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Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

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Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#31

Post by frockington »

cassandrajam wrote: post #26
arendtio wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and it is kinda annoying if there's only one country which doesn't want to adopt English, forcing everyone to learn their language ;-) So it is just a matter of perspective. I wonder how the chinese see that picture.

> only one country which doesn't want to adopt English What? You've never been to Europe have you? Try travelling here and speaking English in any country other than the obvious champions like Norway / Sweden / Danemark and you'll come to the crazy realization that people like speaking their own language.

I've never had that experience traveling. Just knowing a few basic greetings and pleasantries is enough, smile a little bit and most people are forgiving

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#32

Post by sailingparrot »

sametmax wrote: post #17

Ok, so a lot of people here are comparing the french Startup scene to what it was before. I understand why, but it's misleading. Yes, compared to what it was before, it's booming. But it was ridiculously bad before. However compared to what's happening in the US, it's still lagging. Innovation is alright, however investment and risk taking are nowhere close to the American standard. It's still very meh. The culture o…

> even including social benefits, the salary is 2 to 3 times less

Yea... no.

Especially if you factor in the cost of life.

Edit: Average salary in SF for tech workers is $142k vs $56k in Paris [1].

Once adjusted for cost of living, Paris is roughly 86k$ [1].

Now, you add all the social benefits, like free health care, retirements etc. And if you have/plan on having children, you can add free education as well.

All in all it's very far from 2-3 times lower.

[1] https://hired.com/state-of-salaries-2018

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#33

Post by Chiminh »

kjullien wrote: post #13

I live in Paris, am french, and have been working at the same startup for more than a year and some months now. The scene is very active, any new company these days will always brand themselves as a "startup" no matter how they function behind the scenes. So alot of "false advertising" when you postulate, "we're cool and all, we SOMETIMES allow a day of remote work a week" and typical bs like that. Your french will n…

Those 30k seem really low for current Paris standard. I started at 40k as a graduate in a seed-funded startup 2 years ago. If I had stayed there, I would definitively be between 50k to 60k.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#34

Post by oblio »

mtremsal wrote: post #29
Jdam wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the salary is 2 to 3 times less so it’s negative?

Rule of thumb is that half the salary amount (e.g. 120k USD to 60k EUR) in Paris will get you about the same or better quality of life as you have in NYC or SF, once you account for differences in how real estate, taxes, healthcare, and retirement work.

For the retirement bit, that's assuming that France's 110% of GDP debt or so won't balloon in the future and pensions won't be slashed by the time your retire.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#35

Post by Jaxan »

arendtio wrote: post #18
baud147258 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French here too; regarding language, it's rather annoying when there's one only person who don't speak French at work, forcing everyone else to switch. But if the co-workers are young enough, there shouldn't have too much difficulty for them to speak English. And regarding code, all the variable + comment are usually in English.

Yes and it is kinda annoying if there's only one country which doesn't want to adopt English, forcing everyone to learn their language ;-) So it is just a matter of perspective. I wonder how the chinese see that picture.

Since English is only third most spoken language, why would they adopt English?

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#37

Post by l-p »

kjullien wrote: post #20
Dannymetconan wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a comment but 30k for 2 years full experience seems low. I'm working in another European capital and I'm at 40k for a similar full-stack dev role.

I know it's low and am currently looking for a better job somewhere else (which I am pretty confident I could get) but these things take time and I have alot of other stuff to deal with in my life atm. Don't really like my job right now at all, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do...

If you need a better paying job and need it fast, everyone in Paris is looking for developers, including myself. I'd love a good dev with some skills in sys, you can easily find my mail by taking a look at my HN profile if you're interested.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#38

Post by hluska »

arendtio wrote: post #18
baud147258 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French here too; regarding language, it's rather annoying when there's one only person who don't speak French at work, forcing everyone else to switch. But if the co-workers are young enough, there shouldn't have too much difficulty for them to speak English. And regarding code, all the variable + comment are usually in English.

Yes and it is kinda annoying if there's only one country which doesn't want to adopt English, forcing everyone to learn their language ;-) So it is just a matter of perspective. I wonder how the chinese see that picture.

If you're going to immigrate, learn the local language and do your best to adopt the local accent. It's tough, but it's the best investment you'll make in your new home.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#39

Post by azatris »

KeitIG wrote: post #8

> What's the startup scene in Paris like? The start-up scene is currently definitely at an interesting point: really young and active (people already shared links to Startup studios, you should have a look at them). The meetup scene is great too. The salary is still a pity though (compared to the States, Switzerland or Baltic countries). For a middle developer position, you may be around 40K euros, which is "nice in…

I am working in Tallinn. This is the first time I've ever heard anyone say anything good about the salaries here. I'm happy with mine, but it would be 3x higher in US and Switzerland (I have also worked there). What do you base this opinion on?

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#40

Post by reacweb »

French here, not in a startup but in an international company. Meetings are in english as soon a non french speaker is there, but during lunch, discussions are often in french even when non french speaker are present. I know it is not very polite. I really think you must learn french if you come to work in France. Even if your french is totally broken, the effort to speak french will be really appreciated. I have some coworkers who can speak french quite well but asked me to not tell it at work so that they can continue to prented they can't. This is also a reasonnable choice. I think you need to have a good understanding of oral french. People won't care if you make mistakes or if you write mails in english.

I have noticed that OpenOffice (or LibreOffice) is far less popular here than in US. I think that IOS and linux are also slightly less popular than in US.

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