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Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

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Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#51

Post by hluska »

baud147258 wrote: post #9
cassandrajam wrote: post #4

Hi, French here but I don't know much about the Paris scene, more the Lyon scene but they're probably close. Regarding the French language: you don't need to be good at it. Just learn enough of it so you can show the locals you tried, and soon they'll be ok speaking to you in English. All coding languages are English-based so everybody knows enough to work efficiently with non French-speaking people. Like the other u…

French here too; regarding language, it's rather annoying when there's one only person who don't speak French at work, forcing everyone else to switch. But if the co-workers are young enough, there shouldn't have too much difficulty for them to speak English. And regarding code, all the variable + comment are usually in English.

I'm Canadian (from the western part of the country) who grew up speaking pretty decent French, but lost everything but some traces of my accent when my Grandma passed away. I consider losing that language one of the great failures of my life.

I understand that that would be annoying. In your shoes, I'd be annoyed if they didn't even try to learn French.

I find that when I meet French speakers and want to practice, their first instinct is to switch to English. That's very kind, but it doesn't help me. If I was in a workplace in France, I would want people to speak French first, but slow down a little and tell me when I mess something up.

How would that go over in a workplace? Or is it the kind of situation where you speak English because it's the least annoying choice? :)

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#52

Post by baud147258 »

arendtio wrote: post #18
baud147258 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French here too; regarding language, it's rather annoying when there's one only person who don't speak French at work, forcing everyone else to switch. But if the co-workers are young enough, there shouldn't have too much difficulty for them to speak English. And regarding code, all the variable + comment are usually in English.

Yes and it is kinda annoying if there's only one country which doesn't want to adopt English, forcing everyone to learn their language ;-) So it is just a matter of perspective. I wonder how the chinese see that picture.

Or, on the other hand, English-speaking people who never do any effort to learn any other language, assuming that English will be spoken everywhere. :o

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#53

Post by pier25 »

Dannymetconan wrote: post #19
kjullien wrote: post #13

I live in Paris, am french, and have been working at the same startup for more than a year and some months now. The scene is very active, any new company these days will always brand themselves as a "startup" no matter how they function behind the scenes. So alot of "false advertising" when you postulate, "we're cool and all, we SOMETIMES allow a day of remote work a week" and typical bs like that. Your french will n…

Just a comment but 30k for 2 years full experience seems low. I'm working in another European capital and I'm at 40k for a similar full-stack dev role.

What country?

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#54

Post by sametmax »

mtremsal wrote: post #29
Jdam wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the salary is 2 to 3 times less so it’s negative?

Rule of thumb is that half the salary amount (e.g. 120k USD to 60k EUR) in Paris will get you about the same or better quality of life as you have in NYC or SF, once you account for differences in how real estate, taxes, healthcare, and retirement work.

I don't know any dev doing 120K USD (105k EURS)__as a salary in Paris. I doubt there are many. If you want to make this figures, you need to be a freelancer, which means no job safety, looking for clients, and paying for social security and requirements yourself.

French salaries for dev are in the 30k to 70k depending of your level. 70k is rare. You need to be good. To be able to negotiate or have a rare skill.

However 120K USD is not rare in the US. I had proposals for 220k.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#55

Post by chupasaurus »

arendtio wrote: post #18
baud147258 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French here too; regarding language, it's rather annoying when there's one only person who don't speak French at work, forcing everyone else to switch. But if the co-workers are young enough, there shouldn't have too much difficulty for them to speak English. And regarding code, all the variable + comment are usually in English.

Yes and it is kinda annoying if there's only one country which doesn't want to adopt English, forcing everyone to learn their language ;-) So it is just a matter of perspective. I wonder how the chinese see that picture.

Citizen of the ⅐ part of the land. Most of the IT workers here have an A2 or lower level of English.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#56

Post by chrisper »

sametmax wrote: post #17

Ok, so a lot of people here are comparing the french Startup scene to what it was before. I understand why, but it's misleading. Yes, compared to what it was before, it's booming. But it was ridiculously bad before. However compared to what's happening in the US, it's still lagging. Innovation is alright, however investment and risk taking are nowhere close to the American standard. It's still very meh. The culture o…

>but remotely work for an American company

How can one find something like this?

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#57

Post by Chiminh »

sametmax wrote: post #17

Ok, so a lot of people here are comparing the french Startup scene to what it was before. I understand why, but it's misleading. Yes, compared to what it was before, it's booming. But it was ridiculously bad before. However compared to what's happening in the US, it's still lagging. Innovation is alright, however investment and risk taking are nowhere close to the American standard. It's still very meh. The culture o…

Depending on the preferences Paris can be a pretty poor city or the best city in the world. I clearly fall into the first category. Living 'intramuros' is very expensive when adding the fact that salaries are not on part with major tech hubs. The city is dirty, very polluted (2nd worst area in Europe by air pollution after Moscow - don't have the reference link though), people are rude, and everything so cramped it makes you feel claustrophobic.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#58

Post by Jonas_ba »

Expat who moved to Paris here.

The tech scene is definitely very active, lots of events and meetups to join and some very active companies with good products around as well as active VC's in the city. Add Station F and The Family and you got a nice place to start a company.

Salary wise, I guess you are looking at 40-70k range, depending on experience and role.

The part where Paris is not that great is moving into the city. Speaking from personal experience, my gf moved in with me and tried finding a job outside tech w/o speaking French and it's basically a nightmare, she moved back. Getting any paperwork done or renting an apartment in Paris is a nightmare as well.

So overall, Paris is nice, but you need to be French or speak French to enjoy it, otherwise it might take some time and in my opinion, it's the only thing that makes Paris fall short of being a good place to move to.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#59

Post by ousta »

Jonas_ba wrote: post #58

Expat who moved to Paris here. The tech scene is definitely very active, lots of events and meetups to join and some very active companies with good products around as well as active VC's in the city. Add Station F and The Family and you got a nice place to start a company. Salary wise, I guess you are looking at 40-70k range, depending on experience and role. The part where Paris is not that great is moving into the…

please give me one example of a major city where renting an apartment as a foreigner is not a nightmare lol.. in USA you need a credit score....

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#60

Post by ThePadawan »

sametmax wrote: post #50
Jdam wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the salary is 2 to 3 times less so it’s negative?

Yes, you will be paid much less. But you will stay less hours at the office as well. And you'll get way more time off. Also you get to go to the Fontainebleau forest, eat to the "Pates vivantes" in the 9e, and can just walk to buy stuff most of the time. Or roller skate.

I believe they were unhelpfully commenting on your grammar.

They read "2 to 3 times less" as "-200% to -300%" instead of "33%-50%".

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