How different is it to work for a big tech company in Europe compared to the US? Are FAANG jobs really that different compared to the rest of opportunities people have in Europe (in the same way that they are in the US)?
Ask HN: Is working for FAANG as big of a deal in Europe as it is in the US??
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Re: Ask HN: Is working for FAANG as big of a deal in Europe as it is in the US??
#2Just my opinion from the circles I hang around in, in terms of tech sector - not particularly a huge deal to work for a FAANG company, it’s mostly just like working for any another company.
Re: Ask HN: Is working for FAANG as big of a deal in Europe as it is in the US??
#3Working at a FAANG in northern Europe. I'm originally from Greece and can say that they're a very nice opportunity because they usually offer nice relocation packages and are looking for International candidates.
Also depending on the product, it is possible to move to US positions if you'd like, so there's that.
One of the best pros of working in a FAANG in Europe though is that for some countries, the companies inherit the culture. In my case, the country has an excellent work life balance culture. This has caused quite a few employees who moved to a US based product and then returned here, escaping the much worse working conditions in comparison. The only takeaway is that the compensation is much lower than the US, but this is largely due to the extremely higher taxes.
Re: Ask HN: Is working for FAANG as big of a deal in Europe as it is in the US??
#4I don't work at FAANG but from knowing the EU market from friends and public data on Twitter, salaries in (non-FAANG) US companies like Uber, Yelp, Datadog are mostly not achievable in other companies for individual contributors, due to stock grants and general huge pile of VC cash the US companies have.
Re: Ask HN: Is working for FAANG as big of a deal in Europe as it is in the US??
#5As a Polish guy, as I see it:
Majority of people just think of FAAMG as "giant companies", so working for them is always very good, but it's not the same level as e.g reddit's cs careers question where people seem to be insanely desperated to get there
I'm currently studying (and working full time), so I'm close with opinions of peole that are in 20-25 years old range that are relatively new to the industry (0-3 years of exp) and people very rarely talk about FAAMG or any serious attempts to get to them
When it comes to online communities, then there are people who work in US or in FAAMG-ish companies and there's way more (relatively to _normal_ programmers/computer people) talk about it, but there's also a lot of people who prefer e.g Zurich, London and similar cool places.
So, overall I don't think that it is BIG deal, it is for sure significant topic that's happening from time to time because BIG tech companies are associated with doing cool stuff instead of CRUD Apps, so people can peak there, but nothing crazy.
I'm personally interested because I'm bored with CRUDs and I'd want to try to compete (or just test myself) against good people during recruitment :)
Re: Ask HN: Is working for FAANG as big of a deal in Europe as it is in the US??
#6It’s only big deal in the USA because outside FAANG, technology really doesn’t pay that well. There are a few other companies, but your income is capped elsewhere
Re: Ask HN: Is working for FAANG as big of a deal in Europe as it is in the US??
#7It’s only big deal in the USA because outside FAANG, technology really doesn’t pay that well. There are a few other companies, but your income is capped elsewhere
You’re forgetting finance. There are plenty coders in finance making multiples over FAANG.
Re: Ask HN: Is working for FAANG as big of a deal in Europe as it is in the US??
#8It’s only big deal in the USA because outside FAANG, technology really doesn’t pay that well. There are a few other companies, but your income is capped elsewhere
You’re forgetting finance. There are plenty coders in finance making multiples over FAANG.
Yes this is true. But there aren’t that many of those jobs.
Re: Ask HN: Is working for FAANG as big of a deal in Europe as it is in the US??
#9It's mostly like working for any other large European business in my experience. Lots of the FAANG status in the US seems to come from the high wage premiums and the isolated SV culture which doesn't really exist in Europe where FAANG is just located where everyone else is.
Re: Ask HN: Is working for FAANG as big of a deal in Europe as it is in the US??
#10Our only FAANG here is the state, and yes, this was always a big deal. Low effort, protected job, high income.
We do have the same amount of tech cartels (and other cartels), but working for one is not a big deal here. Here managers do hate engineers, so it's not high profile. And managers working for a FAANG don't have the highest respect neither. They could as well try to get into politics.