Comment by lostmsu

1 month ago

Not sure about Ireland, but Switzerland used to be true, but now it is also far behind since 5+ years.

See, Google Zurich vs Seattle

https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/greater...

https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/greater...

Hm, after carefully reviewing the entries seem more or less the same, Zurich slightly lower.

11 comments

lostmsu

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ragall  1 month ago

Considering the low taxes and lower cost of living in Zurich (yes, lower than Seattle), and the much higher quality of life, Zurich is a no-brainer.

  • alberto-m  1 month ago

    I'd say if you get a job in the same company, Zurich is competitive. The problem is that if you lose your job at Google in Seattle there are several hundreds of FAANG positions and probably thousands of other 200k$+ SWE jobs you can reapply to. In Zurich you will maybe see a dozen of openings in the small subsidiaries of Apple, Microsoft & Co., and maybe some individual job offers from small AI companies, and applying to any of these positions basically means competing against the whole rest of the continent.

    • ragall  1 month ago

      Ex-Googlers in Zurich have no trouble finding other jobs. For people with the right CV, there are a lot more openings than that.

    • palata  1 month ago

      > and applying to any of these positions basically means competing against the whole rest of the continent

      Which should not be an issue, if as I read a lot in this page, "all good European engineers move to the US". It means that you only have to compete against the "bad ones" that stayed back, right? /s