Ask HN: Europe to East Coast, does it make sense to move at 50?
by koevet on Hacker News.
Dear HN, I have the opportunity to move from Berlin to Princeton, NJ, in relation to my wife’s job.
I wonder if it makes sense financially and I thought to ask the community. A bit of context: I turned 50 this year, I have 25+ years of coding/system design/tech lead experience. I have mostly worked as a freelance “on-site”, sometimes for short periods of time, some other times I stayed with the same client for years. These days I work on a lot of cloud migration projects, with a strong focus on AWS. So, coming to my question, I have no frame of reference regarding salaries on the East Coast, especially for freelance jobs. I did some research and the salaries for permanent positions in the area are significantly lower than my current income in Europe. I assume that I could potentially earn more by engaging clients on the west coast, but my US network is non existent. Is the free-lancing that I’m used to do in Europe even a thing in the US? (Working for a client for months – at least 6 – on a daily rate which is higher than a normal salary because I can be released at any time plus I bear all the cost of employment including health).
Also, can my age represent a problem for employers? Sorry for the fuzziness of the question, I hope it does make some sense. EDIT: my wife’s company will provide a work permit for me, but at this stage I don’t know which type.