Go to work in Germany and stay live forever
Hello! My name is Oleg and today I want to share my experience of moving to Germany.
I still communicate with many IT specialists from Russia and very often, with my offers to try myself and work in a European company with relocation, people answer: “My English is not so good” or “How can I live without relatives nearby?” or "I need a lot of money to move." These are all very important and really difficult moments. But, as I want to try to show on my own experience, it is completely surmountable.
First, a little about yourself:
So, as you can see, I did not have any special achievements. In addition, I spoke English at the level of a fifth-grade student (actually almost zero level), and I did not know a couple of words in German. But first things first.
')
Friends shared their experience that after some universities, studying system engineers, they only knew the ping team.
The first time I saw Linux at the University. In general, training at the Polytech at a very high level. And the people there are studying appropriate. Many of my classmates still collected kernels at school and ran them on microcontrollers, while I first tried Ubuntu on my workstation in my first year at university. In general, it was communication with classmates that gave me the most experience that I use so far.
Many people say - the university is not needed, it is a waste of time. I am sure that this is absolutely not the case. It is important not only to get a general education, but to “stew” in these circles and communicate with smart people. Looking ahead, I want to say that many people have been studying at universities in Germany for decades. Just to be closer to the community, even though they receive a lower salary, since they cannot work full time.
I sent the application via Linkedin (a forbidden social network in the Russian Federation) and a few days later an interview was scheduled.
As I wrote earlier, the level of my English was extremely small. Of course, the basic technical terms can be used directly (mysql, database, OS, loadbalancer ...), but I was able to tell you questions like “Tell me about yourself” at a very primitive level. My wife was sitting "on the other side of the laptop" and sometimes helped me with the answers by quickly writing the keyword on a piece of paper. For example, when I was asked: “What character traits do you consider to be the strongest in yourself?” She quickly wrote “Humor” and something else, and I got out of the situation without a hitch.
On the technical side, the questions were pretty ordinary for the system administrator. Questions about nginx, databases, basic things about networks, and so on. If you have experience in an IT-company before, then it will not be difficult to go through it.
Hamburg is the city where my company is located. It so happened that I passed all the interviews via skype and the company took care of all the documents (of course, I had to send some of them by e-mail). So in Germany itself I have never been.
The move is included in the Relocation package, so I took my bike as luggage, a backpack full of things, 200 euros and arrived at the airport at the appointed time.
Since I flew to Hamburg with only a bicycle, I had to get to the temporary apartment on it.
Bike paths - a separate story. I have been living here for almost 3 years and have been in many countries of the world, but I have never seen such a developed infrastructure anywhere (may Amsterdam forgive me). There is almost no street without a dedicated bike path, and where this is not possible - it is combined with the carriageway and special signs give priority to cyclists:
Photo taken from here
When I lived in St. Petersburg, it was almost impossible and even dangerous to get to the office in the city center by bicycle from the outskirts.
Transport here is at a very good level. There is a certain hierarchy of carriers, for example Hochbahn runs buses and subways, Deutsche Bahn controls the network of commuter trains and long-distance trains, Hadag - ferry service. But all together they are united under the general beginning of the HVV (Hamburger Verkehrsverbund). So a ticket for travel, bought in a bus or machine, will be valid for any type of transport in the city and region. There is also a ticket for the whole month, which costs about 80 euros, half of which is paid by the company.
In addition, they are allowed to enter the transport with animals, which is good news.
Since the Germans are very worried about the environment, it is not uncommon to meet such a hybrid bus on the road:
Photo taken from: www.flickr.com/photos/christoph_bellin/21312513444
I cannot speak for all of Germany, but in the northern part, where the glorious city of Hamburg is located, a very tolerant attitude towards foreigners.
One colleague told me on the first day: “Well done, that he moved to northern Germany”. Then I did not understand why.
From myself I can say that I have never felt like a stranger here. For all 3 years of life here, no one even looked askance at us, and all questions are perfectly solved in English or even in Russian.
The bulk of the houses here are no higher than 5 floors, so living on the top floor is easy to have this view from the balcony:
By Russian standards, renting an apartment here is very expensive. For example, for 76 km. m we pay 800 euros per month plus 100 for utilities. And it is about 30 minutes by bike from the center (7 km). But the quality of housing is definitely worth it. For example, if there is a problem with plumbing or a roof leaks, the home owner will be obliged to fix the problem at his own expense as soon as possible. Once we had a dishwasher broken and the landlord replaced her absolutely free with a new one for a month.
I moved with my wife and cat, who, like me, did not speak German.
Since I am a Blue Card holder (special permission for qualified specialists), my wife automatically received a work permit. Then we did not even understand how lucky we were. In many countries, such permission is not given at all or given, but on a part-time basis.
