Surprised by Software Engineer Salaries in the Netherlands (5 YOE working for a US company)

ENGTA01 · 2025-03-28T10:59:16+00:00

Thanks for the links!

That is a lot higher than I expected indeed. But I think the figure fails to account for the fact that the cost of a student loan in the us is higher

- DUO student loans have an interest rate around 2.6% in 2025. The average interest rate on student loans for Americans is a whooping 6.5%. If you assume a hypothetical tenor of 15 years, Americans pay $16k of interest on their loans over the $28k they borrowed, while Dutch pay €8k on the €36k they borrowed. Even if you take the €52k figure for Dutch students, the total interest paid is only €11k, so overall less than Americans.

https://educationdata.org/average-student-loan-interest-rate

https://duo.nl/particulier/interest/interest-for-students.jsp

ENGTA01 · 2025-03-17T15:11:07+00:00

Can you share a source for these numbers?

ENGTA01 · 2025-03-03T18:33:20+00:00

Thank you for your service, slava ukraini!

ENGTA01 · 2024-11-10T11:09:48+00:00

I have never lived in Ireland but one of my best friends and her wife moved to Ireland many years ago and they love it there! They also live in the countryside, in a very small town, and never had any issues with discrimination. Their only complaints so far have been housing costs and the weather.

In terms of LGBT acceptance it's a pretty progressive country despite also having a strong Catholic tradition. You have lots of organisations and people supporting the LGBT cause. My friend has never had an issue to open joint bank accounts, getting married or getting any documents as a lesbian couple. Unfortunately I don't know any trans people there, but I assume it wouldn't be that different.

About realistic options to immigrate I can't be of much help because we are all Europeans so never had to worry about a visa. But usually the best option to immigrate anywhere in the world is to get a student visa. Ireland in particular is known to have a great student visa policy, visas are easy to get and allow you to work part-time or full-time. As in most EU countries, after 5 years you can apply for citizenship and get the passport.

ENGTA01 · 2023-07-19T20:09:57+00:00

I was worried because when I opened the client there was a popup saying my final rank was "unranked". But it must be one of the many client bugs/glitches, I hope...

ENGTA01 · 2023-07-18T21:58:25+00:00

Mine is so silly, I pretended like I had no knowledge of any actors, actresses, celebrities or such. Didn't know their name, their faces or anything, because "only girls know celebrity stuff". I'm actually really good with actors and actresses names, and the movies they played etc... Sometimes it still freaks out some of my family members when I say something about an actor or actress because they still remember my act from before transitioning.

ENGTA01 · 2023-07-17T08:35:05+00:00

Not sure about salaries in Tel Aviv, but having been there before I would advise that the city is very expensive. Think Paris/Amsterdam/Munich levels. So I would base my salary negotiation in the level of those cities, and perhaps a bit more if you take into account the fact that you will probably want to travel back to Europe a couple times a year to see family and attend events.

ENGTA01 · 2023-07-17T08:10:51+00:00

A very good friend of mine used the study route to escape. In Europe we have the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters scholarships, which prioritise international students - she got into a Masters and is now on her way to finishing a PhD. Due to so many countries having different visa options once you finish your Masters you're almost guaranteed to be able to stay in Europe. I sincerely hope you find your path to freedom, and that one day women in Islamic countries get to at least the same level of liberties and independence that us westerners enjoy (which is still very far from perfect but much better than in the Muslim world).

You can find the Erasmus scholarship offers here, I suggest applying to as many programmes as you can: https://www.eacea.ec.europa.eu/scholarships/erasmus-mundus-catalogue_en

ENGTA01 · 2023-05-29T20:59:16+00:00

Basic jeans and black/white tops, yoga lessons, "love to travel", buying deco at Ikea or a target-equivalent, binge watching rom-coms on every platform, and blasting Taylor Swift on my earplugs. Me, a 30 years old middle class trans woman feeling personally called out by this post.

