4 ms·
Berlin isn't a great place to hire developers: 1) Employees get lots more legal rights in Germany compared to the US. I don't know if this is the case among st
by ig1 14y ago
Berlin isn't a great place to hire developers:
1) Employees get lots more legal rights in Germany compared to the US. I don't know if this is the case among startups but certainly at larger german companies I've seen the programmers are unionized. So when you don't get that next round of funding and are forced to reduce headcount you'll pretty much have to fire the employees in the US office before you can fire the ones in the Berlin office.
2) Berlin in particular has a talent crunch, there aren't enough developers for the companies already there. Many of the top-tier developers are drawn to Frankfurt where the large companies are based (i.e where the money is). Many tech companies in Berlin resort to importing developers from elsewhere in the EU.
- maebert 14y agoRe 2) Hiring in Berlin is indeed difficult. There's a great influx of talented developers from southern Europe though, and as long as your employees come from within the EU hiring them is not a problem. Re 1) Not entirely true for startups - most developers joining startups know what they're at and are not unionized; still you can't fire people at will. Typically this problem is solved by limiting contracts to a couple of months and extending as long as there is money left.