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Ask HN: How much do developers earn in Europe?

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Re: Ask HN: How much do developers earn in Europe?

#51

Post by Mortiffer »

eoin_murphy wrote: post #24
iwangulenko wrote: post #23

Switzerland, Zurich is the only place in Europe where you can earn Bay Area salaries; I am a software engineer/tech recruiter hiring on behalf of a handful of Swiss companies. If you look for a job ( https://coderfit.com/openedjobs/ ), or know some engineeres who are, please reach out to me. You find my email in my HN-handle. (From an employee's perspective, Switzerland can be counted "as an EU country" since you can…

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but while salaries are high and taxes are relatively low, general living costs are quite high. Particularly if you have kids and so want a bigger house and good schools. I've looked at this and the benefits we get from staying in Germany outweigh the extra income earned.

Do your own cost of living estimate.

Last year my Junior Software Developer (with ETH Masters) balance sheet looked as follows :

Income:8650

Taxes :1640 (income, social etc. ) Food/Drink/Dates: 1560 HealthInsurrance : 346 Rent : 1640 (2 rooms 64sqm) downtown nice part of town Other : 400

So i end up saving 3k per month

But i don't have kids that would be >2.5k per kind for daycare.

Re: Ask HN: How much do developers earn in Europe?

#52

Post by eoin_murphy »

izacus wrote: post #29
eoin_murphy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but while salaries are high and taxes are relatively low, general living costs are quite high. Particularly if you have kids and so want a bigger house and good schools. I've looked at this and the benefits we get from staying in Germany outweigh the extra income earned.

The living costs are high, but still noticeably lower than the craziness of US tech hubs.

True, they're not that crazy, but when I looked at the higher salary Vs the higher costs it was financially better to stay put. Of course money isn't the only deciding factor but it's not the land of massive opportunity it's sometimes presented as.

That said, if you've got no dependents and you want to stay in mainland Europe, then it's probably a very good choice.

Re: Ask HN: How much do developers earn in Europe?

#54

Post by ciaoben »

Palmik wrote: post #9

Does not include Switzerland. Also, what about bonuses and stock (options) which often make sizable portion of income?

Added Switzerland, sorry!

About stock options, I don't want to make a chart of the best companies (who offer more, etc..), I am interested in becoming more aware of the salary situation in Europe, to understand how this profession is seen.

Re: Ask HN: How much do developers earn in Europe?

#55

Post by s3nnyy »

ThePawnBreak wrote: post #27
iwangulenko wrote: post #23

Switzerland, Zurich is the only place in Europe where you can earn Bay Area salaries; I am a software engineer/tech recruiter hiring on behalf of a handful of Swiss companies. If you look for a job ( https://coderfit.com/openedjobs/ ), or know some engineeres who are, please reach out to me. You find my email in my HN-handle. (From an employee's perspective, Switzerland can be counted "as an EU country" since you can…

I would disagree. Zurich does indeed pay very well, but it's very hard to get a job there, and salaries are only competitive with the Bay Area at lower levels. That means it's possible to find a job that pays 100k, but 300k compensation packages are far, far more rare than in the Bay Area. I don't know any company apart from Google that pays that much for senior engineers. I tried to get a job there about 8 months ag…

I am sorry that you had a bad experience interviewing in Zurich. A city with only 300k inhabitants can't be compared with Berlin, London, SF or NYC (all "huge" places).

The density of startups and tech firms, when accounted for the tiny size of Zurich, is still impressive, I think. I live here since three years and don't regeret it: "8 reasons why I moved to Switzerland to work in tech" https://medium.com/@iwaninzurich/eight-reasons-why-i-moved-t...

Re: Ask HN: How much do developers earn in Europe?

#56

Post by s3nnyy »

Mortiffer wrote: post #51
eoin_murphy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but while salaries are high and taxes are relatively low, general living costs are quite high. Particularly if you have kids and so want a bigger house and good schools. I've looked at this and the benefits we get from staying in Germany outweigh the extra income earned.

Do your own cost of living estimate. Last year my Junior Software Developer (with ETH Masters) balance sheet looked as follows : Income:8650 Taxes :1640 (income, social etc. ) Food/Drink/Dates: 1560 HealthInsurrance : 346 Rent : 1640 (2 rooms 64sqm) downtown nice part of town Other : 400 So i end up saving 3k per month But i don't have kids that would be >2.5k per kind for daycare.

If you try a bit, you can live for under 2000 CHF or for less than that: "Move to Switzerland, work in IT, live frugally and be free" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1oeSs67myA

You pay 2.5k only for a year or two, when the kids are 2-3 years old; after that it's free kindergarten again.

Re: Ask HN: How much do developers earn in Europe?

#57

Post by s3nnyy »

tiagopc wrote: post #31
iwangulenko wrote: post #23

Switzerland, Zurich is the only place in Europe where you can earn Bay Area salaries; I am a software engineer/tech recruiter hiring on behalf of a handful of Swiss companies. If you look for a job ( https://coderfit.com/openedjobs/ ), or know some engineeres who are, please reach out to me. You find my email in my HN-handle. (From an employee's perspective, Switzerland can be counted "as an EU country" since you can…

Hello, I just sent you an email.

It might take 2-3 days to get answer from me these days. Sorry.

Re: Ask HN: How much do developers earn in Europe?

#58

Post by eoin_murphy »

Mortiffer wrote: post #51
eoin_murphy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but while salaries are high and taxes are relatively low, general living costs are quite high. Particularly if you have kids and so want a bigger house and good schools. I've looked at this and the benefits we get from staying in Germany outweigh the extra income earned.

Do your own cost of living estimate. Last year my Junior Software Developer (with ETH Masters) balance sheet looked as follows : Income:8650 Taxes :1640 (income, social etc. ) Food/Drink/Dates: 1560 HealthInsurrance : 346 Rent : 1640 (2 rooms 64sqm) downtown nice part of town Other : 400 So i end up saving 3k per month But i don't have kids that would be >2.5k per kind for daycare.

Thanks for the real numbers. When I was looking the sort of salaries I was being quoted were in the 10000 per month range which is a lot more than what I'm currently on but would actually work out worse once costs are taken into account.

Re: Ask HN: How much do developers earn in Europe?

#60

Post by varjag »

thriftwy wrote: post #36
varjag wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Noone cares about landmass.

Most of Russia's population also in Europe. What do you care about then? Exceptionalism?

Most of Russian population insists they want nothing to do with Europe or European values - all of them. Does landmass outweighs their opinion for you?
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