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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

#151

Post by scanny »

monster_group wrote: post #148
scanny wrote: post #96

My 2 cents: Just finished my first month in Munich as a Web Dev after moving from Australia. Company is great and colleagues are lovely. German bureaucracy sucks but apart from that it has been an experience of ‘the more things change the more they stay the same’ when it comes to the job and culture. Honestly linkedin has had the best results for jobs, that and using a template for CVS and cover letters. There’s plen…

What's the tech interview process like in Germany? Do they ask you to do LeetCode style problems on whiteboard or Google Doc?

Varies quite a bit. For me it was just a verbal interview with technical questions about how I would approach different problems. I sent a link to my GitHub beforehand and they were happy with what they saw so there wasn’t anything practical.

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

#152

Post by wasmitnetzen »

lacker wrote: post #123

The salaries seem really low. The absolute highest paying job listed on their site is a 110,000 euro salary, but you can get more than that with zero experience in California. I wonder if it would be better for software engineers in Germany to simply get remote working jobs for US companies.

You also get (probably) 30 days of paid vacation a year and up to 6 weeks of sick pay paid by the employer (and after that by your health insurance). You can't just compare the raw numbers to get a full picture.

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

#153

Post by volta83 »

estaseuropano wrote: post #41
lbrito wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 100-2000€

Munich, 28m2 flat, 1 room, built in 2019, price 720.000 EUR, location: right under the train tracks between inner and middle ring.

That's 25.000 EUR/m2 for a hole under the train tracks.

Old 100m2 flats between midle and inner rings go in munich for 1.5 million EUR if they are old and destroyed, and well over 2 million EUR if they are relatively new (2.5-3 million).

That's 15.000/m2 for old buildings requiring repairs and 25.000-30.000 EUR/m2 for new buildings.

So at least for Munich you are off by more than a 150x factor.

Saving 20k/year doesn't even give you 1m2 per year.

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

#154

Post by lacker »

wasmitnetzen wrote: post #152
lacker wrote: post #123

The salaries seem really low. The absolute highest paying job listed on their site is a 110,000 euro salary, but you can get more than that with zero experience in California. I wonder if it would be better for software engineers in Germany to simply get remote working jobs for US companies.

You also get (probably) 30 days of paid vacation a year and up to 6 weeks of sick pay paid by the employer (and after that by your health insurance). You can't just compare the raw numbers to get a full picture.

I mean it's just so far off. Check levels.fyi, Google/Airbnb/Coinbase will be paying $300k+ for software engineers with 4+ years of experience.

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

#155

Post by comodore_ »

allendoerfer wrote: post #118
scanny wrote: post #96

My 2 cents: Just finished my first month in Munich as a Web Dev after moving from Australia. Company is great and colleagues are lovely. German bureaucracy sucks but apart from that it has been an experience of ‘the more things change the more they stay the same’ when it comes to the job and culture. Honestly linkedin has had the best results for jobs, that and using a template for CVS and cover letters. There’s plen…

To add to that: Taxes are not 50%, but there are mandatory social insurances you have to pay: Health insurance (+elderly care insurance), unemployment, pension system. They make up the biggest chunk for low to medium sized incomes. Your employer also pays into these insurances for you, which does not show up on your job-offer. So effectively you get 20% more than advertised.

It's a total of about 50% in social security contributions AND taxes. Assuming you are single and have no kids and your gross salary is 100k, you pay about 15k in social security contributions and 29k in income tax. And additionally 2.5k in church tax if you're catholic or lutheran.

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

#156

Post by no_one_ever »

gigatexal wrote: post #31
no_one_ever wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you move from US? What is the process like?

I did, yes. I moved with my wife and two dogs and most of our stuff to Hamburg. The startup paid for the flights, the visa fees (if any, I don’t remember), the container to put our crap in (it was a logistics startup so they knew how to do this rather well), and prepaid for an AirBnB for 3 months for us to find housing. We had hang ups in getting my wife recognized such that we could get on the more lucrative tax sch…

thank you for your detailed response. I have some family in Germany and have thought about trying something similar, so I love to hear others' experiences.

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

#158

Post by barbazoo »

greatgib wrote: post #129

All in this article looked standard up to the point where I discoved that: "This is assuming that you are single and not a church member, because there is an extra tax (around 9% of your income tax) if you belong to one." Wtf germany? I have found more info: https://www.nomadenberlin.com/blog2/german-church-tax-kirche... it is a complete non-sense to me, if ever you wanted to give, why you are not allowed to decide t…

> And 9% is a very important amount in my opinion!

It's important to know what amount that's 9% of. In case of the German Kirchensteuer it's 9% of your income tax [0], not of your gross income or even after tax income.

[0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirchensteuer_%28Deutschland%2...

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

#159

Post by jcbrand »

alkonaut wrote: post #47
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…

If you're not paying off the principal, you're just renting from the bank without the benefit of having a landlord to fix things.

Why bother?

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

#160

Post by Blumfid »

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.

In the last 10 years I have seen prices and still see them here around munich 100km radius where it just gets more expensive.

I ask that question and I make now nearly 6 figures.

Before it was passible to buy a flat and pay it off, now prices are where you wanna sell it in 30 years or so.

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