Considering reigniting your tech career abroad? You aren’t alone. In the UK, 75% of tech workers said they would be open to leaving the country for work, compared to 61% of the general population.
From obtaining higher pay and securing greater job opportunities, to immersing yourself in a new culture and enjoying a more luxurious lifestyle, there are many benefits to emigrating.
To help get the wheels in motion if you’re thinking of making a move yourself, here are three of the best destinations for a tech worker like yourself to consider starting your new chapter in.
1. Zurich
Switzerland may be known for its banking and finance industries, but its status as a tech hub is growing — particularly the country’s capital of Zurich. Named by fDi Intelligence as the top mid-sized European tech city of the future, there are an abundance of tech jobs in Zurich, with high salaries to boot.
Some of the city’s main industries include cybersecurity, AI, and SAP. Speaking about the latter, recruiter Eursap notes that: “As the largest city in Switzerland, Zurich is a global business hub and home to fifteen companies ranked within the prestigious Fortune 500 list, including the Zurich Insurance Group. As such, there is no shortage of SAP jobs in Zurich, with companies of this calibre constantly on the lookout for experienced SAP professionals who can make marked improvements to their businesses.” This reflects a growing trend across the world as more businesses implement SAP solutions to help run their operations more efficiently.
2. San Francisco
Renowned for its Silicon Valley region, arguably the world’s leading tech ecosystem, San Francisco quite simply had to make the list here. From Apple and Meta (Facebook), to Alphabet (Google) and Adobe, some of the world’s biggest tech companies call Silicon Valley their home, in addition to a multitude of startups.
As a result, tech opportunities there are bountiful, particularly in AI. According to San Jose Spotlight, San Francisco (alongside San Jose) has four times more AI companies, job postings and job profiles than the next 13 US metro areas.
In addition, tech workers in the region are among the best paid in the world. A report published by salary aggregation website Levels.fyi found that the median pay for tech workers in the San Francisco Bay Area is $234,000. Salaries elsewhere pale in comparison to this — for instance, the median figures in London and Israel as a whole are $116,000 and $159,000 respectively.
3. Berlin
According to HubSpot, Berlin is the fastest growing tech hub in Europe. Tech innovation in the German capital has been driven by a huge increase in funding in recent times — the State of European Tech Report 2021 reported that Berlin has seen investment levels increase by 150% year on year.
It’s therefore no surprise that there’s a plethora of job opportunities in the city — for example, alongside London, Berlin accounted for 51.4% of all Europe’s VC (venture capital) job listings in 2022.
Some of the biggest tech sub-sectors in Berlin include 5G, cybersecurity and AI. Take the city’s AI industry, for instance. Berlin boasts over 300 companies in this sphere, with the likes of Amazon, SAP and Zalando also setting up major AI research labs in Berlin. As such, there are significant opportunities for tech workers like yourself to find work in this industry in particular.
