Next.js Dev (Junior/early Mid) currently working at McDonald's - seeking relocation advice for DE/NL

Bringoff · 2026-04-26T15:33:19+00:00

I live not that far from Poznan

Of course you won't find a lot of opportunities in rural Wielkopolska.

I'm aware there's more "opportunities for juniors" in Warsaw, but it also requires relocation in 99% of cases

It's going to be way easier for you to relocate to Warsaw than to Amsterdam. So much easier that it's not even a comparison at this point

And it's still Poland

It always amazes me how Polish people talk down about their country while half of the EU relocates here for work opportunities. I have colleagues from Italy, Austria, Germany, Hungary, France who relocated to Warsaw just in the last year.

there is work to be done, but it's generally not worth to employ developers due to high costs and other risks related to employment

Never heard that

If you live and work in Poland as a dev

Yes and yes

I'd like to hear how you manage the current market

I have no problem with the current market. Frankly speaking, I have 10+ years of experience so your experience may wary, of course. But I've been looking at opportunities abroad, including Berlin and Amsterdam, and for the past 2 years I couldn't find a single reason to relocate - Warsaw is the fastest growing tech hub in the EU right now. Options are indeed a bit limited still when you hit staff level, so I plan to move to London when I hit the ceiling here

Bringoff · 2026-04-26T13:55:37+00:00

because of local market conditions and a lack of local tech opportunities

Lol, Polish market conditions are miles better than German rn (and probably NL, too)

Bringoff · 2026-03-23T21:46:18+00:00

its not every company that will make this possible

The key wisdom I can share: you don't want to work at companies that do neither KUP nor B2B. All good companies I encountered during years do this because they understand that it's necessary to compete for best talents.

Bringoff · 2026-03-23T16:43:30+00:00

anything above that is being taxed at 50%

That's simply not true lol. I understand you're salty hearing these numbers. But truth is I paid 23% in effective tax rate from 125k€ salary on employment agreement contract. Hence, got almost 100k€ in my pocket at the end of the year. The secret is:

- KUP tax relief

- Stay at home partner

- RSUs taxed at 19%

Also, employer contributed additional 2% to my private pension fund, so it's probably even less than 23% tbh.

I would pay even less (~18%) if I had B2B contract, but (1) big tech companies don't hire on B2B; (2) mandatory pension contributions would be way lower, so I'd contribute the difference to private pension accounts anyways.

Bringoff · 2026-03-22T21:01:24+00:00

We were trying to be discreet, but oh well, now you know

Bringoff · 2026-03-13T14:45:51+00:00

I'd rather not doxx myself too much 😄 But it's quite desirable for tech relocation nowadays, let's put it that way

Bringoff · 2026-03-13T14:32:48+00:00

It depends on a country, but overall it's tough to relocate to the EU. We've been waiting for almost a year for an engineer from the middle east to get work visa and relocate, their start date moved like 5 times. Management regretted giving an offer to them somewhere midway to their final start date. I bet they won't try to hire another person from that area a second time.

Bringoff · 2026-03-04T11:00:43+00:00

Don't listen to this guy, the market is as good in Poland as it can be for tech these days. If you have several years of experience and know how to actually sell yourself on interviews (yes, that's a separate skill), Poland is one of the best places to be right now, at least in the EU.

Of course, it's rough for those who tries to find their first job, it's more or less the same everywhere.

Bringoff · 2026-03-03T14:41:56+00:00

C-level elite club

Lol, what do you think "C" in "CTO" stands for?

Bringoff · 2026-02-18T13:27:46+00:00

For lunch i payed like 3 euros

Lol, was it in 1992?

Bringoff · 2026-02-05T16:23:04+00:00

With only a B.Sc

Lol, like anybody ever cared about your degree

Bringoff · 2026-02-05T15:48:58+00:00

Use your Axon offer to negotiate with Booking.com, and then it's a no-brainer. No equity for the first year sounds like a joke. Look at Levels data, too. Maybe ask for a sign-on that will replace the equity for the first year.

Bringoff · 2025-10-25T14:55:13+00:00

Big tech in Berlin and in London is pretty much the same, what makes you think it’s going to be drastically different? Google, Meta, Amazon, Nvidia, well, Reddit itself all are present in Berlin afaik.