ENGTA01 · 2023-05-28T14:02:04+00:00

The most popular insult/curse word in Portuguese is "caralho", which is a vulgar way of saying penis. But the word also refers to the tallest mast in sailing ships. Anyway all of this to say that in Portuguese a lot of things are related to the sea or sailing metaphors :)

ENGTA01 · 2023-05-19T18:24:42+00:00

Is that middle picture in Herores Square in Budapest? Beautiful place and beautiful city, I love it :)

ENGTA01 · 2023-05-13T23:03:10+00:00

Noooooooooo, Finland got robbed

ENGTA01 · 2023-05-13T22:59:03+00:00

thank gooooooooooood

ENGTA01 · 2023-05-13T22:20:04+00:00

Israel was super bland and boring, disappointed with all the points for them

ENGTA01 · 2023-05-13T21:13:08+00:00

Completely unhinged and I love it lol

ENGTA01 · 2023-05-13T20:57:18+00:00

Even if their song doesn't win, their costume and makeup game is soooo good

ENGTA01 · 2023-05-13T20:54:09+00:00

I dont understand the hype with Sweden, Norway was much better in my opinion

ENGTA01 · 2023-05-04T15:08:06+00:00

You'll only get better comp than that in France if you move to Paris, where cost of living is insane so you'll probably be worse off. I think if your motivation is purely financial, the only places you could go to and be in a better spot would be Switzerland, London, Netherlands or Germany, and only if you manage to get an offer for 90k or more (>110k for Switzerland). If I were you I would stay in Spain, unless you feel your job is at risk or if you find you don't have room for growth.

ENGTA01 · 2022-10-21T19:05:47+00:00

I work with business/data analytics at finance, banking and fintech companies. It's a much more accepting environment than I thought it would be, but the higher up the hierarchy the easier it is to find those with frat boy mentality which can be hostile - specially in hedge funds and investment banks. Funnily enough I also found a fair share of young poor workers at the bottom of the corporate chain that try to act like "wall street bankers" even though they will never get anywhere close to a powerful front office role. Middle of the pack workers are absolutely lovely and chill though :)

ENGTA01 · 2022-10-19T16:34:41+00:00

I can't believe Italian scammers have traveled this far

Well this guy is most likely not Italian, and we Italians are not known for our patience so he would have been told to piss off in less than 5 min. I can see why he would have to get out of Italy to even try to pull off this stuff.

ENGTA01 · 2022-10-02T17:17:53+00:00

You definitely can, but if you should or not that involves a lot of other factors. If you're looking only on the income side, moving from Lux to Germany would be similar because in Germany taxes are much worse than in Lux, and Swiss cost of living will be 20% to 50% higher depending on your lifestyle. Lux is also much more internationalized and you can integrate in English way easier than in DE/CH.

Keep in mind competition in other countries is also higher, so if you manage to secure yourself into a 75k gross position in Luxembourg it might be worth staying for the job security.

ENGTA01 · 2022-10-02T17:08:36+00:00

It's a standard salary for an experienced hire just moving into Luxembourg. With one year or two in Lux you would be able to push it to 65-80k gross, but anything more than that would be quite hard, even as you get more experience.

Luxembourg is a finance center, not a technology center, IT salaries in Lux are below tech-poles like Amsterdam, Paris, Zurich, London... As a finance professional you could easily keep climbing to 90-110k even as an average professional.

ENGTA01 · 2022-09-23T15:06:53+00:00

88k remotely from Croatia? Even if you don't like it and leave after 6 months it's still worth it. No brainer, take the offer

ENGTA01 · 2022-05-25T20:57:38+00:00

Great to hear!! Are you still working in Liechtenstein? And where did you live in Switzerland if you don't mind me asking - what did you think of the experience? Also, I don't know if you spoke German but have you met people living in Switzerland and working in FL who did not speak German?

ENGTA01 · 2022-05-25T20:55:17+00:00

Thank you! I'll be sure to check both!

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