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Comment by manish_gill | Hacker News Reader

Question to anyone who knows better: Can people in EU take advantage of this somehow? US compensation is _crazy_ relative to what I make in Berlin for example. 2-3x or more for Senior/Staff level positions. I'm not an EU citizen, so I'm not even sure how to apply for the best possible positions in US-based companies.

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I wouldn't bother with Berlin. Its filled with cheap startups that pay low and dont offer equity for devs (in my very limited experience of job hunting there).

Moving to west or south Germany instantly means 30% pay raise for a solid dev.

What you might want to look for is a US HQ employer that already has EU based people, possibly a company that operates globally and has sales staff in your country.

That should probably clear most hurdles of taxes, benefits, etc. since they have already figured that out.

Why sales staff in particular?

That's usually why local divisions get opened. I'm from a tiny country in Europe,where all the Microsofts and Googles of this world have local offices but only a handful of people employed there. So following that logic, you could work for the US headquarters,yet be employed at the local branch.

Yep, usually opening an office in a different country starts with sales staff. This gets that company over the hurdle of establishing payroll, benefits, taxes, etc. for that country.

If they allow remote workers for software jobs then it would be easier for them to hire you since they already have people employed there.

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