Best city in Europe for new grad software engineers in 2025
Where would I go if I were graduating and entering the market today
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I made a point of moving to Zurich early in my career.
To:
Live in a quiet, efficient place to focus on work
Build my savings early on
Network
Build up a life in a place where there’s high chances I'd stay long-term
Not the worst choice, actually still pretty good.
But:
Targeting Zurich limited my options and made entering big tech slower and harder
Got bored of what Zurich offered for people in their 20s after a couple of years
Focusing so much on my career stressed me out more than necessary
FOMO about not having spent my 20s in big cities: I did a bit of that, but mostly as a student or traveller (it's nice being in a big city full-time in your 20s with a good salary).
If I were a young dev graduating today, I’ll probably target Warsaw over Zurich.
Here’s why:
More fun, vibrant and fitting a 20 years old lifestyle.
Way more career opportunities in tech: lots of hiring (also at jr levels), plenty of big techs expanding in Poland (2nd country on EuroTopTechJobs.com by number of job openings).
Maximising your chances of getting good jobs early in your career is gonna boost your CV and growth.
You can still save some good money in the right companies + have high purchasing power to enjoy your 20s.
Later on, if you want, you can leverage your early experiences to move to other countries with higher savings potential.
You can always “be old” as you get old… But you can only be young once :) Optimising for fun early on, while building up your career at the same time, could be good.
20s and early 30s in a big city and 40s+ in Zurich probably makes more sense than the other way around.
One Caveat:
If you happen to get a big tech offer in Zurich, then that would be a lot of money (and career growth) to say no to, so in that case I'd probably take it. And then try to make up for the "quiet/Swiss" lifestyle with frequent trips.
But, other than that, I'd probably take a big tech offer in a vibrant city like Warsaw over a regular tech job in Zurich. Savings are gonna be similar, and you're gonna have more fun and purchasing power in Warsaw (unless you're very nature-oriented, then normal tech job in Zh can be good).
Is Warsaw the best big city for devs in Europe?
Up for debate.
Probably, if I could go back in time to 2016-2019, the best big city with both opportunities in (big) tech and things to do as a 20-something would be London.
But, is London in 2025 better than Warsaw?
Ranking countries by number of jobs on EuroTopTechJobs.com, we see that the UK is first and Poland second:
In particular, filtering by city, we get:
485 openings in London
217 openings in Warsaw
Respectively the first and second cities in Europe by number of big tech jobs.
But Warsaw is also a prime choice for remote jobs (low cost low tax).
From EuroTopTechJobs.com (fully-remote jobs section):
Also, the competition for big tech jobs is probably 10x in London than in Warsaw.
And I think landing a big tech offer in Warsaw is way easier than in London.
Moreover, Warsaw is:
Safer
Not less fun
UK and London are in a “low point”, while Warsaw is peaking
This senior engineer at Meta would pick Warsaw over London if he could go back:
( * typo: meet → keep)
So, probably Warsaw > London.
One last thing to consider is where you plan to stay long-term.
If you're already 100% sure you want to eventually end up in Switzerland (or elsewhere) and build a life there, then moving there early - building a network, community, learning the language and the system - can have some advantages.
But I also wouldn't over-index over this.
I once met an entrepreneur in Zurich who:
Spent his 20s in Paris
30s in NYC
In his 40s, came to Zurich to grow his family
He said that this is a path he'd recommend.
You can change the exact cities (Paris with Warsaw, NYC with London, etc)... But you get the point: some cities are better in your 20s/30s, and other cities might be better in later stages of your life.
Also, life is very unpredictable: making very long-term plans as a 20-something can be a bit pointless.
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Thank you! what do you suggest for non EU engineers (from North Africa : Algeria, Morocco ..)