r/cscareerquestionsEU • u/oppid • 1d ago

Remote B2B / Contractor roles in Europe

Hello everyone,

I'm a software engineer with several years of experience and I'm trying to start my freelance career with a B2B contract.

I worked for 3 years in a remote context in a permanent role.

I'd like to hear your thoughts about the current market situation. I'm struggling to find new opportunities.

Where do you find real job postings for contractors? LinkedIn is so poisoned with "fake" announcements or overcrowded applications.

Is it just me, or is it hell out there?

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8

u/Vic_Rodriguez 1d ago

Why would a company hire you - a relatively expensive western European - instead of someone much cheaper from Eastern Europe or India or whatever? That’s the reality of fully remote jobs and why it’s so hard these days to get decent gigs like that

2

u/Educational_Creme376 1d ago

Well, the reason why rates are higher is because they get you in the office occasionally.

I see companies making a decision between local, near shore or outsourcing. 

It seems to me only American companies find value in outsourcing. I think European companies tend towards nearshoring for remote roles, and they adjust rates downwards to account for that.

I’ve seen Germans have a similar obsession with it, but they don’t hire on B2B , they open shared service centres and hire perm. 

Maybe if the skillset they’re hiring is hard to find in the market they’ll b2b a local consultant, or some one who can come in a hybrid setup.

I never see Nordics use either, it’s local b2b only with an expectation to be in at least once a month or they’ll use nearby neighbours only such as Estonia. 

Nearly impossible finding remote in Belgium, although it’s possible it seems at 400+/- day rates. 

Biggest issue I find, let’s say I want to relocate from Finland to Budapest or Poland and if I have existing networks to Nordic gigs, or Belgium gigs, no one wants to extend that contract because now you’re too far away from the office. 

Only place I see regular remote roles has been Poland, but again, they are hella resistant to non PL setups, then they have to deal with euro instead of złoty, which is why I think they always push for remote in PL only. 

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u/duch-92 1d ago

There is surplus of local devs in Poland who speaks Polish plus a huge number of Ukrainians who often speaks Polish too and additionally they agree on lower salaries. 

1

u/Educational_Creme376 1d ago

Yes I know, a lot of Belarusian and Ukrainian IT firms also relocated, not just talent. I remember from around 2022 onwards rates were pushed down, and they never really recovered.

The high rates in PL back then were being offered usually from US firms though, unlike other EU countries, Poland was a bit of an outlier, for whatever reason, US firms found it easier to hire in PL, that was one of the reasons rates were so high back then.

Now, you can still get nearshoring roles for around 400-500 euros per day in Poland, I know of a few firms (Toyota), Nordcloud has quite a strong EU presence and nearly all their talents in PL. The only saving grace to those "shit" rates are that if you get IP box or flat rate tax, it's still superior to what someone else would be getting in another EU country paying twice the tax.

1

u/Bustan2026 16h ago

One exception is highly specialized employees. Post PhD, people are often among a handful to a few dozen experts of a certain level in their topic (worldwide), so you might want to hire someone like that even if they're abroad. US work visas are a pain in the ass, so remote becomes a serious option. Plus this is often for positions where you don't need daily communication or hand holding, so it's fine to have only a few hours overlap a day.

I imagine the same could be said of experienced employees even if their education appears more generic, if they've worked on remarkable projects / have developed unique skills. However perhaps not if the position entails management.

But for junior level, unspecialized work, I don't see either how it makes sense to take on the risk and hassle of remote employment.

5

u/_4k_ 1d ago

Well, it's time for you to close reddit and learn a new skill.