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VisualMeta GmbH in Berlin. They're a 'start-up' backed by Axel Springer, Berlin. They fired about 60-70 people recently, some of them on their first day of wo
by 1474295912 10y ago
VisualMeta GmbH in Berlin. They're a 'start-up' backed by Axel Springer, Berlin.
They fired about 60-70 people recently, some of them on their first day of work. Most of their devs come from non-existent countries (China/Eritrea/Pakistan etc) and they're paid abysmally (€32-34k).
It's a surprise that this news wasn't covered at all in Berlin start-up press.
- Raed667 10y ago34k € is a bad salary in Germany? Because I think it is an average 1st salary in France (or the companies I've been talking to are also planning to get me paid abysmally)
- 1474295912 10y ago34k ain't bad, but average salaries for Experienced Java devs with 5+ years of experience are in the range of 50-55k. Also by paying less than blue card limit, the devs are basically tied to VisualMeta. Most of the devs don't know German system well and thus are being taken advantage of.
- b4xt3em4n 10y ago34k will be very good salary for an experienced java dev in Italy..
- slau 10y agoDepends on where you live. If you're near a larger city or not. There's a huge discrepancy in salaries Due to geography (and also massively depends on your skill set, obviously). To give you a frame of reference, I was pretty well paid in Perpignan after a few years in a company (a bit north of 40k€). The junior devs I hired got south of 24k€.
- kriro 10y agoFor a developer I'd say yes. For comparison the yearly salary for an entry level academic (masters->university) is about 44k € gross/year (which more or less automatically goes up to about 49k after one year). I'd expect a decent entry level developer to make at least that.
- throwaway1892 10y agoAs another said, it is heavily dependent on location. For a dev job around Paris, it is very low.
- hocuspocus 10y agoSocial contributions are a much bigger part of your gross salary in Germany. 34k would be ~28k in France. My company hires new grads around 50k and I guess decent startups who make people relocate across continents should pay at least 45k.
- user5994461 10y agoDamn. That's more than I got when I started in London. Should have picked Berlin instead.
- throwawayReply 10y agoWhen it comes to software development, London (and the UK) certainly seem to have a low pay culture.
- user5994461 10y agoCan you make 6 figures in Berlin? (In London, it's doable) I hope you're not saying "low pay" because you compare to the USA. The Europe and the USA are not in the same league, they shouldnt be compared.
- throwawayReply 10y agoThere is a difference between "acheivable" and "culture". I should also probably add I'm thinking of London-Non-Finance which is admittedly smaller than London.
- hocuspocus 10y ago100k+ is definitely possible in Germany but hard in Berlin itself, even for a principal engineer. I'd say you need be be at least Manager/Director/VP of engineering, depending on the size of the company.
- user5994461 10y ago34kE for a new master's graduate is rather low in Paris. It's rather high for the rest of the country. See here for discussion about French salaries. http://www.developpez.net/forums/f597/emploi-etudes-informatique/emploi/salaires/ http://www.developpez.net/forums/f597/emploi-etudes-informat... That's the main french forum for professional developers tips & tricks & career advice & salaries.
- Raed667 10y agoThanks, and do you have an idea about Nice / Sophia Antipolis ?
- user5994461 10y agoI am not familiar with the area. Feel free to open a topic in the aforementioned forum, they'll know better .
- jakub_g 10y agoFresh graduate salaries in Sophia are ~€33k-€40k. Negotiate hard, as getting a raise later is tough.
- expertentipp 10y ago> Berlin... 'start-up' > backed by Axel Springer These are already two red flags, enough for a person familiar with the Germany's job and tech markets to stay away.
- elcct 10y agoCare to elaborate?
- expertentipp 10y agoBerlin startups are infamous for hiring foreigners from countries with low salaries, ideally from outside of EU (so no free movement of workers with Germany) and paying them below the market salary. Low pay + dealing with German bureaucracy + sky rocketing prices of everything in Berlin = person has a problem. As for Axel Springer - their understanding of internet innovation is quite... "skewed". e.g. as some kind of manifest they blocked their tabloid's website (bild.de) for web browsers with enabled ad blockers or they are notorious for suing developers of ad blockers: http://www.reuters.com/article/germany-advertising-adblocking-idUSL5N0YJ31I20150528 http://www.reuters.com/article/germany-advertising-adblockin... Their philosophy seems to be "the internet is a platform to deliver advertisements" - quite toxic in my opinion.
- elcct 10y agoMakes sense, thank you
- elcapitan 10y agoThey also think it's a good idea to get your content removed from Google, if they don't pay a fee for linking to you.
- issaria 10y agoChinese developer working in a Berlin startup here. I agree the Berlin startups do hire a lot of foreingers (there is a report stating that 49% of employees are foreigners), and it drives the salary down, but I can say my salary is the same level as others developers, as developers has such a huge demand here that you can change jobs freely, unlike American H1B visa. Also because the EU bluecard has a salary requirement, so they usually pays you the lower limit at least in order to get you here. That's the situation of my Mexican friend, he changed job as soon as he worked in the company for a year and get better paid.
- gnipgnip 10y ago"non-existent" ?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- throwaway642012 10y agoI think she meant non-EU countries.
- 1474295912 10y agoEdit: I meant "Non-EU" countries, not non-existent.
- rshaban 10y agoA helpful clarification :)
- neokya 10y agoI just had to wonder what you meant by 'non-existent countries'. According to this meaning here, these countries don't exist? http://www.dictionary.com/browse/nonexistent http://www.dictionary.com/browse/nonexistent