Working/Living in Germany

Corvo wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Just wondering would you have any websites or places I could get information on working and living in Germany? It would be myself and a friend both aged 25 and would just like some hints and tips from anyone that could give us a starting step.

Many thanks

Corvo

Thread moved from our Travel forum over into the Living Abroad forum where it would be better suited.

Thanks,
kerry4sam

To be fair there is lots of info on toytown that you won't find anywhere else...in English.

It is heavily laden with assholes though.

While the above site may have its fair share of bitter expats (as do most sites of its ilk) - there's no harm in doing a quick search for specific queries that you may have.

It may help if you can say why you actually want to live in Germany, whether you can speak German, etc... The latter, especially, will determine how easy or difficult it will be for you to get a job. For example, if you do not speak German & you have no experience in factory/production line work, you may find it more difficult to get a job (or at least a job that you could survive on).

Night classes/adult education will be available, but are you looking for freebies or would you be willing to pay? Again, if you are not a German-speaker the range of classes may be limited to non-existent.

For accommodation - I usually do a bit of research on the net to identify decent local rental agencies &/or accommodation sites & apply for an apartment through them.

Hey, Corvo - no need to apologise. A move like this can be daunting & initially it may take you some time to get the whole thing right in your head & understand the implications of what you are trying to do.

If you are still in insurance (& if you work for a multinational) would it be possible to request a transfer to a German office, if they have one? Or could any of your contacts in the game give you an introduction to someone in their German network?

Maybe create a LinkedIn or Xing profile & make some connections with German recruiters that specialise in the Insurance sector?

Munich is the centre of the Insurance industry in Germany. One of the world's largest re insurers is there, Munich Re. Allianz are also headquartered there.

hfallada wrote: »

<snip>
OP Ryanair fly to Memmingen (Munich West). So why not pick up a cheap flight and see how its goes for a month. Stay in a hostel as they are cheap during the Winter in Germany. If it fails get a cheap flight home. But Summer in Munich is so nice. Its about 30-35 degrees(rains more than Dublin). But the Winters are supposed to be cold enough. You can go skiing easily enough from Munich.

not a bad idea. Hostels can be as little as a tenner a night during the winter .

weatherwise in the summer, it indeed rains (mm wise) more than say Dublin but it rains (amount of time when its wet and miserable) much much less.
The rain normally comes as a bit of a summer storm in the evening or even depths of the night and buckets for a few hours - but you would have the daytime before and after lovely and sunny.

In a word, yes, it would. I work as a Java developer here in Berlin. I speak fluent German but our office language is English as there are a number of devs who don't speak German in the company. Our head office is in Munich and they also have guys who don't speak German so they also hold meetings in English,

Ah I'm settled here now. It's home to me. To be honest I don't know the best jobs site. I have gotten all my jobs since the first one through word of mouth.

Somewhat related:
http://www.thelocal.de/galleries/lifestyle/ten-of-the-best-expat-jobs-in-germany

Toytown can be a little strange and at times intimidating, but it's not all that bad. I've been there for years, before it was even Toytown. it initially was a forum for British ex-pats in Munich, Britboard, and then it expanded when they merged or took over some other forum. So you will notice that a lot of the old core users are southern based and mainly from the UK. Some of them have had failed business dealings together and some of them are pushing their own agenda so you will regularly see that threads can quickly go off topic and get bitchy. It is still a good source of info for new comers, just use the search. The same basic questions get asked all the time and have been answered multiple times so you can understand why some answers might come across as rude.

keith16 wrote: »

Sorry for keep going on about ToyTown, but it really is a horrible place.

The Swiss equivalent is not much better either. There is one thread on there about driving in Switzerland. Huge mod warning at the start of the thread that you should read the ENTIRE thread before asking questions.

The thread has thousands of posts that date back to 2006 with a lot of the info well and truly out of date. :rolleyes:

Anyway OP, have you considered Switzerland?

Expats are a weird bunch and it seems to be uniform no matter what the country.

The ones that move from the UK/Ireland seem to do the following:

• Complaining about the Public Transport (oh my god the train was 6 minutes late, when in Cork you're lucky if the bus turns up)
• Complaining about people being rude (Cultural difference, Germans/Dutch/Swiss/Belgian are all just more direct, on the flipside a German can end up going mental trying to work out what people actually mean when they visit Ireland, wtf does 6ish mean)
• Complaining about the cost of Healthcare (Even though in a Hospital in Ireland you could be sitting on a trolley in A&E for 2 days and die before anyone remembers you are there)
• Complaining about high taxes (although all these services and infrastructure cost money)
• Complaining about tourists (Ironically)
• Complaining about Expats complaining about things (I guess that's me.. crap)

Basically they try to compare the worst of everything in the country they are in to the best of everything in the Country they are from. The whole place where they are living is an expensive xenophobic shíthole, with stupid *insert government authority* and too many fines/taxes/administration and X country is waaayy better than where they are.

When you ask them, why don't they just go home rather than every single little thing they say.

WELL F*CK YOU ITS NOT THAT EASY YOU DON'T KNOW MY SITUATION, HOW DARE YOU.

:pac::pac::pac::pac:

**Don't take the above seriously, its meant to be a joke :P

The Corinthian wrote: »

The Swiss actually rarely say what they mean - their culture is so passive aggressive, with everyone at most two or three generations away from some rural Poopsdorf, doing business over a few Stange, that they could easily be described as Irishmen with Aspergers syndrome.

maybe this is what the swiss mean when they say they arent German and their "culture" is different (but they never actually say how the hell they are different, aside from their dialect)

Hi,

Not sure of the OP is still reading the thread:

Accomodation: http://www.immobilienscout24.de/ it's the German equivalent of MyHome.IE. "Mietwohnungen" is the term you're looking for.

