Ask HN: Moving to Dublin without a CS degree

[Wig]

Hello fellow hackers!

I'm Brazilian, my girlfriend is European and is living with me for about a year now, aside from the language barrier (her portuguese is not fluent yet) she also has a visa that doesn't allow her to work here.

We've been thinking of moving to a place that will allow her to work and also will be closer to her parents, after some research we found out that Dublin seems to be a pretty nice place that fits all our criteria. However I don't have any sort of CS degree, I started studying CS but had to drop out.

I have working experience though, I worked as an intern developing software for a major multinational company for one year and then later got hired in the same company where I worked for almost 3 years before switching to another development job where I'm still employed. I also started making some small contributions to open source projects on Github. Is the lack of a degree a problem or will I be able to get a job counting solely on my experience?

[jamesdelaneyie]

I would say you'll do fine. To start out, you might have to do what Dubliners call, "Nixers". That is to say, a cash in hand payment for a small touchup sort of job. Dublin has a pretty fertile tech ground and if you honestly and truely try to give more than half a shit, you'll do well enough when you meet enough people.

Definitely check the viability for legally having a job in Ireland as a Brazilian. I've met many Brazilians in Dublin, it does seem a popular destination. All very young too. Only tonight I was at a design talk and godblessthem, the only post to that Facebook event page was a very optimistic guy saying Hi and hoping to meet people at it.

No idea of your background. Is your girlfriend from the continent? Don't mind rand0mized too much. While his comments on transport infrastructure and housing costs are more than true, his ideaz about scammers and arrogance is most likely a communication breakdown of a thing called the craic ;)

Give us a shout if you move here and need a hand with anything. Best of luck!

[Wig]

She's actually from the UK, we considered trying there as well but Dublin seems to have a better technology scene (don't know for sure if that's the case, but it's what it seems from here!). Thank you for the input, I really appreciate it. :)

[rand0mized]

I was working there in Dublin - be prepared for a lot of scammers visitting you every freakin' evening at home, amazingly huge house rental fees and spoiled landlords thinking how to cheat you on the rentals, houses/appartaments full of shitty infrastructure, awful wheather, terrible public transportation and waisting your time on registering yourself to get PPS number from the depart of Social Welfare. Without that you will be forced to pay 41%of taxes etc... Go find the job in UK or somewhere else, keep far away form Ireland. Also - Irish guys are most of the time arrogant, thinking they are the most intelligent people on the Earth. Wouldn't go there anymore...

[anigbrowl]

You right well be able to get a job but I am not sure how you would do on the immigration side when you are not married. I'm Irish and sadly it is quite a bureaucratic country, so without qualifications you could have quite a difficult time getting a work permit, so you might just have the same problem in reverse.

Now if you were a corporation, you would be welcomed with open arms and also given the lowest tax rate in Europe :-/

[Wig]

Oh, I always thought that if I manage to score a job offer the work permit would be more or less easy, back to the drawing board it is then. Thank you for the input!

[aprdm]

visa is your main concern. I am Brazilian as well and you can't work in Ireland (legally) without a VISA sponsorship from a company.

[Wig]

Yeah, my plan is to try and get a spot in some company that's willing to sponsor the whole work permit thing. My biggest concern is that the government will deny the permit because I don't have a degree, but I guess it doesn't hurt to try!