Comment by rcbdev | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rcbdev | Hacker News Reader

Developer based from Austria here - I'll counter what most are saying.

Europe has a much more stable / less volatile job market, mass layoffs are subject to union negotiations (see Google's debacle in France) and your life will generally be much more stable. Citizenship is also, comparably, easier to obtain in the long run compared to the bureaucratic mess US naturalization presents.

If you are at all willing to learn the language and are someone who prefers a calm life with a social safety net over just "more money", I'd recommend a salaried job with pension in Germany any day over an overpriced US college.

Added bonus: University is actually free as in free beer (even for non-EU citizens it is 10-20x cheaper than US based institutions)

There will be no union in a Berlin startup.

While the thing about unions is generally true in the European Union, universally it isn't. Take Hungary (where I am from) as an example. Trade unions there are practically non-existent. Most of them got destroyed by the state during the mismanaged adaptation of capitalism after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The ones remaining are a shadow at best (in terms of power) of what's there in Austria or Germany.

The rest I wholeheartedly agree with! (Waving from Vienna, oida!) My comment here is purely just for additional context. :)

Very true, but workers’ rights are still generally held in higher regard than in a lot of other countries… more due to begrudging compliance with EU directives than anything else, but it could be worse.

Maternity leave is very good, paternity leave recently improved, laws on overtime are relatively strict (although somewhat loosened since the “slave law”) shift allowances are decent, rules around notice periods, probation periods and termination are all relatively fair.

It’s also true in the (admittedly-no-longer-EU) UK that unions are fairly weak nowadays except in very specific industries, such as the railways, public sector, etc.

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