Earlier quoted context omitted.
With a 60K salary you can live anywhere in Berlin (I'm 2 minutes from my office, in the most expensive part of the city). Many people mention London in this thread and even assuming a 60% raise (not impossible but not so easy either from what I've seen) I'm not sure I could live 2 minutes from work in central London. When I interviewed with Palantir they were offering 700 GBP/month to people who live within 15 minute…
With a 60K salary you can live anywhere in Berlin Except that people contemplating a move from elsewhere -- especially from outside the continent -- need to think about certain things beyond their immediate living expenses. Like, you know, building savings buffer for the (inevitable, for most) return home, and maintaining a salary level not astronomically far off from what they can get in other major hubs (simply to…
My experience has been that German bosses in general do not comprehend how hard and expensive it is for somebody from far away to come to Germany and organize their life in there. A lot of people arranged for everything they need in life years ago and already forgotten about it. With the young generation, many live with their parents, they basically have their own free apartment in the parent's house, they have a car purchased for them and some money in their bank account to cover their immediate needs. A very convenient setup which makes them oblivious to how much those things actually cost in the real world. It happened many times when in a conversation with them I shared my experiences and practically the universal reaction I was receiving from them was along the lines of: "Really? Now, that's tough. Good luck to you then."
If you come to a new country you by definition have nothing and you have to procure everything from the most basic tools to whatever you're going to need as a professional. Consider what you have to purchase/pay for:
Rent an apartment, pay the security deposit, pay the agent commission, purchase a set of furniture for the entire apartment (most are offered empty and unlivable), purchase the household appliances. Unless you fancy living with roommates, eating junk food and sleeping on the floor.
If you're a software engineer, you're most likely going to be buying a workstation, a couple of monitors, a large desk, an ergonomic chair, a printer, a scanner and whatever else you need. Unless you plan not to do anything programming-related beyond office hours.
If you're going to a location where the public transportation system is not well developed or if they like to call strikes there all the time, you'll also need to purchase a car and get yourself a local driving license. Unless you enjoy losing hours in commute and regularly being late for work.
See how the numbers quickly add up. And somebody's got to pay for all this fun.
Notice how I'm talking about the basic stuff only that practically every person would need. I haven't even gone into family/childcare expenses.
I remember having a conversation with my boss about all of this. I was trying to get across the point that the amount I was receiving was making it impossible for me to set up a life at that location. To which I was told if I was unable to rent an apartment then I should consider renting a room instead and share the apartment with others. Now, that's positive. Definitely a thing to say to a talent who has multiple other options and the whole world open. And since the same level of payment was being hold firmly by all other German companies I negotiated with, I finally made the choice to move out.
That probably explains why there's so little true talent you can find in Germany. The treatment just isn't good.