rich. Hard to employ the entire country as software engineers making 400k in SF.