
Ask HN: What are the Madrid and Barcelona tech scenes like? - nicdc
A similar topic was posted back in 2017, but I&#x27;m sure things have changed since then: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14386607<p>I&#x27;ll be moving to Madrid for a year for non-career related reasons. I hold an EU passport and I&#x27;m fluent in both English and Spanish. My background is in data analytics (Python&#x2F;R&#x2F;Stata) rather than software development. That said, I would like work in tech while in Spain.<p>My questions: How are the Madrid and Barcelona tech sectors nowadays? What types of work are available? How are salaries? Are there any unintuitive factors to consider?
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ruairidhwm
I lived in both Madrid and Barcelona for about a year each. They're very
different cities.

Madrid:

I'd say this is more of a working city and has less of the mad tourism / party
scene. There's a good tech scene present, with plenty of meetups and an
increasing number of startups. Things like Google Campus are great spots to
meet like-minded people, and there is plenty of work available but you may end
up in more of an 'enterprise' style place.

Barcelona:

Very, very popular with tourists. This can be a downside depending on how much
you like your peace and quiet. I lived in one of the busiest places for
tourism (El Born) so I ended up quite used to the chaos.

With that said, it's an extremely international city and that shows in the
amount of startups, co-working spaces, and meetups. It has more of a 'tech'
vibe to it. There are some downsides however in that a lot of people there are
quite transient, so it can be harder to make meaningful connections.

In terms of language, since you're fluent in English and Spanish then you'll
have no problem in either city. Madrid is definitely more Spanish focused,
whereas in Barcelona I ended up speaking more English and French than I did
Spanish weirdly. It just depends on the crowd you're in.

Happy to discuss more, or put you in touch with people / recommend places if
you want. My email is in my bio.

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harperlee
Hi,

I don't think it changed much since last time. Here's what I had to say
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14386943](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14386943)):

Tech salaries in Spain are not higher than for other sectors, as the tech
sector is still very small, and most jobs are inside "cost centers" of other
companies (banks, telcos, etc.). A typical (good!) staring salary would be 25k
for Madrid or 20k for Barcelona. In contrast you'd see 40k in Paris or Berlin
for a similar job. It's typical to have 14 monthly payments (with extra
payment in July/August and Christmas), so that ends up being around 1200 euros
net per month.

Quality of life is great, though, and not so expensive. The Lancet recently
[1] put Spain's healthcare as 8th in the world, food is great, the social
scene is very open to foreigners, climate is better than in northern europe,
etc.

The worse part of your expenses in either Madrid or Barcelona will be renting
an apartment, as prices are rising quickly (after the financial crisis,
housing plummeted, so construction stopped. But now everyone with some extra
cash is buying apartments for renting them, and there's extra pressure to make
them a worthwhile investment).

Spain's economy is divided in tiny companies (PYMES), and huge companies. We
lack a lot of medium sized companies such as the german mittelstands, and it
shows on job mobility and opportunities. Compounding this with a small tech
scene, it might be hard to find a job opportunity. But tech is growing
quickly, as others have mentioned.

If you are functional in spanish, it shouldn't be a problem, but mind that
spaniards are not so used to working with other nationalities, so you will be
somewhat "exotic" and you will get a mild joke from time to time. You might
find some "inferiority complex", particularly if you are
german/french/american, as Spain has traditionally looked abroad for
innovation and modernity references (famously pictured by Unamuno and his "Que
inventen ellos" quote [2]).

The contracting area is dismal. Most of autonomos are either micropymes or
false autonomos, actually working for one huge company, with total dependence
and a huge risk, without the normal employee rights and securities. Spain is
not accustomed to paying fair prices for contract work. And outside the tech
scene, there will be often requests for working for free (typical for design
or copy work), or without paying taxes ("cobrar en B").

On the Madrid vs. Barcelona topic I'm of course biased, being from Madrid, but
I find that foreigners are initially much more familiar with Barcelona, and
they overlook Madrid. Madrid is great! And more objectively: it is bigger,
with more opportunities, without language problems (catalan might be an issue
from time to time, mostly if you are still learning spanish, but you will also
find people from time to time that refuse to speak spanish for political
reasons), and with less tourists yet more foreigners (you will not be treated
so much as a cash-cow tourist, as some of my friends have suffered a couple of
times in Barcelona).

Overall, I'd say you can live very well in Spain, but it is not the place if
you seek big career opportunities. Of course all of this is a HUGE
simplification, and you can find excellent opportunities in Spain, and shitty
opportunities elsewhere. I personally have a lot of french friends working in
Madrid with excellent jobs and adamant on staying for the rest of their lives.
And all of what I said is improving quickly; Spain got a really big economic
push when entering the euro, and although the crisis stuck VERY hard, we are
recovering and accelerating a lot!

[1]
[http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-67...](http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-67..).
[2] (spanish) [https://blogs.iadb.org/puntossobrelai/2016/06/06/que-
invente...](https://blogs.iadb.org/puntossobrelai/2016/06/06/que-invente..).

~~~
solso
Refusing to speak spanish is a myth. It's much more likely that you will not
ever be able to learn catalan becasue poeple will always switch to spanish the
moment they see you are a foreigner. Whether you want to learn spanish or
catalan, both or none is up to you. You can live a normal live speaking
english only in both places. Have plenty of friends that never got to learn
the language beyond some basic pick-up lines and food-related sentences.

The salaries figures, 25K and 20K seem extremely low to me. Truth be told,
I've been abroad for the last 6 years, but back then, no way we could hire
anyone decent for less than 35K (Barcelona).

I would advise that you are going the earn 20K/25K, do not try to go unless
you really want to survive like a student :-) Do not see how are you going to
pay the rent with that salary, check prices online.

Both cities are very nice and you will enjoy them both.

Last time I lived there, Barcelona was more start-upy than Madrid, and Madrid
more corporate than Barcelona. In any case, they both have plenty of tech, I
would not worry about that. You will enjoy your time in either city, if you
earn enough of course. Make sure of that first.

~~~
spanxx
According to [1] even Barcelona football (soccer) players were pushed to learn
Catalan, even experiencing racism for wanting to speak Spanish.

[1] [https://app.football-
espana.net/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww....](https://app.football-
espana.net/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.football-
espana.net%2F82143%2Fbarcelona-dressing-room-was-racist-emmanuel-
petit#article/footballespana-82143)

------
naltun
I used to live and work in Madrid (for a non-tech job), although I have been a
programmer for some years now.

While in Madrid I met a number of software engineers/IT professionals. I think
Madrid is a decent spot for finding tech work.

Mind you, my family is from Asturias, and the tech scene, I believe, isn't
great there. I also don't know how Barcelona is.

If you're looking at Madrid, I think you'll be OK.