After 8 months, the level of conversational German of my wife was sufficient to have an interview and get a job. Although the company in which it works is difficult to call international, no one pays attention to errors in speech or accent.
Many say that the Germans are a hardworking people. It really is. For example, there are no 2 week New Year holidays in Russia. The main part of the working-age population in the workplace is already at 8 am. However, no one lingers after work. I would even say that this is not welcome. Already several times my boss asked me not to linger, because in the case of my promotion, my colleagues may say that the reason was overtime.
A vacation in Germany is 28 working days, which an employee can use as he pleases, when, like in Russia, there are 28 calendar days and one of the parts of this leave must be at least 2 weeks.
As in many international companies, the official language here is English. The company provides free German courses right in the office. So the level of your English and German, and with it the outlook, will grow every day.
As I mentioned above, the company has taken on most of the problems with the move. I had to apply for a visa myself, but if I had a contract, I received it after 3 days. The visa is given to category D and allows you to work for 3 months. During this time, an agent hired by the company will hold a hand in all instances and will assist in obtaining the Blue Card and permission to work and stay for a spouse.
With the search for an apartment, a special agent also helps, who drives his car through pre-selected apartments and all that remains is to say "Yes." Of course, you don’t have to pay for anything.
The first thing you notice is a truly international company. We currently have about 35 different nationalities. There are never enough topics for conversation: cultural characteristics in Pakistan, the political situation in Australia are the most common topics for conversation.
The company tries to preserve the feeling of a startup. Any thing that can indirectly help in the work, worth up to 100 euros, is bought without any questions. For example, wireless headphones or a gym ball.
In addition to the most common bonuses in IT, such as: cold drinks, beer, fruit, table tennis, gym, there are very weighty - educational ones.
For example, you can easily represent a company at any conference in any part of the world. So, for example, I entered last year:
After the move the first time was difficult. There is always a risk not to pass a trial period and to be left without money in another country. But everything worked out and I would like to talk about the prospects that await those who decide to move:
I still communicate with many IT specialists from Russia and very often, with my offers to try myself and work in a European company with relocation, people answer: “My English is not so good” or “How can I live without relatives nearby?” or "I need a lot of money to move." These are all very important and really difficult moments. But, as I want to try to show on my own experience, it is completely surmountable.
First, a little about yourself:
- Born and raised in St. Petersburg
- He studied at the most ordinary district school - there were no special biases. This greatly affected my studies at the University in the future.
- Entered the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University at the Faculty of Technical Cybernetics (FTC)
- For some time he worked in his own school, servicing printers and reinstalling Windows.
- Passed an interview in Yandex on a junior system administrator
- Got an offer from InnoGames and moved to Germany, where I now live and work
So, as you can see, I did not have any special achievements. In addition, I spoke English at the level of a fifth-grade student (actually almost zero level), and I did not know a couple of words in German. But first things first.
')
University
Friends shared their experience that after some universities, studying system engineers, they only knew the ping team.
The first time I saw Linux at the University. In general, training at the Polytech at a very high level. And the people there are studying appropriate. Many of my classmates still collected kernels at school and ran them on microcontrollers, while I first tried Ubuntu on my workstation in my first year at university. In general, it was communication with classmates that gave me the most experience that I use so far.
Many people say - the university is not needed, it is a waste of time. I am sure that this is absolutely not the case. It is important not only to get a general education, but to “stew” in these circles and communicate with smart people. Looking ahead, I want to say that many people have been studying at universities in Germany for decades. Just to be closer to the community, even though they receive a lower salary, since they cannot work full time.
Interview in InnoGames
I sent the application via Linkedin (a forbidden social network in the Russian Federation) and a few days later an interview was scheduled.
As I wrote earlier, the level of my English was extremely small. Of course, the basic technical terms can be used directly (mysql, database, OS, loadbalancer ...), but I was able to tell you questions like “Tell me about yourself” at a very primitive level. My wife was sitting "on the other side of the laptop" and sometimes helped me with the answers by quickly writing the keyword on a piece of paper. For example, when I was asked: “What character traits do you consider to be the strongest in yourself?” She quickly wrote “Humor” and something else, and I got out of the situation without a hitch.
On the technical side, the questions were pretty ordinary for the system administrator. Questions about nginx, databases, basic things about networks, and so on. If you have experience in an IT-company before, then it will not be difficult to go through it.
Germany
Hamburg is the city where my company is located. It so happened that I passed all the interviews via skype and the company took care of all the documents (of course, I had to send some of them by e-mail). So in Germany itself I have never been.
The move is included in the Relocation package, so I took my bike as luggage, a backpack full of things, 200 euros and arrived at the airport at the appointed time.
Cycling
Since I flew to Hamburg with only a bicycle, I had to get to the temporary apartment on it.
