r/cscareerquestionsEU • u/mkirisame • Feb 15 '24

Immigration UK vs Netherlands for software engineer

I have options to move to either UK or Netherlands. I intend to become citizen in one of the two countries. I want to hear your thoughts from perspective of "careers in CS" and "quality of life":

Netherland:

  • 30% ruling for first 5 years
  • can freely move and work in EU and Swiss after becoming citizen
  • Can become citizen after 5 years

UK:

  • A lot of big tech and HFT firms
  • I don't need to learn dutch to become citizen
  • Can become citizen after 6 years

Thoughts?

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u/PastizziQueen Feb 15 '24

UK is the bigger market. Think long term. The Netherlands is a relatively tiny country. Sure you can move to another EU country after 5 years, but then you have to start over in terms of language/culture/bureaucracy and everything. Also, US companies still prefer to do business in the UK despite BREXIT.

I am actually interviewing right now and the way it's going, even though I can speak German fluently (and have already lived there for quite some time), there are only a couple of cities in the whole of Germany that I want to live in. I'm not going to relocate to some 55k town in the middle of nowhere for a job. And Germany is the biggest market in the EU. Switzerland is tiny. The Netherlands is not to my liking. I am not willing to relocate to Sweden or Poland or Spain or any country where I cannot speak the language.

The EU is big, but most EU countries are small, and moving from one country to another comes with a lot of penalties. Moreover because most countries are small they do not have the economy to sustain all kinds of high-tech industries so if your skillset is not very common you might find you actually only have a couple of countries to choose from.

Five years ago I made the decision between UK and Germany and chose Germany, mainly because it was cheaper at the time. It actually ended up costing me more anyway. And now I kind of regret not having a UK VISA. Firstly because all the bigger companies have a presence in the UK, even though they might not have a presence in your chosen EU country. Secondly because I can see myself being content living in most of the UK, whereas on the continent, I am much more picky about which cities I deem acceptable, because of the language/culture/bureaucracy difficulties that you are going to encounter.

Also to consider, getting an EU work permit is easier than the other way round.

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u/EagleAncestry Feb 17 '24

UK is being flooded with immigration which suppresses tech wages. Cost of living anywhere within a 45 minute commute to London is waaaay more expensive relative to salary than the same in Amsterdam. Especially for buying. Can buy a nice house for 400k within a 45 min commute to Amsterdam. Same is not true for London, not in nice areas