HN user
Sure, I'd see no problem highlighting how far they've come. Sharing success stories is important. Which is why I found it odd that they were making multiple condescending references to Europe such as (paraphrasing) "if you're not in Boston or SF you might as well be in Europe" where it's making it sound like Siberia...
Wow this article is pretty condescending towards the biotech scene in Europe...
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, maybe there are fewer biotech startups in Europe because profiting off of people's illnesses is generally frowned upon?
My guess is progress in that area falls more into the realm of government grants, with maybe the exception of classical pharmaceuticals (there are plenty of old companies like Bayer).
Biotech is not my field so I'd be interested in hearing other people's opinions.
I don't know if this helps your friend but I know BMW in Munich is hiring. A lot of departments are fine with English speakers. I found a couple of examples for him if they are useful:
https://recruiting.bmwgroup.de/ibs/Servlets/ibs/controller/s...
https://recruiting.bmwgroup.de/ibs/Servlets/ibs/controller/s...
I'm sure Mercedes and Audi would also have similar openings.
And it is exactly this style of management that is causing problems at the German automation plant he aquired (see my comment in the duplicate thread). It is probably a reason why production of the Model 3 is behind -- the company he acquired builds the factory robots needed for advanced automation. Smart move to acquire it then and it explains why the timing is now off.
You can't run a German plant like an American one, people will take the 30 day vacations that have been written into their contracts since before he arrived (just because you have a new boss doesn't mean the old contract is invalid), take sick days if they need them (unlimited sick days by law, they don't come out of your vacation time), and go home at 5pm because they value their home/family/free time. Last I checked the factory had at least dozens of positions open that they can't fill because no one here wants to work for them.
Interesting comments can also be found here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15470314
It's sad that the GP's post is showing support for Americans by pointing out that they should all have health care, and someone is triggered into believing it was an attack.
I would bet it is related to the mismanagement of the German automation plant that Tesla acquired about a year ago (on mobile, too hard to post links, maybe someone wants to help).
The plan as I understand it was to use the technology at this company to speed up production but it hasn't been going as planned, in large part due to misunderstanding of cultural differences i.e. No one is going to be happy here in Germany if you start changing the terms of contracts that were supposed to last for the next few years and people in general don't respect abusive bosses. Unemployment rate is 3%, no need to (and lower for highly skilled workers). And you can't just tell people to not take vacation because production is behind, you'll get laughed at.