Looking back, or what I would have done differently, having moved to work in Germany now. Part 1
The post was inspired by a recent post “How IT pros go to Germany. Part 1 ” from FlashXL . Not that I started everything differently, but there would be less error rake . I do not pretend to complete the picture - I just want to share my experience and warn against possible mistakes of those who are currently in the process of hiring in Germany (in the IT industry), and also, perhaps, to give some advice.
He began to look for vacancies and send out resumes in January 2011. The process was very inactive - I would even say extremely passive. By the summer began to sendspam CV already 3-5 in a week. The first answer and immediately assigned telephone interview with HR (the answer was from the direct employer) was received sometime in August 2011. Then within two months there were 3 more interviews (two technical ones on Skype with screen sharing and observation, as I coded and one with PM) A month later I received a DHL contract. True, for family reasons, I had to refuse to work, because they thought that they would have to move in the winter, which meant they would drop out of school / kindergarten in the middle of the school year. If we knew what awaits us further ...
At about the same time that the contract came to me, a recruiting company came to me and offered another job. Well, we think, once the contract was abandoned, why not go for a couple of interviews, perhaps, if they take it, then by the summer we will move (yeah, right!). There was again an interview with HR from recruiters, an interview with HR of an employer, a technical interview (all by telephone) and then an invitation to an in-person interview. The employer paid for the entire journey from my house (and I did not live in Moscow far away — another night on the train to her) to his office, hotel accommodation and the way back.
Well, when I returned home, I was very impressed. Both from the company, and from the city (Darmstadt) and especially from Frankfurt (the plane Moscow - Frankfurt). Unfortunately, like FlashXL , the guys were in no hurry to answer. One day, helping friends to choose something near computer in a small shop, the phone rings - the number is German! It was necessary to see buyers around me when I began to speak English and my physiognomy began to blur in the smile of a March cat - it was an offer, and even with a higher salary than I requested!
')
It took about 3 months to collect all the documents, add apostilles, translations and assurances, make a visit to the consulate in Moscow, then send more documents by e-mail (I forgot to make a labor transfer): from February to April 2012. Then we had a tedious wait answer. "Good" came the day before the end of the maximum time for an answer, the same day a ticket was bought and three days later I landed in Frankfurt am Main.
Before talking with HR, go in with your friends, look at the relevant sites for an indicative salary (annual) of specialists of your level in the relevant field (game industry, banks, medicine, car makers, etc.). If you, suppose, ask 50k for the position of a senior, you will get them without question. But it is quite possible that they could get 65k as well without problems. But it will not be good to request 70k at an average for the senior in the industry 60k, and bargaining in this matter is not accepted. It is also useless to say "I count on 4k clean" - no one knows how much you really get in your arms after all the required deductions and insurance. Only gross and usually annual amount, but not monthly.
As a piece of advice, take the middle one and add it boldly to 5k — you won’t regret it (this doesn’t apply to Juniors — advice for Senior’s only). In my case, I requested a little lower than average and got a little higher. And could get even higher. The problem is that in order to really increase the salary (and not by the standard 3-5% per year), already working in the company, you have to quit and find another company.
If you are serious about moving to another country, then do all notarial cases, translations, apostilles in advance in triplicate. A lot of time is spent on putting an apostille on a diploma, especially if you graduated from a university in one city and now live in another. The official deadline, as I was told, is 90 days. Even worse, the case with the apostille on the marriage certificate - the registry offices do not have a single base and you will have to go to the settlement where your marriage was entered into. Personally. Although such an apostille is made in 1-3 days (all less than 90).
When I left, the Blau Karte Act had not yet entered into force (but in my ABH I was the first to go and get it and somewhere 3rd or 4th in all of Hessen), but now it’s a lot easier and there are already quite a few lucky people who received an entry visa as applicants for obtaining it, and not “in the old manner”. If you are with your family, then the advantages are obvious - there is no hemorrhoids and unnecessary financial expenses with passing the A1 exam at the Goethe Institute - your second half will travel "automatically" without confirming the "basic skills in German at level A1". In my case, I entered one, a month later I received a normal residence permit, at the same time my wife signed up for delivery in Goethe (it was already appointed after 3 months!). What else is fun - I am alone in Germany, and my wife is alone with children in Russia ...
