[blaydator]

> - What prompted you to make that switch to rural developer?

My wife's parents live in the countryside. Coming from an urban place, I enjoyed being surrounded by nature. Best thing for me is coding under a tree, listening to birds.

It's my life journey, I was't happy in cities. I just found my balance in that way but it took us time to find the right place (not to remote, not to expansive, not to "old", etc...).

- Are you an expat or French? If an expat, what was your pre-France life like?

French.

- What is cost of living like, and how does that compare with your salary?

It is really subjective but I feel like living in abundance. Earning 50k€/yr after all taxes (working 30 hours a week, 10 weeks OFF). I bought the farm for 300k€. Standard houses (100m2 with 1000m2 garden) are loaned for 600€/month around here.

- Does/did your salary get affected by your remote location?

I have always worked remotely so no change at all.

[ChuckNorris89]

> Earning 50k€/yr after all taxes (working 30 hours a week, 10 weeks OFF)

Wow, that's insanely good!

Can I ask how to find such a great job? I live in Austria and make 50k€/yr BEFORE taxes, 40h/week, 5 weeks off, significantly worse off than you, but that seems to be the norm in this country.

[blaydator]

It is basically a not ending freelance contract (front end dev). I initially started this gig at 250€ a day (8hours), then 3 years and a half later after making myself non dispensable (investing myself genuinely in the product/ company) I rose my rate each year without asking permission to end at 500€ currently. In the same time my days went from 8hours to 6hours, as my productivity increased. I just love what I do and am good at it. BI Company of 10 people, 10 years old. I found it on malt.com (good French job board).

[ChuckNorris89]

This all sounds insanely good to me but it doesn't match what I heard from other French devs who emigrated, about the situation in the tech scene in France.

You're basically making six figure salary for much less work than 40h/week, and at a small company while WFH to boot. Unreal. :)

How common is that in France?

[throawayaway]

It can't be generically that bad. What field are you working in?

Almost 15 years ago I came to Vienna as a sysadmin with 5-10 years of experience for a ~2.5-3kE net monthly salary. I left the country after a few years and around 2017 I came back for over 100kE still for sysadmin/Citrix/automation work (this included the usual 13th salary). Was it just my luck?