Ask HN: Any good resources for finding software jobs abroad?
Just wondering. No real reason to ask. (Completely serious question, however)
The man called out in response, "you are on the other side of the river!"
The man on the other side responds: "Don't ask me. I was born here."
I think it was just pointing out a semantic flaw in the post: OP forgot to say where he lives, so we don't know what "abroad" is in his case.
[1]: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canada-s-immigration-website-cr...
I was in Amsterdam for a week in June and I'm in SF today. I love both cities, but the difference is palpable. The US is experiencing a wave of xenophobia and outright hate right now.
I totally understand not wanting to be part of it.
--
Amsterdam is beautiful. It has more bikes than cars, transit that makes the Bay look embarrassing, and in my subjective experience, super nice people.
It's also a real city with a lot of interesting projects happening.
I'm very tempted
Were there actually any reported hate crimes, or is this just rumors and confirmation bias? People are definitely on edge today, but I felt it more from the Clinton supporters.
(I know of the swastika graffiti in Philly, but that could have been from either side.)
281 java positions, 182 c#, 91 c++
New ones coming in every day.
There is a lot of demand here for skilled developers, most positions are not for startups, but established business.
Software developer salary is typically lower than in the US, but then again, cost of living (as far as apartment rent goes(in Oslo)) is lower than in SV. C#/Java back-end salary usually range from 600,000 NOK (73 188 dollar, at the low end, not much experience, poor resume) to 1,000,000 NOK (121 980 dollar, senior).
The average developer salary in Oslo is at 106k (dollar). National average is 82k, most attractive jobs, and salaries, tend to be in Oslo.
If nothing else you will need to communicate with the authorities constantly - immigration/work permit matters, insurances, health care, etc.
So don't expect English to carry you far unless you know at least the basics of the local language.
And that goes for authorities too. Had a non-Swedish partner for a few years who always communicated in English in all interactions with Sweden's governmental services - no problem. All important government websites are available in English. Knowing Swedish isn't even a requirement for citizenship.
So while knowing Swedish is certainly very beneficial and recommended, you can certainly get by without it, and work for many interesting companies (at least as a developer).
However, all the paperwork you will need to handle will still come in the official language, not in English. All contracts and legal documents will be in that language as well. So not knowing at least the basics will handicap you severely.
I have learned enough of Danish to be able to read the paperwork and do some basic writen communication. That's really the minimum to get you by.
Spoken Danish was a bit too much - the saying that Danish is not a language but a throat disease is not far from the truth!
That said, as soon as I started getting some actual Norwegian language skills, it improved.
(Honestly, though, we probably would've gotten along fine without the translators, as we'd spent a couple months with Rosetta Stone before traveling... we were/are far from fluent, sure, but good enough to order a pizza, I'd imagine ;) ).
Our business grew to deliver huge installations on tens of thousands of computers, and our internal tooling grew as well. We have well over 100k lines of scheme. Since it works well, we don't really want to invest in porting it. We tried rewriting our macro system in python, but it was god-awfully slow, and ended up being harder to read. With scheme, we can just rely on syntax-case to de-construct the macros, which is not only fast but also easy to extend.
I've dabbled in scheme, though I'm most proficient at Clojure.
I worked at a pretty international company before where there was several individuals whom had lived in Sweden for several years without even bothering to learn the language.
Don't be that guy or gal though, Swedes don't like it when you live here for years without learning anything. Norway is the same, same with Finland and Denmark.
You are welcome, if you ever consider moving I could probably give you some tips of potential employers!
But regarding employers, I don't know that many in Gothenburg but you could look up Fast2 maybe?
Even police refuse to go there.
I am actually in the making of a swedish job site for developers. But you will have to wait for that one though.
Otherwise, you can search for your language of choice at https://www.arbetsformedlingen.se/. I am sure lots of jobs will turn up, at least in Stockholm. What you want to do is probably to use Google Translate on that webpage or something because their english version sucks ass.
And the Duolingo app has Norwegian, too. :)
English does get you pretty far, however, and a lot of folks speak English to varying degrees.
That said, loved Norway when I visited
Rent prices in Oslo haven't boomed in paralell with the real estate market, so it's not that bad. And opting for something outside the city-centre, but still just a short commute (10-20 min by train/metro), is always an option.
Those of you who live in SF, how accurate are the rent numbers here? For Oslo they seem about right.
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...
If the rent prices for SF specified here reflects reality, then any other living cost in Oslo is easily offset, comparatively.
That said, that is -drastically- higher than rent in the rest of the country.
Compare Durham, NC, for example: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...
