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Ask HN: Is there a business for extracting US tech talent?

29 points by Arubis ↗ HN
As both the economy and policy of the US shift rapidly and show signs of accelerating, I hear more and more of my colleagues voicing the desire to up stakes and relocate to somewhere more stable and in line with their own values--an opinion that I share. But getting visa sponsorship in much of the developed world is a scattershot effort; best I can tell, it's almost something you have to track down on a per-company basis, prioritizing the larger ones for access.

This feels like a hole in a quickly growing market--are there firms or orgs that help consolidate visa-sponsoring job info for high-demand professions, particularly in tech? Most of what I've seen out there is generic guidance and https://relocate.me, or is EU-focused for folks already in the EEU.

17 comments

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throwawaysleep
There is a bigger one for research talent. Nothing really exists because until this year, people flowed the other way.
ldjkfkdsjnv
Yeah its called wipro/infosys/cognizant
mamonster
They aren't really extracting tech talent. Their dream gig is getting a S4HANA project at a pharma company that keeps getting renewed and expanded, not actually building something.
dmitrygr
> somewhere more stable and in line with their own values

Where else other than USA does tech pay such a multiple of median salary?

“Huff puff I’m going to leave” is easy. Finding somewhere to actually go isn’t.

scarface_74
Exactly and it’s not as if every other country and company in the world doesn’t value profits over everything else. They aren’t going to go on missionary trips feeding starving children.
Ocerge
Not sure why you're being downvoted, we in the US are certainly not special in that regard.
j7ake
Why particularly in tech? Find an industry where EU salaries are better than USA and you’ll have much better traction.
scarface_74
So exactly why would I want to go anywhere else where the compensation is much lower without the cost of living being lower and have higher taxes?
keiferski
The Nomad Capitalist guy is basically doing this.
android521
well, only if they are willing to lose 1/3 to 1/4 of US salary and willing to work on boring work.
drdunce
Unfortunately, there isn't demand and there's no such thing as a high demand tech professional anymore. The EU is way over saturated with tech talent and that's unlikely to change.
0xfaded
There are straightforward immigration paths to most of the desirable countries within Europe if you can land a job that pays a standard deviation above the mean, which most tech workers can. However, you're still looking at 1/4 of a silicon valley salary.

The game plan should really be more centered around making your money in the US and then moving for the better quality of life or to do something that aligns with your values. I'd say it's the moving wealth part where people are more likely to fall into traps (ever heard of an exit tax?), but even then you're probably still better off hiring a local account (cost me 2k when I first moved to Denmark, and another 2k when I left :facepalm:).

aristofun
EU generally speaking is dying out (in terms of tech).

There are no system factors in place that would suggest any significant growth of innovation, entrepreneurship or hi tech advancements.

Isn’t it obvious?

Only military industry will get budgets and attention. But only until the war is over.

muzani
Singapore seems to be a "proxy" between east and west, specifically a way for Chinese companies like Bytedance to get American labor, and a way for American companies to get Chinese labor. Per capita, income is higher than the US. I don't know if tech itself pays better, but they seem to be able to match.
akg_67
There are subreddits dedicated to these kind of topics, for example /r/AmerExit /r/movingtojapan /r/expats (that I know of) with wealth of info. I am sure there are dedicated Facebook groups too. You most likely will find people and orgs that can help with migration in such targeted groups. As I understand, most desirable countries have seen multi-fold increase in inquiries and applications from US.
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hiAndrewQuinn
Actual US to EU transplant here, although not one who needed a visa. God bless Irish ancestry.

The most efficient way would be to simply let US citizens post a bounty for e.g. a successful job offer being extended their way from the European Union. When I think about the requisite legwork involved from my end, I come up with a rough goal of about $25,000 per job offer floated, not contingent on the person on the other end actually accepting the offer. (This is not a serious offer, please do not email me asking me to help you find a job.)

The reason the number is so high is because, frankly, it takes a lot of work to unearth opportunities like this which aren't already on the clearnet and inundated with applicants already. The dropping of the language barrier alone raises the competitive pressure on any job offer in Europe by an order of magnitude, in both salary and applicant quality.

Uniquely, US citizens get paid much more in almost every category than their European counterparts, so job offerers also have to factor in an exit risk they don't normally have to with applicants from e.g. Laos: the very real possibility that the starry-eyed rich kid shows up, spends 3 months living the way the Romans do, and then leaves because Rome kind of sucks compared to having a 401(k).

$25k doesn't seem that expensive when compared to, say, the opportunity cost of first learning e.g. passable professional German, which by itself takes about 1-2000 hours of one's free time. Someone getting paid even $50/hour = $100,000/year in the US would quickly eat way more cost going about getting here in such a roundabout way, and then they still have to find the visa grantor.

Again: This is not a serious offer. Please do not email me asking me to help you find a job. This was a thought experiment for curiosity's sake only.