[expertentipp]

> seamless job transitions with no gaps, min 2 years at one job, steady growth re titles, headcount, responsibilities

> Getting jobs and being an employee has opportunities, it's easy for many in our industry to get 200K+ salaries but the price is high: reducing your options until you hit a depression.

This is not how it works in most of the EU, in particular DE/IT/AT/CH. There they value loyalty the most and they assume something is wrong with person changing an employer after couple of years. Frequent job hopping? Even worse. At some point one hits salary ceiling (70-80k EUR in some regions, 30-40k EUR in most of the EU) and that's it - changing job means the same salary or even lower with the risk the new place will be full of assholes and going through, humiliating at times for an experienced professional, vetting period as a new employee. Sometimes I wonder perhaps there is some non-competing agreement between companies? I have hard time understanding this deadlock situation.

[geezerjay]

> Sometimes I wonder perhaps there is some non-competing agreement between companies?

I doubt there are formal or explicit agreements, but informally or implicitly... Yes. One of my last employers bent himself backwards to avoid even contacting anyone who ever worked for certain competitors just to avoid the idea he was going after their staff.

[taneq]

It sounds to me like the first part you describe(strong social pressure against job hopping) leads to drastically reduced worker mobility (swinging the balance of power in favour of the employers), and thence to the second part (relatively low salary ceiling).

[jjevanoorschot]

I am not sure how well this generalises over the entire EU. My experience in the Netherlands is that job hopping occurs frequently and is a great way to get on a higher salary. However, I do agree that there is a salary cap around 70-80k for software engineers. If you want to earn more than that you either need to go into management or move to a better paying region (US/Ireland/UK).

[rerx]

I can't assess the validity of these numbers, but, according to Glassdoor, senior software engineers at Google Munich make 105k to 120k base salary.

https://www.glassdoor.de/Gehalt/Google-Senior-Software-Engin...

[jjevanoorschot]

Oh for sure! But those numbers will be difficult to find in The Netherlands. Switzerland has the highest paying software engineering jobs in Europe AFAIK.

[badpun]

Or go contracting. I've been contacted about 500-600 EUR/day contracts in Amsterdam. Not sure how common they are, but the option is there.

[passiveincomelg]

very common, also in Germany (https://www.gulp.de/knowledge-base/17/iv/mehr-ist-mehr-3-pro...)

[jjevanoorschot]

Interesting, I had not taken that into account. Maybe something I'd consider a few years down the line.

[yhavr]

Lack of economical education in the culture? Capitalism: Buy as cheap as possible, sell as expensive as possible. In the battle of this two intents, 'fair' market price emerges. If business tells you otherwise, if it frowns upon chasing your market value (including job hopping), is it a big fraud?

[foo101]

You are responding to comments in this thread by saying, "This is not how it works", but the comments you are responding to are making multiple points. You never clarify what the "This" you are referring to is. I am having a hard time understanding what you are talking about.