Hello.
I am from Spain. I am a Computer Engineer (5 years at University). I have worked for three years as a consultant in a major company all over Europe and Latin-America. It was a challenging and fulfilling job but too much overtime (+80 hours per week) and too much political crap. I designed systems handling millions of transactions per day and I was very proud of it.
After that I worked for two years in a Madrid based, english speaking, "one product company". I developed the product from version X to version X+N. It was a very stable company, I was well payed and I worked less than 35 hours per week. After some time I was sick to death because my job was not challenging at all. Once you learn the product, there is nothing else to challenge you, it is just a very repetive work.
Now I am working in the IT department of an english speaking, non-IT company. They planned to develop a big internal tool and hired some developers including me but now they have abandoned the project and I am doing support. I don't like support. I don't like it at all. A user called me in despair because "all her icons were missing". She tried to kill excel.exe and killed explorer.exe. This is the kind of things I am doing now
In the meantime, two years ago I started a PhD related to BioInformatics and Biotech. I will need at least another two years to complete it.
In the end, I have worked at a consulting firm, at a product company and at a non-IT company and none of these jobs have been good enough for me in the long term.
I feel I am at the top of spanish IT jobs. I don't think I am going to find a better job or to make more money in Spain. It's not gonna happen, my salary is more than double the usual for a developer in Spain. This is not a first class country as the U.S., UK or Germany so there are no better jobs, spanish job market for geeks is what it is.
At this point, I have the first big question: It is me? Do I expect unreasonable things from a job? Am I unable to keep a job? Will I be always tired and bored of any job after two years? Will I be hopping from job to job every two years for the rest of my life?
I don't give up, and I am still looking for the perfect job, but I have started to search outside Spain. In London or Amsterdam there are very compelling jobs. As a E.U. citizen I don't need any kind of migration paperwork nor visa or "green card" to work there. No doubt these jobs will be a big step ahead for me but, still, I think after may be five years and two or thee jobs in London I will find myself in the same place I am now: wishing a better job that is not availabe in Europe.
So I think I could skip the London experience and go straigh to U.S., looking for the american dream, looking for a exciting job and, may be three or four years later the opportunity to start my own company and (hopefully) conquer the world
At the U.S. I know I will be a H1B worker. My wife will move with me but we will be an ocean apart from our friends and family. London is just a two hours and a half trip from Madrid so we could be back for a weekend every now and then.
I have never been in the US so I don't know how it is for real but, acording to CNN, Hollywood and the Internet I feel a bit scared about my legal status and rigths over there as a foreigner.
So now my second and more importan question: Is the american dream still possible? Will I find exciting jobs there? Will I have the opportunity to reshape the world with my technology?
Please, any advive will be welcomed. Thank you all.
I am from Spain. I am a Computer Engineer (5 years at University). I have worked for three years as a consultant in a major company all over Europe and Latin-America. It was a challenging and fulfilling job but too much overtime (+80 hours per week) and too much political crap. I designed systems handling millions of transactions per day and I was very proud of it.
After that I worked for two years in a Madrid based, english speaking, "one product company". I developed the product from version X to version X+N. It was a very stable company, I was well payed and I worked less than 35 hours per week. After some time I was sick to death because my job was not challenging at all. Once you learn the product, there is nothing else to challenge you, it is just a very repetive work.
Now I am working in the IT department of an english speaking, non-IT company. They planned to develop a big internal tool and hired some developers including me but now they have abandoned the project and I am doing support. I don't like support. I don't like it at all. A user called me in despair because "all her icons were missing". She tried to kill excel.exe and killed explorer.exe. This is the kind of things I am doing now
In the meantime, two years ago I started a PhD related to BioInformatics and Biotech. I will need at least another two years to complete it.
In the end, I have worked at a consulting firm, at a product company and at a non-IT company and none of these jobs have been good enough for me in the long term.
I feel I am at the top of spanish IT jobs. I don't think I am going to find a better job or to make more money in Spain. It's not gonna happen, my salary is more than double the usual for a developer in Spain. This is not a first class country as the U.S., UK or Germany so there are no better jobs, spanish job market for geeks is what it is.
At this point, I have the first big question: It is me? Do I expect unreasonable things from a job? Am I unable to keep a job? Will I be always tired and bored of any job after two years? Will I be hopping from job to job every two years for the rest of my life?
I don't give up, and I am still looking for the perfect job, but I have started to search outside Spain. In London or Amsterdam there are very compelling jobs. As a E.U. citizen I don't need any kind of migration paperwork nor visa or "green card" to work there. No doubt these jobs will be a big step ahead for me but, still, I think after may be five years and two or thee jobs in London I will find myself in the same place I am now: wishing a better job that is not availabe in Europe.
So I think I could skip the London experience and go straigh to U.S., looking for the american dream, looking for a exciting job and, may be three or four years later the opportunity to start my own company and (hopefully) conquer the world
At the U.S. I know I will be a H1B worker. My wife will move with me but we will be an ocean apart from our friends and family. London is just a two hours and a half trip from Madrid so we could be back for a weekend every now and then.
I have never been in the US so I don't know how it is for real but, acording to CNN, Hollywood and the Internet I feel a bit scared about my legal status and rigths over there as a foreigner.
So now my second and more importan question: Is the american dream still possible? Will I find exciting jobs there? Will I have the opportunity to reshape the world with my technology?
Please, any advive will be welcomed. Thank you all.
