We continue a special series of materials about the relocation of programmers from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia to other countries. Developers tell how to find a job abroad, move and adapt locally. Our sixth hero is developer Dmitry from the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye. In 2015 he moved to the USA. I am from the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye. I decided to become a programmer in my youth, although my father dissuaded me. Parents advised me to go to study as an electrician, because this profession is always useful. But I went to programming at the Zaporozhye State Academy. After graduating from the university, I worked for about a year in Zaporozhye, then moved to Kyiv. In Kyiv, I worked in a couple of offices, the last of which is an outsourcing company EPAM.
moving
A few years ago, EPAM started moving its Ukrainian office to the Czech Republic. Europe did not attract me. I thought that if I relocate, then to the United States. When choosing a country for relocation, my priorities were an interesting job and a high salary. Why do I say that an interesting job in the USA? Yes, because all interesting projects “grow” from there. In Ukraine, 95% of IT companies are outsourced. All well-known offices originated in the USA (Facebook, Amazon, Google). In the US, you can meet people who know and can do much more. I applied for a relocation within EPAM, interviewed for a couple of projects. Including in a financial project - I used to work on a similar one. That is, I moved to the USA, but continued to work at EPAM on a project for the Swiss bank UBS. EPAM has its own relocation team. They scheduled an interview for me at the embassy, and also paid for the relocation. Tickets cost about a thousand dollars for two. In the first month I was rented a house in Jersey City - it was about 4.5 thousand dollars, and they also paid for the rent of the car. For parking I paid 150-200 dollars per month. The entire move cost $8,000. I also received a $10,000 loan. It would be difficult without this money.
Documentation
In general, the US immigration system is a bit broken. When the government introduced a quota for visas, it was assumed that they wanted to import the best, but in fact they began to import the cheapest - those who are willing to work below market wages under the so-called "tacit contract". This agreement consists in the fact that a person is relocated to the USA on a low salary, later he is given a Green Card, and then he leaves “for free bread”. Every year in April, the quota for H-1B work visas opens (for example, about 65,000 work visas per year). Outsourcing firms fill this quota literally within a week. This is mainly used by large Indian offices and much less by Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian outsourcing companies. There is another relocation option, in addition to the H-1B visa - a business move within the company. It's used as a loophole to bypass the H-1B visa, but it is not very beneficial for the employee. You can change jobs on an H-1B visa, but not on an L visa. Many companies in the market use this visa to move. According to the terms of work in EPAM, Green Card registration begins one year after the move. It took me about 2 years and 8 months to get a Green Card. After applying for the Green Card, I quit because I was mentally and physically very tired by that time. I rested for a couple of months, then I was already looking for work in the free market. as mentally and physically very tired by the time. I rested for a couple of months, then I was already looking for work in the free market. as mentally and physically very tired by the time. I rested for a couple of months, then I was already looking for work in the free market.
job change
It is quite difficult to find a job in the US free market, this is not Ukraine. In Ukraine, for example, you send a resume to ten offices, at least five of them will be invited for an interview and at least two will offer an offer. In the USA, everything is not so: competition is quite high, here you need to know computer science, algorithms, data structures well, they give tasks at interviews - you need to write a program right in the Google doc and discuss it with the interviewee. I started solving problems before interviews. To get into a good office in the USA, you need to solve at least a hundred tasks and invest several months of time. That's exactly what I did. For 100 resumes sent out, 5 offices invited me for an interview. As a result, I got into a small company that works with the blockchain. I was attracted by the fact that the office of the company is located in the state of Virginia,Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University ). It's cheap to live here, away from big cities, 4 hours drive from Washington. I live in the town of Redford, the center of the region is the city of Blacksburg, the mini-financial center of this territory. Here I rent an entire house for about the same price as a one-room apartment in New Jersey. Everything else is cheaper too.