Durham isn't some tiny village or one-horse town. It's part of the North Carolina capital metropolitan area; on the edge of the Research Triangle Park (where there are tons of jobs); in near proximity of 3 reputable research universities, offering first-class medical, engineering, veterinary, and agricultural programs, among others (Duke, UNC, and NCSU — thus, the "Triangle"); home to an international airport; birthplace of Clojure, while Epic Games and RedHat Headquarters are just down the road in Raleigh, and GamebaseUSA is just across the road in Chapel Hill, while hundreds of companies, many of whom you've heard of, either call the Triangle area home or have major satellite offices in the area. It's got mild weather, a fantastic craft beer scene, great culture, and frequently makes it on "Top 10" lists for quality of life and business climate.
Starting salaries for junior software engineers start at around $65-75K, but within 3 years in the industry, I was already earning 6 figures — and that money goes a long way in the area due to the low cost-of-living.
I am an American living, working (as a freelance programmer) in Czech Republic -- good economy (especially Prague), low crime rate, low cost of living. Happy to answer questions.
However, the cost of living is skyrocketing now in Prague compared to the rest of the country and our wages. For the cost of my small flat (60 m^2) I could buy two nice big houses in a smaller city just 60 km from here.
* Build a web presence that funnels potential leads to you (blog, portfolio, resume, stackoverflow profile with activity like posting questions/answers, programming/freelance subreddits, github contributions and projects).
* Build your personal network via meetups, conferences, etc.
* Toptal [1] is the best platform for finding gigs that I've used, but it could be better. It has short-, medium-, and long-term contracts. Not the best possible rates and it's possible to waste some time with interviews, but it's still a lot better than elance and others.
* Gun.io [2] is something that looks interesting, but I have never gotten a contract through it. So could be hit or miss.
[2] https://gun.io/
[And I'll second that the dev marketplace sites are a waste of time. Anyone I've mentioned it to has echoed similar thoughts except for the one-off non-technical person who wants to get a simple job, like converting a json file to an Excel spreadsheet, etc done for cheap.]
So if you do get your remote work job, this is another +1 for Prague being amazing.
* PaperHub at Paralelni Polis - https://www.paralelnipolis.cz/koncepty/coworking/
* ImpactHub - http://www.hubpraha.cz/en/
* Node5 - http://node5.cz/#about
If so, I guess, my only option is to be an expert on some js stack huh?
For me, it's not worth moving. I was born here, and as a result I'm somewhat responsible for the actions my country takes as a whole. Moving doesn't change that. The grass looks greener on the other side, but other countries aren't really doing that well with human rights, LGBT issues, affordable housing, or constitutionally-protected free speech. No matter where you move, you're trading one bag of shit for another.
It's weird.
Democracy isn't perfect, and sometimes it means you lose. It means you need to talk to people who disagree with you and persuade them, and I think this cycle shows that the left hasn't been doing too well on that front.
The problem in this case is that that's terrible.
Freedom for everyone means they have the freedom to disagree as much as you do.
I'll never forget the cheering and applause Thiel got from Republicans when he announced he was proud to be gay at the RNC. That was a pretty special moment.
He has a long record of being pro-LGBT and if he was going to backtrack on that to appease his supporters he would have done it before the election, not now after he already has their votes.
You can make a US tax free $100k in Hong Kong with the exemption. Going the credit route takes what you pay in local taxes and deducts that from what you pay in the US, so in European countries with high taxes, you still don't pay any more.
Still have to file though.
Bit of a weird statement. There are a lot of countries in the world and plenty of them do far better than the US on these issues.
Countries I considered:
Malta - similar wages as in Poland, but smaller market, housing problem as in Germany, rent prices as in the UK. Great nature, I like nature.
Germany - language barrier, housing problems (in Berlin 30 people visit a house or flat to rent and landlord decides who will get it). Nice pay/(rent price + living costs) - I still could afford more in Berlin than in Bristol and Cardiff.
Austria - language barrier (not really German), even when job offer and interview is in English, job requires fluent German, as everyone in the office speaks German, so you don't want to be alienated at the very beginning.
Switzerland - extremely high living costs, you won't be able to afford to buy a flat/house after 5years of living there, I felt really poor when I realized I will financially struggle even to move there and rent a flat for few first months.
France, Paris - visited it and that's a no-go zone for me. Couldn't buy a ticket at international train station in English and German as cashiers speak only French. City is a ruin after allowing all refugees live on a street.
Now, I'm looking into Japan, Australia, Canada and Czech Republic. As op said, you're always dealing one bag of shit for another.
