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Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent

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Re: Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent

#301
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You understand correctly! It's a crypto startup but I don't really want to have my account be to obviously mine. It isn't amazing bay area rates, but it's six figures.

No need to reveal the exact company name, your clarification was more than enough to address my curiosity in regards to the situation. I really appreciate you giving just enough info, without compromising your own privacy, especially since it sounds like it is a small startup.

For me it was just enough information to make me more curious about what type of crypto company. I work for one too, but not on the fun web3 side of things.

Re: Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "vacation" you mean fully paid days ? Unlimited?

"Unlimited" in quotes. Sometimes better called "unmetered". That is, you are not granted days of vacation, nor does taking a day off get deducted from any limit. But obviously if you're not showing up to work often enough, you will lose your job.

I'd much rather have a set amount and feel good using it than worrying if I have exceeded my limit of socially acceptable days off.

Re: Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent

#303
post #112

The demand for software developers and experts is a bottomless well right now in EVERY country. Hiring everywhere is a challenge. The problem is that software development is genuinely challenging. Training is a huge problem because programs can't keep up with the new technology. In the past 10 years there have been 3 separate revolutions in our technology stack and 2 in our project management. Everything is moving at…

If it really is a bottomless well everywhere, I must be doing something wrong...I just graduated from a well-regarded university in Germany with a degree in computer science and to be honest, it's not all that easy to get a job. For example, in London, as someone with no experience, you'll probably have to go with a graduate scheme--mostly at tech companies and banks. But when you apply, you'll be barraged first by c…

Interesting, my experience was the exact opposite. I recently got my bachelors in business information systems and finding a well paid job turned out to be fairly easy (although my working student relationship with my current company certainly contributed to the easy hiring process). This seems to be a fairly common experience, at least among my peers.

Re: Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apparently it is "blue collar" work to do actual programming? Let’s not build up cultural myths from a passing conversation. Of course there are PhDs in Europe who code and code very well. There are also ones who don’t. Was the PhD even in a Computer Science related field? And not to offend you, but many people have better things to do than talk about programing languages. Maybe the visiting PhD had more interestin…

transportation modelling, IIR.. he was from Spain

A surprising amount of math/science/engineering types still seem to consider actually programming their models and and such to be the grunt work, sometimes even handed off to someone else. Seems like a terribly inefficient way to work.

Re: Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent

#305
post #138

Much ado about nothing. Developer jobs have been able to be outsourced and work remote for a couple of decades. If it was going to go that way it would have long ago. The rest of the world might be catching up to the remote work game but software development has been there, done that. If anything we've already experienced a pullback where outsourced developer jobs have been pulled back when they experienced the probl…

yep. A place I worked at was doing the outsourcing thing back in 2010. They had almost immediate regret when they realized the skills of the developers did not meet their expectations and local law prevented the company from firing them without, I believe, 3 documented warnings and attempts to correct performance.

That's also the dirty little secret of digital nomad workers, that those of us that worked remote long before the pandemic already understood: these workers don't follow the law. How many of these people are correctly paying and filing their taxes for each country (or US state!) they work in? Probably close to zero.

Another place I worked had a policy you could best describe as "don't ask, don't tell." They didn't want to know if you were working from the beach in Thailand. As far as they were concerned, you were still in the US state that your forms say you are in.

The legal framework as well as benefits plans have a lot of catching up to do before some new distributed dawn occurs.

Re: Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent

#306
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USA is super expensive. Yes you can get a large paycheck, wait until you see house prices. Also current situation does not inspire confidence in somebody who may be identified as white male.

House prices are often even higher in Europe, relative to wages. Check prices in London or Paris to see: you get smaller apartments, smaller houses on smaller lots than in US, and you’ll pay larger percentage of your paycheck for them.

I looked into Paris and the 19th looks very reasonably priced and apex civilized to me. (I've walked all over it.) A two bedroom for say €2000-2500/m with easy access to the Metro. Am I wrong? I was surprised when I looked at the prices, maybe my sources are inaccurate. But then I discovered Montpellier :-), half as expensive.

I've lived in Atlanta, Phoenix and SF/MV/Santa Clara, and no, none of those come close to the quality of life for the money. For reference I live in a 2300ft^2 house in the country, and it was great for raising a family, but now I'd rather rejoin civilization. So I'm aware of the tradeoffs.

Re: Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent

#307
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you / have you ever worked at one?

I am working at one now (kind of, since MSFT doesn't really make it into the abbreviation), and one of the brightest senior engineers on my team had no degree whatsoever, just a high-school diploma (using past tense, because he left for another company a couple of years ago). I also have a bunch of friends who currently work Google (some from college, some former colleagues) and a few at FB, and all of them know at l…

It's getting harder. I have a friend who worked at MSFT out of high school >10 years ago, and was told several years in that he could never be promoted beyond his current level without a degree. Decided to take a couple years off to get a degree in something random (theology) and when he applied for his old job, now +BA, was told he needed a CS degree to be qualified for it.

Re: Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the USA don't care about your diploma, only what you can do That's a total bullshit, unfortunately. Everything else is correct.

Now a days, it's very much true. I've worked for FAANG companies, a number of mid-major sized tech/internet companies, have had a engineering job for 20+ years, been a CTO and co-founded a VC backed company. All without any degree, in fact in the 20+ years in the field I've never once been out of work. Early in my career I was rejected a couple of times for lack of degree but I can't even remember the last time I was…

I work in a big tech company and you have to be extraordinary to get hired without a degree as an entry level dev. 10+ years experience and it won't matter so much, no.

Re: Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parent's premise is that it will make the US more powerful economically and make its tech companies more dominant. Which is exactly what it will do. The local tech labor supply will go to work for US corporations, which pay better than most everyone else. That will cement the US hegemony globally in tech (the sole major exception being domestic China, and to a far lesser extent domestic Russia). The US tech jugge…

> it will make the US more powerful economically and make its tech companies more dominant. Which is exactly what it will do. Why wouldn't other nations react accordingly? What power does the US have to stop this? 1) Other nations increasingly have a large supply of high-skill talent. 2) Other nations will use capital and subsidies to launch their own tech firms employing their own workers. There are startup accelera…

Engineers alone don't make a great tech company. Because there is a global engineering shortage but not a global sales, marketing, product management, UX, etc. shortage all of the knowledge on how to do those functions effectively won't spread as quickly (if at all) and will have to be learned locally.

Re: Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent

#310
post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are all subjective. I worked on Haskell, without a degree, on interesting problems for an NY salary remotely out of my bedroom in Oxford. I have since moved to the Bay Area and am working for an Eastern European country while earning a Bay Area rate.

>I have since moved to the Bay Area and am working for an Eastern European country while earning a Bay Area rate. If I understood it correctly, you physically live in Bay Area while working remotely for a company located in Eastern Europe, and you are earning Bay Area rates? This seems like the complete inverse of the situation I usually hear of (working for a Bay Area company remotely in a cheaper area and earning B…

Yandex Labs is a San Francisco company. Technically owned by Yandex, but otherwise not much difference from any other Bay Area company.
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