<story><title>Ask HN: What are the Madrid and Barcelona tech scenes like?</title><text>Hola HN!&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m a software developer considering moving to Spain for non-career-related reasons. That said, the job opportunities there are a huge factor in whether I&amp;#x27;ll actually go.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve narrowed down to Madrid and Barcelona as the two best options, at least regarding jobs. So I&amp;#x27;m asking for the opinions and advice of HNers who have lived &amp;amp; worked in both those cities:&lt;p&gt;What shape is the tech sector in? 
What types of work are available? 
What do salaries look like, vs London&amp;#x2F;Berlin&amp;#x2F;Paris levels? 
How limiting is it to not be fluent enough in Spanish for use at work, beyond chit-chat?
Is contracting&amp;#x2F;freelancing possible, without Spanish fluency?
Is there is an obvious leader between the two cities, tech-scene wise? 
Are there any unintuitive factors to consider?&lt;p&gt;---&lt;p&gt;A bit of personal context, if it helps the advice to be a bit more concrete:&lt;p&gt;* I&amp;#x27;d be going for senior developer roles. Most likely at small-mid size companies. Larger ones possibly, for the right job.&lt;p&gt;* My past jobs have been in the capital cities of Europe&amp;#x27;s strongest economies. I&amp;#x27;m aware that moving to Madrid or Barcelona will likely involve a pay cut in absolute terms. But this is a trade off I&amp;#x27;m more than happy to make.&lt;p&gt;* I&amp;#x27;m currently functional in Spanish but I have a long way to go until fluency. That&amp;#x27;s one of my goals in moving to Spain. So I&amp;#x27;m not put off by the language barrier for day to day life. It would be more of a near term concern if non fluency is severely career limiting, for example if it becomes a problem once you are anywhere above entry level positions, as is the case in some countries.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>pvaldes</author><text>&amp;gt; will likely involve a pay cut in absolute terms.&lt;p&gt;In absolute terms, but take in mind that life in Spain can be much less expensive than living in Berlin or Paris. It depends on the area and the job.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; I&amp;#x27;m currently functional in Spanish but I have a long way to go until fluency. That&amp;#x27;s one of my goals in moving to Spain&lt;p&gt;Madrid is the right option then. Has worst climate with more hot in summer and colder in winter, and is as stressful as any other big city, but is a much more easier place to learn spanish, and (probably) an easier place for a foreigner to mix with the locals. Barcelona uses heavily Catalonian language for all: trafic signs, street posters, commerce, casual conversation, television, politics... all.&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, if you can find work in any of the other &amp;quot;big&amp;#x2F;but not so big&amp;quot; province capitals (or can do remote work) maybe you should consider it. Smaller the city, worst pay, but much better life quality. The climate is better around the coast, as usual.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; How limiting is it to not be fluent enough in Spanish for use at work&lt;p&gt;As long as you speak english and know your stuff, should not be a big problem. English is worshipped (an old national inferiority complex) and in fact could be much more difficult to you to find a job in Spain if you were Spaniard.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>faragon</author><text>Catalan is not going to be a problem. Most people in Barcelona has Spanish as mother tongue. Catalan is more popular in the countryside. The Catalan nationalism is everywhere in the public sphere (public administration, public schools, traffic) because of regional government in hands of Catalan nationalists&amp;#x2F;separatists. Fortunately, private companies have not that imposition, and commom sense rules: most things are in Spanish and English. Of course, some people -including myself- speak in Catalan with other people, but switch immediately to Spanish or English so no one feels excluded.