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As a German working in IT I can say that German IT salaries simply cannot compare to FAANG. You get like 50k€ - 70k€, maybe 80k€. If you want more you have to b

by Tarsul 4y ago

As a German working in IT I can say that German IT salaries simply cannot compare to FAANG. You get like 50k€ - 70k€, maybe 80k€. If you want more you have to become a freelancer. Managers and coaches earn (usually) more than developers so that's another point. One could say that yes, compared to other salaries in Germany, developer salaries are quite good (like top 20-30%) but they are not as good as one might maybe expect from a US perspective. As big companies get a lot of developer talent from eastern europe, I think there's more of a ceiling with German developer salaries (and that's why agile coaches often earn more than developers...), also because if you do IT for e.g. an automobile employer you're not really the profit center as such as in FAANG. So, yeah, I understand why some Germans like to go to the USA, but still, it's a good life here in Germany ;)

harimau777 4y ago
Past co-workers who were located in Germany also go dramatically more vacation than we did in America. I'm guessing they likely have better medical benefits and other social services; however, I don't know for sure.
- rad_gruchalski 4y ago
  Statutory minimum 20 days of holidays for 5 day working week + 11 days national holidays. Health insurance at about €860/month, half paid by the employer, gives access to almost every medical treatment. Dental not included.
P_I_Staker 4y ago
Yeah, well FAANG is just part of the industry and contains multitudes. There's people making $60-80k working for FAANG in SV. You might be surprised. For a good portion of the US that's decent money. Now some areas of software you're going to see a little better, often, but not much. In probably 80%+ of the country (at least geographically), it's 80-140k for experienced technical people. IT tends to do worse, unless you're the kind of IT that's very technical. Now at the top end of that ~$120-140k, it may seem nice (btw this is "FAANG money" for a good portion of the country... no really, as in, this is literally what FAANG pays top engineers in many regions outside silicon valley). I wouldn't call that typical, though. In the US we also expect engineers to move into technical management in order to advance their salaries beyond low six figures, or less. You do sometimes see "super-technical" roles, but if they do it right you have to be REALLY good, experienced, and essential to the organization (one of their top 3-5 MVPs across the entire organization, not just the technical side). I wouldn't be shocked if such roles happened from time to time in Europe, too. Maybe, we aren't so different, but I do notice my co-workers staring longingly at the compensation we get here... which is again, limited to a small subset of jobs; if they were in the US working for the same company it wouldn't be much better, but they could move to SV.

by Tarsul 4y ago

harimau777 4y ago

Past co-workers who were located in Germany also go dramatically more vacation than we did in America. I'm guessing they likely have better medical benefits and other social services; however, I don't know for sure.

rad_gruchalski 4y ago
Statutory minimum 20 days of holidays for 5 day working week + 11 days national holidays. Health insurance at about €860/month, half paid by the employer, gives access to almost every medical treatment. Dental not included.

P_I_Staker 4y ago

Yeah, well FAANG is just part of the industry and contains multitudes. There's people making $60-80k working for FAANG in SV. You might be surprised. For a good portion of the US that's decent money. Now some areas of software you're going to see a little better, often, but not much. In probably 80%+ of the country (at least geographically), it's 80-140k for experienced technical people. IT tends to do worse, unless you're the kind of IT that's very technical. Now at the top end of that ~$120-140k, it may seem nice (btw this is "FAANG money" for a good portion of the country... no really, as in, this is literally what FAANG pays top engineers in many regions outside silicon valley). I wouldn't call that typical, though. In the US we also expect engineers to move into technical management in order to advance their salaries beyond low six figures, or less. You do sometimes see "super-technical" roles, but if they do it right you have to be REALLY good, experienced, and essential to the organization (one of their top 3-5 MVPs across the entire organization, not just the technical side). I wouldn't be shocked if such roles happened from time to time in Europe, too. Maybe, we aren't so different, but I do notice my co-workers staring longingly at the compensation we get here... which is again, limited to a small subset of jobs; if they were in the US working for the same company it wouldn't be much better, but they could move to SV.