I learned German at school for 6 years, then I taught myself listening to various courses, videos, and learning materials on-line, but when meeting with real language I experienced, as they say, a culture shock. This is especially pronounced in the lands in which the own dialects (Hessen - Hessisch, Bayern & Baden-Württemberg - Schwäbisch) are strong, because colloquially, there is a lot of local dialect and the more mature your interlocutors are, or the more they come from a larger province, the brighter it will be.
I did not speak with anyone, who came not so long ago (located in Germany for a little less than six months) - everyone has the syndrome “I want to go home, I don’t like everything here, it’s not like that”. Go through it. Then you will laugh at yourself. Yes, the mentality and order can be said to be diametrically opposite, but it is worth a little bit to suffer. A year later, you would never want to return. Well ... or come back and never want to change the country of residence.
There is still a strong desire to ask the interlocutor “Do you speak English?” And switch to English if the answer is yes, arguing that the saying “Mein Deutsch ist noch nicht sehr gut”. Do not do this - better make mistakes, conjugate the verbs is not quite right, but say. You will understand. You will be pronounced phrases slowly, waiting for you to understand them. Here, no one pisses about it, and this is normal (the Germans know that their language is very difficult to understand).
Find maps of the city / district where you will live, find outlets in the radius of walking and cycle accessibility. Find out where and when are bike sales. If you do not have a car on arrival right away, then immediately buy a bicycle. But not any consumer goods in a supermarket for 200 euros (which will collapse in a month), but either a new one for 1000 or Flohmarkte for 100. I, while I lived here for one half a year, did not bother to check the stores within a kilometer radius , but always went "around the corner." Now it seems wild to me - I spent 300 per month on food for myself, and now for a family of 4 people - 400. Germans are usually purchased on Saturdays and go to large super / hypermarkets, which are usually located on outskirts or in industrial zones. Those. - either a car or a large backpack (baskets on a bicycle).
Yes, the garbage is sorted here. Depending on the land, sorted in different ways. But Biotonne (organic) and Altpapier (paper) definitely stand out. Something else is thrown to Restmüll, somewhere else Gelbe Säcke stands out (special yellow bags that are issued free of charge at Rathaus and at some stores) to collect almost the entire package, like packs of milk, yoghurt, etc. .P. and metal. The glass is thrown into special containers and is divided by color: white, green and brown. Almost all plastic containers (bottles), beer bottles and aluminum cans are handed back to the store in a special machine - you get a receipt, which you can then pay at the checkout counter or just get paid.
I would still be in Russia, I began to somehow train to separate the garbage (although we still throw it in one container anyway), because at first, it gave a lot of headaches. And when you still get remarks from Hausmeister about the garbage not properly thrown away - ready to fall through the ground ... Then it becomes a habit even in children.
The so-called “international driving license” issued in Russia, I smell, are “international” only in Russia. In fact, the first six months after entering the territory of Germany, you can safely drive a car under Russian rights - no one will say a word to you. Although the likelihood that you stop the police somewhere on the road here tends to zero. During these 6 months, you can quite simply “exchange” Russian rights for German ones. You will have to pass a theory (it is allowed to pass in several languages, including Russian) and a driving test. But if you have delayed these six months, you will have to take a theory course (it depends on the school - somewhere you can “otmazatsya” saying that I teach it myself at home), travel for at least an hour by car with an instructor (in the city in daylight and dark time days and the same thing on the autobahn) and only then take the theory and practice. Cost is much more expensive. In general, the minimum amount you spend on obtaining rights is 1,500 euros. If you have failed one of the exams, then you can “fly in” and for 2000 and more. Before you start driving school, you still have to complete the Erste Hilfe course (only in German) and translate your rights to German at the nearest ADAC office. Yes, at the time of obtaining German rights, the Russian will be taken from you.
