Compass
The guide
3
The cities inside them
A country is not one job market. These are the cities the work actually clusters in — each with its honest catch and the real way in, including the ones at home.
37 cities in 19 countries, home region first. A city with only good news listed would be an advert, so every one of these carries its catch.
Showing: Every field
Kazakhstan
Central Asia & the Caucasus- AlmatyKazakhstan's business and startup centre — most international companies put their local office here, and the country's strongest universities and creative scene are here too.The catch & the way in
- AstanaGovernment, state companies and Astana Hub — the tech park where most of the country's startup programmes and grants are run.The catch & the way in
Uzbekistan
Central Asia & the CaucasusGeorgia
Central Asia & the CaucasusGermany
Europe- BerlinEurope's largest startup scene outside London, where English-only tech jobs are normal, alongside a deep art, music and film culture.The catch & the way in
- MunichGermany's engineering heartland: cars, aerospace, industrial software and two of the country's strongest technical universities in one city.The catch & the way in
Poland
Europe- WarsawThe nearest big EU tech market to Central Asia, with a huge software and shared-services sector — and an existing community of students from the CIS.The catch & the way in
- KrakówPoland's second technology centre and its cultural capital: a dense student city where global companies run engineering and shared-services offices.The catch & the way in
Italy
Europe- MilanThe design and fashion capital of Europe and Italy's financial centre — Politecnico di Milano is one of the strongest design and architecture schools anywhere.The catch & the way in
- RomeItaly's capital and its largest university city, where heritage, medicine, law and the UN's food agencies sit in the same place.The catch & the way in
Switzerland
Europe- Zurich & LausanneETH and EPFL, plus the deep-tech and quantitative finance built around them — research here is funded at a level almost nowhere else matches.The catch & the way in
- GenevaThe world's densest concentration of international organisations — the UN, the WHO, the Red Cross, the trade and health bodies — with the universities and NGOs that feed them.The catch & the way in
Netherlands
Europe- AmsterdamThe Dutch business and technology centre, where English-taught degrees and English-speaking workplaces are the norm rather than the exception.The catch & the way in
- Amsterdam & EindhovenEnglish is used everywhere, and the Eindhoven region is the heart of Europe's semiconductor and precision-engineering supply chain.The catch & the way in
United Kingdom
Europe- LondonEurope's biggest finance and legal centre, with a creative and media industry to match.The catch & the way in
- ManchesterThe largest UK student city outside London: a big research university, a growing technology and media cluster, and living costs a long way below the capital's.The catch & the way in
UAE
Middle East & TürkiyeTürkiye
Middle East & Türkiye- IstanbulThe bridge market between Europe and Asia, with large manufacturing, textile and design industries and a serious film and music scene.The catch & the way in
- AnkaraTürkiye's capital and the home of its strongest technical universities, its defence and aerospace industry and its entire public sector.The catch & the way in
South Korea
Asia-Pacific- SeoulElectronics, automotive and battery R&D at Samsung/SK/Hyundai scale, plus games and entertainment industries that export worldwide.The catch & the way in
- DaejeonKorea's research city: KAIST and the Daedeok cluster of government institutes and corporate laboratories in one place, an hour from Seoul.The catch & the way in
Japan
Asia-Pacific- TokyoRobotics, precision manufacturing and materials research, and the world's animation and games industry.The catch & the way in
- Osaka & KyotoJapan's second centre: heavy industry, electronics and materials research in Osaka, and one of Asia's strongest research universities in Kyoto half an hour away.The catch & the way in
Singapore
Asia-PacificHong Kong SAR
Asia-PacificChina
Asia-Pacific- Shenzhen & ShanghaiShenzhen is the hardware capital of the world — a prototype that takes months elsewhere takes days there; Shanghai holds the finance and corporate side.The catch & the way in
- BeijingChina's political, academic and research capital: its two strongest universities, the state research institutes, and the head offices that deal with them.The catch & the way in
- ShanghaiChina's financial and commercial centre, with the country's most international universities and the largest concentration of foreign companies in it.The catch & the way in
India
Asia-Pacific- BengaluruThe largest software and startup cluster in South Asia, and the place a huge share of the world's engineering work is actually done.The catch & the way in
- HyderabadIndia's second technology centre and the heart of its pharmaceutical industry — global software and drug companies run some of their largest sites here.The catch & the way in
United States
North America- BostonThe densest concentration of universities, teaching hospitals and biotech companies on earth — if you want research, this is the deep end.The catch & the way in
- San Francisco Bay AreaThe centre of the software industry and of startup funding — the concentration of people who have built things at scale is the actual product here.The catch & the way in
- New YorkFinance, media, publishing and the art market in one place — the density is the reason people put up with the price.The catch & the way in
- SeattleThe densest concentration of large software employers outside the Bay Area, with cloud computing and its whole supply chain built around two of them.The catch & the way in
Canada
North America- Toronto & WaterlooA large tech and finance sector with a university pipeline (Waterloo) built around paid co-op work terms.The catch & the way in
- VancouverCanada's Pacific technology and film centre, close enough to Seattle that American companies staff engineering offices here when they cannot get visas.The catch & the way in
- MontrealThe cheapest big city in North America for a student, with two strong English-language universities, a serious artificial-intelligence research community, and a games and animation industry.The catch & the way in