This comment is beyond parody.
English* is not my native language, I was taught Germany at school, I lived there it was OK. I wanted to move to the UK, I learnt the language mostly myself. I don't have any more that much time and energy to learn Austrian dialect of German or remind German again. Yea, I'm lazy, but I can communicate in 3 languages.
>This comment is beyond parody.
Agreed, your comment is funny :)
Huh. I've lived in Paris for two years, freelancing, and I'm still not fluent in French. I get by just fine. Train tickets: I've never had that problem with cashiers, but you can always use a machine or buy a ticket online - there's always an English option. Same with ATMs, public transportation, etc.
> City is a ruin after allowing all refugees live on a street.
You have no idea what you are talking about. Refugees were mainly around Stalingrad metro station in northeastern Paris. The camp was cleared out a few days ago and people were sent to more proper accommodation. Probably people will set up camp around there again. If seeing refugees bothers you, I suggest you simply avoid that particular little part of this massive city. It doesn't make Paris a "ruin".
What the fuck. I have been living in Paris for a couple of years and those are insane issues to have.
I have not seen an increase in the number of homeless people in the street (which is not too say that there are no homeless people in France)
All the automatic ticket machines can display their text in english.
The state of the city is roughly the same as it was when I arrived.
For anyone wondering I was also exaggerating a bit about Malta and Switzerland.
Berlin has a lot of very nice green spaces, and excellent infrastructure.
Oh and also, they just got themselves a left+left+green government.
Otherwise, apply for jobs in Norwegian startups through this site:
You can filter by location, we have a couple of positions in Provo, Utah as well...
Basically: you never know what exactly the team on the other side is looking for. They might try to convey that the best possible way in those 2-3 paragraphs the "Typical Job Description" format allows them, and still fail. Or they might even not try that, because of some weird internal political reasons, or just a lack of job-posting skill, or plain unwillingness to bother.
So, consequently, the only reliable way for you to know if they're looking for a person with your skillset or not — is to apply.
Because he's joking and making fun of the fact that the original post presumes everyone lives in America and sees 'Abroad' as elsewhere.
- higher salaries
- electronics, groceries, cars etc are all much cheaper
- lower rent if you compare towns and cities of similar sizes
- world leaders in computing for the past 50 years
Have you been to NZ? Why do you think it's so great? Do you like poorly built, overpriced housing, expensive groceries, lower wages and anti-American sentiment?
I think getting paid by an American company but working remotely and living in NZ or Oz might be the holy grail.
Portland, Oregon might be the closest counterexample that comes to mind, but it is an order of magnitude bigger — population of the greater metropolitan area is 2.4 million.
There is a fair amount of inexpensive housing here but not in areas with the same cultural values. (Perhaps Wellingotn wasn't the best example, but it's in the only NZ city I've been to firsthand.)
Feel free to shoot me an email (in profile) if you'd like to discuss more.
Ps: SanomaNL is hiring in the Netherlands (senior fronted/backend python but Golang is creeping up/devops): https://github.com/sanoma/jobs/blob/master/README.md
https://medium.com/@iwaninzurich/eight-reasons-why-i-moved-t...
I'm French, long time ago as long as I was looking from France to work in the UK, about 9 out of 10 recruiters ignored me.
Once I landed in London and did the same search of jobs, interviews piled on me.
I'm not saying you can not find anything from remote and online, just saying it seems much much easier to find something once you are already in the country.
EDIT: I think I misread your question the first time. It can be difficult mostly because firms here are used to having employees who are generalists, work in every part of the company through the years, and become upper management who have a much needed knowledge of the whole company. In the west in general, we focus on one area and change companies to grow our skills in that field. This is a problem because its really hard to change companies in Japan and Japanese employers often want you to learn new skills to work in different areas of the company. In short, it's difficult to become a specialist in Japan without sacrifice (usually salary). But there are many new technology companies that are trying to change that pattern.
[1]https://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/no-of-suic...
[1] http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/
そうして来月のN2試験に集中しないと問題になります。
It must be imperative in daily life, but how about in the work environment?
If you are interested in the startup scene, the best recruiters would probably be Talent Army
Just signup, get a call with a talent advocate so they know what you're looking for, and as soon as the next monday you're in. You will receive from 5 to 15 tailored job offers in less than 2 weeks. That's the easiest way around.
Germany is a rather good option for working abroad as getting a visa is pretty easy if you have a college degree and make a certain amount of money. They're pretty liberal about handing out something called the EU Blue Card. That's what I had when I was over there. You don't even need to do anything before you get there. All the paperwork happens when you're in the country. The trickiest part of the whole process is making sure you end up at a place when you get there that you can register at with the local government as you have to show your registration confirmation as part of the Blue Card process. If you can get registered and receive mail wherever you stay initially everything is pretty easy.