As you understood, I safely missed my half year (I found out about it already after half a year), so now I’m thinking about theory. And here it is quite different from the Russian one (not in the plan that the signs mean something different, but in the majority of other nuances that are absent in the Russian traffic rules).
To be continued.
UPD: following the advice of batja84 , I specify specifically: all the tips, cases, “facts” refer to my region of residence - Bundesland Hessen, Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg. Other regions, and especially lands, may have their own characteristics
Prehistory
He began to look for vacancies and send out resumes in January 2011. The process was very inactive - I would even say extremely passive. By the summer began to send
At about the same time that the contract came to me, a recruiting company came to me and offered another job. Well, we think, once the contract was abandoned, why not go for a couple of interviews, perhaps, if they take it, then by the summer we will move (yeah, right!). There was again an interview with HR from recruiters, an interview with HR of an employer, a technical interview (all by telephone) and then an invitation to an in-person interview. The employer paid for the entire journey from my house (and I did not live in Moscow far away — another night on the train to her) to his office, hotel accommodation and the way back.
Well, when I returned home, I was very impressed. Both from the company, and from the city (Darmstadt) and especially from Frankfurt (the plane Moscow - Frankfurt). Unfortunately, like FlashXL , the guys were in no hurry to answer. One day, helping friends to choose something near computer in a small shop, the phone rings - the number is German! It was necessary to see buyers around me when I began to speak English and my physiognomy began to blur in the smile of a March cat - it was an offer, and even with a higher salary than I requested!
')
It took about 3 months to collect all the documents, add apostilles, translations and assurances, make a visit to the consulate in Moscow, then send more documents by e-mail (I forgot to make a labor transfer): from February to April 2012. Then we had a tedious wait answer. "Good" came the day before the end of the maximum time for an answer, the same day a ticket was bought and three days later I landed in Frankfurt am Main.
What would I do differently now:
In-person interview
Before talking with HR, go in with your friends, look at the relevant sites for an indicative salary (annual) of specialists of your level in the relevant field (game industry, banks, medicine, car makers, etc.). If you, suppose, ask 50k for the position of a senior, you will get them without question. But it is quite possible that they could get 65k as well without problems. But it will not be good to request 70k at an average for the senior in the industry 60k, and bargaining in this matter is not accepted. It is also useless to say "I count on 4k clean" - no one knows how much you really get in your arms after all the required deductions and insurance. Only gross and usually annual amount, but not monthly.
As a piece of advice, take the middle one and add it boldly to 5k — you won’t regret it (this doesn’t apply to Juniors — advice for Senior’s only). In my case, I requested a little lower than average and got a little higher. And could get even higher. The problem is that in order to really increase the salary (and not by the standard 3-5% per year), already working in the company, you have to quit and find another company.
Documents
If you are serious about moving to another country, then do all notarial cases, translations, apostilles in advance in triplicate. A lot of time is spent on putting an apostille on a diploma, especially if you graduated from a university in one city and now live in another. The official deadline, as I was told, is 90 days. Even worse, the case with the apostille on the marriage certificate - the registry offices do not have a single base and you will have to go to the settlement where your marriage was entered into. Personally. Although such an apostille is made in 1-3 days (all less than 90).
Visa
When I left, the Blau Karte Act had not yet entered into force (but in my ABH I was the first to go and get it and somewhere 3rd or 4th in all of Hessen), but now it’s a lot easier and there are already quite a few lucky people who received an entry visa as applicants for obtaining it, and not “in the old manner”. If you are with your family, then the advantages are obvious - there is no hemorrhoids and unnecessary financial expenses with passing the A1 exam at the Goethe Institute - your second half will travel "automatically" without confirming the "basic skills in German at level A1". In my case, I entered one, a month later I received a normal residence permit, at the same time my wife signed up for delivery in Goethe (it was already appointed after 3 months!). What else is fun - I am alone in Germany, and my wife is alone with children in Russia ...
Acclimatization on-site
I learned German at school for 6 years, then I taught myself listening to various courses, videos, and learning materials on-line, but when meeting with real language I experienced, as they say, a culture shock. This is especially pronounced in the lands in which the own dialects (Hessen - Hessisch, Bayern & Baden-Württemberg - Schwäbisch) are strong, because colloquially, there is a lot of local dialect and the more mature your interlocutors are, or the more they come from a larger province, the brighter it will be.
