Comment by s3nnyy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by s3nnyy | Hacker News Reader

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I am not sure if I am overvaluing Medium but I feel that I owe the existence of my recruiting agency to them:

- In November 2014 I published "8 reasons why I moved to Switzerland to work in tech" (https://medium.com/@iwaninzurich/eight-reasons-why-i-moved-t...)

- I immediately started getting CVs from people who googled "work in Switzerland in tech". Then, I asked local startups and firms if they would pay me if I find them engineers. This worked out and now I run https://www.coderfit.com.

- After 2.5 years I still get a couple CVs a week due to the blogpost on Medium.

If one only has one or two blog posts (like me in the beginning), Medium is probably the best place to write. But now, since I want to grow my business, it feels like a waste not using my own domain.

(Fun fact: It took me three days to write this blogpost, and according to Medium 22k people (truly) read it and some even moved to Zurich with their families and their life completely changed. However, it took me one year each to write my bachelor's and master's thesis and the professor and his assistant (maybe) read it...)

Nah, I don't think it's Medium. That article featured here on HN and was commented a lot, I remember it myself.

I think it was a good article about a niche topic. Maybe being on Medium helped in making it viral to begin with...

It was never really "featured" on HN. I just posted it every now and then, when I thought it fits the conversation.

Not to be dismissive but I think you forgot very important issues, biased to your personal situation.

1) Switzerland doesn't speak English, it doesn't even have one language.

You don't feel it because you are German. One is going to have a hard time in Zurich if he doesn't speak German.

2) Considering a 20 years old insurance and a shared flat is surreal. All cities are affordable when you live in a dump with flatmates, including NYC, SF and London.

The problem is when you live in decent conditions, or worse, have a family. Your expenses will skyrocket and consume all the LOCAL salary.

Don't get me wrong. I love Switzerland, it has great a environment and it is safe. The costs of living is no better than anywhere else though.

I disagree with everything you wrote. From what you say, it seems you never lived here and you must be trolling.

Regarding 1) I can give you at least three personal contacts who can not speak German and get by well in Zurich. You have people living here for 10 years and don't speak German. 30% people living in the city don't hold a Swiss passport which makes it the city with the biggest "foreigner" rate (higher than London or Berlin)

Switzerland is the best place to have a family because cities are very small. I am surprised how many people don't get this. I recently overheard a discussion of a bunch of bankers in the train (One Swiss guy, two English guys). They UK-guys could not understand that most people "don't live in the city". The reason is this: It takes you 8 min by train from the city center into "nature"(e.g., Zurich HB -> Schlieren or Stettbach). In NYC, London or Berlin it's more like one hour. That means if you work "in the city" and if you are ok to commute like 10 minutes, you can get a very good and cheap apartment.

I even know one Phd student who earns 4000 CHF (waiter's salary) and feeds his wife and two kids from that money. This is unthinkable in Germany or any other place I know.

That's a scary thought.

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