Ok, I think the tittle is clear. I would like to know if someone may help me to get an idea about a possible salary in München as Software developer.

Thanks in advance,

Alex.

Hi Alex,

there are various ways to approach this question but as a rough guideline -

- cost of living is substantially higher than the national average
- most salaries are probably in the range between 40 and 70k Euro
- salaries obviously depend on specific skills, experience

"Software developer" is a very vague job description. Which skills (languages, middleware, databases...), industry know-how, employment history, last salary,... have you got?

An experienced senior SAP consultant will probably easily earn in excess of 70k with the right industry/module know-how. A junior level Visual Basic developer will find it difficult to get a job at all.

sometimes it can be useful to look for jobs which match to the own skillset on Jobserve, Monster etc. as some ads quote a salary range.

Marc

Hi again Marc,

I´m 100% with your opinion but it seems that many companies don´t see the situation in the same way.

Many companies want to know in advance your Gehaltsvorstellung before invite you to an interview, and you are just that: a "Sofware Developer" or "Database designer", etc.

The size of the company is an important factor too.

About the skills, well, I am C++ developer (3 years of experience), mainly under Windows but I have received invitations to jobs that need Java as the main skill and other ones to work under Unix. The other day I asked in München €55000 (brutto)/year, but I could read in the eyes of my interviewer that it was too high. That´s the reason I decided to post this question.

For example, I received a call today from a company in Nürnberg. They wanted to know in advance my salary expectations. I guessed that there €45000 (brutto)/Year would be good enough.

Well, I think that now you see what I meant.

Thanks,

Alex

Hello,

I am a GCer between 2002 and 2007 and working in germany since 2 years without breaks. If i want to marry a german citizen, i have heard that my 5 years Aufenthaltserlaubnis will be cancelled completely and i am given a 12-month-long new Aufenthaltserlaubnis and same for the Arbeitsgenehmigung!!!

Is that possible ? Are there some people who had similar experience about that kind of issues ?

Ideas/comments pos. or neg. appreciated.
Thanks.

hi Alex,

I would suggest you quote a range at the beginning, if possible, or perhaps negotiate to have a raise/performance bonus after a certain time.

regards,
Alex

Hi Alex and Alex,

I'm afraid when looking for a job with little working experience, fairly generic skills and in the current market situation there is little room for active negotiation from the employees point of view.

By 'generic' skills I mean e.g. having skills in programming languages and operating systems as opposed to APIs, middleware, applications, business logic etc.

Let's say for example someone who developed real-time trading systems in an investment banking environment under J2EE for three years or someohe who worked on embedded systems in the automotive industry with exposure to ASSAM and CAN standards for three years is in a much better position to ask for a 50k+ salary than a generic C++ developer who knows the Windows API.

I'd rather recommend quoting your last salary and then depending on the industry / location indicate that your expecting your new salary to be a bit higher / lower due to the different circumstances (if applicable). Then wait for the employer to come forward with an offer.

The situation changes as you gather more experience in a certain area of expertise. Software developers who wish to 'develop' their salary to higher levels should aim to specialise as much as possible.

Regards

Marc