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Welcoming Tech Talent from Around the World to France

visa.lafrenchtech.com

171–180 of 408 posts

Re: Welcoming Tech Talent from Around the World to France

#171

I've been looking forward to more details about this program emerging seeing that I'm a french-speaking francophile who recently made a transition to a career in programming. The minimum education requirement being a Master's degree is quite disappointing. I fear they are making the same mistake as Japan when the latter introduced their points-based immigration system that requires you to be fluent in Japanese with a…

Have you considered Belgium? Take a look at http://www.actiris.be . Lots of opportunities there.

Actually wouldn't a visa from belgium be valid in all of the EU?

Re: Welcoming Tech Talent from Around the World to France

#172

Will they pay as good as the Us? That is going to be the biggest motivator in my opinion.

FWIW In Germany for senior sw engineer you can expect around 80k € / year. Taxes are high though and medical insurance is also quite expensive.

Re: Welcoming Tech Talent from Around the World to France

#173
post #46

It looks great on paper but the devil will be in the detail and how well they execute on the admin/bureaucracy side. If my experience a few years ago with the auto entrepreneur scheme and URSAFF are anything to go by, you'll need a lot of patience, the ability to speak half decent French and a sense of humour if you want to avoid ripping all your hair out :) I love France (have even married one of their citizens!) bu…

At least 20% of French people express capitalism-hostile opinions (and it goes well beyond Mélenchon voters). You face hostility as soon as you make money, with consequences ranging from being denied places in the kindergarten to the "petit Gregory" affair where the 5 years old son of a newly promoted team leader was drowned. I'm trying to show off as much as I can that I'm sponsoring poverty, donating a lot, making a lot for minorities, etc, because truth is, I'm afraid of getting mugged. People who criticize me, talking as if I belonged to the group of tax evaders, themselves don't have a clean business and evade taxes just as much as Greek citizen, so don't expect any rationality in their despicable criticism. Things can be so simple as, if you don't buy locally-grown groceries, you deserve to be told off in public for not helping the local population.

If you belong to the Christian minority, expect to be harassed by those you say "We need to respect all religions". Everyday you'll face jokes like "priests rape kids, followers are stuck-up, donating is worse than sponsoring a mafia".

President Macron himself is seen as a capitalist enemy by those 20-50%, and this Mélenchon group explicitly denies his legitimacy. There are currently very active groups and many of my friends are preparing the ground on Facebook (God knows what kind of riots they're preparing for September – you think I'm kidding? wait and watch).

French people are entirely hostile to privately-owned companies and average-wealthy managers, so, no, I wouldn't recommend my country for entrepreneurs, not until they make peace with a reasonable dose of capitslism. And that's where I have hope for Macron: If he does the right things, he may tame anti-capitalism sentiments a bit and show that hard works does bring money.

Re: Welcoming Tech Talent from Around the World to France

#174
post #48

At this point it seems that many Europe nations are more "free" than the US. Now with same-sex marriage getting legal in germany the probably last big issue is resolved. You will not get extreme high salaries like in the US, but there is stuff like free higher education and getting serious medical care won't be expensive at all. Also remember that the EU has a higher population than the US with very diverse countries…

I find European culture and history alluring, but I don't think Europe is somehow "more free" than the U.S., in particular, you guys have much more regulation and far greater taxes. Maybe you have a greater quality of life by certain measures, but I think the freedom point is hard to defend. Maybe I'm wrong?

Taxes are not higher everywhere, and where they are higher it's usually because there is really awesome infrastructure and a social safety net and other stuff you would normally want to finance collectively. Compare, say, the homeless situation in Berlin to that in San Francisco... or compare pretty much any bus system anywhere in the developed world to MUNI.

One freedom Europeans have is freedom from fear of the police, i.e. I don't think there's any country in Europe in which you might have to fear for your life when you're not doing anything wrong and happen to meet a cop, regardless of your skin color.

Also I think there's more political freedom in countries where small parties play a role in government, i.e. you don't have to choose between the Democrats or Republicans or a symbolic protest vote.

And while this varies by country, there are places where you can be just as "off the grid" as in the US and the bureaucracy will never find you (or even try). But I wouldn't try that in, say, Germany.

