
Ask HN: Jobs in Spain? - mlevental
How is the startup scene in Spain? Either Madrid or Barcelona? Salaries? I have an MS (from the US) and about ~5 years of experience in full stack (everything from embedded to backend to web dev to mobile to ML) and I&#x27;m wondering what my quality of life would be relative to the US. I speak passable Spanish.
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iraldir
Cannot tell for Spain, but I assume it's similar to neighbouring countries
like France. Compared to the united state, it's a much more equal society,
which means unlike the US, you won't make 15 times what a barista is making.
I'd assume salaries to be around 40, 50k euro at best.

Now that can be enough to make a decent living, have your own flat etc. but
it's not, "let's go on holiday to the other side of the world twice a year"
sort of money either.

Also there is much less a culture of senior developers, the idea being that to
progress in your career you need to stop coding and start being a manager (not
true everywhere but the norm)

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drstewart
> Compared to the united state, it's a much more equal society, which means
> unlike the US, you won't make 15 times what a barista is making

Yeah, that's why salaries are so low.

What's Messi make again?

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_raul
I live in Spain, outside of those two hubs but always keep an eye on them.
Both have healthy dev communities that organize monthly meetups and
conferences where it's easy to connect with local startups. Lots of open
opportunities, often open to foreign folks, and at least a few companies with
very strong technical teams. Salaries aren't near the SF range but should
allow you to afford a healthy work/life balance and enjoy your time here.

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tronko
There are some startups in Madrid[1], also, apply with LinkedIn and
Glassdoor[2] to companies in Spain[3]. Speaking English and somewhat-
entendible Spanish you shouldn't have any problem getting and interview.
Indeed your English native level can be an asset.

Thus, you should bring to the interviews that have experience working in USA.
I think that is pretty valued in Spain.

On the other hand, Madrid seems to have an American expat community, there are
some meetups [4][5] and facebook groups, etc.

Don't know about Barcelona.

Good luck!

[1] Take a look at [https://www.siliconrepublic.com/start-ups/madrid-spain-
start...](https://www.siliconrepublic.com/start-ups/madrid-spain-
startups-2018) and [https://www.seedtable.com/startups-
madrid](https://www.seedtable.com/startups-madrid)

[2]
[https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/jobs.htm?suggestCount=0&sugges...](https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/jobs.htm?suggestCount=0&suggestChosen=true&clickSource=searchBtn&typedKeyword=Senior+Software+Engineer&sc.keyword=Senior+Software+Engineer&locT=C&locId=2664239&jobType=)

[3] I know you want to work for a startup but Amazon is in Madrid, maybe you
are interested in that?

[4] [https://www.meetup.com/es-ES/expats-and-americans-
madrid/](https://www.meetup.com/es-ES/expats-and-americans-madrid/)

[5] [https://www.internations.org/madrid-
expats/americans](https://www.internations.org/madrid-expats/americans)

EDIT: formatting.

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bwb
I love Valencia if you work remote, we just got back from 3 months there and I
highly recommend it.

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jxub
I recommend the Wayco coworking there, really charming and well-managed space
in the city centre.

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jlisam13
You can work remotely from Spain :). There are many tech companies that will
allow working from EU.

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strzibny
> I'm wondering what my quality of life would be relative to the US

What's your quality of life currently in U.S.?

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gigatexal
Have you looked at the who’s Hiring for this month?

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wsgreen
Twilio is hiring Java developers in Madrid

