[pyjug]

The salaries in Germany for engineers are astoundingly low. Good engineers from India (I'm Indian working in SV) often ask me if it's worth migrating to Germany since US immigration is so hard.

The answer is absolutely not -- you can easily make 70k USD in India as a decent mid-level engineer which is the same as Germany. And you get to live like a king in your own country, don't have to learn German, put up with racism etc. In fact, a lot of US companies hiring in India pay more in India than Germany! I know a couple friends making ~200k in Amazon India at 8-10 years of experience.

[dzonga]

> you can easily make 70k USD in India as a decent mid-level engineer

not that I know anything about Indian tech companies but please don't say that compensation is at FAANG companies. because those are not representative of the industry in general. Otherwise why would India be known for cheap dev's if Mid-levels can easily earn 70k.

[pyjug]

Also, to caution folks who think India is only a place for "cheap devs", there is a perfect confluence of factors happening right now that is driving salaries up and incentivizing good engineers to stay back in India -- immigration restrictions, remote hiring and a domestic startup scene. Some startups who are building for the US/international market are all but Indian, they only have a US HQ for ops, sales etc.

This hasn't gone unnoticed by investors. See PG's recent tweet - https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1381669057548713984?s=20

The US runs the risk of being "China'ed" again, in a different field -- this is not outsourcing anymore, this is real competitive software products being built in India.

[closeparen]

That's still a $40k discount from the median US wage of $110k.

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...

[pyjug]

Indian tech salaries are very bi-modal. I'm not talking about body shops here - I'm talking about capable engineers who can get hired in SV, though not necessarily at FAANG. Think tier 2/3 cos. These engineers know their worth and want to maximize their earning potential. If it were easy to immigrate to the US they would choose SV in a heartbeat, but are looking for alternatives. My advice to them it's either SV or stay back in India, it's certainly not worth immigrating to Germany (I don't know about other EU countries, only have first hand experience in Germany)

[dzonga]

It would also be helpful if you post example job posts etc or salary reports etc rather than explain the dynamics. Though I agree the dynamics of remote work have being beneficial to capable engineers everywhere not just indian ones.