Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 431 posts

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#261

Post by rjgray »

marssaxman wrote: post #243
RantyDave wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Houses in New Zealand are mad expensive. Auckland (for instance) now has an average house price over $1M, about $700k US. It is, I believe, the fourth least affordable housing market in the world after Hong Kong, Sydney and Vancouver.

Looks like the Auckland median price is NZ$890K, which is roughly US$623K. Here in Seattle, the median price just hit US$700K... Auckland doesn't sound so bad!

In terms of affordability, you'd need to look at average salaries as well. My impression is that Auckland doesn't fare so well on that front.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#262

Post by uiri »

cookiecaper wrote: post #233
ryandrake wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those aren't the only jobs in low-cost areas. Almost every mid-size or larger company has an internal software group making real software, and every metropolitan area has at least several of these. Having one company in an area does not help. My original comment dealt with the risk of when that one company doesn't work out for whatever reason. If that's the only tech employer in the area, you're screwed. Even if th…

I mean, yeah, you're correct that there are many more potential technical employers in San Francisco. However, this doesn't necessarily correlate with those jobs being more accessible or desirable than the jobs available in other places. For one, you have a lot more competition from other applicants, because every brogrammer thinks that he needs to move to SV to be part of the scene (and I really dislike that SV is b…

This is compounded when you consider that taxes are also very high in CA and SF, especially compared with states without income taxes like TX or FL.

This is true for SF and NYC but not for SEA (all three of which you mention in the grandparent post). Washington has no state income tax. The cost of living in Seattle is also more comparable to, say, Austin than SF or NYC.

I'll dispute that your points one and two about competition and snobbery apply less in Seattle than they do in SF. I've never been to NYC or LA so I won't comment on those. My feeling about those areas is that the tech scene in NYC is more comparable to SF than to SEA and the tech scene in LA is more comparable to SEA than to SF - although you still deal with the crazy California state income taxes and cost of living issues.

Personally, I think that it is preferable to work for a tech company where what you do is a profit center rather than for a non-tech company where what you do is a cost center. That said, plenty of people make a good living making internal software for non-tech companies. I am sure quite a few of them are great programmers. If they prefer that lifestyle to what they would get in a tech hub, more power to them.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#263

Post by cookiecaper »

reality_czech wrote: post #257
cookiecaper wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. The thing to remember about these SV people is that they're mostly single people or working couples who are living in ridiculously tight spaces like these "microapartments". [0] They're forced out after having a kid or two. Almost anywhere else in the country, that $2200/mo will get you quite the spread; you can trade off between square footage, neighborhood, and commute time, but you're going to have very nice…

I have a lot of friends who live in Sillicon Valley and have kids. They don't live in "microapartments" (those aren't even legal to build, there are space minimums.) They mostly live in houses which they either bought or rent. If you have a job, you can pay for housing and everything else. I truly don't understand why anyone would live in Florida unless they were growing sugarcane. The climate is extremely hot and da…

For 5 months of the year, November-Mar, the weather in Florida is sublime. Highs in the 70s, lows in the upper 50s, and humidity in the 50-70% range.

True, in the summer it becomes a hellscape, but 5 months of paradisiacal weather is better than most people get. ;)

Florida has reasonably priced housing (for the most part), plenty of land, and with almost 20 million residents, there is tons of variety across the state; from most population centers, it's a relatively easy drive to more than enough to interest anyone, no matter what you're into (except maybe skiing).

It's very scenic with palms swaying, beautiful sunsets and beaches, many lakes and an abundance of interesting wildlife.

Florida also has no state income tax, strong homestead protections, pretty-OK gun laws, and otherwise mostly-sane state policies.

Zika is a non-issue at this point and there are only a tiny handful of cases of local transmission. Florida is a large state and only the very tip of the peninsula was impacted by local transmission. However, it's always wise to avoid mosquito bites.

There are lots of reasons to like Florida. :)

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#264

Post by wingworks »

Cyph0n wrote: post #99
rconti wrote: post #73

Funny how it goes from appealing to "American Lord of the Rings nerds and Peter Thiel" really quickly. Had our honeymoon in New Zealand and really loved it. Auckland and Wellington are both beautiful, but, frankly, I'd rather be somewhere more relaxed like Nelson. I wish we had spent more time enjoying the south island and less time up north. Not so practical if you're trying to find work, though, I suppose. (I didn'…

My target is to live in Sweden after I finish grad school. I've been looking at ECE positions to gauge the market, and it strangely seems pretty small. The good thing is that Sweden has a special 1 year work visa deal with several countries including Australia, which I am a citizen of. My plan is to use that year to do some direct job hunting and also make sure I like the country!

You'll love it, I was there for a few weeks last year, and loved every minute! (I'm from NZ)

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#265

Post by ivm »

GFischer wrote: post #179
ivm wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ireland is under the radar. One more hidden gem is Chile, especially considering land/property prices and freelance-friendly visas.

