Germany: Anyone made the move recently?

Ardennes1944

I love things German and always have. It is my intention to move there sometime soon. Has anyone here moved from Ireland to Germany recently and how have they found it? I have a good enough standard of German which is good but whats living expenses like there and the job situation?

Thank you.

jester77

I'm here over 10 years. There seems to be no shortage of jobs, I see plenty of posters up in shops and cafes looking for people. I work in IT and we can't find people to fill positions.

Living expenses are reasonable and is relative to how you live. Initial costs can be quite high, especially for getting an apartment. Typically you would pay 3 months cold rent as deposit, one months rent up front and 2 months cold rent + VAT to a property agent. It is possible to avoid property agents but competition is high for these places. Nearly all apartments are unfurnished (some won't have kitchens), so if you don't have furniture or fixtures then you will also have an initial outlay for these things.

Ardennes1944

I life quite frugal so that shouldnt be any hassle. Did you have fluent or a strong command of German before you went over?

DesertCreat_15

Have to agree with Jester, i have been over there alot, particularly in Bremen over the past few months visiting my other half. In fact i'm moving next Wednesday! :P

The one thing i will say though is that your Deutsch would need to be up to par for work, unless of course you're lucky to get an english speaking job !

Minka

moved over here last June and haven't looked back, had no german this time last year, pretty much fluent now though. Have found everyone v friendly and cost of living pretty reasonable imo. Best of luck if and when u decide to take the plunge!

Ardennes1944

Did you manage to get a job without knowing german ok? Thank you

Lighter

Depends what your looking for. I'm living in Austria currently and found it extremely easy to get a job with only English. I work in a bar and am earning minimum 2400 euro after tax a month. Lots of jobs going for English speakers but it makes life much easier if you speak German.

Just got my own apartment which has v high initial costs rent deposit furniture etc. Move to Vienna its awesome. There is a reason its the number 1 most livable place in the world. Austria has supposedly an unemployment rate of 4% but people think its closer to 8%. Public transport costs a euro a day and rent is pretty cheap.

I haven't started looking for a job with my qualifications here yet but will quite soon and I have met enough people to help me in the process.

Kilough

Minka wrote: »

moved over here last June and haven't looked back, had no german this time last year, pretty much fluent now though. Have found everyone v friendly and cost of living pretty reasonable imo. Best of luck if and when u decide to take the plunge!

Hi Minka,

I'm thinking of moving to Hannover in a few months time. I have very basic German and was wondering how you went about learning it? Did you take classes? Also, how is the nightlife in Germany?

Thanks

lecker Hendl

This is relevant to my interests. Having little to no english is not putting me off. My main worry would be setup costs and finding a job obviously. Work in IT so it would be nice to stay with that (even though I'm not a fan of it).

Not sure what cities would be the best. I've been to a few and even though I like Munich, I've been told it's not the most exciting place to live. Berlin would be nice I'd say but if anyone has any recommendations then please let me know.

Apanachi

jester77 wrote: »

I'm here over 10 years. There seems to be no shortage of jobs

One should note that you are in Hamburg (my favourite German city btw ) things are probably quite different there, I've never lived there, so I can't comment on that bit, what I can comment on is Berlin, I've been living here for the last 12 or so years and it's not all it's cracked up to be, jobs are hard to come by unless you have tons of experience and fluent German, all the other jobs pay you feck all and require you to work horrendous hours.

Cost of living may be chaper, but in Berlin the wages are so low that it doesn't really balance out, my tip is, if you want ot live in Germany, don't come to Berlin - save that for a weekend away (even at that, I'd sooner recommend Düsseldorf than Berlin)

Franticfrank

Yeah, that's very true about Berlin. I've heard horror stories of people trying to find jobs there. It's a great place to explore and have a few drinks but the job market is very weak. Statistics show unemployment in Germany remains consistantly low so its certainly a good place to look for work if you master some basic vocab.

As was mentioned above, try for jobs in Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Munich and you'll have more luck than Berlin, especially in terms of wages.

VirtualWorld

I'm thinking about the Netherlands myself, but a cousin of mine is considering Germany which I why I peeked in here.
She was thinking of living in a camper van as an option over there rather than renting an apartment. Obviously there would be berthing? fees... is that what you call it? Is that a feasible idea for a 30 something y o girl to do? She imagines she could travel around and work a few months here and there doing this. Is it practical? Reasonably safe? Would you be seen to be trailer trash?????
Would this work in The Netherlands also?

keithclancy

VirtualWorld wrote: »

I'm thinking about the Netherlands myself, but a cousin of mine is considering Germany which I why I peeked in here.
She was thinking of living in a camper van as an option over there rather than renting an apartment. Obviously there would be berthing? fees... is that what you call it? Is that a feasible idea for a 30 something y o girl to do? She imagines she could travel around and work a few months here and there doing this. Is it practical? Reasonably safe? Would you be seen to be trailer trash?????
Would this work in The Netherlands also?

I know of people that do it.

E.G. Have a colleague from Munich thats working in Dusseldorf for a few months, has his camper parked outside the the office

Others I know of have lived in Camp sites (which have excellent facilites btw) for long periods.

You wouldn't be seen as trailer trash, Germans/Dutch don't really have this thing of looking down their nose at people.

I live in the Netherlands and work in Germany

VirtualWorld

That's good to hear. Thanks for that. More options.

m.mac

I have been considering this myself. But I would be thinking of going to uni in Germany and working part time. Could anyone recommend a city that would be good for this. Factors to include jobs, cost of living and a good university. I would be wanting to work while study so a city with good availability of job. Middling cost of living. Not super expensive but not on the opposite end of the scale either. From looking around Hamburg and Bayern would seem like possible choices.