Housing
We rented a house in New Jersey for $1,400. We lived in a two-story cottage - each with 4 apartments. The complex consisted of 20 houses. In Ukraine, living in a big city is cool. In the USA, everything is different: living in big cities is very, very expensive. On our first day in the US, a friend took us to Manhattan, the most expensive area in New York. I thought it should be different, very cool. We sat at the bar for 100 dollars, just drank beer and ate wings. I then thought: why is it so expensive and inconvenient? Because these bars give the lion's share of the proceeds for very expensive rent. Apartments in Manhattan are small, taxes are high. Therefore, wealthy Americans move out of town.
Salaries
I moved to the USA on a salary of 85 thousand a year. Net received 5.5 thousand dollars a month. I paid about 12% of my income in taxes. Getting $5,500 in New Jersey is less profitable than getting $3,000-4,000 in Kyiv. When I left EPAM, I was already earning about 100 thousand a year. Now I make $155,000 a year ($10,000 a month after taxes), but keep in mind that I live in a cheap area. If you live in Silicon Valley, you need to earn about 250 thousand dollars a year, and maybe more. I can save because we have cheap housing. The living wage for our family is $3,000.
taxes
There are several types of taxes in the USA. There is a federal tax - it is progressive, that is, it depends on earnings. The next tax is the state tax: I pay 5%, this tax is the same for all residents of the state. Next comes the city taxation system, there is a sales tax (similar to VAT), there is a real estate tax: annually you have to pay a percentage of the market value of your home. In Virginia, this is inexpensive, for a house of about 250 thousand dollars you have to pay 1.5 thousand dollars a year. With my income level, I pay about 18% in taxes. If you have your own home, you will still have to pay property tax.
Work culture
The competition in the USA is high, it is much easier to say goodbye to people at work than in Ukraine. The style of communication with employees depends on the company. If it's some old bank, there's a lot of bureaucracy there. If this is a startup, then everything is very transparent there. I really like the startup environment. In general, Americans work more than Ukrainians. There are many people in the US who work on weekends. Americans are more industrious. At work here, as a rule, people are very motley. White Americans, Indians, African Americans. They respect personal space, personal qualities and the like. For example, I remember an incident at work that would never have happened in Ukraine. A young guy was quitting and during a zoom call he asked to pray for the end of work. This is quite normal here, no one said anything against it.
Communication
Communication is hard for me personally. We haven't been talking to anyone lately. Now the situation is complicated by quarantine. Previously, we communicated mainly with migrants from Ukraine. I have mostly Indians, Ukrainians, Russians at work. My wife went to English courses and met Mexican women there. On the Internet, we continue to communicate with our friends from the Ukrainian diaspora. We have a plan to make American friends, but so far it's not going well. In general, people here are quite friendly and sociable. Once, when we were stuck in a jeep in the woods, trying to call the rangers, they redirected us to 911. I thought it was stupid to call there about this. As a result, we wrote on Facebook and familiar Americans came and pulled us out. One American told me: “We will not leave here until we are sure that you have left.” So the system of mutual assistance works here. It really surprised me. By the way, an interesting fact, the work of firefighters is fully paid from donations. This is an example of the self-organization of society. Americans as a nation are more conscious than our society.
Leisure
Traveling in the USA is inexpensive, so traveling here is cool. The state has a lot of forests, a river. At home, I built a bath for myself. I have a sedentary job, I had back problems, so there is a massage table in the bathhouse. There is a gym on the ground floor of my house. Living in the USA is a very good experience. It is very comfortable to live here, a lot of little things that you quickly get used to. One must live in American culture, if only because it is very different from European.
I am from the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye. I decided to become a programmer in my youth, although my father dissuaded me. Parents advised me to go to study as an electrician, because this profession is always useful. But I went to programming at the Zaporozhye State Academy. After graduating from the university, I worked for about a year in Zaporozhye, then moved to Kyiv. In Kyiv, I worked in a couple of offices, the last of which is an outsourcing company EPAM.
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