Oct 8, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 13 segments
Is AI really taking our jobs? Ilya Brotzky says no, and he sees the hiring data every day. Ilya is the founder and CEO of VanHack, which helps engineers from all over the world get hired by tech…
Julian WellsHost
Taylor DuncanHost
What other countries do you operate in that you've seen do it well or do it better that we should be looking at or, or mimicking or, or getting some inspiration from?
Um, so we did Techstars in Berlin in Germany, and then we did a startup program in Luxembourg.
I would say Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland are probably the top three countries that do a really good job of skilled w- immigration.
They even have a tax break, so if you're a foreign worker who comes to the country, you pay less in taxes for the first eight years.
So companies like Booking.com, Adyen, you know, these huge tech companies, um, like, and the Netherlands is such a small country they just, they don't have n- enough tech, tech workers there.
Um, so they, they do a, a really good job of recruiting that talent and, you know, if you are between two job offers, one in...
One guy had a job offer [chuckles] in the Netherlands and Germany, and he chose the Netherlands because of the tax dollars.
And there's this huge misconception that, you know, you bring in these, these, uh, foreigners, these immigrants, and of course there's many different kinds of immigrants just 'cause like, like there's many different kinds of people.
Like, that's, you know, these usually mid-30s probably ha- are, are married, usually have ki- uh, um, gonna have kids or wanna have kids, set up tr- lo- long-term roots, pay taxes for the rest of their life.
Like, what's the, what are the biggest expenses in your life? You have your house and taxes pretty much.
So if you bring a t- a tech worker to, to that country, you know, employ them, they're gonna now be mentoring the next generation and creating products that will help the company grow.
So, um, yeah, I would say those countries, uh, do a really good job of, of recruiting tech talent.
Uh, they have this program, uh, where it was, uh, kinda Helsinki-as-a-Service.
So we actually, they flew in, um, senior engineers from around the world to spend one week living in, in, uh, Helsinki and having, um, kind of the experience of what it's like to live there.
So, um, yeah, there's a lot of kind of countries where they have to fight to get kind of global recognition in the tech, uh, talent war.
What other countries do you operate in that you've seen do it well or do it better that we should be looking at or, or mimicking or, or getting some inspiration from?
Um, so we did Techstars in Berlin in Germany, and then we did a startup program in Luxembourg.
I would say Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland are probably the top three countries that do a really good job of skilled w- immigration.
They even have a tax break, so if you're a foreign worker who comes to the country, you pay less in taxes for the first eight years.
So companies like Booking.com, Adyen, you know, these huge tech companies, um, like, and the Netherlands is such a small country they just, they don't have n- enough tech, tech workers there.
Um, so they, they do a, a really good job of recruiting that talent and, you know, if you are between two job offers, one in...
One guy had a job offer [chuckles] in the Netherlands and Germany, and he chose the Netherlands because of the tax dollars.
And there's this huge misconception that, you know, you bring in these, these, uh, foreigners, these immigrants, and of course there's many different kinds of immigrants just 'cause like, like there's many different kinds of people.
Like, that's, you know, these usually mid-30s probably ha- are, are married, usually have ki- uh, um, gonna have kids or wanna have kids, set up tr- lo- long-term roots, pay taxes for the rest of their life.
Like, what's the, what are the biggest expenses in your life? You have your house and taxes pretty much.
So if you bring a t- a tech worker to, to that country, you know, employ them, they're gonna now be mentoring the next generation and creating products that will help the company grow.
So, um, yeah, I would say those countries, uh, do a really good job of, of recruiting tech talent.
Uh, they have this program, uh, where it was, uh, kinda Helsinki-as-a-Service.
So we actually, they flew in, um, senior engineers from around the world to spend one week living in, in, uh, Helsinki and having, um, kind of the experience of what it's like to live there.
So, um, yeah, there's a lot of kind of countries where they have to fight to get kind of global recognition in the tech, uh, talent war.
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