Hello! I’m from Nigeria(Africa) and I have two Job offers in Lithuania and Netherlands as an intermediate level dev (software engineer, no senior or junior attached). I am still early in my career, 1.8yrs professional experience. Which would you advise I take and why? Assuming you don’t know how much pay is. Thanks!

I don't know much about Lituania, but the Netherlands are comfy and tend to pay well, so I'd say you can't go wrong with Netherlands.

I'm not from LI but i think it's safe to assume LI is similar to PL where I live.

Go for NL, in slavic countries people are less used to non-native speakers. I don't know how it is with Lithuania but in PL there is quite high level of racism. If you are muslim or black, don't go to Poland. I guess it will be similar in LI.
NL has legal weed :)
In NL you will earn more but costs of food and place to live are highier.

If you are willing to learn the local language, NL will be easier.

@mt3o thanks! I am definitely interested in learning the language. And thanks for the honesty too. :)

@CptFox thank you!

@irene then you should go back to russia 😀

Idk anything about Lithuania (except that there's a really pretty castle on an island) but The Netherlands has a good job market and it's common to see foreign programmers.

A coworker of mine moved here from Somalia because there's more opportunities here.
He does say he misses the good weather but sometimes it was so unbearably hot there, which he doesn't miss.
His mum tried to move here as well, but couldn't handle the cold rainy weather so she moved back.

@Kage thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.

@NoMad I didn’t think about that. Thanks!

@irene Ukrainians are fine I guess 😀

@lawzava hmm.

@jespersh not cool man. There are scammers here but not all of us are. Maybe you are joking but I find this offensive.

@jespersh he knows it's a meme, but as much as it is said he knows that is associated with his race and where he is from. It's probably offensive to him now. It's like a joke that isn't funny anymore after being repeated for the 1000th time.

@xociety thanks!

Hi, i'm from Lithuania, so in my point of view, i think it depends on what you want.

Netherlands - very expensive to move there and start living (until you get your few first salaries). It has better salaries, but higher living standards, so basically you get more money, but spend more as well.

Lithuania will be very cheap, compared to Netherlands. I think there should be no problems about the language in IT company, everybody will speak English.

If it was my choice, i would consider the nature - Lithuania is amazingly green, but with pretty cold winters (I mean i, myself, would prefer Netherland's winter, but Lithuania's summers). And the company itself - perspectives for the future, because i believe there might be better ones in Netherlands.

That's my thoughts. If you have anything more specific, especially about Lithuania, feel free to ask me.

@lawzava For skills not NL? You must be non-Dutch.

@lawzava That is really not true. Professional, serious companies in NL do invest enormously in highly skilled people that know how to create great, high quality software.

And about payment? Wait till you get to be a freelance dev in NL. Now THAT pays.

@lawzava that's just not true. A lot of things are fixed price, like electronics will cost the same both in NL and LT, but in NL you'll need to work one month to get that fancy new phone and you'll need to work 4 months to get the same phone when you work in LT. Food prices don't differ that much either. Basically the things that are done by robots or imported won't have big price difference, but services where people's work is needed will cost way more in NL. So if you don't go out to a restaurant 5 times a week you'll be better off in NL money wise.

If I'm ignoring salaries like OP asked the difference would be the weather and modernity of people.
Lithuania has pretty awesome summers so if you like going out and enjoying nature it might be for you, but you'll meet more old people who can't say a single world in English and they might pretty racist. However I don't think that problem exists in younger people circles, especially IT, but you might not be able to communicate with an older cashier (depending on the city).

@sSam So you're saying that Lithania salaries are 4x lower than Netherlands? Damn, that steep.

I'm from Estonia and net salary to net salary vs UK is more like 1.7 - 2x. And im comparing with an average Amazon software engineer salary based in London. I wouldnt think UK is that different from Netherlands.

Anyway it's an interesting topic, I haven't really compared software engineer salaries between Baltic countries and the comparison I mentioned above is very much so e quick napkin math with not much research. Should look into this more

@vnwonah
Welp
You can get Lithuanian citizenship for the national programming freelance platform anyways.
Online.

For a living and for career choices, you might choose NL for its merchands international relationships.
Nl is everywhere. Trust me, I'm from the GER NL border. They're in all lucrative regions and situations and all but brag about it.
Asia, Africa, America, name it.. There's some Dutchman.
As long as you're unsettled, you gotta go rational!
Take your weekends and vacations off in nature.
Choose your workspace where the hearts of culture, tech and resource are. Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt, Paris.
Then later, go where you want to.
Easy ass that. (pun intended)

@Froot not really, but let's say you get 800 in LT and 1.5k in NL, after a month of living you'll have 300 left in LT and like 800 left in NL.
These are just random numbers, but my point is that even if the cost of living was percentage based on your salary (which it even isn't) with higher salary you'll have more money leftover for things that cost similarly across the globe.

@sSam and people
Please have a look at the big mac index and BERI.
Two models from the 90s to compare currency and culture.
These are just the very classics.
Even yone has a very own product basket.
Please do not assume oneself would define the standard. As professors say.

@sSam Yea that's a fair point

@scor Big Mac index is a very good resource. Another one for quick rough estimates is GDP per capita

@scor hello thanks for pointing this out. Is there some link you can point me to please? I can’t seem to find anything

@vnwonah
Well
The BMI is upheld by the Economist newspaper and available on their site economist.com
BERI might be paid resource.
You'll find tons of diagrams on firsties site anyway.
In matters of profession.. Choose your own basket. Select some resources and values you want in life and career, then believe in them, probe, sleep at least one night and choose.

Nevertheless both countries may offer special opportunities and cultural benefits to you.
And maybe you depend more on a healthy environment than you might think today.
Cities are for short term living. You hype around with the dawgs, then, as you settle, you gotta go out of there.
The usual path is 5-10 years metropolis and back to nature.
That's quite a niddle path between healthy and career.
Enjoy, dear fellow human