Bike paths - a separate story. I have been living here for almost 3 years and have been in many countries of the world, but I have never seen such a developed infrastructure anywhere (may Amsterdam forgive me). There is almost no street without a dedicated bike path, and where this is not possible - it is combined with the carriageway and special signs give priority to cyclists:
Photo taken from here
When I lived in St. Petersburg, it was almost impossible and even dangerous to get to the office in the city center by bicycle from the outskirts.
Transport
Transport here is at a very good level. There is a certain hierarchy of carriers, for example Hochbahn runs buses and subways, Deutsche Bahn controls the network of commuter trains and long-distance trains, Hadag - ferry service. But all together they are united under the general beginning of the HVV (Hamburger Verkehrsverbund). So a ticket for travel, bought in a bus or machine, will be valid for any type of transport in the city and region. There is also a ticket for the whole month, which costs about 80 euros, half of which is paid by the company.
In addition, they are allowed to enter the transport with animals, which is good news.
Since the Germans are very worried about the environment, it is not uncommon to meet such a hybrid bus on the road:
Photo taken from: www.flickr.com/photos/christoph_bellin/21312513444
Attitude towards foreigners
I cannot speak for all of Germany, but in the northern part, where the glorious city of Hamburg is located, a very tolerant attitude towards foreigners.
One colleague told me on the first day: “Well done, that he moved to northern Germany”. Then I did not understand why.
From myself I can say that I have never felt like a stranger here. For all 3 years of life here, no one even looked askance at us, and all questions are perfectly solved in English or even in Russian.
Housing
The bulk of the houses here are no higher than 5 floors, so living on the top floor is easy to have this view from the balcony:
By Russian standards, renting an apartment here is very expensive. For example, for 76 km. m we pay 800 euros per month plus 100 for utilities. And it is about 30 minutes by bike from the center (7 km). But the quality of housing is definitely worth it. For example, if there is a problem with plumbing or a roof leaks, the home owner will be obliged to fix the problem at his own expense as soon as possible. Once we had a dishwasher broken and the landlord replaced her absolutely free with a new one for a month.
Second half
I moved with my wife and cat, who, like me, did not speak German.
Since I am a Blue Card holder (special permission for qualified specialists), my wife automatically received a work permit. Then we did not even understand how lucky we were. In many countries, such permission is not given at all or given, but on a part-time basis.
After 8 months, the level of conversational German of my wife was sufficient to have an interview and get a job. Although the company in which it works is difficult to call international, no one pays attention to errors in speech or accent.
Working culture
Many say that the Germans are a hardworking people. It really is. For example, there are no 2 week New Year holidays in Russia. The main part of the working-age population in the workplace is already at 8 am. However, no one lingers after work. I would even say that this is not welcome. Already several times my boss asked me not to linger, because in the case of my promotion, my colleagues may say that the reason was overtime.
A vacation in Germany is 28 working days, which an employee can use as he pleases, when, like in Russia, there are 28 calendar days and one of the parts of this leave must be at least 2 weeks.
InnoGames
As in many international companies, the official language here is English. The company provides free German courses right in the office. So the level of your English and German, and with it the outlook, will grow every day.
Moving
As I mentioned above, the company has taken on most of the problems with the move. I had to apply for a visa myself, but if I had a contract, I received it after 3 days. The visa is given to category D and allows you to work for 3 months. During this time, an agent hired by the company will hold a hand in all instances and will assist in obtaining the Blue Card and permission to work and stay for a spouse.
With the search for an apartment, a special agent also helps, who drives his car through pre-selected apartments and all that remains is to say "Yes." Of course, you don’t have to pay for anything.
Culture
The first thing you notice is a truly international company. We currently have about 35 different nationalities. There are never enough topics for conversation: cultural characteristics in Pakistan, the political situation in Australia are the most common topics for conversation.
The company tries to preserve the feeling of a startup. Any thing that can indirectly help in the work, worth up to 100 euros, is bought without any questions. For example, wireless headphones or a gym ball.
Bonuses
In addition to the most common bonuses in IT, such as: cold drinks, beer, fruit, table tennis, gym, there are very weighty - educational ones.
For example, you can easily represent a company at any conference in any part of the world. So, for example, I entered last year:
Finally
After the move the first time was difficult. There is always a risk not to pass a trial period and to be left without money in another country. But everything worked out and I would like to talk about the prospects that await those who decide to move:
- After a year of work, invitations to interviews come from all over the world. The effect of "status works for you." Recruiters understand that once the company transported an employee, paying a lot of money and he was not fired, then he is worth something.
- A great chance to learn a language and get to know a different culture.
- Ability to obtain citizenship of another country after 6 years of stay in it.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/322870/
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