11–20 of 158 posts
We already have too few jobs, and too many American tourists ruining our home. You can be rich in the Silicon Valley, that's fine, but every time an aspy Californian techie moves here, all you people do is complain "this is better in amurika", "California is way better because of .."
Yes, we understand that AmuriKKKa is a wonderful land of opportunities.
Please stay there. Yankee, go home.
People might expect you to talk Catala in Barcelona but you should be able to get around with English and Spanish
Learning a language can be daunting at first but it gets there eventually
Please don't. We already have too few jobs, and too many American tourists ruining our home. You can be rich in the Silicon Valley, that's fine, but every time an aspy Californian techie moves here, all you people do is complain "this is better in amurika", "California is way better because of .." Yes, we understand that AmuriKKKa is a wonderful land of opportunities. Please stay there. Yankee, go home.
Please don't. We already have too few jobs, and too many American tourists ruining our home. You can be rich in the Silicon Valley, that's fine, but every time an aspy Californian techie moves here, all you people do is complain "this is better in amurika", "California is way better because of .." Yes, we understand that AmuriKKKa is a wonderful land of opportunities. Please stay there. Yankee, go home.
Salaries are lower than 20k euros a year.
Hi, moved to Barcelona about two years ago (from London). Here's a post I wrote last summer about some of my impressions. http://www.freyfogle.com/post/1466857133/moving-to-barcelona In short: quality of life is great, and the tech scene, though still small, is growing rapidly. For the Barcelona I highly recommend you subscribe to this weekly newsletter http://www.barcinno.com
Salaries are lower than 20k euros a year.
> will likely involve a pay cut in absolute terms. In absolute terms, but take in mind that life in Spain can be much less expensive than living in Berlin or Paris. It depends on the area and the job. > I'm currently functional in Spanish but I have a long way to go until fluency. That's one of my goals in moving to Spain Madrid is the right option then. Has worst climate with more hot in summer and colder in winter,…
Regarding the language, I don't think Catalan is much of an issue, to be honest. If you talk in Spanish, you get an answer in Spanish. I would say that the climate and the city are well worth it, but I am of course biased, since I live in Barcelona.
This is not granted always. It depends on the people.
The problem is that you are trying to learn spanish being inmersed at the same time in another similar language but with different orthographic and grammatical rules. And you see examples of the non-spanish version everywhere in your journey. Should you use a 'B' or a 'V' for that word?. Sounds the same but is often the opposite in the two languages. Lots of people have problems with that without even noticing.
Barcelona native here, lived and worked for years in the NY tech scene and now I am in London, although I go back to Barcelona often, and I'm seriously considering moving back. (I don't know the situation in Madrid well enough). Here are my points:
On the one hand, the tech ecosystem is clearly not as strong as Berlin/London or even Paris, and the average engineer salary is _low_. That also might mean there is more room to experiment and make an impact, offset by a general not-so-mature or agile business environment. Barcelona has good universities, and that means many good developers eager to work on cool shit for lower pay than in other places, if you're into starting your own thing.
Barcelona has many peripheral, small offices of large companies, so I'd say you may be able to find some of the jobs you're looking for in that circuit.
Additionally, Barcelona has a wonderful creative scene. Many strong designers, any many studios doing interesting stuff. Not sure if that's a world that interests you, but many small and big agencies have offices in the city.
And I know you're not asking about that, but dude, quality of life is unbeatable: weather, food, culture and pace of life compensate for what you may be missing on the other end, particularly if you have cultivated relationships in the rest of Europe that you may be able to maintain and use to secure business.
It may depend on what you are looking for. If you truly prioritize really good tech jobs, I would say don't do it. Adjusting your expectations in terms of salary and general ecosystem is required. Salaries won't be at London or Berlin level by a pretty big margin, but at the same time you should adjust by a cost of living that is about like 40% of what it would be in London.
If you want something more balanced, and a rich well-rounded human experience (ha), I'd encourage you to consider the full picture and do it.
Generally good opportunities but expect pay to be a lot lower than London etc. Cost of living is pretty cheap though so it evens out :)