London used to be the tech hub of Europe before Brexit (VC investment, # of tech positions, big tech presence etc). I lived/worked there for 5 years and it was great.

Still a good place... but Brexit is making EU engineers explore options outside the UK like this, one at a time: Image
As someone who has seen London tech at its prime, I think one of the biggest misses of the current UK government is not doing more to "retain" the London tech hub.

Dublin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin and other EU "hubs" are slowly, but surely pulling London EU folks away.
My response to "what is your take on choosing the next city?" was this: Image
"What will the next EU* tech hub be?"

*taking the UK out of EU.

My take: it should have been Paris... if they capitalized on it, and changed a bunch of policies (which they don't and won't).

Amsterdam & Dublin are the biggest winners, and plenty other gainers). Image
And here's an inbound DM on why Paris (sadly) is a place that will struggle to attract tech talent. Even though it has all many characteristics in location, size, population, transport to be a tech hub.

The language for tech is English, and in Paris you *need* to learn French. Image
A person weighing in (over a DM that I edited to remove personal details) on Barcelona.

And on how you should expect to (eventually) learn the local language either way. Which I agree with - I'm slowly improving my Dutch as well in Amsterdam. Image

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More from @GergelyOrosz

26 Oct
Big tech also starting to feel the pain of location-based pay.

"So I got an offer from Google. It's a 60% paycut from what I'm making right now, working remote, as a senior engineer. Never thought I'd say this to Google: but sorry, no."

- an eng in a Central EU Google location
Big tech opening offices in smaller cities is based on the assumption that their brand can pull people in for cheaper. They also buy salary data that is outdated, as are their bands.

The Google-caliber engineers living in these locations already work for US companies: remote.
A lot of this depends on the local leader for Big Tech offices.

If they hire someone who is not familiar with the market, this is what happens. Google will have to either adjust their local bands at this location by *a lot*. Or... keep hiring in London / Zurich.
Read 6 tweets
26 Oct
I have mixed feelings on bootcamps. On one end, every bootcamp drastically oversells how easy it is to get a high-paying job.

On the other, many people do make the switch thanks to bootcamps and are better off for it.

The market now is very tough especially for bootcamp grads.
It’s never been a harder time to get a job as an entry-level engineer, despite the hot market for seniors. Here is some advice on this: blog.pragmaticengineer.com/advice-for-tec…

However, even years ago, only 25% of enrolments in my wife’s bootcamp “made it” as developers with a job. Image
Bootcamps *will* keep selling the dream, and try to make a profit/living.

However, the sad reality is that its not easy to get a high-paying job in a few months through a shortcut. Most people will fail doing so.

Your support network matters just as much as the bootcamp.
Read 5 tweets
22 Oct
FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) came about purely with regards to total compensation. ~2014 onwards these companies paid the most TC, in a large part thanks to large stock grants & stock 📈.

There are still few places you can make so much with so little risk.
There are plenty of places where as an eng you could outperform total compensation packages of FANG: most notably recently IPO’d companies (eg Doordash, Robolox, Coinbase, Robinhood etc) or when joining companies with good timing (eg Snap).

You had to take more risks for these.
I also feel FAANG is overhyped especially for new grads who desperately want to get in and somehow this naming fuels it’s own “myth”.

Professional growth-wise there are so many comparable places - with less competition to get in, similar cultures and compensation.
Read 4 tweets
20 Oct
I'd also add that when you observe things in tech that *you* think don't make sense - e.g. hiring, promos etc - this is an opportunity to ask "why?" and dig deeper.

Tech is full of companies who keep optimizing their way of working, even it doesn't make sense from the outside.
Hiring is a perfect example.

"Hiring is broken!" - say people looking for jobs. "Companies don't know what they're doing" - many cry.

But hiring is full of tradeoffs, and from the view of the company and hiring manager, it often works well enough from their point of view.
Tech is a place where it’s realistic for many to start a company and do things the way they want to do it.

I’ve found this is the point many founders have “aha!” moments, when they learn about the constraints that have led to many “doesn’t make sense” practices from the outside.
Read 5 tweets
13 Oct
This is now happening and the pay is above Berlin sr eng levels.

For senior engineers, I’m hearing Doordash is paying €120-150K/year total comp in Berlin (€90-110K base salary, $130-210K stock over 4 years).

Hello competition!
For context: it was very, very hard for a senior engineer to break the €100K “glass ceiling” in Berlin. Companies like Zalando/similar ones pay €85K/yr in salary. No equity.

Doordash just doubled this.

Source: people saying thanks for this early tip who accepted DD offers.
Glad this person paid attention - and so are they.

When you’re early and few people know about some companies, and you suspect it’s a company with a larger than usual compensation package: it’s easier to get an offer than when everyone already knows about them. Image
Read 4 tweets
12 Oct
With Amazon announcing they will allow remote work*

*with and only with approvals from L7/L8

Let me share how I’ve observed lots of long-tenured engineers & EMs leave Amazon recently. A hot market where Amazon caliber talent can get a lot more probably doesn’t help either.
Note that this for the US. In EU, Amazon still pays well (well… most companies don’t) and the infamous Amazon “PIP culture” is not present, thanks to strict employee protections.

I predict Amazon will expand more outside the US.

Source of first image: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=288310…
Amazon has mastered paying for the least overall amount of cash for the type of world-class engineers they need (people building at scale), optimising the math for maximum tenure.

Basically, they are being the cheapest among the higher paying companies. This also bites them now.
Read 4 tweets

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