I did not speak with anyone, who came not so long ago (located in Germany for a little less than six months) - everyone has the syndrome “I want to go home, I don’t like everything here, it’s not like that”. Go through it. Then you will laugh at yourself. Yes, the mentality and order can be said to be diametrically opposite, but it is worth a little bit to suffer. A year later, you would never want to return. Well ... or come back and never want to change the country of residence.
There is still a strong desire to ask the interlocutor “Do you speak English?” And switch to English if the answer is yes, arguing that the saying “Mein Deutsch ist noch nicht sehr gut”. Do not do this - better make mistakes, conjugate the verbs is not quite right, but say. You will understand. You will be pronounced phrases slowly, waiting for you to understand them. Here, no one pisses about it, and this is normal (the Germans know that their language is very difficult to understand).
What would I do differently now:
Before moving
Find maps of the city / district where you will live, find outlets in the radius of walking and cycle accessibility. Find out where and when are bike sales. If you do not have a car on arrival right away, then immediately buy a bicycle. But not any consumer goods in a supermarket for 200 euros (which will collapse in a month), but either a new one for 1000 or Flohmarkte for 100. I, while I lived here for one half a year, did not bother to check the stores within a kilometer radius , but always went "around the corner." Now it seems wild to me - I spent 300 per month on food for myself, and now for a family of 4 people - 400. Germans are usually purchased on Saturdays and go to large super / hypermarkets, which are usually located on outskirts or in industrial zones. Those. - either a car or a large backpack (baskets on a bicycle).
Garbage sorting
Yes, the garbage is sorted here. Depending on the land, sorted in different ways. But Biotonne (organic) and Altpapier (paper) definitely stand out. Something else is thrown to Restmüll, somewhere else Gelbe Säcke stands out (special yellow bags that are issued free of charge at Rathaus and at some stores) to collect almost the entire package, like packs of milk, yoghurt, etc. .P. and metal. The glass is thrown into special containers and is divided by color: white, green and brown. Almost all plastic containers (bottles), beer bottles and aluminum cans are handed back to the store in a special machine - you get a receipt, which you can then pay at the checkout counter or just get paid.
I would still be in Russia, I began to somehow train to separate the garbage (although we still throw it in one container anyway), because at first, it gave a lot of headaches. And when you still get remarks from Hausmeister about the garbage not properly thrown away - ready to fall through the ground ... Then it becomes a habit even in children.
Driver's license
The so-called “international driving license” issued in Russia, I smell, are “international” only in Russia. In fact, the first six months after entering the territory of Germany, you can safely drive a car under Russian rights - no one will say a word to you. Although the likelihood that you stop the police somewhere on the road here tends to zero. During these 6 months, you can quite simply “exchange” Russian rights for German ones. You will have to pass a theory (it is allowed to pass in several languages, including Russian) and a driving test. But if you have delayed these six months, you will have to take a theory course (it depends on the school - somewhere you can “otmazatsya” saying that I teach it myself at home), travel for at least an hour by car with an instructor (in the city in daylight and dark time days and the same thing on the autobahn) and only then take the theory and practice. Cost is much more expensive. In general, the minimum amount you spend on obtaining rights is 1,500 euros. If you have failed one of the exams, then you can “fly in” and for 2000 and more. Before you start driving school, you still have to complete the Erste Hilfe course (only in German) and translate your rights to German at the nearest ADAC office. Yes, at the time of obtaining German rights, the Russian will be taken from you.
As you understood, I safely missed my half year (I found out about it already after half a year), so now I’m thinking about theory. And here it is quite different from the Russian one (not in the plan that the signs mean something different, but in the majority of other nuances that are absent in the Russian traffic rules).
To be continued.
UPD: following the advice of batja84 , I specify specifically: all the tips, cases, “facts” refer to my region of residence - Bundesland Hessen, Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg. Other regions, and especially lands, may have their own characteristics
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/285690/
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