7 ms·
This. Salaries of 70-90k EUR for Senior devs in Berlin are absolutely achievable and combined with the quite low cost of living in Berlin you probably have more
by kayoone 7y ago
This. Salaries of 70-90k EUR for Senior devs in Berlin are absolutely achievable and combined with the quite low cost of living in Berlin you probably have more fun money than anywhere in Europe as a developer.
- tpush 7y agoBut not nearly as much as you'd have in the US, probably.
- ionised 7y agoThe US has its own downsides though. It's all about what trade-offs you're willing to make, and raw salary is not the only factor.
- adrianN 7y agoRents are a lot cheaper in Berlin. You don't need a car either. It's also a nicer city in general, I feel a lot safer in Berlin than in San Francisco.
- TulliusCicero 7y agoGerman cities themselves are definitely much nicer than American cities. In fact, "much nicer" is an understatement, American cities usually feel like they were designed by people who hate cities and want everyone in them to suffer. That said, US lifestyle/culture has its own set of advantages compared to Germany. German culture is surprisingly backwards for consumer software/internet stuff, for example.
- colinmhayes 7y agoYou don't need to live in the valley. I make twice that much in Chicago which is very comparable to Berlin price wise.
- raverbashing 7y agoAnd how does salaries (and work environment) in Chicago compare to SF/Berlin? (Weather is probably comparable to Berlin though)
- mrep 7y agoPretty much guaranteed. Even startups pay more than that and GAFAM pays 150,000 to new grads and 300,000-350,000 to senior engineers [0]. [0]: https://www.levels.fyi/ https://www.levels.fyi/
- Kurtz79 7y agoSalaries for devs in the US are insane compared to the rest of the world, I don't think they can be taken as a reference, especially as most people do not have an easy way to just choose to move there.
- odiroot 7y agoAnything above high 60's is really a pipe dream in this current market.
- hobofan 7y agoIf you are looking at SMBs that treat you as a "IT guy", sure. If you are looking at more "modern" tech companies in Berlin or well-funded startups it's definitely possible. The last 3 job offers I had were in the 90-100k range, for a "senior" position (~6 years of experience) in Berlin.
- odiroot 7y agoThis is definitely an outlier and not the norm. Look at Glassdoor and LinkedIn. Maybe Zalando offers more but few would want to work there.
- hobofan 7y agoJust from the top of my head, you could probably earn well at: Zalando, HERE, Mozilla, EyeEm, Blacklane, MongoDB, Zeitgold, Talon.one, Infarm (just raised a juicy funding round) + a boatload of blockchain startups On top of that, a lot of the bigger SV startups have satellite offices in Berlin.
- odiroot 7y ago> EyeEm Yep, personally know them. But they're in Köln last I remember. Many of the companies you mentioned (not gonna named not to get sued) have reportedly terrible working culture and/or awful recruitment process (applied to most of them). So maybe the money is compensating.
- hobofan 7y ago> terrible working culture Might be true for some of them, but for the ones on the list where I know people that work there, it sounded pretty good. In the end good working culture is one of many axis to optimize on.