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Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent

devonzuegel.com

361–370 of 534 posts

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

#361
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If anything, it will make it easier to work FOR the US. So that's kind of the point - those remote workers for US companies will do their daily spending, house construction, etc and pay their taxes outside of USA, boosting the economy and creating the demand for non-developer jobs there instead of USA.

Yeah, but that's a bit like trickle down economics. It's literal trickling, it's not a deluge. In these cases the top jobs will still tend to stay in the home country. So the most successful of these companies will be able to hire more top level folks and most of these will be in the home country.

“a bit like trickle down economics”

It is standard economics. If the value of American citizenship is eroded, and I would argue that it is across a number of fronts, then America as a nation loses value. Pretty simple. Econ 101.

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

#362
post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the qualified Canadians move to the USA for USA incomes. Canada is going to be an immigration station for people companies want to bring in but can't get US visas for. Its already a thing.

Like in America, few Canadians are ever going to move more than 50 km from where they were born and raised. Your precious jobs are still safe for the right kinds of people.

I think this really isn't true for people who go into 'professional' careers. People who are in high-paying white-collar jobs are fairly willing to move.

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

#364
post #9

Does the US have a monopoly on global talent that I'm unaware of?

As long as noone else is able/willing to match pay - kinda. In Poland for example normal pay is $5K but for US startups you can get $10K. Only TikTok or Switzerland has offers in this range.

If you're talking about tech hubs in the US, you can definitely get more than 10k USD/month as an experienced dev at a startup.

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

#366
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…

That's institutional inertia and bureaucracy. Don't mistake it for the typical case.

First job out of uni and can handle a lowerish salary? Find the startup scene in your area and network like crazy.

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

#367
post #200
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By my estimation, even factoring in the cost of living, medical insurance, tax differences etc, people working in the Bay area are taking home twice what an equally qualified dev would take home in say, London. If anything the contrast is even more stark across the EU

Companies pay the prevailing wage in whatever labor market they participate in. The prevailing wage in the UK is lower than in Silicon Valley, but higher than in, say, Oklahoma City. Not sure why people are still confused about this. But it seems many still don't understand it. The funniest thing is when people try to concoct some sort of fairness argument to explain this, or equally hilarious is when they try to com…

> The prevailing wage in the UK is lower than in Silicon Valley, but higher than in, say, Oklahoma City.

This probably isn't true. A quick googling indicates the average software engineer salary for Oklahoma City as being in the 70-80k USD range, while a similar googling says the number for the UK is around 50k GBP, which is...68k USD.

The median software engineer salary for the US as a whole is 110k USD according to the BLS, so even cheaper areas like Oklahoma City won't be super low.

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

#368
post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Must be the area you're in. In Melbourne, office real estate is practically on life support and they'll happily discount

Melbourne Australia is in the third year of population decline now. I know on top of this population shift that a huge number of the major employers have shifted towards much more work from home arrangements due to the pandemic and due to the the 263 days of lockdowns that were imposed I think many of these changes will last for longer than in places that were less disrupted. That said I still think commercial real e…

I've been keeping an eye on London, Paris, Berlin, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal for about 5 months now, really not seeing much movement at all unfortunately. Toronto and Vancouver are particularly holding on strong, stuff will sit empty for 3 months I'll go back and ask the brokers, owners are still not willing to lower the rent a cent, they really think everyone is coming back Q1/2 next year - it's pretty interesting to me.

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

#369
post #9

Does the US have a monopoly on global talent that I'm unaware of?

As long as noone else is able/willing to match pay - kinda. In Poland for example normal pay is $5K but for US startups you can get $10K. Only TikTok or Switzerland has offers in this range.

Not intending to sound completely clueless about the world, but these wages you're quoting...is that USD per month? That sounds way off for a yearly salary.

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

#370
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are really onto something truth is if you have 100K remote job in Spain you will hav better lifestyle than having 300K job in SV. If I only could convince my wife to move :(.

I'm nowhere near 100K in Spain but I wouldn't make 300K in that job in SV either :) I think it would work out worse in SV though in terms of spending power. With the exception of tech toys which tend to be around the same price everywhere so relatively expensive in Spain. But I'd give up a lot. Being half a world away from family and also the other drawbacks I mentioned. No, I'm fine here.

> I'm nowhere near 100K in Spain but I wouldn't make 300K in that job in SV either :)

I wouldn't discount yourself. A lot of people have this idea that becoming a senior engineer somewhere like Google must mean you're super elite, but as someone who's worked at Google for several years, I really don't think that's true. Google developers as a group are quite solid of course, but real 'rockstar' devs who just blow you away with their skill are a small minority even here.

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