I've been eyeing some American companies offering fully remote jobs with very high salaries and would consider applying, but I'm a bit anxious about the supposedly hard work culture in the US companies. So my question is, how many hours per day do people working on remote jobs in these companies _actually_ work? Do you have to be on the call around the clock if a critical bug needs to be patched? How much vacation do you get per year?
I get that probably higher paying positions are more stressful, but I would be pretty happy with something like 100k$, which seems to be in the lower end of US tech salaries.
$100k relative to what? Most traditional engineers with engineering degrees start at like $75k to $80k, and will reach $100k with at least 5 years of experience, but can decrease that by job hopping. I think that the majority of IT jobs (especially without a STEM background) are similar, but start a bit lower. $100k is extremely good money in plenty of places in the US as you can still get a starter house for $150k in plenty of places in the American South if you're in a suburb. $100k is less awesome in some place like New York city or silicon valley. I don't think too many tech workers start at $100k in the US. That is the cream of the crop that graduate from ivy league computer science programs and go straight to work at one of the FAANG companies. I think that is the exception rather than the norm.
I only get 3 weeks of vacation a year - and usually have a hard time even using that; honestly if I had 5 weeks of vacation don't know what I would do with it - especially since covid has made it very undesirable to travel, so we will see once restrictions are lifted.
No one keeps track of my hours, but I easily do 60-70 hours a week, and where I work that is what gets you more money and/or promotions (Not the # of hours per per se, but the pace at which you get things done) - plenty of folks just 'coast along', but everyone knows who those people are, and they are the first fired when the budget gets cut.
If you're a directly-responsible individual (DRI) / team lead / manager, your hours (and compensation) should go up. Don't accept anything less than $100K USD in your local currency equivalent if you're managing employees that are making more than that in their local currency; the power dynamic is fatally skewed otherwise.
12h days are not unheard of, though you can also work shorter days if the workload is light.
In my experience, it depends completely on the company and the context. I worked hard (even weekends) for US companies where later in the year I barely worked (although I had to be online on Slack). So, take the step, it will be a great experience :)