Ask HN: Getting a SF salary as a remote developer in EU? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Getting a SF salary as a remote developer in EU?

11 pointsahmaman5 comments

On average developers are relatively well-paid in Europe, but it is still not even close to the compensation levels mentioned in places like levels.fyi.

For those of you who got a remote contract/job with a SF salary, could you share your experience? How did you hear about the job? Any advice to share? Especially interested if you are based in Europe.

I understand that the high compensation in places like SF is due to a fierce competition over talent and high living expenses. However, with more companies going remote, I wonder if these jobs are becoming more accessible?

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I manage a team of programmers who reside all over the world from the USA and Canada to China, India, Brazil, and Eastern Europe. All as full-time employees. We don't do contractual based outsourcing as I have found that that the work products from that type of remote arrangement have been disappointing.

As more companies settle into the remote thing, I think you will find that salaries for English speaking, US time zone candidates who don't have visa complications will level out to "Average US values". Some of the highs we see on the east and west coasts will likely drop.

That said, most EU candidates are in a tough spot with respect to getting a coastal US salary. In my opinion, the biggest impediment to a larger remote salary for EU candidates is that there are several Eastern European countries with excellent programming talent pools who look to be compensated relative to their peers not my peers.

I see, makes sense as the available options increase.

Indeed I imagine it is challenging to compete with eastern european developers on the price. The cost of living there is much lower than where I live for example (Northern Europe).

With that said, any recommendations on places to look for such jobs/contracts with a coastal US salary?

Those jobs will definitively be more accessible, but don't expect the same compensation (which I think is fair). Generally speaking, the trend I'm seeing is that the salary will be benchmarked against SF, sort of what GitLab did with their salary calculator. Of course there are a few companies that pay the same, but those are the exception, not the rule. Btw they removed the calculator, so you can use this: http://web-old.archive.org/web/20200721063326/https://about.... although is a bit dated.

Thanks for sharing the calculator, was helpful to see Gitlab's logic about how the location and the role affect the pay!

I've gotten a couple of US jobs via HackerNews's Who's Hiring thread. They weren't paying levels.fyi money, but were healthily into six figures range. I abandonded them over time, because I can make more in Europe without dealing with time zone and culture differences.

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