There isn’t much discussion on European-based jobs instead US-based ones, so I decided to make a thread which will constantly be updated for future references. Please comment with your comments and I’ll add them to the post. Let’s compare different countries and cities in Europe, and compare all of them to the US. I can begin with mentioning a couple of major tech hubs/highly desirable places to be in for now: 🚇 LONDON - FAANG here - Finance companies pay a lot here (maybe more than FAANG for entry level engineers) - Competition is the best here, arguably best job hopping possibilities in the entire Europe - Snap pays well - High taxes - High living costs - Huge city, everyone can find something interesting to do - Weather is not perfect by any means + PR after 5 years + Citizenship after 6 years + Dual citizenship permitted + Est. effective tax rate for single, unmarried, no children on GBP 100k: 33.5% 🚊 ZURICH - Google has an office here, best pay in Europe - Facebook Oculus, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia also - Amazing QoL, very family friendly - Lower taxes than most other options, high savings - Great travel possibilities - Cleanest city ever - You get your salary in CHF which is not volatile - High CoL - For some it may be a bit boring - Almost impossible to get citizenship, PR only after 10 years + Both PR and citizenship only after 10 years (PR takes 5 years for the EU citizens and Americans/Canadians) + Citizenship extremely difficult to obtain (requires same time period as above - 10 years + you need to be vetted by the locals + speak local language to a high-degree of proficiency >B2) + Dual citizenship permitted + Est. effective tax rate for single, unmarried on CHF150k in Zurich (much more realistic number due to higher CoL): 24.6% + Mandatory Health insurance contribution of 500-1000 CHF/month resulting in net burden of 28.6 - 32.6%. 🚲 AMSTERDAM - Uber and Amazon/AWS here, not many other big companies though. Also Booking is there - Everyone rides bikes, very clean city overall - 30% tax ruling for expats, leading to higher take home pay - Great travel possibilities + Both PR and citizenship after 5 years - you need to speak Dutch at B1 level at least to obtain citizenship + Dual nationality strictly not permitted + 30% tax ruling is valid for 5 years only + Est. effective tax rate for single, unmarried on EUR100k: 42.1% (with 30% tax ruling, this will be effectively: 24.6% for 5 years max.) 🇩🇪 BERLIN - Amazon here 🇩🇪 MUNICH - Amazon and Google and Microsoft, AMD here + PR after 33 months (<3 years) if you are on Blue Card (nearly everyone here would qualify) + PR after 21 months (<2 years) if you are on Blue Card AND speak German at B1 level (need to take language proficiency test) + Blue Card = your salary is above EUR 58k. Or above EUR 45k if you are in specialty occupation - most tech folks qualify. Valid for 4 years, cannot change jobs for first 2 years (unless you get your PR prior to that). + Citizenship after 8 years (cumulative) with at least A2 level of German. 7 years for those who completed Integration course. 6 years if you have B2+ level German and some proof of community involvement etc. + Dual citizenship permitted only in very specific scenarios + Est. effective tax rate for single, unmarried on EUR100k: 43.5% ☘️ DUBLIN - Mostly operational roles in Ireland at FAANG (Amazon and Google do have Eng positions) - AirBnB, Stripe, Microsoft, Linkedin, Twilio, Zendesk there for SWE - Growing tech hub, more competition coming - High CoL - Weather is not perfect by any means + Both PR and citizenship after 5 years + Fast-track PR after 2 years only for specialty professions - most tech/IT jobs qualify for that. You get Critical Skills Employment Permit. + Dual citizenship permitted + Est. effective tax rate for single, unmarried on EUR100k: 38.8% 🇱🇺 LUXEMBOURG - Amazon has a rather big office there - Really nice nature - Very family friendly - Great location for traveling - Could be boring at times especially for single people + PR and citizenship after 5 years + Need to pass a Luxembourgish language exam (around A2/B1 level) and integration test + Dual citizenship permitted + Est. effective tax rate for single, unmarried on EUR100k: 25.6% 🇪🇸 SPAIN - Amazon there (both Barcelona and Madrid) + 5 years for PR + 10 years for citizenship. 2 years if you are an Ibero-American/Philippines citizen/Sephardi Jew. + Citizenship processing time is at least 2-3 years + Dual citizenship permitted + Est. effective tax rate for single, unmarried on EUR100k: 35.6%
Amazon and Google have Engg offices in Dublin. There are multiple AWS teams with SWEs. Amsterdam also has Booking.com :P
For what I know about Switzerland the pay is good but because the costs are high so I suspect some kind of Bay Area in terms of pay/costs In London I guess the good times are gone in finance, before the ir35 revolution you could be a contractor with a rate between 500 and 750 pounds a day now the possibilities are getting smaller and smaller, permanent positions are way less economically convenient and I’m not sure about the bonuses and stocks in faang how they compare with the Bay Area ones
🚲Amsterdam has Amazon and especially their AWS business and they cover EMEA region from there. Pay is decent relative to EU with 30% expat ruling.
Dublin is BS - boring, weather is crap.
I left Ireland after 2 years. I couldn't stand the weather anymore. It is really that bad.
Roku has an office in Cambridge UK and Aarhus Denmark.
OP- You don't seem to be an EU citizen. I would suggest going to London, with more options than rest of the places. It makes no sense to go to a place with limited roles.
That gloomy weather though.
Yeah, I’m non-EU. Also London is my no 1 pick.
Adding to your list: Zurich: FB, Apple and Microsoft have offices there and all of them pay very well. I can say this firsthand as my team is split between US and Zurich. Nvidia has office in Zurich too. Berlin: Amazon has a relatively big office and they seem to be hiring now. Tubingen: small university town; Amazon opened a research lab in visual computing a couple of years back Munich: Google, Microsoft have offices there London: Snap is also a good option in London and they pay very well (better than FAANG in London). I can say this first hand as I got an offer 1+ years back. Lyft L5 (self driving car) has a small office in London but I won’t suggest joining there now. Warsaw: Google has office in Warsaw Amsterdam: Qualcomm has a team here more based on a startup acquisition and focused on computer vision & deep learning Copenhagen: Unity (game/graphics engine)has one of their main development teams in Denmark
Can I ask you the offer details from Snap? I’m curious to understand the possible numbers
Overall yearly TC around $325 USD (base salary converted to USD + total RSU /4) which is considered a very good TC in London for tech industry.
Amazon has offices both in Madrid and Barcelona
Are there SWE teams in those offices, especially in Madrid?
Certainly! Actually the office in Madrid is quite big (can host 1k people) and with a lot of SWE (Kindle, Business, InTech, Fashion), if you are interested there are 40 SWE open positions at the moment) . In Barcelona is mostly ML research.
A good bunch of lower tier tech companies also have offices in Dublin (AirBnB, Stripe, Microsoft, Linkeding, Twilio, Zendesk, among others) and they have SWE positions
I believe FB has a Dublin office too, no?
FB had Dublin office, but based on what I heard it's mostly Enterprise Engg