Ask HN: Working for US companies 100% remotely from Europe? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Working for US companies 100% remotely from Europe?

5 pointssdevonoes9 comments

I would like to know your experience regarding this topic.

Background:

- I'm working as a software engineer in western Europe (7 years of experience. The last 3 working fully remote)

- I would like to work for an American company (fully remote)

- I never been a freelancer, always an employee

My questions are:

- do American companies hire senior engineers from western Europe for 100% remote positions? I would say it's not very likely because: a) timezone differences and b) if timezone is not a problem then they could just hire eastern europeans for a cheaper price (hell, they can hire engineers from Latin America as well for cheaper prices)

- if American companies hire western europeans, is freelancing the most common way to go? I guess it's hard (legally) for American companies to hire european as employees.

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Few things:

1. Legally, you will be a freelancer anyway unless the US Company has a local office/subsidiary/branch office. Most likely, you will invoice the company say once a month and you take care of all taxes etc on your end depending on local laws.

2. Timezone is not an issue as long as you can agree on a good overlap that works for both parties.

3. yes, it is cheaper to hire from Latin America or Eastern Europe. Don't compete with them on cost only because you will always lose coming from Western Europe. Focus on value and why they should hire YOU. If you are as good as a local American developer and are more cost effective (a bonus), it is win win.

I've done this for various companies for the last 10 years, and would highly recommend it.

To address a few of the concerns brought up elsewhere in this thread:

Yes, you'll probably end up working as a contractor. Personally, that's my preferred work style so I see it as an advantage. For Europeans I could see how it could be considered a disadvantage.

The big upside is that US companies are used to paying market rates for developers, whereas EU companies are not. That means realistically you'll be bringing in a significant multiple of a typical EU dev salary, which will more than offset any of the little issues you need to deal with to be self employed over here.

As to timezone concerns and worries about having to compete with $10/hr freelancers, well, it's just never been an issue for me. My work product is the same regardless of where I'm sitting when I do it, so I charge the same rate you'd need to pay for me to do it in the Bay Area. And I work during the day, so if you want to talk we can do it when that's happening for both of us.

Now, I'm sure lots of US companies would be happy to negotiate those things away from you. But if you're good at what you do and they want to hire you, why would you let them?

Great answer. Thanks!

May I ask how do you negotiate the timezone difference? Do you sacrifice yourself and work in unusual European hours?

And how do you find your clients? What channels you use?

How did you find your first few clients?

Thank you!

I did work as a senior/tech lead position in multiple US startups (VC backed, seed to series A) for few years while being 100% remote. I was independent contractor billing via llc equivalent company I own.

I guess it is all about positioning, there is no way to win trying to compete in budget low quality work (fixing small business websites, writing scrapers and whatever is trending on upwork these days) and hoping to climb ladder somehow.

I went through subcontracting for digital agency I've met through some of my open source work.

At the end I've made nice money, bought a house and hit glass ceiling few times. It was fun, but then kids happened and time zones together with work pace required to sustain senior roles in startups just make me quit and don't look for another opportunity.

They are out there -- I've met a few of them. But you will need to seek the ones where the big time difference is a non-issue.

Many companies are still easing into the remote-only across a couple of time zones.

I am confident 2021 we will see more companies willing to take on EU based work.

Maybe East-coast dominant companies are easier. I don't like the 9 hour difference between Stockholm and California as it really puts one party out of sync with daylight working hours.

GitHub does hire in many countries outside of the US: https://github.com/about/careers

I see plenty of open positions on stackoverflow jobs. Try there. You'll probably find a suitable new role.

Edit: You can search here on who's hiring? with remote as a keyword.

Yes but look for jobs in unsexy industries. WordPress plugins and themes always need developers and hire worldwide.

Otherwise you will be hired as a contractor, yes.

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