Hey, but at least you get paid more in U.S., right?
Zurich pay can eclipse Valley pay. I have friends who went to ETH for grad school and were getting close to 100k CHF a year. This is grad school -- the pay goes up from there.
Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV
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Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV
#52I said, "Great, I don't think this job is for me. I hope you guys do well!"
And then I got another job, and I work 8 (maybe sometimes more like 8.5) hour days and no weekends. Outside of genuine "we're on fire" operational catastrophes, which happen like once or twice a year.
I live and work in SF.
Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Zurich pay can eclipse Valley pay. I have friends who went to ETH for grad school and were getting close to 100k CHF a year. This is grad school -- the pay goes up from there.
Getting paid while in grad school? Or you're saying the pay goes up as you go from graduate degree to Ph.D?
Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Zurich pay can eclipse Valley pay. I have friends who went to ETH for grad school and were getting close to 100k CHF a year. This is grad school -- the pay goes up from there.
Getting paid while in grad school? Or you're saying the pay goes up as you go from graduate degree to Ph.D?
Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Not that US is any better for Indians. Based on current estimates, if someone from India applies for an employment based Green Card now, they might get it in 70 years. And life is a pain because you have to do a lot of paperwork throughout. I thought that is because so many Indians applying for green cards but there is a limit by country so it takes a long time?
Yes, that is one of the main factors. And the ground reality is that right now a new employment based Green Card petitioner from India would need to wait 70 years.
Their cause is even more sympathetic than DACA. I sincerely believe if they were protesting and more politically involved, they'd easily pass it through but no noise is being made. That's a good thing personally in my opinion since I'm turned off by protests and think that it divides us, and most protesters are very aggressive and bluntly not very bright. However, protests are very effective in American History in order to make change and if I were in their position I'd say that's the best bet. Some protests seem politically manufactured and arguments easily refuted, but movements like the civil rights movements and the American Disability Act would not have been possible without protests.
Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV
#56Hey, but at least you get paid more in U.S., right?
Zurich, along with London, has the highest salaries for development in Europe. You may need to work in a finance-related position, but you can make fairly big bucks.
https://careers.google.com/locations/zurich/
Disclaimer: I work for Google, but not in ZRH.
Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
This means you will never build anything with zero marginal cost. That cuts out a lot of opportunities - and with software eating the world, more and more opportunities over time.
Only few companies can "win the world" by definition -- and besides work, it takes tons of luck, relinquishing control to VCs and stock markets, and boards, and all the right stars aligned. Plus the personal toll. One is better off building something smaller, where work and talent is enough to maintain it. There are more opportunities in those companies (e.g. a $1 to $50 million dollar business) of which there are te…
$1..50 million dollar businesses: I agree, great stuff. I'm just not sure that such businesses have realistic long-term moats against the Amazons of the world.
Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "This is a great observation: we need better accelerators to incubate startups that are more realistic and not willing to salt the earth to win at all costs [1]." We already have that. They're called banks.
There's a huge gap between investments banks consider too risky and the kinds of things SV investors in particular want to fund.
Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV
#59Hey, but at least you get paid more in U.S., right?
Zurich pay can eclipse Valley pay. I have friends who went to ETH for grad school and were getting close to 100k CHF a year. This is grad school -- the pay goes up from there.
Take this 250k googler, he's more frugal than anyone I know and yet they spend 90k/yr living in Zuerich. http://retireinprogress.com/2017-q4/
Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
So don't build an AirBnB-like solution.
This means you will never build anything with zero marginal cost. That cuts out a lot of opportunities - and with software eating the world, more and more opportunities over time.