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Ask HN: Why is it so hard to find remote jobs in Europe?

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Re: Ask HN: Why is it so hard to find remote jobs in Europe?

#91

Post by mcv »

I used to love the idea of working remotely, but not anymore. I like working in a team, having the ability to bounce ideas off each other, make use of other people's knowledge, ideas and skills. When you're working remotely, you're working much more on your own. It's easier to get stuck, there's a bigger hurdle to getting someone to look over your shoulder, and a bigger likelihood to just figure it out on your own, which may be educational, but can also take weeks when someone else might be able to help you out in minutes.

I was actually hired once to help out the lone Java programmer at the company who had been stuck for weeks. I sat next to him, asked the right questions, and within 2 hours, the problem had been solved. Just having someone there and ask questions or discuss options with; having someone to spar with, can save a lot of time.

Re: Ask HN: Why is it so hard to find remote jobs in Europe?

#92

Post by drsim »

charlesdm wrote: post #51
Htsthbjig wrote: post #29

I am entrepreneur (also studied engineering) in Europe. I have only worked remotely most of my life. Main problem is bureaucracy. The US is a big place and it is United from West to East Coast. In Europe, once you start making lots of money, every country you touch wants your money. So if you hire a French guy the French gobertment will love to tax YOUR ENTIRE business based on their socialistic views of the world, e…

The solution is to incorporate in the member state where you live (and perform the services), and invoice your clients for your services as a company. If you want to hire a French employee, you can incorporate a French subsidiary, and you invoice his wages (+ some operating expenses) from your main company to the subsidiary. Doesn't cost much. Clean and simple. How is this a problem at all?

I have been speaking to a French lawyer about this exact scenario (UK company employing a French resident).

I've been quoted a cost of around 8% of salary to be retained by this subsidiary- hardly insubstantial.

Alternatively they can put a framework in place so that the UK company can directly employ in France. Here the costs are lower but coming in at at least 3000 euros is by no means small change.

I suppose the cheapest option (I haven't investigated) would be for the French employee to incorporate themselves and deal on a corp/corp basis. However the admin cost is then incurred by them and they wouldn't be covered by us on French employment terms.

The admin for employing a UK person is vastly easier and cheaper. We already have the contracts and accounting in place. I have been very surprised that cross-border hiring is so difficult/messy/costly in Europe.

That's the problem.

Re: Ask HN: Why is it so hard to find remote jobs in Europe?

#93

Post by keithpeter »

junto wrote: post #83
keithpeter wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Dad worked for Marconi in Liverpool fixing radar and radios for ships late fifties and early 60s before they became a large multi-national. Certain kinds of staff were not always needed in the workshop e.g. radio officers signing off on repairs. They hung out in a Dock Road pub. The techies wired up a loudspeaker to the pub (not radio, I suspect they hacked the Reddifusion cable radio) and called the staff when ne…

There a few classics like this from the 70's when the unions had immense power in the UK and there was lots of over employment in what was then public companies. Examples I remember were a false wall in the back of a British Steel factory which was setup with rows of bunk beds on the quiet so that only 1 in 3 had to do any work. The rest were paid to sleep. Also had employees on the books with the rather blatant name…

The chaps in the pub could be sailing with a ship as relief radio officer at a moment's notice so not quite the bunk bed thing.

Iain Sinclair has written about Trueman's Brewery round that time as well.

You won't agree with this but: is paying people to sleep in bunks any worse than subsidising low paid jobs using the benefit system as we do now? Typical commercial rents £600 to £750 a month and minimum wage £6.50 per hour.

Re: Ask HN: Why is it so hard to find remote jobs in Europe?

#94

Post by vruizext »

ilaksh wrote: post #74

Stop looking in a local area. Remote work is on remote work websites like wfh.io and remoteok. And upwork. Also, this is a slow cultural transition as people learn about remote tools for collaboration and start to accept it. So within a few more years it will be different.

Companies in the US still prefer hire remote workers in the states over europeans, I guess mostly due to the timezone, and because of the legal issues, it's always easier for them. You need to be an exceptional developer to overcome this disadvantage and make them they to consider to hire you.

Besides that, most of the positions posted in job boards are for Full-Stack or Front-End developers, not many Back-End or Data Science, which is what I am looking for.

If companies in Europe were more open to telecommuting, we would have much more chances to get a remote job and companies would have more chances to hire better developers. I guess this will change in the next years.

Re: Ask HN: Why is it so hard to find remote jobs in Europe?

#95

Post by coolguy43 »

I guess it all depends on the kind of job that they have openings, especially in managing people so they prefer on-site workers. But if the job is like mine. I teach english on skype with native language at http://preply.com/en/skype/english-native-speakers, you can work remotely :)

Re: Ask HN: Why is it so hard to find remote jobs in Europe?

#97

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

magiconair wrote: post #19

I am one of these managers in Amsterdam with an international team of 10 people from 8 different countries who still writes code. My desire is to have a team that gets the job done. The most effective way for them to do this IMO is to have them sit together so that they can discuss issues they have immediately. We are seeing effects of less effective communication of teams sitting just a few desks apart. Remote work…

Well, one of the mantras of remote working is that you need to share at least 6 hours between all devs. It doesn't limit your timezone: I love working at night, so even if I am in Europe, my timezone is basically the north American.

That being said, I still don't get what's wrong with videocall: share screen, facial expression and microphone and you are good to go. It's like a booster: I was stuck in an ugly bug for 2 days, we made videocall and took care of it, works great.

Re: Ask HN: Why is it so hard to find remote jobs in Europe?

#98

Post by mobiplayer »

andy_boot wrote: post #52
gii2 wrote: post #8

I couldn't agree more with jmnicolas - the situation is pretty similar in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Austria. There is some "hope" in UK and Germany, where they really expect to have something done. There was a guy (can't remember his name) who said that US is the only place where you can put US guys, Mexican, Chinese and ... (whoever) and make them work together. In Europe this is not the case, probably becaus…

>There was a guy (can't remember his name) who said that US is the only place where you can put US guys, Mexican, Chinese and ... (whoever) and make them work together. As someone working in a company in London with about 25 engineers from 15 different countries I have to disagree with this statement.

Same here; second company in the UK (not exactly London though) and did work with people from several different countries in my team.

Re: Ask HN: Why is it so hard to find remote jobs in Europe?

#99

Post by dietrichepp »

ensignavenger wrote: post #81
dietrichepp wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Digital communication still has a long way to go. If I'm in a room with two people, I can tell what they're looking at. If I'm in a video conference, I can only tell that they're looking at something on their screen. Humans are one of the few animals with a visible sclera, and I don't think that this is some kind of coincidence.

Use a pointer.

Missing the point... it's not about what they're looking at on screen, it's who they're looking at.

Re: Ask HN: Why is it so hard to find remote jobs in Europe?

#100

Post by ensignavenger »

dietrichepp wrote: post #99
ensignavenger wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use a pointer.

Missing the point... it's not about what they're looking at on screen, it's who they're looking at.

I see, but you used the word 'what' in your post :) I would propose that people can adapt the wa they communicate to overcome these obstacles. Or in the near future when good VR headsets become reasonable, we could meet in VR conference rooms!
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