About the criteria for selecting cities: I’ve focused on what seem to be the “best” cities in Europe for software engineers (although I plan to expand the site with cities from other continents as well).
The criteria for choosing the cities are the following: good amount of high quality companies, good financials (salaries, taxes, cost of living), good quality of life.
I believe Brussels doesn’t have a lot of good companies (I think it barely has any faang/big tech company there), and the financials are also not that good for it to make up for the lack of quality companies. That’s why I thought I wouldn’t add it. Do you think I’m missing something? Maybe it’s a great place and I’m not aware :)
I was just a bit surprised to see some places in Poland and Romania being included but not Brussels or Lisbon... Now I understand better what were the criteria...
Belgium is a personal preference for me due to lower rents. Not necessarily in Brussels but it's possible to find very affordable places within 30min by train... For instance, it's common knowledge that it's very difficult to find accomodation in many cities of The Netherlands or even Germany (e.g. Berlin). I saw people living for a long time in hostels in Amsterdam, while searching for accomodation! I also put Belgium above Germany in terms of quality of life. Better weather and easier access to natural landscapes (country is small).
1. Country brands and “legacy” countries: countries, similar to products/companies/services, have a brand. Some countries still benefit from a certain brand they had in the past, and some countries yet pay the price for a “bad” brand they had in the past. Perceptions adjust to realities with some delay. For example, you would think of Italy, France, Germany, UK as “rich” countries, since they once were relatively wealthy and influential places and to some extent they still are. But nowadays if you work in any of them, especially Italy, you would have to work hard to find a job that allows you to have a good quality of life given the high cost of living etc. More people are relatively richer in countries perceived as poor such as Romania, Serbia, Poland than in countries perceived as richer such as Italy, Germany, UK etc. This is especially true for IT professionals: there’s a phenomenon where an IT person makes multiples of a doctor in those emerging countries, which is not really true in Western Europe. I will write more about this in the future.
2. The list if quite targeted and biased in the sense that it focuses on IT professionals and in particular software engineers who aim at working in top companies. So the cities that I consider are those that offer good opportunities for (ambitious) developers, and not just good opportunities for every citizen (there are already such lists online :)).
Thanks for putting out this useful data!
I noticed Brussels wasn't included. Any reason for this?
Hi Carlos! Happy you appreciate it.
About the criteria for selecting cities: I’ve focused on what seem to be the “best” cities in Europe for software engineers (although I plan to expand the site with cities from other continents as well).
The criteria for choosing the cities are the following: good amount of high quality companies, good financials (salaries, taxes, cost of living), good quality of life.
I believe Brussels doesn’t have a lot of good companies (I think it barely has any faang/big tech company there), and the financials are also not that good for it to make up for the lack of quality companies. That’s why I thought I wouldn’t add it. Do you think I’m missing something? Maybe it’s a great place and I’m not aware :)
Hi! Thanks for your insights!
I was just a bit surprised to see some places in Poland and Romania being included but not Brussels or Lisbon... Now I understand better what were the criteria...
Belgium is a personal preference for me due to lower rents. Not necessarily in Brussels but it's possible to find very affordable places within 30min by train... For instance, it's common knowledge that it's very difficult to find accomodation in many cities of The Netherlands or even Germany (e.g. Berlin). I saw people living for a long time in hostels in Amsterdam, while searching for accomodation! I also put Belgium above Germany in terms of quality of life. Better weather and easier access to natural landscapes (country is small).
Fair enough.
Couple of points:
1. Country brands and “legacy” countries: countries, similar to products/companies/services, have a brand. Some countries still benefit from a certain brand they had in the past, and some countries yet pay the price for a “bad” brand they had in the past. Perceptions adjust to realities with some delay. For example, you would think of Italy, France, Germany, UK as “rich” countries, since they once were relatively wealthy and influential places and to some extent they still are. But nowadays if you work in any of them, especially Italy, you would have to work hard to find a job that allows you to have a good quality of life given the high cost of living etc. More people are relatively richer in countries perceived as poor such as Romania, Serbia, Poland than in countries perceived as richer such as Italy, Germany, UK etc. This is especially true for IT professionals: there’s a phenomenon where an IT person makes multiples of a doctor in those emerging countries, which is not really true in Western Europe. I will write more about this in the future.
2. The list if quite targeted and biased in the sense that it focuses on IT professionals and in particular software engineers who aim at working in top companies. So the cities that I consider are those that offer good opportunities for (ambitious) developers, and not just good opportunities for every citizen (there are already such lists online :)).
Hope this clears out some of the things!
I agree that "brands" influence the perception of certain countries. Wasn't aware of the pay gap in Eastern Europe.
Your 2nd point clarifies the real sources of the data for this list! It makes a lot more sense to me now 😉