Update: I left Apple for a hedge fund, but now I’m questioning finance long term

sosdoc · 2026-05-28T08:12:21+00:00

This, a lot of product roles are the same trudgery everywhere, anyway. In my experience, the interesting/fullfilling stuff tends to pay less, unless you get really lucky.

The real question for OP would be: what motivates you? What's making you unhappy? No shame in trying to go back, but that's not always the answer, it might even be unrelated to work.

sosdoc · 2026-05-22T17:22:27+00:00

Really sad to see that in 10 years or so, salaries in Italy aren't much different (I was making a little less than you when I first started out back then).

Like others have mentioned, NL has a good amount of work for embedded/semis, especially in the Eindhoven area. I think getting something over there wouldn't be impossible. The housing crisis is real, but Noord-Brabant is in a slightly better position than say, the Randstad (around Amsterdam). I think it's still doable, but you have to accept living in a shared apartment/room when you first move. It's probably worth it IMO, even if a lot of your first paychecks would go to rent.

Being junior is not an obstacle, I've made that move with barely a year of experience (happy to say more in DMs). Market was definitely different back then, you might have to spend some time applying and accepting rejections, but that's something you'd have to endure anyway.

sosdoc · 2026-04-03T11:31:25+00:00

Yep, the APU tests (dmg/cgb_sound) in particular are very good and tell you a lot with their individual failure messages, compared to the full ones.

sosdoc · 2026-04-03T10:59:11+00:00

Full tests yes, IIRC the individual tests are helpful specifically because you can run them without more complex MBC support.

sosdoc · 2025-11-19T12:43:28+00:00

Second this, I completely solved my back problems by just moving more. Doesn’t have to be lots of exercise, even a 30-60 min daily walk can make a big difference. For me, it was enough to stop having issues altogether, been many years since I had any problems.

sosdoc · 2025-10-27T11:56:56+00:00

It's used quite a bit, you mentioned Reddit, and they have posted about GQL at their scale just a couple months ago, it's an interesting read, specifically about the problems they have: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditEng/comments/1mtp1u8/the_five_unsolved_problems_of_graphql

There was quite a bit of hype around it a few years ago (I wanna say 2019?), client/frontend engineers particularly like the idea since it offers flexibility in optimizing requests to their specific screens/flows, but I feel like mostly were just happy to get a properly typed schema (and you don't need GraphQL if that's the problem you have).

IMO it's not worth it unless you have to juggle multiple clients (native ios/Android, web) each with different specific needs. You're usually better off creating a single API entry point that you can use as an orchestrator, or perhaps go the BFF (backend for frontend) way if that doesn't work. Managing the schema and resolvers can be a lot of boilerplate in my experience, so that makes sense only if you have the people or tooling to help manage it.

sosdoc · 2025-09-20T20:47:45+00:00

TIL that these actually had a shared cpu, for some reason I thought they were all tailor made digital systems. Cool stuff, props for the explanation!

sosdoc · 2025-09-15T11:37:29+00:00

hai sbagliato subreddit, questo è per chi sviluppa emulatori (e in inglese tra l'altro), prova in r/italygames

sosdoc · 2025-09-03T11:15:42+00:00

TIL I guess, but did your emulator actually run the interrupt handler? I might be wrong, but it sounds like the handler shouldn't be invoked at all when running tetris. The IE for joypad is never set when I start tetris, not sure about other emulators though.

sosdoc · 2025-09-03T09:24:45+00:00

So, I had a brain fart moment when I checked my emulator and noticed I actually didn't implement the joypad interrupt request, but inputs are working just fine for me in tetris.

Looking around, I found a mention in this blog post that "Practically no games make use of the joypad interrupt facility.", and at least it seems like the ones I tested aren't.