I am assuming however this is leaving the US for ... not-US locations
My suggestion would be to stay where you are, look for remote work opportunities that will give you the ability to losslessly change jobs until you found the work culture that suits.
And it also gives you opportunity to get involved in your local or state politics where you can make a genuine difference.
Just as Europe has a free-to-move labour force (for now!) the US has strong and increasingly independent States that look more and more like the engines of progressive change. California just approved marijuana for example.
Let the countries of the world deal with any changing trade and defence agreements. It's why they have diplomats.
NB - I am not meaning to be as patronising as I may be coming across
Easy Expat < This site contains international classified advertisements, discussion forums, and job listings for expatriates all over the world.
Very good for medium-long term consulting gigs in Europe
They will start you just about any Western Europe country on your first job / contract. After that rely on your network as agencies advertising there are not 1st tier in the supplier chain
Startup Jobs in Madrid here: www.jobsmad.com
http://notanomadblog.com/categories/work-abroad/
Specifically, this posts on working remotely from abroad, but most of the resources listed also have jobs in-person, too.
http://notanomadblog.com/how-to-move-abroad-by-working-remot...
If you're looking at maximizing dollars, it's hard. But no amount of salary in the Bay Area will give you decent public transit.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/u-s-...
"Your worldwide income is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where you reside."
Your best scenario is to work remotely for a US company while living in a low cost of living country.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/fore...
Misleading.
You are compelled to file taxes in the US. It's quite unlikely that an American living abroad must actually pauy tax on foreign-earned income.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/fore...
It cheaper to fly to Los Angeles, buy Adobe Suite ( the old one when discs were still around) and arrive back to Australia rather than buying it in Australia.
That said, remember that if you're an actual american citizen, they will tax your foreign income and a programmer with a lot of experience can hit revenues where they actually have to remit money to the IRS in addition to the cost of compliance (which can itself be significant.)
In general, there's a scale/tradeoff of this, and California is on one extreme of that scale - there won't be any country that will pay even more, with the possible exception of some Saudi contracts or similar niches.
Maybe this means civic tech organizations like Code for America that explicitly work on public sector projects. Maybe it means working for a political advocacy group like the EFF, or someone working on privacy-related projects to help protect our civil liberties. Either way, helping improve things domestically seems like a nobler option than running away.
It's relatively easy to Google for expat websites for any specific country. The salaries are generally lower, but so is the cost of housing.
Our company Smartly.io is also hiring. 3-year-old startup, 100 employees, 30+ engineers, profitable, some real scalability issues to be solved (already 200+ servers), and based in Helsinki. :)
We are focused on AI and deep learning, and we are hiring research scientists, research software engineers, devops engineers, etc.
(But yeah, I've used the guys at Reactive and they are great too - nice office as well)
Just signup, get a call with a talent advocate so they know what you're looking for, then you'll receive from 5 to 15 tailored job offers in less than 2 weeks. That's the easiest way around.
I moved here last year, as an internal transfer. It's been pretty good overall.
Also StackOverflow Jobs has a number of openings across whole world, many of them with salaries.
However some big companies with lazy HRs mainly put job offers on their own websites and nowhere else.
1 Euro is currently ~ $1.10 US. Are you being facetious?
I agree with you on everything else though. Everything in Berlin seems reasonably priced. And it seems like a good quality of life there for a city. People seem pretty relaxed.
Berlin is very liberal and open-minded, but learning Deutsch is a must...
We're also happy to support with relocation.
Please contact me (email in profile) if you're interested in moving out here.
It only lists Tech job offers from companies willing to recruit internationally and to sponsor working visa if necessary. It's free. I co-created that website. Enjoy :)
Check out our jobs board: app.vanhack.com/jobboard and shoot me an email with any questions: ilya@vanhack.com
Seriously, ask your social network contacts in the countries that interest you. Demand for good developers is high everywhere, odds are there are openings at their companies.
Don't just go and browse job offers on random websites, that's inefficient and a lot of good offers are not there anyway. Another option would be to subscribe to something like https://www.talent.io/. Or, if you know some, just get in touch with headhunters in the country. They often have very good offers nobody knows about.
Highly recommended.
US is awful visa-wise, considering that much of the cap is filled up in a day by Indian body shops; ensuring thus that one can at best start in October, and set out on this magical journey 6-12 months ahead.