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fittyfox

Living in Berlin, various StartUp experiences.

2013: 34k (junior Frontend)

2014: 40k (Fullstack JS)

2015: 50k (Frontend)

2016: 60k (Frontend)

Went freelancing after this...

2020: 85k offer for Senior Software Engineer

All numbers are from StartUps. You have to know however that you probably won't find a unicorn in Europe just yet. It's not the same mentality as in the US.

I currently work for a US company with a European location, and it differs quite a lot.

30+ days holidays + country wide holidays 38h work week Free day care where I live

I checked and I would have to earn around 140k in New York or 280k in San Francisco to have the "same" quality of life as 85k in Berlin buys me. However, in Berlin I have additional benefits like the ones mentioned above. I pay around 1100 Euros for a 110qm apartment "downtown" and have no car.

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Mind to share the company? I can count in one hand companies in Berlin paying more than 80k/year for senior devs. Even for well-seasoned companies, maybe only team leads get paid that much, and for many companies, not even.

Contentful, GetYourGuide, N26 to name a few pay similar salaries for mid-level engineers. most other companies don't though.

>I pay around 1100 Euros for a 110qm apartment "downtown" and have no car.

That is incredibly cheap, which neighbourhood is it if I may ask? I live in Munich (well outside of Munich a bit but work in Munich) and trying to relocate with rents being very expensive. I can get a 1 room apartment (30ish square meters maybe) in a decent block for that money you pay in Berlin.

I lucked out a bit. It's somewhere in the West, I got the apartment for 1600 Euro/month but then went to the lawyer and looked and the rent prices around me. My landlord then had to reduce rent.

It's kinda hard right now to find apartment with good quality/price ratio. But yeah, Berlin is still much cheaper then Munich if you look for family-sized apartments.

You can do something similar in the Netherlands, but it results in a very sour relationship with your landlord. They probably won't ever fix anything and it has led to intimidation and worse occassionally.

Thank you for this! Are the salaries from 2013-2016 from the same startup or mutiple ones?

Multiple StartUps. I switched jobs every 6-12 months and got a nice salary bump along the way.

I don't know how the situation is at the moment with COVID though.

Any particular reason for switching every 6-12 months and is that common practice? Trying to get a sensing here.

Just me :)

First StartUp was amazing, super professional people. Run out of money and laid people off (StartUp still lives and grows now)

Second StartUp was led by mid-twenty Bros and not the culture I wanted to be part of.

Third StartUp led by people bought in by a bigger corporation. Had no idea how to run a company. Best team I have ever worked in but worst business I ever worked in as well. Almost everyone left after being there for 6 months.

Fourth StartUp ad tech industry. Learned a great deal, solid co-workers, but had enough of "We are a cool StartUp" vibe and went freelancing.

General speaking, I don't dislike StartUps, but oh boy I am too old for this now (35 years old).

That's still quite the journey! And you must like Berlin enough to working there, I suppose. How's the tech scene there like?

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