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IIT grad who moved from Bengaluru to Ireland reveals ₹1.3 crore salary: 'My quality of life has improved'
A 27-year-old Amazon techie who moved from Bengaluru to Dublin says his quality of life has improved despite the city’s high cost of living.
A 27-year-old Indian software engineer says relocating from Bengaluru to Dublin has significantly improved his quality of life, even though living in the European city comes with a high cost of living.
Suras Nayak, who works as a software development engineer at Amazon, moved to Ireland in March 2025 after securing an internal transfer within the company. He told CNBC Make It that he earns an annual compensation of about 122,428 euros (approximately ₹1.3 crore), nearly double the roughly ₹68 lakh he previously earned while working in India.
Nayak said he had long dreamed of living abroad. “When I was growing up, I always had this idea somewhere behind my head that I always wanted to move abroad, but I was a little bit influenced by the Western media. I watch a lot of Hollywood movies ... so I was always influenced and liked the idea of moving to a different country, living there, experiencing how things are like there,” he told CNBC Make It.
The 27-year-old shared that he joined Amazon full-time in 2020 after completing a six-month internship during his final year at IIT Allahabad. While working at the company’s Bengaluru office, he learned that employees who had completed at least two years at the company and reached a certain level could apply for international opportunities. So he began exploring openings across Amazon offices in the UK, Germany and Ireland before eventually choosing Dublin because of the city’s expanding technology sector.
“I was so happy when I came to know that I got this opportunity. I immediately went to my parents and I told them and it was such a nice moment. They were all so happy for me, especially my dad, because my dad always supports me in all of this stuff,” Nayak said.
Then, after securing the job, Nayak said that he obtained his work visa within 6-8 weeks, with Amazon covering relocation expenses, temporary housing and the shipment of his belongings from India.
(Also Read: Indian-origin techie, laid off from Amazon after 11 years, shares how his teenage daughter helped him bounce back)
Budgeting in Europe
But despite the higher salary, the techie said that the cost of living in Dublin required adjustments. “When I was in India, I did not think about budgeting a lot because I always used to spend less there,” he said. But now he has to set a budget for himself, as rent and groceries are significantly more expensive than in India.
Nayak shared that he currently shares a three-bedroom house with two other Amazon employees. The total rent for the house is about 4,000 euros per month, with Nayak paying around 1,450 euros.
The 27-year-old said that after relocating, he also had to adapt to Ireland’s colder climate and initially found it challenging to build a social circle. However, attending events through the social networking app Meetup helped him connect with people from different parts of the world.
(Also Read: Amazon techie hits back at trolls after being mocked for Santa pic: ‘90s mindset’)
Life ahead
Now settled in Dublin, Nayak said that he enjoys the lifestyle, especially the access to nature and travel opportunities across Europe. He also said that he doesn’t plan to move back to India for at least another 10 to 15 years.
For now, he plans to stay in Ireland for the foreseeable future. “My quality of life has improved. Now that I am in Ireland, I have gotten used to certain ways of life that I am really enjoying, which I would not have been able to get if I were back in India,” he said.
