Poll: Full-time software engineer salaries in Berlin • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineer salaries in Berlin

#71

Post by Xylakant » Thu, Jan 23, 2014, 6:31 PM UTC

arethuza wrote: post #19

cake wrote: post #6

3 points for "€100k or more" already sounds like bullshit to me at this time. Either that or I would love to hear what you do !

Within a few seconds of looking I managed to find a "big data architect" role being advertised in Berlin for 500-600 Euro per day - which is comfortably over 100K a year... Almost tempted to apply... ;-)

A 'per day' payment sounds like a freelance consulting gig which puts it at the lower range of the freelance wage bracket. Freelance jobs are paid better but suffer from higher costs, so those numbers are not directly comparable - you'd have to subtract about 40% to cover the costs.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineer salaries in Berlin

#72

Post by wisienkas » Thu, Jan 23, 2014, 6:45 PM UTC

peterjmag wrote: post #66

wisienkas wrote: post #44

those answering less than 20k euro, how did you manage to get paid that low. To me coming from denmark, that more sound as if it's a monthly salary compared to "starter-salary" in denmark which is 35k DKK or 4,7k euro a month.

A couple observations: While €20k is certainly a low salary for a software engineer (even in Berlin), it's not completely unheard of. I've seen a couple startups offering €1500/month for entry-level dev jobs, and actually, €1500 gross is enough to live on here. Then there are the so-called "mini jobs", which only pay €400/month or so, but those are usually student jobs or unskilled labor. You probably won't find any…

Those 1,5k per month could be a reason why, true.

For my student job I only make 500 euro a month, but that's well a side job while i study tho. so of course that is somewhat low, because i'm only working 9 hours a week there.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineer salaries in Berlin

#73

Post by jorgem » Thu, Jan 23, 2014, 6:46 PM UTC

rglullis wrote: post #55

Don't mean to pollute all threads with salaryshare stuff, but the tool is so appropriate for this use-case... I've created a salary pool at http://salaryshare.me/a9f54a571d1b0d89a47ee481a61b0da4 . Please only post a salary if you are full-time employed in Berlin. Those who only want to see the results, please check http://salaryshare.me/a9f54a571d1b0d89a47ee481a61b0da4/resul... .

That is so clever. If you can convince your coworkers to use it, you can figure out if you're underpaid.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineer salaries in Berlin

#74

Post by super_mario » Thu, Jan 23, 2014, 6:55 PM UTC

mahyarm wrote: post #43

cake wrote: post #6

3 points for "€100k or more" already sounds like bullshit to me at this time. Either that or I would love to hear what you do !

That is a pretty standard wage for a sr. developer in the SFBA. Big reason why I'm not moving to europe any time soon.

You are also paying 4 times as much for a lower quality apartment. You are also getting 1/3 of vacation time and you have lower quality health coverage, benefits and perks.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineer salaries in Berlin

#75

Post by rglullis » Thu, Jan 23, 2014, 7:12 PM UTC

jorgem wrote: post #73

rglullis wrote: post #55

Don't mean to pollute all threads with salaryshare stuff, but the tool is so appropriate for this use-case... I've created a salary pool at http://salaryshare.me/a9f54a571d1b0d89a47ee481a61b0da4 . Please only post a salary if you are full-time employed in Berlin. Those who only want to see the results, please check http://salaryshare.me/a9f54a571d1b0d89a47ee481a61b0da4/resul... .

That is so clever. If you can convince your coworkers to use it, you can figure out if you're underpaid.

Glad you liked it. That was the main use case. I've added just a few of the features since the "Show HN" years ago: different currencies, different pool sizes, the results page... the one thing that I still need to do is the "send a secret email to your co-workers with a link to the pool". I fear that I can't do that without user signups, though.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineer salaries in Berlin

#76

Post by ShellfishMeme » Thu, Jan 23, 2014, 7:15 PM UTC

peterjmag wrote: post #58

drinchev wrote: post #20

Wow. I didn't know that so many people reading HN are Berliners. Let's try to make a Berlin HN meeting some day..

Agreed! Who wants to organize one? :-)

I'm already organizing one together with a friend. Stay tuned. We'll post some details later when we figured out a good date.

In the meanwhile, if you'd like to propose an interesting talk, just send us a mail to hackernewsberlin@gmail.com.

We think it would be cool to have a mixture of tech talks and startup stories. I'd love to hear the founding stories of some of the startups around here.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineer salaries in Berlin

#77

Post by junto » Thu, Jan 23, 2014, 7:29 PM UTC

maciejgryka wrote: post #35

dreen wrote: post #12

Developer here looking to possibly relocate from London to Berlin or other German (or Dutch) place, I have a question for anyone filling out this poll: I spend on avarage about £700 a month excluding rent, which allows for relatively comfortable life in London. What spending can I expect in Berlin? What about rent? (I pay £425 which is pretty cheap for London)

I've just made the same move, feel free to get in touch if you have any more questions! I've only been here for about 3 weeks so far, so don't have much data, but €500/month for living costs seems easy. Rent, depending on what you want, is probably about 80% of what you pay for a comparable flat in London. You can probably get 2 bedrooms (+living room) with all the bills included for about €800. Just be prepared for…

I've been in Germany a number of years now. If you are freelancing then get a good accountant is the one tip I would give. The Germans take tax matters very seriously.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineer salaries in Berlin

#78

Post by this_user » Thu, Jan 23, 2014, 7:59 PM UTC

iagooar wrote: post #61

leterter wrote: post #56

Those are some really low salaries

They may sound low, but compared to the USA, Germany has public health care, free education (up to graduate level), a long, paid parental leave and a lot of other social benefits. This really sums up if you have to pay for all these things yourself.

You are paying for those things, but it's being paid indirectly. Paying 40% or more of your gross income for health care, social security and taxes is another thing that Americans would probably find to be high.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineer salaries in Berlin

#79

Post by killerpopiller » Thu, Jan 23, 2014, 8:00 PM UTC

maciejgryka wrote: post #35

dreen wrote: post #12

Developer here looking to possibly relocate from London to Berlin or other German (or Dutch) place, I have a question for anyone filling out this poll: I spend on avarage about £700 a month excluding rent, which allows for relatively comfortable life in London. What spending can I expect in Berlin? What about rent? (I pay £425 which is pretty cheap for London)

I've just made the same move, feel free to get in touch if you have any more questions! I've only been here for about 3 weeks so far, so don't have much data, but €500/month for living costs seems easy. Rent, depending on what you want, is probably about 80% of what you pay for a comparable flat in London. You can probably get 2 bedrooms (+living room) with all the bills included for about €800. Just be prepared for…

rent varies drastically throughout Germany.

To get a feeling, use the well frequented http://www.immonet.de/ http://www.immobilienscout24.de/de/finden/wohnen/index.jsp;j...

..and it is true, unfurnished is standard

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineer salaries in Berlin

#80

Post by radicalbyte » Thu, Jan 23, 2014, 8:01 PM UTC

vincentkriek wrote: post #26

dreen wrote: post #12

Developer here looking to possibly relocate from London to Berlin or other German (or Dutch) place, I have a question for anyone filling out this poll: I spend on avarage about £700 a month excluding rent, which allows for relatively comfortable life in London. What spending can I expect in Berlin? What about rent? (I pay £425 which is pretty cheap for London)

Eindhoven is cool as well!

..and booming, there are a lot of very interesting companies and jobs there.

Shame that it's 90 mins drive from here :(