Warsaw software developers' job market has gotten really interesting since Google opened an engineering center here some umpteen months ago. There is just no reason to stick to crappy jobs at this time.
What makes you think Google is better?
Google pays decently, but the work isn't interesting unless you have social access. Being in an Eastern European satellite office, you're not going to get the machine learning work. You're going to get the stuff that California, Seattle and New York don't want to do.
I'm sure there are Polish companies that offer real work; OP would do better at one of those than in some multinational's branch office. The problem is that most corporations are still pretty colonial and you don't get high-quality work unless you're in the main office.
Statements from friends who work there plus knowledge from seminars they sometimes organize with Warsaw University. Example (Polish language warning :-) ): http://students.mimuw.edu.pl/SR/rok12-13/Google.html
Short translation of the above link: cluster management, availability management, load balancing. OS-level things, definitely not maintenance of a legacy ticketing system for "real" devs in California.
You could be right, but my experience at Google is that even on the projects that seem interesting, the microallocation comes down to rank. For example, on my team of ~15 people there were plenty of individuals doing interesting stuff, but if you were SWE 2-3 you were fucked. Your boss could take advantage of the fact that SWE 3's are pretty much considered to be parasites not worthy of consideration as humans. You'd never get to work on a green field and actually have an opportunity to prove yourself.
The only thing that matters at Google is your rank and your "calibration score". That, and nothing else, determines what projects are available to you. If you're willing to spend 5+ years playing politics and trading favors in order to get promo story you need, then you can get something passably interesting.
Not to contradict your experience, I just find it unlikely to translate to this particular office we're talking about. Who knows, maybe I'll find out first hand.
What makes you think Google is better?
Google pays decently, but the work isn't interesting unless you have social access. Being in an Eastern European satellite office, you're not going to get the machine learning work. You're going to get the stuff that California, Seattle and New York don't want to do.
I'm sure there are Polish companies that offer real work; OP would do better at one of those than in some multinational's branch office. The problem is that most corporations are still pretty colonial and you don't get high-quality work unless you're in the main office.