Anyway, that said I wouldn't propose that an American is likely to feel "more free" living in Europe, probably the opposite, but in some things they probably would be.

Source: US American living in Europe for a long time. :-)

Re: Welcoming Tech Talent from Around the World to France

#175
post #46

It looks great on paper but the devil will be in the detail and how well they execute on the admin/bureaucracy side. If my experience a few years ago with the auto entrepreneur scheme and URSAFF are anything to go by, you'll need a lot of patience, the ability to speak half decent French and a sense of humour if you want to avoid ripping all your hair out :) I love France (have even married one of their citizens!) bu…

> the ability to speak half decent French

After having lived and worked in multiple EU countries, I'm convinced that language is the single biggest barrier to true freedom of movement of workers in the EU. In Germany, for example, you cannot assume any daily task can be accomplished without the German language. You're then faced with either constantly dealing with communication problems with everything in your life, or paying the significant opportunity cost of learning a new language -- which you will likely never learn to high enough degree to fluently use in business, and which won't help you in the next country in which you live.

What is needed is a joint common language (English) that everyone in the EU learns starting in kindergarten and in which you're guaranteed state services in every member state. But there is no chance the French and German speakers would ever agree to that, it is like a religious issue.

Re: Welcoming Tech Talent from Around the World to France

#176
post #46

It looks great on paper but the devil will be in the detail and how well they execute on the admin/bureaucracy side. If my experience a few years ago with the auto entrepreneur scheme and URSAFF are anything to go by, you'll need a lot of patience, the ability to speak half decent French and a sense of humour if you want to avoid ripping all your hair out :) I love France (have even married one of their citizens!) bu…

For the record, I have not emitted a check in France for at least the past 10 years. I might have cashed one or two.

Re: Welcoming Tech Talent from Around the World to France

#177
post #175
post #46

It looks great on paper but the devil will be in the detail and how well they execute on the admin/bureaucracy side. If my experience a few years ago with the auto entrepreneur scheme and URSAFF are anything to go by, you'll need a lot of patience, the ability to speak half decent French and a sense of humour if you want to avoid ripping all your hair out :) I love France (have even married one of their citizens!) bu…

> the ability to speak half decent French After having lived and worked in multiple EU countries, I'm convinced that language is the single biggest barrier to true freedom of movement of workers in the EU. In Germany, for example, you cannot assume any daily task can be accomplished without the German language. You're then faced with either constantly dealing with communication problems with everything in your life,…

Yep, but the Brits are were pain in the butt so we decided not to use English for that role, because that would be rewarding a kid for throwing his feces at a party. When they are gone, I guess the discussion could be re-opened.

Re: Welcoming Tech Talent from Around the World to France

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had to work in England in the 90's for a week and the bus on the route I used was blown up two hours after I got off by the IRA. All the London landmarks were patrolled by army soldiers with rifles. Everyone can get used to almost any circumstance, the odds of being a victim of a terror attack are miniscule. I'm much more likely to get hit by a drunk driver in the USA.

I refuse to accept the "you are more likely to die in a road accident" argument. Simply refuse. Ironically the terrorist attack in Berlin last December was initially categorized as a road accident.

How can you "refuse to accept" statistics though? You can "refuse to accept" that it's sunny outside all you want, doesn't stop the sun from shining.

Re: Welcoming Tech Talent from Around the World to France

#179
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. At the university, a "master" is something you get after studying for 5 years, roughly. After 3 years, you get a "licence", which is equivalent to a BA/BS. Engineering schools use a slightly different system, but it's roughly equivalent.

Engineering degrees are largely homogenized throughout the English-speaking world (plus a few other countries, but interestingly enough, not France) under the Washington accord.

Because the EU homogenized under the Bologna system (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System).

Re: Welcoming Tech Talent from Around the World to France

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Europe wonders why it doesn't have any serious Facebook/Google competitors. An engineer is anyone who uses technology to solve a problem. Now there's a massive spectrum of quality there, but a piece of paper or two and some classwork doesn't make you an engineer. Or even a particularly good engineer. Just the other day I explained how Hash Tables work to someone with a Masters.

Was it a masters in CS?

I've known quite a few people with "conversion course" UK MSc degrees who probably wouldn't know what a hashtable is let along how they work.
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