Pretty much agree with this sentiment regarding hardware/culture.
Also the salaries are acceptable (imo) compared to fairly high paying US jobs if you compare real working hours (vacation time, real 40h workweeks etc.). With a family there's even more benefits.
Cost of living also tends to be fairly low (with a high quality of life) compared to higher paying places.
High paying American bigcorps mostly have perfectly fine work life balance.
Getting double the vacation time (6 weeks instead of 3) when I moved from the US to Germany was very nice, but going back I'll have 5 weeks, which isn't too bad.
> Getting double the vacation time (6 weeks instead of 3) when I moved from the US to Germany was very nice, but going back I'll have 5 weeks, which isn't too bad.
I keep hearing this. Yes, you will get 5 weeks. But what about your wife, your uncle, your friends? In Germany they're all guaranteed to have the same number of days off, access to healthcare, etc. When you have kids you have a bunch of weeks/months off before the child is born and more after.
In the US, as long as you're young, healthy, rich and selfish, life is grand :D
But that's the point of US, no? It's the best country for the best people. So, the best people go to the US... (well, many at least... I'm still holding out... for now, I value European way of life but I envy US political & legal systems, in particular their freedom of speech).
Nitpick: the number of vacation days in Germany does vary a bit, though by much less than in the US.
Agreed, I'd love it if all Americans were entitled to 5 or 6 weeks of vacation, plus the various other benefits that are standard in most of western Europe. Unfortunately, the GOP exists, so that's not happening anytime soon.
Also the salaries are acceptable (imo) compared to fairly high paying US jobs if you compare real working hours (vacation time, real 40h workweeks etc.). With a family there's even more benefits. Cost of living also tends to be fairly low (with a high quality of life) compared to higher paying places.