Location: The big cities have strong English speaking communities. Munich, Frankfurt and Hamburg can be expensive from a rental perspective.

The short-term let market is not as obvious as it is in Ireland. Our rental contract was 12 months minimum, and then open ended after that. Tenant rights are much stronger than in Ireland.

No messing - the Germans, as commented in this thread don't really go for much messing - 9am is 9am for a meeting. There are some big cultural differences here in Germany.

I find that the further north in the country you go the more relaxed people get. Hamburg is a bit of an exception.

In the south, my impression is that it's harder to make social contact with people, and your neighbours will share their opinions with you on your expected behaviour - noise, garden, recycling, visitors, parking...

Language - after a number of years in Germany, my German is still patchy. Mrs aidanic deals with much of the local paperwork. I can deal with most small matters easily, but it's clear from the second I open my mouth that I'm a native English speaker.

For some of our neighbours, they speak German and I speak mostly English, and some German when I can find the words. It's an entertaining mix.

I work in IT, and do 99% of my work in English - I'm lucky with that. Almost all customers are outside of Germany in various countries, hence it's all English.

I've done some CD based German courses, and more than a decade ago, I did a Goethe course (7 hours a week) in Dublin. It was intensive - like going back to school - but it has stood me in good stead.

For non German speakers, there are local courses, run by the equivalent of the VEC - volkshochschule VHS - http://www.vhs-hamburg.de/

http://www.vhs-hamburg.de/kurse/kurse/deutsch/deutsch-691

For non-EU citizens, you need to pass an exam for a minimum level of German - a "B1. For EU citizens this is not required.

I had an attempt at the local (our town) B1 course, but the class and teacher did not suit me.

Anyway, any further questions, I'll see what I can help with...

Aidan

TheBoss11 wrote: »

Hi,

I've always loved Germany and considering moving over once I finish my degree. Is the cost of living expenses? Also is it hard to meet new friends? More than likely I'll be moving over by myself so ideally I'd like to meet new friends over there.

The cost of living is about the same as Ireland, it just depends on where you shop, what sort of apartment you're living in, where you live etc.

Meeting people is no easier or difficult than in any other country. It depends on how much effort you put in. Joining groups etc can help. http://www.meetup.com is pretty good for finding things to do and people to do them with.

jester77 wrote: »

Groceries would be slightly cheaper, going out for a night is a lot cheaper but accommodation (in the bigger cities is more expensive) and things like petrol, phone, electricity, gas, health insurance are a lot lot more expensive. Getting set up initially with accommodation can be very expensive, you'll find it hard to get something in the bigger cities and when you do it is usually through an agent. Standard practice is that he gets 2.5 time cold rent as his fee (but there are changes coming soon where the landlord will have to pay this instead), deposit is 3 months rent and you will pay 1 month up front, so you are looking at an initial outlay of about 6 months rent. Plus apartments are unfurnished here, a lot won't even have a kitchen so you would need furniture when moving in.

Meeting people is not much different to Ireland. You'll meet people through work, sports and hobbies. It is a bit different of a social life, going to pub on the weekend to just get pished is not really the done thing. Sports is one of the easier ways, once you know a few people and what sports teams are around then you can join up and start playing.

Getting accommodation as an expat can be a lot more expensive.

E.G. I had a 38sqm (sparsely furnished) Studio apartment in Dusseldorf-Flingern for 380 euros a month (Warmmiete)

For extra furniture I waited until people put out their furniture for collection on a Thursday and then grabbed a nice couch from the street with the help of a man from a local bar which I compensated in beer for his assistance

No commission either as it was direct and deposit was 400 euros, notice period was 1 month.

The Agencies and Management companies can be complete cowboys, you're better off finding something direct through notice boards in Supermarkets or through work colleagues, there are some forums as well, depends on where you are.

Areas around the Mediahafen you could be paying 600-700 euros for the same thing.

IMO its better to pay a bit more and rent something short term when you arrive and then scope out the area than get tied into a contract on a place that costs too much or is not in an ideal area.

The rent being mentioned isn't too bad. Here in Dublin it would cost about 1000 for a 1 bed apartment. I'll graduate with a business degree is there any main cities good for this field? Preferably somewhere cheap as I'm also trying to save to get my pilots license

Soldie wrote: »

Accommodation is relatively expensive in the bigger cities but it's still an awful lot cheaper than Dublin, at least. I pay €580 warm for a 55sqm Altbau in the heart of Kreuzberg which seems on the lower end of the average scale according to Immobilienscout24's index. You'd struggle to get a nice room in Dublin for that.

Yeah but I bet you have been there for a while...rents have really skyrocketed in certain parts of Berlin and Kreuzberg would be no exception. We have to remember too that Berlin is very much still in a phase of economic recovery compared to cities like Hamburg, Cologne and Munich. In Munich, for example, an equivalent flat will definitely cost more than Dublin. It's extremely expensive there.

Soldie wrote: »

In terms of gas, electricity and health insurance I haven't done a comparison to see how they match up.

They're all more expensive here in Germany, however at least the health service is up to scratch here.

Yeah I think you're doing well there for sure. I'm not too far away in "up and coming" Neukölln.

I've visited it once. Nice little place. Has a cool/weird Cathedral with a Catholic part and a Protestant part! Many people live in Augsburg and commute to Munich for work, though Augsburg has industry of its own (The 'A' in 'MAN' stands for Augsburg).