Barcelona native here, lived and worked for years in the NY tech scene and now I am in London, although I go back to Barcelona often, and I'm seriously considering moving back. (I don't know the situation in Madrid well enough). Here are my points:
On the one hand, the tech ecosystem is clearly not as strong as Berlin/London or even Paris, and the average engineer salary is _low_. That also might mean there is more room to experiment and make an impact, offset by a general not-so-mature or agile business environment. Barcelona has good universities, and that means many good developers eager to work on cool shit for lower pay than in other places, if you're into starting your own thing.
Barcelona has many peripheral, small offices of large companies, so I'd say you may be able to find some of the jobs you're looking for in that circuit.
Additionally, Barcelona has a wonderful creative scene. Many strong designers, any many studios doing interesting stuff. Not sure if that's a world that interests you, but many small and big agencies have offices in the city.
And I know you're not asking about that, but dude, quality of life is unbeatable: weather, food, culture and pace of life compensate for what you may be missing on the other end, particularly if you have cultivated relationships in the rest of Europe that you may be able to maintain and use to secure business.
It may depend on what you are looking for. If you truly prioritize really good tech jobs, I would say don't do it. Adjusting your expectations in terms of salary and general ecosystem is required. Salaries won't be at London or Berlin level by a pretty big margin, but at the same time you should adjust by a cost of living that is about like 40% of what it would be in London.
If you want something more balanced, and a rich well-rounded human experience (ha), I'd encourage you to consider the full picture and do it.
There was a moment during my wife and I's honeymoon to Mallorca/Barcelona where I was jogging through Gracia and I truly thought that this was where I was meant to live. A really...really beautiful and amazing city. Once my two huge dogs pass(I can't bear the thought of moving them overseas) I will try my darnedest to move to Catalonia.
If you didn't want to wait, and if the problem is the flight, you could take the QE2 ship from New York to Southampton with your dogs. Unless they're particularly huge.
From Portsmouth harbour (30 minutes from Southampton docks) there are ferries to Santander or Bilbao in Spain, which also allow pets.
The thing is, BCN is mostly as expensive as Berlin, but salaries seem considerably lower for developers. I love BCN, but prefer to work and live in Berlin and visit BCN once or twice a year. Berlin has a lot to offer as well, certainly no beach and pretty bad winters though.
That is all true. I really love Berlin and I consider it as much an option as Barcelona, or better. The amount of culture and stimulating things happening is incredible, plus the most liberal city and the most interesting tech scene in Europe (sorry London). The weather has the worst of NYC and the worst of London together though.
How long have you been here? I would be very surprised if the weather was considerably worse than NY and especially London. Current 7 day forecast looks pretty comparable :)
Summers here in Berlin are fantastic and probably have London beat. November-April are really depressing though and seems to take a big toll on everyone.
My girlfriend and I are seriously planning on moving to BCN (or a nearby seaside town) within the next 2 years. We're also coming from the NYC scene. We're not EU citizens so I can't just go find work there but I've heard salaries in the EU are lower than the US anyways so I am going to try and work remotely for an American company.
What's the tech meetup scene like there? Are there conferences? You mentioned the creative scene is great there and I'm totally into that. I'm very interested in getting into interactive installation pieces where art and tech converge. Like what Eyebeam does in NYC.
but high pollution in Barcelona and Madrid. They're big cities and a good part of the population relies on scooters on cars. Jogging there may not even be good for your health in such places. Of course, London is even worse, but Paris is better and the Riviera is the top.
I was afraid of air pollution in Barcelona too as my wife is allergic to some pollutants but if you don't take a flat facing the street and go slightly uphill (gracia, sant gervasi, sarria, ...) it is totally fine. She hasn't had any problems.
The benefits of physical activity far outweigh the increased longterm risk from air pollution. Also the pollution might be high compared to the best cities, but its still far from places like Beijing were the air is downright toxic, and still people live there.
Barcelona native here, lived and worked for years in the NY tech scene and now I am in London, although I go back to Barcelona often, and I'm seriously considering moving back. (I don't know the situation in Madrid well enough). Here are my points:
On the one hand, the tech ecosystem is clearly not as strong as Berlin/London or even Paris, and the average engineer salary is _low_. That also might mean there is more room to experiment and make an impact, offset by a general not-so-mature or agile business environment. Barcelona has good universities, and that means many good developers eager to work on cool shit for lower pay than in other places, if you're into starting your own thing.
Barcelona has many peripheral, small offices of large companies, so I'd say you may be able to find some of the jobs you're looking for in that circuit.
Additionally, Barcelona has a wonderful creative scene. Many strong designers, any many studios doing interesting stuff. Not sure if that's a world that interests you, but many small and big agencies have offices in the city.
And I know you're not asking about that, but dude, quality of life is unbeatable: weather, food, culture and pace of life compensate for what you may be missing on the other end, particularly if you have cultivated relationships in the rest of Europe that you may be able to maintain and use to secure business.
It may depend on what you are looking for. If you truly prioritize really good tech jobs, I would say don't do it. Adjusting your expectations in terms of salary and general ecosystem is required. Salaries won't be at London or Berlin level by a pretty big margin, but at the same time you should adjust by a cost of living that is about like 40% of what it would be in London.
If you want something more balanced, and a rich well-rounded human experience (ha), I'd encourage you to consider the full picture and do it.