FPGA designer (and embedded sys FW) living in Italy here, must say that tech jobs are possibly some of the few jobs that you can be safe to find here!
Now, if tech means webdev I have friends that struggle to pay the bills by freelancing with that, but going down the stack you find much more demand (I have personally found A LOT of demand for EE).
Consider that I'm speaking from the northern part of Italy, no idea about the south tech-jobs situation.
If I wanted to freelance, I can simply do that in the US and solve the work/life/vacation balance myself. I will be exploring freelancing in the near future. I might be too down the tech stack, since I will not find exactly what I have been specializing in.
Of all my friends that "majored" in Computer Science in high school (which is what you do in Italy, ITIS Informatica), none of them work in software. Most never have. I heard of one classmate that was working as a software developer. Granted, I graduated a long time ago (well before social media) and have not heard from any of them since graduation.
Croatia is another country I like due to the lower costs and good weather.
Both. I guess the issue is that freelancing is not a thing here. Those that get into webdev through a company (especially marketing or nice startups) seem to be doing really well, but they are few to my knowledge.
Oh, I see what you mean, you're talking about freelancing for local companies. That's funny, my mindset is all about working remotely for companies in other countries, especially the US. I'm currently living in Thailand, where freelancing for a local company would mean earning something like $10-15 per hour.
I would like to live and work in Italy as a freelancer, but I can only stay for 90 days at a time. Do you know of any ways to stay longer?
EDIT: Wow, I should have done some more research. Italy has a "long-term visa". But more exciting than that, Germany has an actual “self-employment” visa for freelancers. I might start with Germany then.
