What I Expected and What Surprised Me About Working in Europe

In my previous articles, I have mainly written about the topic of overseas graduate schools.

I have written as realistically as possible about the process of building my overseas career, including what I considered when choosing an overseas graduate school, what I prepared for with an eye toward local employment, and my experiences stumbling over visas and work permits.

Also, in my previous paid article, I summarized quite specifically the content that people who are wavering about whether to study abroad at a graduate school should organize.

However, as I wrote before, overseas graduate school was not the goal.

One of the big reasons I went to an overseas graduate school was "working as a software engineer abroad" that lay beyond it.

Currently, I live in Europe and work as a software engineer at a tech company headquartered in the United States.

There are several reasons why I became interested in working in Europe.

The possibility of aiming for relatively high compensation as a software engineer. The possibility of building a career as a professional while valuing work-life balance. And the feeling that it would be easy to go to other countries in Europe and surrounding regions, and that life choices would expand, not just work.

When I was aiming for an overseas graduate school, I was gathering information about life and working styles in Europe through various media.

However, much of the information I found was centered on working holidays, studying abroad, and accompanying a partner. Of course, those were helpful, but what I really wanted to know was what kind of daily life it would be like to work as a professional in Europe.

This time, I will write about "working in Europe," which was beyond overseas graduate school, including what I had expected and what surprised me a little after actually working there.

However, I should state first that this is not a story about Europe as a whole.

It goes without saying that just as cultures differ among Asian countries, systems and cultures also differ among countries in Europe. I think working styles also change considerably depending on the company and job type.

Furthermore, what I write here may be a mix of not only European culture but also the culture specific to software engineers and tech companies.

With that premise, I will write about what I felt within my own scope of observation.

Vacations are easy to take

First is the main topic of vacations. Even before I started working in Europe, I had heard that it was easy to take vacations.

In fact, I had heard from a friend working at a global consulting firm in Japan that during the summer and Christmas seasons, it becomes difficult to contact the European team, and teams in other regions sometimes have to shoulder the workload for that time.

Therefore, the fact that many people in Europe take their vacations properly was not that surprising in itself.

However, what I felt after actually starting to work at an overseas company is that vacation is not just a system, but is quite naturally incorporated into the premise of work.

Whether at my own company or at companies where acquaintances work, it is quite common to take multiple 1-2 week vacations around summer and Christmas.

In my first year, I worked without taking much vacation. Since I had just joined the company, I felt that taking too much time off might not be a good thing.

Then, my boss called me in and warned me to make sure I took my vacation.

This left a strong impression on me.

Since I have no experience working as a full-time employee in Japan, I do not intend to compare this to Japanese companies as a whole. However, I had a lingering feeling that one should be as reserved as possible about taking vacation.

But at least in the environment where I work, I felt that vacation is treated not as something to be taken with hesitation, but as something to be used properly in order to keep working.

Depending on the region, it seems that if an employee does not take a certain amount of vacation, it can become a burden for the company. While I cannot say for sure as the details of the system vary by country and region, I felt that at least it is an environment where 'not taking vacation' is not considered a virtue.

Of course, it is necessary to organize your responsibilities before taking time off, and parts of the company's structure and culture are designed so that things continue to run even when employees are on vacation.

Precisely because it is an environment where it is easy to take vacation, there is a requirement to avoid making work too dependent on specific individuals and to share premises, backgrounds, and progress.

Taking time off is a prerequisite for the job.
Therefore, there is also a responsibility to organize work so that one can take time off.

I have come to feel this sense quite strongly since I started working here.

Thinking about salary and job changes quite realistically

Another thing that left an impression on me regarding work is the way people think about salary and changing jobs.

When people talk about working in Europe, stories about vacation and work-life balance tend to stand out. In fact, even within my own observations, I feel that many people value their time off and their personal lives.

However, that does not mean they are indifferent to their careers or salaries.

On the contrary, I have the impression that people working in professional roles think quite realistically about their market value and salary.

Some people interview at other companies and use the results to negotiate their salary with their current company. Others apply to multiple companies at the same time and negotiate while comparing offer conditions.

I myself had an experience when I was job hunting as a new graduate where I received offers from multiple companies, and in the end, the conditions from one were significantly improved.

At the time, I thought just getting an offer was difficult enough. So, I was quite surprised at how much having multiple options could influence salary negotiations.

