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Comment by blc56 | Hacker News Reader

Background: I am French from a small town, came to college in the US after high school and now working as a back-end dev.

As some others mentioned, France is not the best when it comes to tech salaries. That being said, if you want to make more money, you will either have to prove that you can bring more value or build something of your own. If you feel limited by the market in France, then a few US companies will be interested in hiring you as a contractor. You will then have to pay a bunch of taxes you didn't know about in France but your cash inflow will increase if you price yourself right.

In terms of technology, what everyone looks for is a general understanding of software (architecture, algorithms, data structure, etc) and then mastery in one or more languages. I'd recommend looking into a functional language (Scala, Elixir etc) to broaden your thinking as well.

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> In terms of technology, what everyone looks for is a general understanding of software (architecture, algorithms, data structure, etc)

I'm glad to read that. I focus a lot on those aspects of the job, and I think that they are very important to produce good work. These are the aspect of the job I love most. Interviewers around here (south of france) don't seem to be interested in that. They tend to ask very specific questions about languages or framework instead.

I interviewed with a few French companies over a year ago in the case that I might have to move back home. I believe it is starting to change. Your experience is pretty reflective of what I heard from others as well.

As a young Frenchman living in a small town myself, I would be definitely interested in hearing more. How did you transition to a US college? In what context did it happen? Did you experience any difficulties?

I started the process early senior year of HS(fr: début de terminal) with standard tests. I was a soccer player back home so I was looking for a combo of strong academics and decent soccer program. I had an agent sending videos of my games to different coaches, I received a few offers, then picked the best soccer / academics / scholarship.

This process is both very exciting and stressing. It is very different once you actually get on campus for the first time and realize that despite being a western country, the culture in the US is very different. Adapting to that is important. Then after a few years, the most challening part of your adaption imo is to resolve your adopted culture with the culture you grew up with.

Very interesting, and timely as I must apply for higher education. If that's OK, I would like to learn more about your experience. My email address is in my profile.

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