&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;#x27;re thinking about investing in Barcelona, and having fears about the separatist movement: don&amp;#x27;t worry, it is not going to happen. In that regard Barcelona is pretty much like London: separatists are a minority, being the separatist power in the countryside. So before the Catalan region of Spain becoming independent, Barcelona would remain as part of Spain (in the improbable case of all Spanish citizens agreed about allowing a &amp;quot;Clarity Act&amp;quot; like in Canada, so if Spain could be divided, any separatist region could be divided as well -that would be going &amp;quot;nuclear&amp;quot; against separatists that consider the Catalan region of Spain as &amp;quot;indivisible&amp;quot;-). So independence chance is 0, in my opinion. I hope Catalan nationalism will reduce its influence once their leaders pass through the court (corruption cases), and everything gets back to normal, with bilingüism&amp;#x2F;trilingüism in the schools and public administration, instead of current de-facto Catalan monolingual stuff in the public sphere. If after that you still have doubts, invest in Madrid first, and think about Barcelona once the political scene gets more rational (I love Barcelona, don&amp;#x27;t get me wrong).</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: What are the Madrid and Barcelona tech scenes like?</title><text>Hola HN!&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m a software developer considering moving to Spain for non-career-related reasons. That said, the job opportunities there are a huge factor in whether I&amp;#x27;ll actually go.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve narrowed down to Madrid and Barcelona as the two best options, at least regarding jobs. So I&amp;#x27;m asking for the opinions and advice of HNers who have lived &amp;amp; worked in both those cities:&lt;p&gt;What shape is the tech sector in? 
What types of work are available? 
What do salaries look like, vs London&amp;#x2F;Berlin&amp;#x2F;Paris levels? 
How limiting is it to not be fluent enough in Spanish for use at work, beyond chit-chat?
Is contracting&amp;#x2F;freelancing possible, without Spanish fluency?
Is there is an obvious leader between the two cities, tech-scene wise? 
Are there any unintuitive factors to consider?&lt;p&gt;---&lt;p&gt;A bit of personal context, if it helps the advice to be a bit more concrete:&lt;p&gt;* I&amp;#x27;d be going for senior developer roles. Most likely at small-mid size companies. Larger ones possibly, for the right job.&lt;p&gt;* My past jobs have been in the capital cities of Europe&amp;#x27;s strongest economies. I&amp;#x27;m aware that moving to Madrid or Barcelona will likely involve a pay cut in absolute terms. But this is a trade off I&amp;#x27;m more than happy to make.&lt;p&gt;* I&amp;#x27;m currently functional in Spanish but I have a long way to go until fluency. That&amp;#x27;s one of my goals in moving to Spain. So I&amp;#x27;m not put off by the language barrier for day to day life. It would be more of a near term concern if non fluency is severely career limiting, for example if it becomes a problem once you are anywhere above entry level positions, as is the case in some countries.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>pvaldes</author><text>&amp;gt; will likely involve a pay cut in absolute terms.&lt;p&gt;In absolute terms, but take in mind that life in Spain can be much less expensive than living in Berlin or Paris. It depends on the area and the job.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; I&amp;#x27;m currently functional in Spanish but I have a long way to go until fluency. That&amp;#x27;s one of my goals in moving to Spain&lt;p&gt;Madrid is the right option then. Has worst climate with more hot in summer and colder in winter, and is as stressful as any other big city, but is a much more easier place to learn spanish, and (probably) an easier place for a foreigner to mix with the locals. Barcelona uses heavily Catalonian language for all: trafic signs, street posters, commerce, casual conversation, television, politics... all.&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, if you can find work in any of the other &amp;quot;big&amp;#x2F;but not so big&amp;quot; province capitals (or can do remote work) maybe you should consider it. Smaller the city, worst pay, but much better life quality. The climate is better around the coast, as usual.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; How limiting is it to not be fluent enough in Spanish for use at work&lt;p&gt;As long as you speak english and know your stuff, should not be a big problem. English is worshipped (an old national inferiority complex) and in fact could be much more difficult to you to find a job in Spain if you were Spaniard.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>adlpz</author><text>Quick note: Spaniard here,  lived in Berlin for two years and I can assure you that Barcelona is significantly more expensive for a comparable way of life. Berlin is a particularly cheap place to live.</text></comment>