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How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

germantechjobs.de

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Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#41

Post by estaseuropano »

lbrito wrote: post #14
sdevonoes wrote: post #8

> To sum up: if you are single and opt for "live cool and don't care about expenses" style, then an average developer salary will be enough (it might be harder if you have a family to feed). > On the other hand, if you choose to go the student-like route (living in Wohngemeinschaft and not eating out too much), you can easily manage with just 1.200-1.500 EUR per month, and save the majority of your salary. I know it…

I assume engineering positions are on the top bracket of salary distribution. If not even this is enough to pursue home ownership, what kind of people are able to afford a house? Honest question.

Price/sq meter varies between 100-2000€, so it really depends on your region, lifestyle and choices. If you have a normal salary (or both working) you can afford a small house. Mortgages also tend to be reasonable in Germany.

Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#43

Post by jamil7 »

carlmr wrote: post #33
dcolkitt wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 60k is more for senior developers. Junior get less. It's always shocking to me how low European SWE compensation is. Is it similar for other skilled professionals? What do accountants, lawyers, civil engineers, pilots, physical therapists, etc. make? I understand the demand side. I think the European tech industry is much less successful than its American counterpart, and therefore has less money to pay. But I don'…

I mean you can definitely earn more than 60k in Germany. I don't know about Berlin though. In Stuttgart, Frankfurt or Munich this would be too little to get a senior developer. Most of the other professions pay less. From the list you gave, and the people I know, I would assume the sorting is roughly: * physical therapists (can't go much lower in pay) * pilots (there are just way too many, except for those in old con…

> I mean you can definitely earn more than 60k in Germany. I don't know about Berlin though. In Stuttgart, Frankfurt or Munich this would be too little to get a senior developer.

You can do it in Berlin if you go the freelancer route but that comes with it's own complications in Germany.

Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#44

Post by frockington1 »

lbrito wrote: post #14
sdevonoes wrote: post #8

> To sum up: if you are single and opt for "live cool and don't care about expenses" style, then an average developer salary will be enough (it might be harder if you have a family to feed). > On the other hand, if you choose to go the student-like route (living in Wohngemeinschaft and not eating out too much), you can easily manage with just 1.200-1.500 EUR per month, and save the majority of your salary. I know it…

I assume engineering positions are on the top bracket of salary distribution. If not even this is enough to pursue home ownership, what kind of people are able to afford a house? Honest question.

With negative interest rates, debt is incredibly cheap. People are probably able to leverage themselves more than in North America

Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#45

Post by DocTomoe »

eloeffler wrote: post #9

I'm surprised the article says nothing about certifications and or degrees, only work experience. I don't work in Software Engineering but I would have assumed that - like anywhere else in Germany - a university degree is required more often than abroad. Or am I wrong about that?

German proverb: What you have written on paper, you can happily carry home. Having degrees is giving you an advantage.

Especially for entry-level positions, degrees are relevant to get a foot in the door. Once you advance to mid-level, people tend to ignore certifications and/or degrees - at the corporate job I am now, I didn't even include them in my application, just mentioning them in my CV. If you survived in the job market for a few years, noone questions your capabilities.

What is more important later-on are recomendation letters ("Arbeitszeugnisse") from former employers (which they are required by law to give, and as they cannot make them sound negative, they tend to use a system of nice-sounding, but coded messages if you were not a good employee, e.g. "he always had good relationships with his colleagues" means "he did smalltalk all day, but did not work", or "she was always showing sociality" translates to "she's an alcoholic".)

Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#46

Post by galangalalgol »

dcolkitt wrote: post #5
thanato0s wrote: post #4

Leaving in Germany for 6 years. Moved from France. What I'll say only concern Berlin. The interview process in startup can be more draining than that. Currently, it's more like 4 / 5 steps with (sometimes) 6+ hours homework. Yik. 60k is more for senior developers. Junior get less. Other than that the cost of living in Germany is quite low (lower in Berlin than in the South) and it's a very nice and stable country.

> 60k is more for senior developers. Junior get less. It's always shocking to me how low European SWE compensation is. Is it similar for other skilled professionals? What do accountants, lawyers, civil engineers, pilots, physical therapists, etc. make? I understand the demand side. I think the European tech industry is much less successful than its American counterpart, and therefore has less money to pay. But I don'…

Those numbers are normal in the US too for embedded or game software. Faang salaries are at least 20% higher than other software jobs and counting stocks it can be almost triple a salary for a SWE that is outside the west coast SV culture and isn't a quant. For games and some other interesting problems it is a matter of non monetary compensation. But I have no idea why people writing hardware drivers or engine control software make so much less than someone writing some web back end that is mostly gluing bits together. Even MS pays so much less than Amazon its bizarre.

Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#47

Post by alkonaut »

sdevonoes wrote: post #8

> To sum up: if you are single and opt for "live cool and don't care about expenses" style, then an average developer salary will be enough (it might be harder if you have a family to feed). > On the other hand, if you choose to go the student-like route (living in Wohngemeinschaft and not eating out too much), you can easily manage with just 1.200-1.500 EUR per month, and save the majority of your salary. I know it…

Savings is for a down payment. Then you pay mortgages on the house and any savings are much better to keep (retirement, buffer, ..). If I were to save to buy my house (€800K) I'd certainly not be living in it before the kids move out, at which point I no longer need a house.

The price of a house on the market has a pretty simple formula: it's what two incomes can pay per month times the interest rate they expect over some horizon, and the expected monthly pyament of the principal (if any).

Where I live, I can stop paying back the loan when the loan is under 70% the valuation of the house, so it's then interest-only after that. And of course there are better uses of money than paying a mortgage: in recent history the stock market has been booming while my mortgage is under 1.5%. Whenever I have €1K lying around, I'd certainly not want to pay back 0.1% of my mortgage when I can save it instead.

Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#48

Post by frockington1 »

madarcho wrote: post #15
sdevonoes wrote: post #8

> To sum up: if you are single and opt for "live cool and don't care about expenses" style, then an average developer salary will be enough (it might be harder if you have a family to feed). > On the other hand, if you choose to go the student-like route (living in Wohngemeinschaft and not eating out too much), you can easily manage with just 1.200-1.500 EUR per month, and save the majority of your salary. I know it…

Few people buy a house outright. Mortgages make the ordeal a little more in reach. Now as to whether banks grant it or not is a different problem...

Do you know if Europe's negative rates have made mortgages more or less challenging to receive. I can see it going either way as any interest is better than negative bond yields but how much effort are you going to put in if a mortgage rate is suppressed as well?

Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#49

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

carlmr wrote: post #33
dcolkitt wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 60k is more for senior developers. Junior get less. It's always shocking to me how low European SWE compensation is. Is it similar for other skilled professionals? What do accountants, lawyers, civil engineers, pilots, physical therapists, etc. make? I understand the demand side. I think the European tech industry is much less successful than its American counterpart, and therefore has less money to pay. But I don'…

I mean you can definitely earn more than 60k in Germany. I don't know about Berlin though. In Stuttgart, Frankfurt or Munich this would be too little to get a senior developer. Most of the other professions pay less. From the list you gave, and the people I know, I would assume the sorting is roughly: * physical therapists (can't go much lower in pay) * pilots (there are just way too many, except for those in old con…

Most of the perks you listed like 6 week vacation and 35h workweeks are not the norm, not even for devs, but exception that some good companies offer.

25 vacation days per year and 40h plus overtime included sometimes are more the current norm for most dev positions on the market now.

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