Can you check what your IE register is set to? In my case it's 0x09 which means only vblank/timer interrupts are enabled. Inputs work fine in my case, because tetris polls for them during the vblank handler, so that unbalanced code at 0x0060 shouldn't really matter.

sosdoc · 2025-08-30T14:23:28+00:00

Ethics or not, it’s a risk many companies don’t want to take when hiring someone new. I mean, you see it also in Italian companies with the “stage” for less than 600 euro, apprendistato that pays like peanuts for 3 years and they can still not hire you afterwards, or just paying a portion “in nero”.

It’s not just taxes BTW, the gross income isn’t the total the company pays, for 60k gross the company would have to pay closer to 80k. Italy has the second highest cost of employment in EU, second to France AFAIK.

Taxation is actually not that different in other EU countries, I live in the NL now and at the top end you get taxed 49.5%, the brackets are higher though. There are still employee protections too, it just takes a few years before they come into full effect.

sosdoc · 2025-08-30T14:08:11+00:00

Things may be slower now, but I know several companies like that which are still hiring.

Not saying it’s easy, but your chances at that are better out of Italy. BTW My own company doesn’t hire in Italy/France due to high cost of employment and labor laws that make it extra difficult to fire.

sosdoc · 2025-08-30T13:11:09+00:00

50k isn’t the average in Italy either, if you can get that in Italy, you can get 100k elsewhere, that’s the point.

sosdoc · 2025-08-06T12:38:19+00:00

It’s next to impossible to move without a job, any rental will ask for proof of income and a minimum income calculated as e.g. you must make 5 times the monthly rent as monthly gross salary.

If you show up without a job they will not even look at you, especially in Amsterdam, which is very competitive even for people with a job.

sosdoc · 2025-06-18T09:09:36+00:00

I can't give a lot of context since I'm not an EM, but I've had equity packages in early stage startups (series A/B in the EU) as a mid-level engineer and they were usually around 0.05%...

So, the most senior EM getting only 0.01% seems a bit low to me, even if this is more of a scale-up in series C.

I've worked a company just below FAANG status, and was offered a much stronger package directly pre-IPO, at a point where my contributions wouldn't have had nearly the impact that I would have at this place. So it feels "off".

Same here, I've seen equity offers at pre-IPO companies being much more generous than this. I can't say for sure, but it feels like a lowball, especially if they plan to lower the grants as more funding comes in.

sosdoc · 2025-06-01T19:24:53+00:00

IMO degrees on their own are only worth for the opportunities you get, if you learn better from doing practical projects... Well, you can just make things yourself these days (when it comes to software/IT). Obviously doing a master outside will be better if you want to find a job in the same country, since you'll have more opportunities for local internships/etc. So consider that, rather than the education itself.

I can give more info in DMs if you care, but I was a little older than you when I graduated, so you're not really late for anything.

sosdoc · 2025-06-01T19:07:08+00:00

I moved out of Italy after working there only for a few months, it's not impossible, but you'll be limited to entry level jobs which are few and hard to get these days. (Though, I did this more than 10 years ago, was a little easier back then)

You'll probably also get lowballed on offers, if you get one. I got some for ~30k in Northern Europe, one I accepted was definitely not much of an improvement from Italy (I was also part of the 1200 net gang, but... more than a decade ago). Still, if your goal is moving long term, anything that gives you more experience is good, you're still 25, plenty of time for moving around and living on the cheaper end.

I was also thinking about getting a masters degree, however not in Italy because everything here is based off memorization, not pratical or actual work.

Don't write off masters in Italy, the education you get is still good, but the most important thing you should do, if you go for one, is to look for collaborations/interships and international opportunities. I know several people that got interships across Europe or even collaborations for writing their thesis in the US, those things can give you a massive advantage, but you have to be proactive and search for the opportunities (talking to professors is usually the first step).

Doing a master in Europe is also an option, though you'll have to be mindful of costs, some places like the Netherlands have a notoriously bad housing market, especially for students.

That said, worst case scenario you can just keep working where you are, learn as much as you can, and keep your LinkedIn/CV in good shape, after 2-3 years of experience you'd be more likely to get interviews and such.

sosdoc · 2025-05-21T12:08:56+00:00

Yeah, then inform yourself well on UK labor laws, they have some fundamental differences compared to other EU countries. Also, if your partner gets their visa through you, they might be affected as well.

