If you ask on HN, and given you're American, you could start by writing more correctly. Reading your "ask" is a bit annoying, it contains so many grammar mistakes. It shows that you did this quickly and without regard to your audience.
Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA
161–170 of 239 posts
Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA
#162Sidenote, if you or your mom, happen to be jewish.. You can get a free ticket to Israel, give you citizenship, the government will help you with housing and actually give you money, and hebrew lessons.. They also have a booming tech industry.. I lived there for a couple of years and while not exactly in mainland Europe, it is very European. I currently live in Mexico City and thats also a great non-Euro option !
I currently live in Guadalajara as a freelancer and I am thinking of moving to Mexico City next year if I can convince myself to pay the higher rent. Loved being there and there are areas similar to Brooklyn to give you an idea of what life is like there.
Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA
#163EU citizen currently living in the US here. Hugely recommended, if only for comparison purposes. From my own experience, English speaking countries are a must. If that's not an option, cities like Barcelona or Berlin should cover your bases for at least a year, but you won't survive for long without speaking Spanish or German. There are more things than work in life, and you'll soon get tired of only dealing with exp…
I strongly recommend learning German if living in Berlin, but I also know a bunch of Americans living there who get by fine on ten words of German for the grocery store, and the rest all happens in English.
I think that goes for _any_ country you move to. Yes, in many places you can get by just learning "please", "thank-you", and basic numbers.
But learning a language will let you fit in much more easily, and will make people more willing to help you.
(Recently moved from Scotland to Finland. Great country. Horrible language!)
Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA
#164EU citizen currently living in the US here. Hugely recommended, if only for comparison purposes. From my own experience, English speaking countries are a must. If that's not an option, cities like Barcelona or Berlin should cover your bases for at least a year, but you won't survive for long without speaking Spanish or German. There are more things than work in life, and you'll soon get tired of only dealing with exp…
>Scandinavian countries All or some of them? e.g. I've read on HN that there is a lot of software work in Sweden, but how about Norway, Finland and Denmark?
Finland used to host Nokia, and as a result of that there are a lot of local talent that are available easily and cheaply. Unless you have great talent, as a non-Finnish-speaker you'll struggle to compete with them.
That said there are startups here, and there are some niches that are thriving (e.g. gaming).
Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA
#165Man, you have a very vauable asset for a tech career - a US Citizenship. I am very envious of folks who have it. The tech career opportunities outside of US are really not that diverse and are heavily scattered across the world - i.e. maybe the rest of the world combined is as interesting tech-wide as US is - but with lower salary and language/immigration barriers (i.e. try job-hopping, over a span of say 5 years, fr…
I agreee with you. As a mexican with no college degree (I'm entirely self-taught), one of my 'career dreams' is to work at a company like Airbnb, Uber, Google, Facebook, etc, but the lack of work visa, or in this case, US citizenzhip, makes it IMPOSSIBLE for me unless I do some crazy stuff like getting an O-1 visa (extraordinary ability). I was offered a Product Design position at Medium but I couldn't move forward b…
Same here. Add the fact that I lived in the USA for most of my life undocumented. I now live in Mexico and doing OK.
Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA
#166Man, you have a very vauable asset for a tech career - a US Citizenship. I am very envious of folks who have it. The tech career opportunities outside of US are really not that diverse and are heavily scattered across the world - i.e. maybe the rest of the world combined is as interesting tech-wide as US is - but with lower salary and language/immigration barriers (i.e. try job-hopping, over a span of say 5 years, fr…
> Man, you have a very vauable asset for a tech career - a US Citizenship This isn't really that important at all. I don't really recognise this as a specific asset in any way. > The tech career opportunities outside of US are really not that diverse and are heavily scattered across the world That's an extremely biased and, in my opinion, incorrect view. Even if you just take the big tech capitals in Europe - London,…
Salaries are much lower.
Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA
#167I assume you want a career as a software engineer. This is my list: - Berlin: cheap (getting expensive quick, but still cheap for a large city), multicultural (many, many people from all around the world, lots of people speak English, those who don't usually understand you), Germans themselves are very open and interesting as a nation. Berlin has a vibrant startup scene, which is nice for getting your first job as a…
The UK is not friendly to non-EU individuals who want to come to work. Immigration laws have tightened significantly in the last 10 years, making it infeasible to move here without a sponsor and without enough money to buy your way in.
Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA
#168Find a job in your country of choice and get your visa - then move, about as simple as that. If you're looking at a job on the continent make sure you know the local language fluently (not English). It is said that its ok to know English alone but it really isn't. You'll come to the reason that most Europeans in the tech space opt for the US - the compensation factor in Europe is relatively poor.
Go first, then learn the language. It will be much easier to learn a language when you are in a country that uses it. Tell all your Anglophile friends and colleagues to speak the local language to you as much as possible and attend evening classes for immigrants (many of whom won't speak English). It's much faster and easier than learning it on your own. I say this from my experience learning Norwegian in Norway whic…
You can't easily go first because of the Visa issue, where you need the job first where you need the language first.
Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA
#169If you are a programmer/designer you can get a 3 year freelance visa in Berlin, Germany. I currently live in Berlin with that visa. Your standard of living in Europe will vary. Sure, some places offer free healthcare (not exactly free - see taxes), better public transportation, and decent quality food at lower tier supermarkets. That's all great. On the other hand, you'll likely take a huge hit in salary and pay high…
> I wasn't able to save nearly as much as I did in NYC Never having lived in the US, is the savings you are talking about in terms of percentage of your cost? i.e. if the only cost you have is rent and its 2800 vs 700, i would need to save at least 4 times as much to cover the difference.
Absolute numbers. I saved at least 4 times as much in NYC. Don't take this to mean much since I am one data point.
Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Scandinavian countries All or some of them? e.g. I've read on HN that there is a lot of software work in Sweden, but how about Norway, Finland and Denmark?
Finland used to host Nokia, and as a result of that there are a lot of local talent that are available easily and cheaply. Unless you have great talent, as a non-Finnish-speaker you'll struggle to compete with them. That said there are startups here, and there are some niches that are thriving (e.g. gaming).
Good to know, thanks.