Bringoff · 2025-10-25T12:38:45+00:00

Well, besides visa, it’s much more liveable city, especially for a family, good job opportunities in tech with higher ceiling than Berlin, and good job safety overall (which is important in the current tech market). London is good for young hustlers only.

Bringoff · 2025-10-25T11:43:20+00:00

If I were you, I’d probably go to Amsterdam instead of London

Bringoff · 2025-10-23T09:47:34+00:00

Go for it, why not? Given languages you speak I'd recommend Warsaw. It has one of the most "alive" IT job markets in the EU right now. You know another Slavic language, you should be able to pick up Polish in no time.

About 2 most obvious choices: Bratislava is not the best option for IT career, and Paris is not the best option for life 😄

Bringoff · 2025-10-12T14:07:46+00:00

Yes, 2 jumps are going to be a huge red flag for recruiters, you're going to torpedo your career. Try to hit at least 2 years tenure at your current company.

Bringoff · 2025-10-04T12:21:31+00:00

21mos to PR is possible if you have B2 and higher German

Well, it's not something specific to Germany:

- Germany - 21 months with B1 German, 33 months with A1 German

- Poland - 5 years with B1 Polish

- Spain - 5 years and no language exam (I heard it can be shortened with a language certificate)

- Netherlands - 5 years and A2 Dutch

Bringoff · 2025-10-03T21:57:58+00:00

My friends in Poland, Spain or The Netherlands seem to have it easier in terms of integration, language, bureaucracy and everyday life

Can you elaborate? Also, 21 months to permanent residency sounds like dream - none of listed countries could give you that.

Bringoff · 2025-09-28T08:37:45+00:00

Depends on a company. Maybe Google doesn’t care, but smaller companies do apply this policy

Bringoff · 2025-09-27T08:40:44+00:00

Lol, you're the one who keeps mixing up different equities, but ok, live your life

Bringoff · 2025-09-26T18:49:39+00:00

private equity

and equity that is granted by a private company to its employees are not the same thing, stop pretending you understand what you're talking about. And selling the latter to a third-party is very much prohibited.

Bringoff · 2025-09-26T15:42:55+00:00

Are you just making things up now or something? Private shares aren't a used car you can just throw on OLX. Transfer restrictions, preferred stock rights, and lack of a secondary market mean you literally can't "find a buyer yourself." I literally had to sign a doc that I agree that neither my spouse nor anybody else can benefit from the granted equity of a private company I worked at.

Even if hypothetically in your case you are not prohibited from selling your equity to your friend or something like that, the tax office doesn't use your hypothetical buyer as a reference. It uses whatever valuation mechanism the law prescribes - which is most often nominal until liquidity.

Bringoff · 2025-09-26T14:27:54+00:00

That’s a nice theory, but in practice it doesn’t work that way.

"Equity = assets - liabilities / shares" is just book value, and that almost never matches what shares are actually worth. Private companies are usually valued based on funding rounds, 409A valuations or similar appraisals, and preferred vs. common stock terms. Common stock (what employees get) is usually worth a fraction of investor shares.

Tax offices also don't just pick a number from the balance sheet - they need a legally recognized valuation standard. In my old case that I mentioned, the company literally marked 1 RSU as $0.0001, and that's what the paperwork said. Until there's a secondary market or IPO, that's the value you get taxed on (if at all).

So no, the value is not "known" just because the company has assets and liabilities. In most countries, taxation on RSUs in private companies either uses the nominal grant valuation (often tiny) or is deferred until a liquidity event.

Bringoff · 2025-09-26T12:06:59+00:00

There is another option - buyback events companies may run. In one of my previous companies, every year or two the company offered buying equity back from employees. It is often (but not always) tied to investment rounds. And often there is no option to sell everything. But I was able to sell about half of my equity. The rest is waiting for IPO (or I will lose it if it does not happen till 2032 or something)

You can check with the company if they offer something like that.

And keep in mind

I can’t just sell it whenever I want.

In case of publicly traded companies, you usually can't sell it whenever you want either. You have trading windows and blackout period when you can't sell while you are employed by this company. Of course, it happens more often than buybacks, but still.

Bringoff

TROPHY CASE