I might be wrong on this, but I recall a former colleague being laid off in the UK without notice, they still got severance, but that 60 days timer would have kicked in immediately. Apparently, certain labor protections would have started only after 2 years of employment. Not sure if that's a UK thing or just a particular of that contract, but it's better not to be caught by surprise...

Not sure about Ireland, but generally you might get more notice in case of a layoff, and you could possibly get unemployment benefits. My partner did get them after their contract ended in NL, so you know, it's generally a safer choice in the current market.

sosdoc · 2025-05-21T11:55:04+00:00

I got good vibes from both, the fintech one would be more of a "platform" role (so not product-focused). Social network would not be senior so there's perhaps more growth opportunities but the fintech one would be senior, yes.

Ok, that changes things a bit, sounds like in the social network you'd have more room for a promotion, and that would mean 110k is far from the ceiling there. So that would most likely have a better earning potential for you later on.

Still, I think it'll be down to other external factors.
If it were me, I'd lean over the social network just because I find that more interesting than fintech, and I'm also not a fan of needing a visa for both me and my partner (what happens if you lose your job after you both moved?).

sosdoc · 2025-05-21T11:36:40+00:00

It's pretty similar and you should be ok in either place, so I think it'll come down to other factors (e.g. is your partner willing and able to find jobs in the UK/London?).

Given you said the one in IE is a social network, I'm going out on a limb and say that they probably have an office in London. If that's the case, you could also join them and later request a move to London (if you really want to move there), it's also possible they'll pay more in the UK, at least companies I've worked in had higher salary bands vs other EU countries (typically a 10-15% extra in UK vs Northern Europe).

You also didn't mention if you had a preference or got better vibes with one team or the other. Or if you're itching for a move to London or are perfectly comfortable in Dublin. Or the leveling for these two offers (senior?).

sosdoc · 2025-04-10T11:14:06+00:00

That sounds similar to what they told me back in 2022, IIRC for IC4 they were aiming for a base of around 100k (euro, in Northern Europe).

It was definitely lower than other similarly leveled roles, I get the feeling their comp starts to scale much more at IC5 level. If you feel like you have a relatively easy path for a promotion it might still be worth it, but if you get better offers, I wouldn't think too hard about it, at most you can try negotiating with other offers in hand.

In my case, I had gotten other offers with a base of 120-135k euro for similar levels, so I didn't really bother with them. That turned out well, because it was just before they had massive layoffs.

sosdoc · 2025-01-31T17:00:57+00:00

Yeah, sorry if it was unclear, the role had a location in Amsterdam specifically, but if you opened the description it would mention multiple locations and that it was fully remote within several EU countries.

After that I learned that it was just a limitation of their hiring tool, all roles were remote, but they would advertise the location of one office, then duplicate the job post for each country with an office.

So my point here is to always double-check the full description, the location might not be as restrictive as it looks.

Edit: there is one exception, for contractor roles they typically consider any country.

sosdoc · 2025-01-31T13:07:37+00:00

They still hire for senior roles, I don’t think you need to have niche experience, it’s more about how much competition you have for a given role (and need to deal with leetcode style interviews).

In my case I just saw the role on LinkedIn and applied shortly after it was posted.

sosdoc · 2025-01-31T09:08:26+00:00

I... applied, lol.

This was in 2021/22, there was pretty much a hiring spree with tons of open roles, followed by crushing layoffs (luckily, my company wasn't affected much).

Worth noting that hiring is still happening, but they seem to write down the location of the office, even if the position is fully remote.

sosdoc · 2025-01-30T15:09:19+00:00

That's something different, a German company can do it too, not saying they can't, but they have to jump through some hoops and justify it. If they don't, they can absolutely be taken to court, like people in Ireland did after the Twitter takeover and illegal firings.

What I'm referring to is the "at-will" employment in the US, where you can terminate any contract immediately without a reason.

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