Hi all,
I have following questions regarding Germany and UK:
1) in which of these countries is the IT market really booming actually?
2) Which of them is good place to work and live?

Thanks in advance for your quick reactions.
Jordan

Sure buddy, here is the quickest reaction.....

GFY!!!

Oh Man.. again the same question.. UK vs Germany and/or USA vs Germany.. we had these comparisons zillion times in the forum.. this is a very popular topic and there is no clear answer on that where you can say this one is better than that one.. it all depends on you, your needs, career objectives, life style, expectations, language abilities, social security perception etc.. etc..

Both countries have advantages and disadvantages.. we have aalvarez who lived and worked in both countries who can surely comment on this but smt which is good for him can be bad for you..

Regards,

Lacrima

@akshay
did u mean Go F**** Yourself?? ;-)

@Jordan
1. both, but less pay in UK becos competition is high
2. Deutschland

Thanks lacrima, as you said both countries have advantages and disadvantages. I can only speak for London, but this is the preferred destination for IT specialists.

I think, in general terms, Germany will give you a better quality of life, a new language and certain organisatorial/structural skills. It is great if you have a family, but life is a bit complicated, for some it is very difficult to develop feelings of belonging and to feel accepted.

Working in England is fantastic, everything is fast, and you have greater opportunities to develop professionally, you can earn much more than in Germany, people are very very nice, humour is everywhere, and you will never find anyone mocking you because of your accent. They value fair play and will give you a fair chance to prove yourself. ...but you will also spend more, and (at least in London), your quality of life will suffer, everything is done cheaply and life there is not very healthy, it is difficult to have a family and there are huge problems with binge drinking and juvenile delinquency, there are tremendous Housing problems unless you are willing to commute for at least an hour and a half one way, or live in a secluded location.

Structurally, the IT market is more flexible in the UK, it is very easy to switch jobs, and there is a lot of contracting, so its easy to freelance. Interviews are usually not as gruesome as in Germany, they will simply hire you if you look more less ok and fire you if you don't deliver, as opposed to Germany, where they will try to make themselves absolutely sure that you are a 100% perfect for the job before they hire you. Both approachs have their good and bad things.

Most people who leave Germany to go to the UK say that they don't regret it, but some hate it because of the stress.

regards,
-a

Hi Alex,

thanks a lot for your insight view of things! I really appreciate your comments :-)

Next time you come to Berlin, let me know. I have some news and I would like to tell you about it, while we have some beers together ;-)

Ciao
Detlef

Thx aalvarez for your infos...
I will be in UK from end of this month and in January 2007, I will be in London for shopping...
I would be more than happy to meet u for a coffee.
Plz drop me your contact here or at my email: jordan.j at email dot cz.I will get in touch with u.
Have a nice day.
Jordan

Alex is right; there are lots of advantages and disadvantages of every place.
To put it in short, I sold my car and packed my belongings and left Germany in 2005 to USA. There I worked as a freelancer, every thing was good for me initially like I didn’t have any language problem etc but later on I started feeling that Germany was better place because of the reason that here (Germany) u have an healthy competition in IT market but in USA the resumes are faked-up and there are lot of people who are being dumped and are even ready to work for $45 per hour and that effects the billing rate for the others too. Market is big and very good but the problem is without faking up the CV you will not get good billing rate and apart from that you have lots of layers between you and the client and every one will be having there own share from your hard work, this was one of the many reasons which made me come back to Germany.

I came back and just before coming back I had a telephonic interview and the rest went on very good and I am now happy.

It was my personal decision and I felt Germany was better even with the language barrier, so same with every one, I feel. There are always pros and cons for every thing.

Hi,

I am in US having my holidays with family , I am living in germany for 4+ years and always wanted to compare US life style and earnings to germany.
here in US food is great,pleanty of jobs no language problems and work permits ,this country is good for the people who are ambitious and ready to move from place to place.here everything revolves around materialism and no social ethics, everybody trying to get something from the other.
in LA beach area at a restaurent I paid $2 as tip later when I checked the bill I have already been charged the tip 18% of my food bill ie. foodcost +tax+tip18% unawre of this i gave $2 as tip

now I feel germany is better place to live if you have family,a good job and friends (which I have)
ofcource the language.

Let u guys know more about US experiences in the comming days

Have a lot of fun ...

I would vote to Germany... I love Germany... don't ask why you left Germany... even after leaving Germany, i still thought of coming back... Do not compare 2 countries... just think about your life in Germany... you can see lots of advantages in Germany...

Srikanth from USA.

aalvarez says:
Working in England is fantastic, everything is fast,

How are the Labours in UK? Are they stronger than the ones in Germany? You say life is fast, but at the expense of worse work conditions like worse job protection (Kündigungsschutz)?

aalvarez says:
They value fair play and will give you a fair chance to prove yourself. ...but you will also spend more,

Are you permitted to work in the weekends for example, unlike in Germany? How are the chances to work in national holidays, bank holidays? Are there strict rules?

AFAIK, almost all companies in UK tend to contracting, because it is very difficult to get work permits. A few weeks ago there were protests on the streets about the new regulations for HSMP, which is another story. aalvarez will of course give much more defailed info on this.

aryan writes:
To put it in short, I sold my car and packed my belongings and left Germany in 2005 to USA.

The differences between Germany-UK and Germany-USA are not the same, I think. USA has the wildestcapitalist system.

The salaries are paid on a week or double week basis, to speed up money circulation and movement to improve economy. There is almost no labour and thus no job protection, unlike UK and Germany.

There is no restriction in USA to work on weekends. You have only 2 weeks of holiday, whereas in Germany you have 6 weeks, plus Gleittags. I don't know the case for UK.

In short, I would say what aalvarez implied: Life is faster in UK, it is easier to find a job but is worse in terms of job conditions.

Oh yes, one point I forgot to mention: In UK, the public transportation buses do not stop in the bus stops if you don't raise your hand! But in Germany all the buses are obliged to stop in every bus stop. I did not know this rule and thus I have waited 2-3 hours in a bus stop, which was horrible in a bad weather

Klenze17.

actually I do not plan to leave De, but I would like to ask few things.
I know differences between De and US, but I am not sure for UK.
Can I say that UK is similar to US meaning:
- a plus (+) is bigger salary and smaller taxes than in DeG, but on the other side
- the minus (-) is bad health and social insurrance and expensive university?

I also have a question about working in the uk specifically. Does UK require outside contractors (non-citizens) to pay taxes, transfer fees and workers up front in order for them to get their pay from the banks? does it vary by amount of income?

Thanks

Hi,
As per my concern UK is a country where IT maeket is booming now a days.If we compare of both these countries, I do not think,their is much diffrerence of IT market condition in both the countries.In UK there are many places where you can live and work nicely .