Brighter pins keep more. Tap one.
Where should
your first job
take you?
Settle answers the question every graduate faces and no website answers straight: if I move there, am I better off? Sourced salaries, the tax you would actually pay, the rent you would actually pay, and the odds of landing the job. One city is free. Settle Pro opens all 98, for six euro a month.
Your instant verdict
Where a software engineering graduate keeps the most:
01 GenevaSwitzerland
€4,110
Tax 18%In work 95%
02 ZurichSwitzerland
€4,024
Tax 18%In work 95%
03 DohaQatar
€2,788
Tax 0%In work 95%
The cities are ranked by what you would actually keep: each month's leftover after tax, rent, food, transport and bills, weighted by the real odds of landing the work. Every figure comes from a published source you can open: Numbeo for costs, national statistics offices for graduate employment, PwC summaries for effective tax. Settle shows its work.
Your first year, month by month
Before you go
Critical Skills Employment Permit: about 6 to 16 weeks, based on the official processing time.
Monthly after tax, rent and living costs: €1,430
Move-in costs, deposit plus first month's rent in a shared room: €1,964
- Month 1First pay cheque lands−€534
- Month 2Move-in costs paid back€896
- Month 3€2,326
- Month 4€3,756
- Month 5€5,186
- Month 6Six months in€6,616
- Month 7€8,046
- Month 8€9,476
- Month 9€10,906
- Month 10€12,336
- Month 11€13,766
- Month 12€15,196
After a year in Dublin you would have €15,196 put by, with move-in costs cleared by month 2.Not counted: a possible year-end bonus or stock of about €1,512 after tax, using Settle's conservative graduate estimate.
Uses the same sourced take-home, rent and living costs as the rest of Settle, taxed progressively so higher pay loses more to tax. Savings use base salary only, since bonuses are never guaranteed. Flights and pay rises not included.
Also inside
Your whole career, not the first payslip
Starting, mid-career and retirement-age pay, year by year, with an AI forecast of where your own salary lands.
The move itself, planned
Cheapest areas, visa routes with real processing times, language rules and the full cost of living, city by city.
A dashboard that remembers
Save your profile and shortlist, then watch salaries and visa times change against your saved snapshot.
Free, then six euro a month
Start free on one city. Unlock the rest when you are ready to decide.
Free, no card
- One city at a time, in full
- Any of the 149 degree fields
- What is left at the end of the month
- Every source linked
Settle Pro
- All 98 cities ranked, four side by side
- Career path and lifetime earnings
- Relocation plan, visas and language rules
- AI five-year salary forecast
Figures are indicative estimates from published data (10 primary sources, including Numbeo, Eurostat, NACE, HESA and PwC tax summaries), not financial or immigration advice.