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Ask HN: Any good resources for finding software jobs abroad?

367 points| kevlar1818 | 9 years ago | reply

Just wondering. No real reason to ask. (Completely serious question, however)

227 comments

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[+] bendmorris|9 years ago|reply
A man was walking along a river bank when he saw another man on the opposite side. "Hello!" he called out, "how do you get to the other side of the river?"

The man called out in response, "you are on the other side of the river!"

[+] kranner|9 years ago|reply
A similar joke I've heard has the opposite moral, so to speak:

The man on the other side responds: "Don't ask me. I was born here."

[+] dokument|9 years ago|reply
Want to know the reason that grass is greener on the other side of the fence? Because, it is fertilized with bullshit.
[+] jonalmeida|9 years ago|reply
OP specifically said it was a serious question, so this comes off as patronising..
[+] ascotan|9 years ago|reply
Did the man have a wolf a, a sheep and a cabbage?
[+] dcposch|9 years ago|reply
Appreciate the sentiment, but I think it's a false equivalence.

I was in Amsterdam for a week in June and I'm in SF today. I love both cities, but the difference is palpable. The US is experiencing a wave of xenophobia and outright hate right now.

I totally understand not wanting to be part of it.

--

Amsterdam is beautiful. It has more bikes than cars, transit that makes the Bay look embarrassing, and in my subjective experience, super nice people.

It's also a real city with a lot of interesting projects happening.

I'm very tempted

[+] erikbye|9 years ago|reply
Norway: http://m.finn.no/job/fulltime/search.html?occupation=0.23&fi...

281 java positions, 182 c#, 91 c++

New ones coming in every day.

There is a lot of demand here for skilled developers, most positions are not for startups, but established business.

Software developer salary is typically lower than in the US, but then again, cost of living (as far as apartment rent goes(in Oslo)) is lower than in SV. C#/Java back-end salary usually range from 600,000 NOK (73 188 dollar, at the low end, not much experience, poor resume) to 1,000,000 NOK (121 980 dollar, senior).

The average developer salary in Oslo is at 106k (dollar). National average is 82k, most attractive jobs, and salaries, tend to be in Oslo.

[+] bpicolo|9 years ago|reply
Rent is about the only thing in Norway that's cheaper, though. (And it's far more expensive in Oslo than most of the US, no?)

That said, loved Norway when I visited

[+] ayberk|9 years ago|reply
What about the language barrier? Would English be enough?
[+] wallzz|9 years ago|reply
I visited Oslo last week, and I have to say that its one of the best cities I have ever been to, people are very welcoming, streets are clean, everything is almost perfect.
[+] chill1|9 years ago|reply
You could try freelance work for clients remotely. That would give you a lot of freedom to choose where to live.

I am an American living, working (as a freelance programmer) in Czech Republic -- good economy (especially Prague), low crime rate, low cost of living. Happy to answer questions.

[+] tristor|9 years ago|reply
I lived in Prague for a short while as a digital nomad. It's a great city and I'm considering coming back more long-term and buying property there. Not only is the economy great, but it's a very walkable city with fantastic public transportation and is generally very clean. All of this was helpful in making each day I woke up a happy day, something that's hard to capture and definitely not the norm for most cities in the world.

So if you do get your remote work job, this is another +1 for Prague being amazing.

[+] Scea91|9 years ago|reply
Nice to see praise of my city. As a research software engineer I am in the top 1 % percent here so it is definitely a good career choice here.

However, the cost of living is skyrocketing now in Prague compared to the rest of the country and our wages. For the cost of my small flat (60 m^2) I could buy two nice big houses in a smaller city just 60 km from here.

[+] yonibot|9 years ago|reply
Any advice on landing remote freelance gigs? I assume you don't use lowest-common-denominator sites like eLance.
[+] jpkeisala|9 years ago|reply
Do you speak the language? I image in Czech Republic english is not very common. Have you had any challenges with the language barrier?
[+] drumdance|9 years ago|reply
Just curious, what's your rate in Prague? Is it a comparable bargain for US companies to hire you?
[+] eyeinthepyramid|9 years ago|reply
What kind of visa are you on? Was it hard to get?
[+] sreejithr|9 years ago|reply
The country you currently live in defines what this "Abroad" is. At least specify if you're American or non-American.
[+] codingdave|9 years ago|reply
Lets take a wild guess -- Which one of those groups suddenly wants to flee their country?
[+] jrockway|9 years ago|reply
You still have to pay for Trump's wall.

For me, it's not worth moving. I was born here, and as a result I'm somewhat responsible for the actions my country takes as a whole. Moving doesn't change that. The grass looks greener on the other side, but other countries aren't really doing that well with human rights, LGBT issues, affordable housing, or constitutionally-protected free speech. No matter where you move, you're trading one bag of shit for another.

It's weird.

[+] mcjiggerlog|9 years ago|reply
> other countries aren't really doing that well with human rights, LGBT issues, affordable housing, or constitutionally-protected free speech

Bit of a weird statement. There are a lot of countries in the world and plenty of them do far better than the US on these issues.

[+] jakebasile|9 years ago|reply
I'm mostly just curious. There is a lot written about immigration to the US but not too much about emigration from it. I agree that moving away doesn't really solve the problem and that despite our flaws I believe we have an advantage in many respects.

Democracy isn't perfect, and sometimes it means you lose. It means you need to talk to people who disagree with you and persuade them, and I think this cycle shows that the left hasn't been doing too well on that front.

