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Ask HN: living and working in US

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Re: Ask HN: living and working in US

#71

Post by gcp »

davidw wrote: post #67
gcp wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% of European couples probably also want to be around the child's grandparents, ensure the child learns their own language, and so on. We're both arguing without hard data here, but I'll just give an outright "nope" to the above.

These rankings are a bit dubious, but in this one, for instance, the US does not do great, but does do better than Belgium, where the poster wants to move away from: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27314075 I want my own kids to have a good education, and would feel comfortable moving back to the US from that point of view. My biggest doubt from that point of view is that I want them to be bilingual in Italian and E…

I was arguing against the "grandparents and language" argument, not the general education argument. It's easy to argue against because I'm a counterexample myself. (...and my Italian still sucks after 30 years)

Re: Ask HN: living and working in US

#72

Post by TheSmoke »

Some random thoughts:

- The most important thing for me: EU states are social states and US is not.

- You are not going to get a free health insurance or cheap but quality education for your daughter like in Europe. (Not saying she won't get quality education, just saying it won't be cheap as we are used to in Europe.)

- US is not a developer's paradise but it's a paradise of possibilities and opportunities.

- http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/CA/house,condo,mobile,l... In that link there is a list of houses with a garden that you can buy to give you the idea. For the places that you would think you could afford, there is a possibility of living without a job. (Find remote work and it all works out?) But I think they are better houses than houses in most of the Europe.

- You can think of Austin, Boston or Chicago instead of California cities.

- Wait, there's another possibility: You can move to Berlin, Vienna, Istanbul, Mugla, Izmir or Aydin. You'd work remotely most of the time except for Istanbul, Berlin and Vienna.

- Food in Europe is a lot better than in the US and by food I mean real food, not the cereals, cookies or things they eat thinking they're having breakfast. :) (At least in SF)

- I tend to think that startups are not for people that are married and with children. They are demanding and consuming. Unless it's your own because only then it'd be worth to your efforts and time. We all know that.

Wish you all the luck for whatever you decide and let me tell you one more thing. You should absolutely be grateful for the wife of yours. Mine is not moving a centimetre..

Re: Ask HN: living and working in US

#73

Post by KhalPanda »

DrJokepu wrote: post #31
neverminder wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an EU citizen as well and I have to agree with you, aside from all you've mentioned plus winning a green card - moving to US is anything but trivial.

The Diversity Visa Lottery will be likely repealed in the near future by the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 so that won't be an option for very long.

Plus, the United Kingdom aren't eligible for the lottery anyway. So I guess it depends where OP is from.

Re: Ask HN: living and working in US

#74

Post by gcp »

levosmetalo wrote: post #43
mpcadosch wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to the US for an extended vacation (month or so), interview with as many companies as you can, and find one that will sponsor an H1-B visa. It'll be hard, but it's worth it.

And then wait 5 or more years until your wife is allowed to work there legally, pay obscene amounts of money for child daycare and schools, all while waiting for a green card.

This matches the experience of the people I know that emigrated :-/

Re: Ask HN: living and working in US

#75

Post by comrade1 »

davidw wrote: post #50
comrade1 wrote: post #40

For the sake of your child you should probably stay in Europe. The education system in the u.s. is terrible. 100% of my European friend couples have moved back to Europe as soon as they've gotten pregnant or gave birth in order to provide a better education for their children.

100% of European couples probably also want to be around the child's grandparents, ensure the child learns their own language, and so on. My wife would find it tough to leave Italy for this reason, for instance. Also, as a parent, I think you want to feel somewhere that feels like 'home' - or maybe that's just me. Without kids, I would feel pretty comfortable in a lot of places, but now that we have them, I think I w…

So I'm only talking about 3 couples. Education was one of the main factors for all 3. One of the couples didn't even move close to relatives - they moved to Switzerland even though one parent is Finnish and the other Spanish. They still may move to Finland but not to be by relatives but instead to be in the country with the best education system in the world - for now Switzerland is 'good enough'.

Their complaints about the u.s. - poor quality teachers, poor funding even in wealthy areas, and a generally poor culture/attitude toward learning. Their complaint/worry about Europe is making sure that their child gets into the University track of education which isn't guaranteed here.

Re: Ask HN: living and working in US

#76

Post by foobarian »

I'm lucky to work for a Boston shop where work/life balance is good relative to my perception of the average American software company, specifically, close to 40 hour work weeks, "death marches" strongly discouraged by upper management because they get how bad they are for turnover, 3 weeks vacation at start, then one more week after every 3 years.

One thing about vacations in US is that no matter how much time one gets on paper, I found the company cultures to look down on taking time off. It's almost like people are ashamed to take their vacation time.

Re: Ask HN: living and working in US

#77

Post by BSousa »

jacquesm wrote: post #28
BSousa wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

South of Portugal and Spain fit most if not all of that, except jobs. In Portugal there are some dev jobs in Faro (but then you have either a long commute or live in an apartment in the city and pay is quite low to be a one provider kind of family) and in Spain Malaga does have good dev jobs around (not sure about Java but iOS/Ruby can get a decent salary there) and there are some places around that fit the bill that…

The good bit for the OP is that he might be able to work remote, and spend local. That's the best of both worlds.

I agree that would be ideal, but having been through a kind of similar search myself recently, I didn't see many java remote jobs available (a lot of ruby ones), and getting one is hard (unless you are an outstanding well-known candidate, you are competing with the whole world for a remote job, and in most cases, you will get someone from eastern europe or phillipines that is as talented as you, but requiring half of what you require (living in Belgium or event Portugal or Spain).

Re: Ask HN: living and working in US

#79

Post by __xtrimsky »

26 yo that used to live in California, but lives in NY now.

You don't get sunshine everywhere in California.

I personally hated the weather in San Francisco, but a bit to the south (Mountain View) is already much nicer.

Now I'll go through your requirements:

40h workweek: Yes easy to find

5 weeks of holiday a year: That is almost impossible to find in my experience, except if you are willing to get 3 weeks out of your pocket. (meaning you are actually deducting your pay)

free/cheap health insurance: Find a company with health insurance, and then you should be able to have one for your family, and only pay an extra of 200 to 600$ / month (yes that is cheap in the US)

free/cheap education up to university level for our daughter: that's not possible, you will have to pay for college. I think you can get one cheaper if you live more than 6 months in that state, and then send your daughter to a state college. Here is an example of a university near me (starts at 4000$ / year):

http://www.stonybrook.edu/bursar/tuition/tuition-and-fee-rat...

Re: Ask HN: living and working in US

#80

Post by awjr »

I'm going to add something from the experience of being the kid that was dragged around Germany and the USA from the age of 3 to the age of 12 moving every 2 years.

Positives: - I was put into the german school system learning german almost like a 'native' and I still have it. (Massive positive) - Luckily I had 2 brothers. We'd move somewhere new, clump up as a gang, then slowly get to know people and get our own set of friends. - I still find it easy to make friends.

Negatives: - Become good friends with somebody, move on. - Making new friends all the time. - I found my memories of Germany 3-10 better than the USA (10-12) but in Germany we were thrown on to our bikes and rode off into the countryside for the day (we lived in villages). In the USA we were driven everywhere although we did have a pool (Florida). - When we finally came back to the UK I found it slightly odd. Culturally I'd missed out on a lot.

Schools were much of a muchness. Of note we were in public school and then quickly moved to private school in the USA (this was 1980).

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