Ask HN: Reality for the Average Developer Outside Silicon Valley/Big US Markets?
Here&#x27;s my experience working as a SWE in Australia for about 4.5yrs, mostly in Brisbane and recently in Melbourne. I don&#x27;t know what is &quot;normal&quot; for SV&#x2F;SFBA so I&#x27;ll just list everything I can think of. The first three points are mandated by law in Australia.<p>* Maximum of 38hrs per week + breaks (~40hrs). I have never worked or been pressured to work overtime, paid or otherwise. I happily do my 9-5 and everything outside those hours is my personal life, especially the weekend.<p>* 20 days paid-time-off (annual leave) per year. Never tried negotiating for more.<p>* 9.5% on top of base salary contributed by employer to your superannuation (similar to 401k). I believe 17% if you work for government.<p>* Comfortable salary. Definitely not SFBA rates but comfortable for CoL. Fresh grad would be ~$40-60k&#x2F;yr, going up about $10k&#x2F;yr for the first few years until you reach a point where years of experience becomes less relevant than the type of experience (~5yrs). Some regional variance to account for CoL. I stupidly started low, but then pushed for more until I felt comfortable that I&#x27;m paid average market rates. My history was $40k, at ~6mo $55k, at ~1.5yr $70k, at ~2.5yr $77.5k, at ~3yr $90k, at ~4yr (job change and BNE-&gt;MEL) $110k. This is plenty to live off and save for the future, especially if your SO makes similar.<p>* Somewhat flexible working conditions. Some companies are butts-in-seats 9-5 from the office, most will allow some WFH and variance in hours (7-3, 11-7, etc.), some allow full WFH&#x2F;remote and your own hours.<p>* Pretty easy to find a new job. Each time I&#x27;ve tried interviewing I&#x27;ve received multiple offers within about 1 month.<p>* Sane interview processes. Most places will do a 15-30min phone screen so you can decide if you want to proceed, a take-home technical test that takes 1-2hrs, and then a 1hr onsite, before making an offer.<p>* Offices are mostly open-plan.<p>* Some companies offer small perks on top of all this, e.g. retail discounts, device allowance, phone allowance, personal development allowance, etc.