Should you move to the US (as a European engineer)?
When does it make sense?
In our ongoing discussions, starting from our very first edition, we've highlighted the superior opportunities available to engineers in the United States compared to those in Europe. The prospect of relocating to the U.S. is not only enticing but also quite feasible for European engineers.
But, is making such a move truly in your best interest?
This article will delve into the benefits and drawbacks of relocating to the U.S., alongside the practicalities involved, including visa acquisition and other essential considerations.
The pros
Better career opportunities
The number of opportunities for career development for a software engineer in the US is order of magnitudes bigger than in Europe. Virtually all quality and highest paying companies hiring for devs are American, and they have a larger presence there than in Europe: more positions, bigger offices, larger projects etc.
If your goal is to join and have a career in such companies, you’ll manage to accelerate your trajectory by being there: you’ll need less time to get your first big tech high-paying full-time job, it will be easier to have promotions because when offices are big and there are many projects with large scope, you will have more opportunities than by being in a small office with small projects.
Let’s consider the extreme case of being in a small office with just one project (not a rare scenario for a big tech job in Europe): in this scenario, if this project goes well and the team expands, you’ll get promotions (if you do well), otherwise it will be harder for you to progress. This is somewhat more relevant if you are at mid/senior levels, as the first promotion from junior is usually not so dependant on what happens in your team.
If you’re working in the American HQ of a big tech company, you’ll have many teams and projects to join and look at: if you happen to be in a team that isn’t growing that much and/or in a project that doesn’t look very promising, you will be able to network within the office and figure out which teams are worth joining and plan/execute the switch.
Let’s say you’re in school and are looking for your first big tech job, in the US it is quite straightforward to get it: you can gather a pool of target companies (you could easily find 50-100 companies with top salary for devs with large presence/office in the US), search referrals and apply, LeetCode and interview, ideally do a few 3 months internships (maybe 2 or 3) and try to get at least one full-time return offer.
Let’s say you didn’t manage to get good internships while in school, you can apply a similar strategy for full-time job search. The only difference is that it will be a little bit harder to interview and get a full-time offer than to get hired for an internship and get a return offer. But it’s still very doable. Also, you can apply this strategy even if you’ve been in the industry for a while, and want to upgrade your company.
Job hopping can be quite useful for your career, and in the US you’ll be able to do it much more effectively. Given the amount of good companies hiring, you won’t find it hard to find jobs to apply to and level-up your salary or increase seniority.
You’ll make/save more money
As we explained in the first newsletter article, the US has at least 3 large sites with plenty of jobs in tech, at similar pay ranges: California, New York and Seattle. Meaning that it will be easy to get a 6 figures job in one of these locations and start saving significant amounts of money early on.
In general, pay in the US is relatively uniformly distributed across states (way more than in Europe), and there are many locations with good opportunities for tech and good pay. In addition to the 3 main ones mentioned above, we could also look at Austin Texas, Atlanta Georgia, Miami Florida, Colorado, Boston etc. They all offer a lot of 6 figures tech jobs.
It will be easier to grow your skills
Given the amount of opportunities, and given the overall culture in the US that puts a high important to one’s work life, in general you’d have more chances of growing your skills working there.
If you’re a dev, you will have more choice to join product companies with tech as a high priority and engineers treated as first-class citizens, and also the culture within the teams there is usually one that prioritises efficiency and impact, which could help you become a more effective professional.
Networking opportunities
People working in good companies, people starting companies, people who have access to funding for starting companies, people working in academia etc. You would meet many of them by working in tech in the US.
What about these dimensions in Europe?
Opportunities: the list of quality and high paying companies in Europe is shorter (check this article), and often times good American companies only have small offices in Europe.
Money: you’ll save less in Europe unless you luck out and get a big tech job in Switzerland early on in your career.
Skills: you can still do this in Europe too, but probably on average you have better chances there.
Network: same as for skills.
The cons
If you’re not interested in joining big tech, the advantage of the US over Europe is smaller
Let’s say you’re not the most overachieving software engineer, and, instead of just wanting to maximise your career growth, you also want to keep a good work-life balance and enjoy life (while still growing your career), than the advantages given by working in the US will be smaller.
You can still do all the above in the US, but if you want a chill dev job to maintain a good quality life, you can probably find that in Europe too.
Actually, in Europe you will have more advantages if you’re interested in a chill dev life: less crazy working culture, more protective employment laws, more contained living costs and as a consequence less pressure to be a high earner, better welfare systems and as a consequence less need to stack up big savings to protect yourself.
Cities in Europe tend to be more liveable
We could argue that cities in the US weren’t designed to accomodate for the best living experience, unless we define that by having city centres filled with offices and Starbucks and residential suburbs with no amenities and little walkability.
This might be a subjective aspect, but I think most people would prefer the quality of life in Europe than in the US. Cities in Europe also tend to be more safe too (at least, little to no gun violence).
Visa troubles
Getting visa for working in the US can be a bit annoying: it’s not straight-forward, in any way you want to go about it, it will be a multi-steps, multi-years plan, so the opportunity cost of moving there is something to be considered too.
There are 2 main ways to move to the US:
Study there (bachelor/master/PhD/exchange program) and apply for H-1B visa, then apply for green card during the H-1B with the hope of getting it (usually you have 3 years of time to apply for it, and every time/year you apply, you have around 20-50% chances of getting it - from what I remember last time I looked at it);
Join a US big tech company in Europe and apply for an internal transfer: usually in this case you’ll get an L-1 visa, which is a more stable one than the H-1B, and after one year on L-1 you can apply for green card (and if you’re European, in 1/2 years from applying you should get the green card).
They are feasible but as you can see they require some non-trivial steps:
Studying there can be expensive and it’s also not a guaranteed way to stay there given the nature of H-1B;
Finding a big tech job that allows for L-1 visa transfer is not super straightforward (to be sure you’ll have to join a FAANG and do a good job in Europe for one or two years before being allowed to transfer to a US office).
Job security
The environment in the US is more cut-throat and especially in recent times we’ve seen how this could affect your personal and work life if you were to be living there. This is a risk that has to be taken into account, and it is even more problematic if times like this hit while you’re on a temporary visa like L-1 or H-1B.
Work-life balance
As hinted already in previous points, you could end up with a worse work-life balance in the US.
It’s true that you are more likely to find a job in a modern company that doesn’t have too much dumb bureaucracy and a better culture than some older companies that we have in Europe, but usually the work environments there tend to put a bigger emphasis on performance making jobs there more high-pressure and stressful - at least on average.
Conclusion
Ultimately, weather it’s worth it or not to move to the US as a software engineer will depend on the individual.
If you are willing to invest a lot of energy in your tech career - at least for some years -, and you want to build up significant savings, then you could consider it.
If you are young and don’t have a family, it could be a fun experience to live in another continent for a while and experience the culture there.
Other considerations
A few other things you could keep in mind if you’re considering this choice:
Do some research on the “exit tax for US residents who leave the US”, after having built a small or larger fortune over there: the savings you built up there could get taxed if you leave the US permanently;
Life-planning considerations: a lot of people who move to the US for some years, will find it difficult to come back afterwards as they would have built a social circle (if not even a family) over there, and wouldn’t have a lot waiting for them in Europe. I heard several times that “moving to the US makes more sense if you plan to stay there long-term and build a life there”.
Hope this helps!
Very interesting read! I've also heard of a path with obtaining Canadian citizenship first (which should be much easier) and then applying for a TN visa, but that can be even more troublesome.