Inspired by yesterday's "Joining Big Tech in One’s 40s" post. I'm ~40 and spent my career in tech startups on the other side of the pond. I recently started entertaining an idea to move to the USA, Silicon Valley in particular. Is there a reasonable chance to find a good job as lead or principal developer in a reasonably well funded company (or CTO in a small-ish company) while still living in Europe when applying? How to approach this?
It's VERY HARD(to impossible) to get a US working visa, even if you are absolutely great. I think this is the hardest problem. Finding a job as a American in SV should be a piece of cake if you are an average developer with a bachelor and some experience(or even none).
Not to mention that H1B visas are horrible, like, your SO can't work, you are tied up with the company who gives it and they will lowball your salary in comparison to your other American peers.
I'd just move somewhere else like Europe(Germany/Ireland) where they have real immigration policies(as imperfect as they might be). If you need H1B. If you saved a lot of money you can try to use the green card route.
I've personally given up trying to go to the US and just embraced living in Europe, even though that it's impossible to get SV salaries. Maybe when I've accumulated enough money I'll just buy my way in. Living in America has always been a dream for me but I don't want to move there and have a very restricted lifestyle and feel disrespected by those immigration laws.
It is possible for sure. However, note that San Francisco is incredibly expensive now. So you have to really focus on getting a good salary and actually finding a reasonable place to live. Also, traffic, homelessness, etc. The reality is it isn't as glamorous as you may have in your mind.
There are a lot of remote jobs to be had. Companies like Gitlab hire all over the world. That might be another approach worth exploring. Maybe look for a remote position and see if you can relocate.
Despite what some may think there is age discrimination, I have found that Silicon Valley is still more of a meritocracy. You github/gitlab, blogs, accomplishments weigh heavily. The valley is still in high demand of talent and will pay well.
My two goals are to maximise my disposable income and to get to know people who could improve my life (by further career opportunities, by being good cofounders in the future, or simply by inspiring me, being worth talk to or learn from). The second goal is hard to achieve when working remotely (I used to work remotely for several years). The first goal: I know that SV is an expensive place to live, but I have an impression that companies hiring remotely pay so much less than SV wages, that even considering cost of living you can save more living in SV.
I had some roller-coaster in recent years and I need some peace of mind for the next few years. What I mean is to work for a company which most likely won't go under in the next 12 months (hence "reasonably well funded") and with enough resources to get things done; and kinda to focus on one area rather than having to take care of everything and then more. I don't mean I'm looking for a low stress job. Just a bit less stress, bit more certainty and bit less responsibilities than when running/bootstrapping your own company (I did that in the past and will probably do it again, but in a few years).
It sounds like a more established company might be a better landing place. Established companies are probably more likely to accept the risks associated with relocating someone in their forties and have more experience with doing so. Those companies also are less likely to go under and large companies offer more opportunities to meet people.
In the end, if you want to move to California, decide to move to California. Make the tradeoffs. Figure out the details. Work through the problems. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out.
There are only two paths to get a SV gig from abroad. 1) Join the local arm of a SV HQ company and transfer on L1 or 2) Go to school and get recruited from there while starting OPT and transferring to H1. There are very few alternatives to these two paths. Diversity visa, EB 5, Family Green card, O1 are some other very difficult options if you have those connections
Not to mention that H1B visas are horrible, like, your SO can't work, you are tied up with the company who gives it and they will lowball your salary in comparison to your other American peers.
I'd just move somewhere else like Europe(Germany/Ireland) where they have real immigration policies(as imperfect as they might be). If you need H1B. If you saved a lot of money you can try to use the green card route.
I've personally given up trying to go to the US and just embraced living in Europe, even though that it's impossible to get SV salaries. Maybe when I've accumulated enough money I'll just buy my way in. Living in America has always been a dream for me but I don't want to move there and have a very restricted lifestyle and feel disrespected by those immigration laws.