[+] kevinofe|9 years ago|reply
It is true that unless you are only in USA for 30 days of the year, you will still have to pay income tax in USA. I've been in Asia this year, working as remote freelancer and because I had to come back for about 6 weeks to deal with some business stuff, I won't be able to claim the foreign income tax excludion. I'll also have to pay the ACA penalty (still cheaper) because I cancelled my health insurance after leaving USA. But living in Asia has been a great experience and I would recommend it. However, time zones between here and west coast are weird. I'm either waking up at 5am or staying up til 12am if I have to do a call.
[+] kirushik|9 years ago|reply
We at SUSE Linux will be happy to relocate all the suitable specialists (development, QA, support, management... 66 positions are open) to Germany or Czech: https://jobs.suse.com

You can filter by location, we have a couple of positions in Provo, Utah as well...

[+] Teichopsia|9 years ago|reply
As a self taught, inexperienced programmer, I hope you don't mind answering a question. Looking through the list of jobs it seems that I could perform the Junior QA. However, since I am probably suffering from imposter syndrome, I'm somewhat unsure. A bit about my background: My interest is in full stack development. I'm comfortable with python, html5 and am currently re-learning CSS, which I have found harder to understand than programming, but I am getting there. My workflow is mostly through the CLI (basic commands) and have some experience with git. I've toyed around with a few languages, racket and js come to mind. I could conclude by asking, if I'm currently not fit for that position, what else would I need to learn?
[+] lacampbell|9 years ago|reply
I'm curious too. I live in New Zealand. How can I get a software job abroad - say in the United States?
[+] afarrell|9 years ago|reply
I recently made the move (US->UK) and am happy to give people advice. My email is in my profile.
[+] zemanel|9 years ago|reply
I've found a job abroad (im from portugal) twice, once in UK and recently netherlands, both through LinkedIn Jobs (coincidently or not). Had other contacts through HN Who's Hiring posts as well.

Ps: SanomaNL is hiring in the Netherlands (senior fronted/backend python but Golang is creeping up/devops): https://github.com/sanoma/jobs/blob/master/README.md

[+] jiahen|9 years ago|reply
This is a good resources if you want to work in Asia. https://www.techinasia.com/jobs
[+] benjaminRRR|9 years ago|reply
Good resource, I just posted for an opening with our team in Bangkok.
[+] jiahen|9 years ago|reply
but rising temperature on equator will be a problem. Not to mention rising sea level.
[+] zwetan|9 years ago|reply
I think the problem is not about finding resources but about culture of the country and their work culture

I'm French, long time ago as long as I was looking from France to work in the UK, about 9 out of 10 recruiters ignored me.

Once I landed in London and did the same search of jobs, interviews piled on me.

I'm not saying you can not find anything from remote and online, just saying it seems much much easier to find something once you are already in the country.

[+] mikereedell|9 years ago|reply
Similar thing happened to me with a much shorter move: central NJ to Philadelphia suburbs. Once I started using an address local to my job search I had no issues getting interviews. Before that was rough and the distance was only 100 miles.
[+] mattnumbe|9 years ago|reply
I recruit in Japan and we use DaiJob, Indeed, and GaijinPot. There are also quite a few on linkedIn (they seem to pay a lot better as well)
[+] jakebasile|9 years ago|reply
Is the cultural difference between the United States' more cutthroat form of employment and the "salaryman" idea in Japan an issue in the transition? Does it apply to our industry?
[+] snowcrshd|9 years ago|reply
How difficult would it be to get a job in Japan without knowing the language?

It must be imperative in daily life, but how about in the work environment?

[+] devmop|9 years ago|reply
Do you have any advice on finding good recruitment firms out there? I've gotten too used to firms turning up on LinkedIn with piles of jobs.
[+] cheiVia0|9 years ago|reply
Is "GaijinPot" really what it is called?
[+] timClicks|9 years ago|reply
The standard website for New Zealand listings is seek.co.nz.

If you are interested in the startup scene, the best recruiters would probably be Talent Army

[+] slimano|9 years ago|reply
If you're looking for a job in Paris, Lyon, London or Berlin -> https://www.talent.io/

Just signup, get a call with a talent advocate so they know what you're looking for, and as soon as the next monday you're in. You will receive from 5 to 15 tailored job offers in less than 2 weeks. That's the easiest way around.

[+] themckman|9 years ago|reply
I was able to find a job rather quickly on berlinstartupjobs.com if you'd like to consider Germany as an option.

Germany is a rather good option for working abroad as getting a visa is pretty easy if you have a college degree and make a certain amount of money. They're pretty liberal about handing out something called the EU Blue Card. That's what I had when I was over there. You don't even need to do anything before you get there. All the paperwork happens when you're in the country. The trickiest part of the whole process is making sure you end up at a place when you get there that you can register at with the local government as you have to show your registration confirmation as part of the Blue Card process. If you can get registered and receive mail wherever you stay initially everything is pretty easy.

[+] planetjones|9 years ago|reply
For EU citizens you could just go on Jobserve.com and find an IT job in the UK or Switzerland (or maybe else where) that interests you and apply. Many jobs will only take people with the right to work, but there may be others who would sponsor a permit from outside the EU.
[+] lifeisstillgood|9 years ago|reply
In Europe simply buy a train ticket and go.

I am assuming however this is leaving the US for ... not-US locations

My suggestion would be to stay where you are, look for remote work opportunities that will give you the ability to losslessly change jobs until you found the work culture that suits.

And it also gives you opportunity to get involved in your local or state politics where you can make a genuine difference.

Just as Europe has a free-to-move labour force (for now!) the US has strong and increasingly independent States that look more and more like the engines of progressive change. California just approved marijuana for example.

Let the countries of the world deal with any changing trade and defence agreements. It's why they have diplomats.

NB - I am not meaning to be as patronising as I may be coming across