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I'm not worried about the apartment size, I can figure that stuff out later.
I live in a small "european inspired" apartment now. I like it but they are few and far between in the states.
That is one reason a place like Berlin has appeal. I would rather live in an apartment than a house and in most of the US affordable apartments are horrible and apartment dwellers are considered 2nd class citizens.
It looks like Berlin has tons of apartments that look great from my perspective.
That said, I was mostly wondering about the salary, not salary relative to standard of living or a long discussion of apartment sizes.
careers.stackoverflow says the average salary for a senior software developer in Berlin is 58K euro, which is about 63K USD.
If this place is "bad, even for Berlin" I am going to guess it's more like. 48K euro? Less? 63K USD seems bad enough, even if cost of living is cheap.
I'm not worried about the apartment size, I can figure that stuff out later.
I live in a small "european inspired" apartment now. I like it but they are few and far between in the states.
That is one reason a place like Berlin has appeal. I would rather live in an apartment than a house and in most of the US affordable apartments are horrible and apartment dwellers are considered 2nd class citizens.
It looks like Berlin has tons of apartments that look great from my perspective.
That said, I was mostly wondering about the salary, not salary relative to standard of living or a long discussion of apartment sizes.
careers.stackoverflow says the average salary for a senior software developer in Berlin is 58K euro, which is about 63K USD.
If this place is "bad, even for Berlin" I am going to guess it's more like. 48K euro? Less? 63K seems bad enough.
How long do plan to do this gig? 63K or less for a senior software developer? After something like that on your resume, do you think it could affect your salary negotiations when you get back to the US?
How long do plan to do this gig? 63K or less for a senior software developer? After something like that on your resume, do you think it could affect your salary negotiations when you get back to the US?
Good question. I would like to do it until I retire but hard to plan out that sort of thing in software.
It may or may not help me out. Currently the bulk of my expertise (music and audio development) is useless outside of about 5 jobs in the entire world. This is one of them. Would the experience help upon my return? I doubt it as my current experience is not all that valuable, monetarily.
Otherwise I have to do what I do now, ***** myself out to work on some shopping app and forget that I ever made music software. Every day I have to meditate for about 5 hours so that I don't snap and murder all my idiotic co-workers. That would be one benefit of the job in Berlin. I suppose maybe I should be looking at it from that perspective. Sixty grand a year vs. spending the rest of my life in solitary confinement after going on a workplace rampage.
Good question. I would like to do it until I retire but hard to plan out that sort of thing in software.
It may or may not help me out. Currently the bulk of my expertise (music and audio development) is useless outside of about 5 jobs in the entire world. This is one of them. Would the experience help upon my return? I doubt it as my current experience is not all that valuable, monetarily.
Otherwise I have to do what I do now, ***** myself out to work on some shopping app and forget that I ever made music software. Every day I have to meditate for about 5 hours so that I don't snap and murder all my idiotic co-workers. That would be one benefit of the job in Berlin. I suppose maybe I should be looking at it from that perspective. Sixty grand a year vs. spending the rest of my life in solitary confinement after going on a workplace rampage.
lol! Is it that bad?
I was thinking it might hold you back, if you came back to the US, since the tech sector pays so much better, usually. I didn't know you're in a special niche. In view of that, I think you should go for it!
I was thinking it might hold you back, if you came back to the US, since the tech sector pays so much better, usually. I didn't know you're in a special niche. In view of that, I think you should go for it!
haha, no it isn't that terrible. but it is a lot like "office space" the movie. only the guys who work there think it's not like "office space" the movie, because there's an espresso machine and free soda. I just get bored because it's like an easy, boring problem to solve, and it's already solved, but we have to pretend there's a lot of work to do, because otherwise how would we justify our inflated salaries?
haha, no it isn't that terrible. but it is a lot like "office space" the movie. only the guys who work there think it's not like "office space" the movie, because there's an espresso machine and free soda. I just get bored because it's like an easy, boring problem to solve, and it's already solved, but we have to pretend there's a lot of work to do, because otherwise how would we justify our inflated salaries?
I guess you've looked around the US to see if there's a company doing what you want to do? LA? Bay Area? But you found such a company in Berlin? Better take it, then. You'd probably enjoy life in Berlin.
I guess you've looked around the US to see if there's a company doing what you want to do? LA? Bay Area? But you found such a company in Berlin? Better take it, then. You'd probably enjoy life in Berlin.
Yeah. I lived in the bay area for 10 years. I pretty much know the industry and where I can get a job. I'll probably go back to SF if this doesn't look like it's going to work out.
How old are you? You sound like you're really smart, and more or less light years ahead of most of your peers.
LOL, I don't know if that is sincere or a crack.
I'm not very smart, I'm just old and jaded.
If I was smart I'd be a billionare by now - that is how this industry works.
My peers from the bay area actually are rich now, that is why I'm so grouchy all the time. I blew it and am now just trying to figure out the next 20 years of my life.
LOL, I don't know if that is sincere or a crack.
I'm not very smart, I'm just old and jaded.
If I was smart I'd be a billionare by now - that is how this industry works.
My peers from the bay area actually are rich now, that is why I'm so grouchy all the time. I blew it and am now just trying to figure out the next 20 years of my life.
I assumed you were in your 20's, but I saw on one of the threads that you're 39. Well, one advantage of Berlin is that you can travel around Europe on holidays. How's your German?
BTW, did you go to that recruitment event? What did they say about salary?
I assumed you were in your 20's, but I saw on one of the threads that you're 39. Well, one advantage of Berlin is that you can travel around Europe on holidays. How's your German?
BTW, did you go to that recruitment event? What did they say about salary?
Not yet, the event is at SXSW in Austin in about a week.
Something must have gotten shaken up there, as they seem to be getting very serious about recruiting just in the past couple of weeks. They just realeased a video about their dev process, and are doing this thing at SXSW. It looks like the CTO is an American now. I hope that means salaries are at least not terrible.
My German is non-existant but AFAIK everyone speaks English at this company. I think there are special schools where one can learn German for immigration purposes. One of my cousins did that a while back but she moved back to the states recently as her German husband was killed in a car accident.
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