Salaries in Chile aren't that great though (except for some top-level talent I guess). I've been told about USD 3000/month tops. But it's definitely the best country in South America for IT talent. I live in Uruguay, and Americans think it's great, but it's not (barring an exceptional job offer/salary as usual). Lots of jobs but very low paying (USD 1000/month take home salary for entry level dev, USD 2000 for experi…

Sure and also most of the jobs are in Santiago which is somewhat crowded and polluted. But it's great here if you work remotely due to the time zone close to the US.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#266

Post by xxgreg »

boznz wrote: post #252
Apocryphon wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I think of NZ, I imagine South Pacific beaches, lush forests of emu and kiwi and other exotic animals, and the landscape of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. What natural beauty does Tulsa have?

If you end up in Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch you could be just in another big city anywhere in the world, you may be within an hour or twos drive of some of the above descriptors but you wont be looking out of your home or office window at them unless you can drop a million dollars on a house. Get real guys.

Here's a photo of Wellington I took while commuting to work on my mountain bike. Trail head is 2mins from my office...

https://goo.gl/photos/9AQWmraCss6U9uVp7

If you're in into biking, or windsurfing Wellington is definitely a stunning place to live.

[edit] Also since everybody is talking about emus, this trail is actually called barking emu. But it is misnamed - since it's actually an Ostrich in the paddock up there.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#267

Post by kasey_junk »

jimmywanger wrote: post #217
wcummings wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>TBH the harder part of the bay area and kids is actually finding an affordable place to live that have good schools. Translation: it's expensive to live where rich people live. "Good schools" is a flimsy proxy for wealthy, exclusive suburbs. Where I'm from, "good schools" is a nice way of saying "it's a white neighborhood". I would not feel good about letting "good schools" influence where I live, or buy a home.

> Where I'm from, "good schools" is a nice way of saying "it's a white neighborhood" There is no need to inject race. Plus, in the bay area, many good schools are comprised of mostly minorities. Good schools in the bay area just mean good schools, as based on standardized testing methodology, class sizes, dollars per student, extracurricular activities available, and acceptance rates to selective colleges. You can de…

"Good schools" has been code for non-integrated schools for a very long time in this country. It might be true it doesn't mean that in the Bay Area, it doesn't mean that in my specific neighborhood either, but pretending like the comment is "injecting" race into the discussion ignores American history.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#268

Post by uiri »

agentile wrote: post #67

A while back I was going through the immigration process for NZ with an immigration lawyer and had all the points necessary and was moving on to the interview phase. My wife and I ultimately decided to stop as she became pregnant and didn't want to be as far away from family. That and the flight/quarantine times that would be imposed for our dogs. Another big issue was taxes. To my knowledge NZ and USA are two countr…

To my knowledge NZ and USA are two countries that will try to tax you wherever you live until you die unless you renounce citizenship. So dealing with being double taxed on income from NZ and USA was a big deal as well.

So, New Zealand does not tax their citizens abroad wherever they live. They do tax their residents abroad wherever they live. New Zealand has an extremely broad definition of resident - anyone with a permanent place of abode (read: permanent home) in New Zealand regardless of how long they have been out of the country.

The US and New Zealand do have a tax treaty which ought to settle any issues of double taxation.

The other commonwealth countries (such as Canada) have similarly broad or vague wording in order to catch as many tax payers as possible. The US is large enough that all the weird situations which can happen, will happen and on a regular basis so the rules tend to be much more black and white.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#269

Post by Taniwha »

jconnop wrote: post #54
chadgeidel wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Internet connectivity issue was the big deal-breaker for me. Australian bloggers have been complaining about it since the beginning of the WWW. Apparently there's one provider and they don't care about anything beyond "email and casual browsing". I've heard that Australia and New Zealand share the same ISP and the same policies. This is going to be a huge hinderance for any tech enterprise. I'm glad to see @bspn…

Uncapped gigabit fibre is now available to a significant and growing portion of our population, and in almost all circumstances you have 10+ ISPs to choose from. None of these local monopolies that America seems to suffer from. We used to be an internet backwater, lagging behind Australia and far behind Europe/USA, but in the last 10 years we've really leapt into the 21st century. Case in point: http://www.speedtest.…

yes I have gigabit fibre (in Dunedin), uncapped - I get close to full speed to local speedtest servers - but sadly only ~100Mb offshore to the US - 'sadly' because 100Mb is plenty for almost everything .... the big issue though is latency - speed of light and router delays across the Pacific

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#270

Post by dasil003 »

cookiecaper wrote: post #233
ryandrake wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those aren't the only jobs in low-cost areas. Almost every mid-size or larger company has an internal software group making real software, and every metropolitan area has at least several of these. Having one company in an area does not help. My original comment dealt with the risk of when that one company doesn't work out for whatever reason. If that's the only tech employer in the area, you're screwed. Even if th…

I mean, yeah, you're correct that there are many more potential technical employers in San Francisco. However, this doesn't necessarily correlate with those jobs being more accessible or desirable than the jobs available in other places. For one, you have a lot more competition from other applicants, because every brogrammer thinks that he needs to move to SV to be part of the scene (and I really dislike that SV is b…

California has one big advantage though: employers can not legally claim your side projects.
Post reply on HN