I have also heard from an acquaintance that their company told them, 'You are doing a good job and I want to raise your salary. To do that, please go get an offer from another company.'

Of course, I think this varies greatly depending on the company, region, job type, and individual circumstances.

However, looking at those around me, I feel that salary and changing jobs are treated as quite realistic career choices.

Also, the length of time people stay at a company varies significantly. In my circle, I often see people working for anywhere from one to ten years. On the other hand, I don't see many people who quit in less than a year or stay at the same company for more than ten years.

This is also just based on my own observations, but at least it doesn't feel like 'staying at one company for a long time' is the only right answer; rather, there is a sense of adjusting one's career according to one's own situation.

Ease of travel

One of the reasons I became interested in working in Europe was the expectation that it would be easier to visit other countries.

When I was in Japan, for the people around me, traveling abroad meant booking flights, securing a block of time off, and planning things out to a certain extent. I think there was a sense that it wasn't something you could just do casually.

Of course, just because you live in Europe doesn't mean you can travel every week. There is work to do, and money and time are limited.

Even so, after actually living here, the psychological hurdle of crossing borders has lowered significantly.

In Europe, countries are geographically close to each other, and there are regions where you can cross borders by train or bus. Also, because budget airlines are well-developed, going to another country for a few days off or a weekend is not such a special event.

Depending on the location and time of year, if you book your flights early, you can travel quite cheaply. Heading to the airport after work, spending the weekend in another country, and coming back—having that way of traveling as a realistic option has been a significant change for me.

Since I actually started living in Europe, my opportunities to travel have increased considerably.

It has become easier to visit not only famous cities but also slightly more obscure places and truly beautiful natural spots that take time to access. There are places where you have to take connecting trains or buses, or fly to a nearby airport on a budget airline and travel further from there. Even so, if you use a few days off, you can reach towns, mountains, lakes, and seaside villages that I didn't even know the names of when I was in Japan.

Also, through traveling, I have started to think not just about seeing tourist spots, but also about 'what kind of place I want to live in,' 'what climate and city size suit me,' and 'whether the places I like to visit are different from the places that suit me as a base for daily life.'

There are also hardships in daily life

There are many attractive aspects to working in Europe.

It is easy to take time off, and it is easy to go to neighboring countries. There are many places with beautiful streetscapes, and I think being able to travel to various countries using weekends and holidays is one of the great charms of living in Europe.

However, once you actually live here, it's not all good.

What I felt affected my life more than I expected were the weather, public safety, and the cost of living.

First of all, the darkness and bad weather in winter affected my mood more than I had anticipated.

Before I lived in Europe, I knew that the days were short in winter. However, staying for a few days as a tourist is quite different from actually living there.

When winter comes, daylight hours decrease, and there are more days with bad weather. In my case, I found myself feeling down more often during the winter.

Public safety is also an issue that cannot be ignored. While the degree varies depending on the country, city, and area, you generally have to be more careful than you would be in Japan. Especially when in large cities, I have become more mindful of where I walk and how I carry my belongings.

Rising prices are also a very real issue.

When people think about working abroad, they tend to focus on high salaries. In fact, the possibility of aiming for relatively high compensation as a software engineer was one of the reasons I wanted to work in Europe.

However, if you judge things solely by salary, it can sometimes differ from the reality of daily life.

It seems that prices are rising in Japan as well, but in the country where I live, there are many situations where I feel the increase in prices and rent. Even if your income increases, if your cost of living rises at the same time, you may not have as much disposable income as you thought.

That is why I believe that when considering working abroad or finding a job locally, you need to look not only at the gross salary but also at the actual cost of living in that country or city.

The feeling of building your own life yourself

So far, I have introduced some of the things I have experienced while living in Europe.

Of course, it is not all good. There are realities that directly affect life, such as the darkness of winter, public safety, and rising prices and rent.

Even so, I feel that the choice to move to Europe and work has been better overall than I had imagined.

And I also believe that this is not a choice that only a few special people can make; if you think about how to prepare and the path to take, and put in the effort, it is not something that cannot be replicated.

In future articles, I would like to share, little by little, things like how to choose an overseas graduate school, how to prepare for scholarships, what I did before finding a local job, and how people are actually expected to work at overseas tech companies.

I would be happy if these articles could encourage those who are even slightly considering moving to Europe, or if they prove to be genuinely useful.