Should I, at under 30, give it my all to move to the US?

Hey everyone,I'm looking for some advice on my career plans.

I'm a Chinese living in Japan (been here for 10 years) and I'm actually half-Korean. so I speak all three languages fluently, and my English is decent, though not perfect.

I'm currently working in AI (specifically LLM) at a big tech company in Japan. Earlier this year, I was chatting with a Korean friend who works in the US, and I found out that for the same level position at a comparable tech company there, he's making about 5 times what I make (after accounting for the exchange rate). We're both at the "senior machine learning engineer" level. This really opened my eyes to the fact that I might be underpaid.

Since I use English frequently at work, I feel like I could potentially land an AI engineering job in the US. My rough plan is to work there for 5-10 years, then return to Japan with enough savings to potentially retire early. I've been mulling over a few options:

  1. Switch to the Japan office of a US tech company, work there for a few years, then transfer internally to the US. The downside is that I've only been at my current job for a year, so job-hopping might not look great on my resume.
  2. Stay at my current company for a few more years, try to join some international projects to improve my English, then apply directly to US companies from Japan.
  3. Move the whole family to Singapore (an English-speaking country) for a few years, then transition to the US from there.
  4. Scrap the whole plan and stay in Japan.

My wife isn't thrilled about this idea. She doesn't want to move to the US and doesn't speak English. We were actually planning to buy a house in Japan, but my potential plans have thrown a wrench in that. I've been passing on a lot of properties because I'm thinking we might move in a few years, which is understandably frustrating for her.

So, at under 30, should I go all-in on trying to move to the US? I know it's not all sunshine and rainbows there – I have friends who've recently been laid off due to the AI industry slowdown. But I feel like it'll bounce back in 2-3 years, so maybe it's worth preparing now. What do you all think?

by Interesting_Meal_430

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