111–120 of 178 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
From Finland? Why bother when you have such a high quality of living.
Apparently not when it comes to money and opportunity!
The Nordic countries are probably the best places in the world to be average or below, but I'm willing to claim that the US is better for the top 10%.
I moved from Europe to China to work as a mobile/backend dev. Pros: - Salaries these days in China's big cities are pretty much same or better than in Europe - Income tax and living costs are significantly lower - Former two combined: your living standards will increase a lot here. - If you live in big cities, life is good and you can live really western life style - Extremely safe and very peaceful. Street crimes an…
Do yourself a favour and go to any other Asian country where you won't be supporting modern day Nazis, and where you won't be treated as dirt by the government. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, etc. are all great options that will most likely give you a better experience.
I'm late and most of what I have to say has already been said, but I'm a bit of a different story, given as I'm Western but started my career in China. I've worked at a top 50 startup in Shanghai (Video++) and most recently at Alibaba. Given that I'm 22, and have spent the majority of my internship/working career in China I'll give my take:
- Living in China has been better than anywhere I've lived in the US (CT, NYC, ATL, SF). There's abundant food that's both very good, and very cheap (both relative and absolute).
- Not only is the food cheap, but healthy. Very little food is processed (most is prepared fresh) and everywhere I've worked we've had wonderful meal services that prepped healthy portions. I lost a ton of weight working there without even working out or changing my diet!
- Cell service is really, really good and affordable. However, internet service is quite bad and no amount of money can remedy this. At Alibaba, we had fibre laid in Hangzhou so this is the only time I've ever experience moderately fast connection speeds.
- GFW etc isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Any reasonable company already has a proxy or VPN for you to use at work, and there are a number of good VPNs for personal use. I never felt I missed out on the Western web, only that it was a bit slower to connect (see above).
- Technology is abundant and fast-paced. You can rent umbrellas, bikes, phone batteries, etc. If you can think of it someone probably is working on the problem and you'll experience things you've never seen before in the US.
- Pollution and noise are a problem but not terrible. You certainly adjust and you do have to make some concessions i.e. I never cycled while living in Shanghai, and sometimes wore a face mask on particularly bad days.
- Transit is much better. In Shanghai and Shenzhen, the subways are practically brand new. Not only is there cellular/WIFi connectivity but they're always on time and people queue very neatly for them. High-speed rail is ubiquitous and cheap. Didi is objectively worse than Uber though.
- The work environment is quite different:
1. Management (where I've worked) has been practically non-existent as compared to the US. This might be because I do research, but I've never had a micromanager, or standups, etc.
2. Daily naps are a thing. Expect to find people taking an hour nap after eating lunch.
3. 996 is real. Most people at tech companies will work 9am-9pm 6 days/week.
4. It is expected you basically live in the office. You'll eat all 3 meals there, and spend a lot of time with your colleagues. Family time, and going home for dinner isn't a thing like it is in the West.
I'm sure I've left a lot out, but the above has been my experience in China. I'm planning on taking a full-time offer that'll put me back in China, and clearly, am biased as I think the quality of life is better there compared to the West.
Feel free to ask me any questions.
Why would anyone willingly move to an authoritarian dictatorship?
For me it was the money and opportunities. I turned a blind eye to the power abuse, human rights violations and corruption, and moved to the US anyways.
Why would anyone willingly move to an authoritarian dictatorship?
NOTE: I wanted to say I spoke pretty good Mandarin before going to China the first time. I knew what I was getting into and really wanted to be there. If you appreciate Chinese culture and have studied a bit ignore everyone's warnings - you'll be fine. I'm late and most of what I have to say has already been said, but I'm a bit of a different story, given as I'm Western but started my career in China. I've worked at…
NOTE: I wanted to say I spoke pretty good Mandarin before going to China the first time. I knew what I was getting into and really wanted to be there. If you appreciate Chinese culture and have studied a bit ignore everyone's warnings - you'll be fine. I'm late and most of what I have to say has already been said, but I'm a bit of a different story, given as I'm Western but started my career in China. I've worked at…
How did you land your first job? I'd assume that Chinese companies won't easily take the risk to sponsor a visa for a foreign graduate without relevant experience, especially if they don't speak the language (edit: I see you added a note, so feel free to ignore that last part).
I was lucky enough to have help from a pretty notable entrepreneur in Shanghai (a friend of a friend) who sent my resume around. The interview process is very slow in China (also recruiting happens at different times than the West) and so about 4 months and a bunch of interviews later I decided on Video++ in Shanghai.
Unlike the US the visa process is very straightforward. It works as a points-based system in a number of categories, where if you hit the point minimum (overall of 60 I believe) then you get your visa. So once you get an offer it's not particularly hard for the company, but smaller ones will certainly be more averse given the time and expertise it takes to produce the documentation to provide to the consulate.
N.B.: I'd add that a lot of Chinese companies are intrigued (not necessarily the right word) by foreign candidates. You'll stand out in the pool. So if you apply through normal means, or even reach out they'll pick you out and talk to you. It depends a lot on the company and the timing but in my experience, it's been far easier than doing interviews in the US.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apparently not when it comes to money and opportunity!
I mean, it's true. (Norway, though) The Nordic countries are probably the best places in the world to be average or below, but I'm willing to claim that the US is better for the top 10%.
If you look at income, wealth, employment, education, healthcare, life expectancy, infant mortality, there's a very large difference in the US between the 25% line and the median.
If you don't think you can get into that top 25% bracket in the US, pick another country if you can like Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, etc.
40%-45% of the world's millionaires reside in that top 25%. Full-time employment will get you $80,000+ at the 25% bracket cut-off. Healthcare is broadly high quality and easily accessible for the top 25%. Economic opportunities are abundant and unemployment is always very low outside of deep recessions. You can also hit that $80,000 income line in dozens of cities, depending on profession (much easier in tech, energy, healthcare, banking/finance).
Household net wealth skyrockets from about $100,000 at the median to $425k-$450k at the 25% line (and to $1.2 million at the 10% line).
Just consider software developers in the US. 1.25 million of them with a median income of $103,000 for 2017 (per the BLS). So there's probably ~650,000 software developers in the US earning six figures for 2019. That's more than the rest of the world combined.
The biggest downside to being in the US if you're in the top 25%, is that many of our largest cities aren't nearly as livable or safe as those in other developed nations. This also assumes a city to income match, where you're not making $90,000 trying to live well in San Francisco or New York (in which case you're generally going to struggle).