I've written a couple of smaller and larger apps in Angular 1
and 2, Vue, React, Polymer and recently trying out lit-element and it solves pretty much all my needs. I like the typescript decorators for properties and elements and that is the only reason for which I need Webpack. Redux, the part of it I need which is updating from a central store, I replaced with about 20 lines of javascript.
Because of how good web components in their current state are my very personal opinion is that the other frameworks I have written code in solve yesterday's problems and are very likely to become the future jQuerys.
Why not reverse the immigration process? Instead of doing tremendous amounts of paper work after which the system takes a guess if you will be able to contribute to the country, run that process backwards instead and lower the threshold for IT professionals to enter NZ significantly and then they get to prove their worth.
Start with a very rudimentary initial screening and after say a 2 year trial period have a selection process based on what the person in question has accomplished. That way people get to prove themselves and what the can contribute with instead.
If you don't contribute, i.e. receive social welfare or similar, you're out. If you contribute by performing in the labour market, start an at least moderately successful business or similar you're in. I don't understand why all immigration systems don't work like this...
This is essentially how freedom of movement in Europe works.
As an EU citizen I was able to move to another EU country, rent a flat, and then within 3 months had to prove that I had income to pay tax/social contributions. On passing that interview you get residency rights and continued access to public services and healthcare; I am still a “guest”, but can effectively stay indefinitely as long as I keep contributing and don't break the law.
That sounds similar to the Working Holiday programme, which offers 1 year work visas with few strings attached.
Most people blow their chance on irrelevant work experience (farm work, café). I got relevant jobs (summer job coding control systems at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare in NZ, network administration at Lululemon in Canada).
My mistake was only staying for a few months - I should've spent a whole year there, and then I could add immigration points for working in the country for 1 year.
Now I'm trying to move back, and it's hard. Any suggestions would be helpful.
I think the word "sponsor" scares off the HR department. I'm able to pay all the fees, I just need the company's name (and a commitment to stay in the role for at least a year if I remember right).
You have to understand that it’s not as simple as that for the company.
In order to sponsor your visa they have to demonstrate that they attempted to hire New Zealanders for the role and there was nobody suitable for the role.
That means being able to supply proof that you made a reasonable effort to advertise for the role, and giving lists of NZ candidates who applied but where not suitable because they lacked the technical requirements for the role.
- Who measures the performance and how? How is it scaled to compare a contractor for corps and a dev at a tiny startup?
- Who decides what's the fault of the employer vs employee? If you're either fired or quit due to terrible mismanagement, why wouldn't you use whatever welfare you can while looking for a new job?
- And if you want to get someone out of the country, how do you do that? Where exactly do you send them if they ran out of money and have no support network?
Moving countries has a huge impact on people especially families. Not something you really want to leave people in limbo for - the first year or two can be quite rocky for some (it's usually tougher than people imagine). Realistically it's not a huge amount of paperwork to come to NZ if you qualify and you know with good certainty what your pathway is to residency.
I've considered launching a start-up of my own here in Sweden so I've given the pros and cons some thought, and it is virtually risk free. To summarise, compared with other countries, we may have even more of the upside but the downside is capped at a very anxiety free level.
These are a few of the reasons:
- highly skilled labour is cheap in absolute terms and the cost to performance ratio for such workers is probably amongst the absolute best in the world. Good for a start-up!
- For the individual worker a job as a highly competent senior developer on average in my 20 years of experience is pretty much just double that of a garbage collector. Salaried men don't get ahead much but start-up workers do to a similar extent as they do in other start-up hubs in the world. Good for the early employees getting shares or stock options.
- Social security systems would still leave me able to stay in my nice home in my nice suburb even without a job. It would not affect the healthcare or education for me and my family at all. I would have to cut down on my intercontinental vacations with my family though. It feels like bet I could make without too much anxiety.
-Sweden has had, and still have to some extent, lots and lots of world leading large tech companies in pretty much every industry like automotive, telecom, different types of processing industries etc. Lots of skills, knowledge and ideas has spun off these large companies or started as suppliers to these. I think this ecosystem is one of the more critical factors which the other Scandinavian countries lack. I cannot come to think of even one Scandinavian unicorn-ish type of company from another Scandinavian country than Sweden. Finnish Rovio is close though, but I cannot come to think of any other non-Swedish company. Sorry but please fill me in here Norwegians, Danes and Finns!
- Stockholm specifically, where all the companies mentioned in the article are from, is a tech hub with lots of skilled and nice people living and working here and lots of good tech companies which makes it start-up friendly for the same reasons it would anywhere else in the world.
- The Swedish society, compared with most other I've experienced, is pretty well oiled and modern (not saying there isn't room for lots of improvement) where infrastructure like transportation, administration of personal and company affairs etc work quite well. More time and energy to focus on stuff that matters like your business and your family.
- The weather sucks for at least 6 months of the year. No I'm serious here. Having pretty much nothing else to do than to work and watch Netflix frees up lots of time and energy for work.
"please fill me in here Norwegians, Danes and Finns!"
Well, Skype is half-Danish, so there's that :-)
Others that I know of are Unity (founded in Copenhagen), Zendesk (started in Copenhagen), Steelseries, Endomondo, Just-Eat, Tradeshift, Trustpilot, Flying Tiger, Sitecore, TC Electronic, Soundboks, Navision.
It kinda depends on how you define "startup". Bu no, not quite as many as Sweden, but we do have our own established large companies that have spun off into daughter companies in different areas or helped create successful startups.
I think you are right in this being one of the important factors as well. I'm Swedish and my toddlers never watched any YouTube content in Swedish. Pretty much all they ever watch is in English. I wasn't too surprised this summer when visiting some friends in England and I heard my 4 year old girl say complete sentences like: "yeah, I'm coming down Toby" to her English playmate. Thanks YouTube and Apple!
We use rip currents as tow lines so we don't need those ;) Around 5 times more people die from avalanches alone than from shark attacks each year so sell your skis and buy yourself one of those foam boards instead!
I've been to CR a couple of times the past few years and the beach breaks are great and people are super nice. I've never experienced any hostility in the water there, or elsewhere in the world either for that matter. Being considerate of other surfers goes a long way and should someone act like an ass just move a couple of 100m up or down the beach. There is always another ok break close by.
Because of how good web components in their current state are my very personal opinion is that the other frameworks I have written code in solve yesterday's problems and are very likely to become the future jQuerys.