Salary expectations in the German IT industry

I was wondering if anyone could help me. I have been working in Germany in the IT profession for over a year. But what I have been hearing is that I am being paid too little for my services. But I cannot find the "going rate". I do IT Consulting (Usability) and Web-front-end(Interface development). I hold a Bachelor of Commerce with specialization in Informatics.

Can anyone maybe give me an idea where I could look on the internet?
thanx in advance

If you speak German then Gulp.de provide such information.

This site is a bit more realistic: ichbinmehrwert.de

Take a look at :

http://www.lohnspiegel.de/main/
http://www.boeckler.de/

For the different regions of Germany one gets paid differently. The cost of living in Berlin is way cheaper than Munich for example.

Hello everyone

I have an interview coming up for the position of 'Grafiker' here in Germany and was wondering what the average yearly wage for such a job would be.

To give you an idea of my experience, I have worked for a company in the UK for 4 years managing the online business, which included the maintenance of 4 company websites, creating artwork using Photoshop, banner design and advertising/marketing materials, also using Photoshop. I gained a HNC and HND in Multimedia, and am relatively proficient in Photoshop, but have no real solid design experience within a graphic design firm.

If anyone has any thought of what I could expect to earn please let me know, I was thinking along the lines of between 30,000 - 35,000 Euros per year, but don't want to under or over sell myself.

Many thanks
B

Topics merged by admin

Hi Barri,

I think you are selling yourself short there. I was looking for IT Desktop/Server support earlier in the year and the going rate was 35-40k so you should look for something similar.

Hello

I'll move to Frankfurt Rhein-Main and i'll be looking for a job.
I'm a .NET programmer and a have a two years experience.

Can you tell me how much will I earn?

Thank you very much.

Topics merged by admin

Hello,
I hope you can support me with one query.

I'll be possibly moving to Ulm and was wondering about salaries paid in that region.
I'm an experienced professional (+8 years) working for great telecommunication companies in software development in several locations of the world.

Initially I'd reckon an amount of EUR 70k per year would suffice. But I'm not quite certain now, given the living costs and the German taxation.
Currently I live in the UK, I am married but have no children.

Could anyone give me a more holistic insight on this matter please?
I'm looking forward to receiving your help.

Thank you.

70k sounds on the high side. I work for an IT company in Munich and usually people who are coming in (unless they are SAP experts) are making less than that with equal years of experience. You don't really tell us what your experience is so it's hard to say...however, Ulm is not Munich.

I agree. I have 30+ years IT experience, the last 21 working for German employers (although currently I work for our services organisation in a global role) and have only just got past that annual salary figure (granted I have a company car but the allowance for that is limited).

Hi,

thanks a lot for the very prompt reply.

Some more details about me then.

I've got a bachelor's degree in Electronic Engineering and an MBA degree in Business Management.
My work experience is on software quality assurance.

I've been reading some posts in this forum (which I liked very much, by the way) but the answers vary so badly. I've seen loads of different opinions about salary average in the Bavarian region and couldn't make up my mind yet.

Would you know in average, assuming that I'll earn EUR 70k, how much I'll take home net?
Moreover, do you know (or could recommend an info source) the average costs of living in Ulm?

Thanks again for your support.

I have both a B Sc. and an M Sc. in Computer Science from probably the best UK University for Comp Sci (the M Sc. didnt help me that much) - don't expect that to cut too much ice over here...
Experience in software quality assurance could be a valuable asset.


Thats real life...


Agreeing with Kitkat64 I doubt if you will attain that level of salary.. How much you take home net depends on your circumstances. Much to be found under SEARCH.
IMHO Ulm is not likely to belong to the cheapest areas to live in.

Thanks again for the reply, HEM.
Maybe one more tiny info. The job offer that I'm aspiring to is on a managerial level.
Would you still think that 70k is on the high side?
Cheers.

Sorry, I had to chuckle over that because I read


on your previous post!!

Well to take HEM's thought a bit further, a Master if it is an MBA is not especially a big deal here in Germany, if you are venturing outside the finance industry. That said, 70K may be possible on the kind of quality assurance you are doing ( the usual 'what product', 'how' & 'facing the customer').

On your question on the net income, should be around 60% of your gross. Search on this forum for net and you'll get more exact answers!

just as an extra note...last year while looking for work I found jobs in Ulm to be considerably less well paid than in the bigger cities like Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich (around 72K with 22 years experience in software engineering)

@csl I have worked in the Telco area in Germany for 9 years.

I would say 70 is a very reasonable expectation, I think you can probably get more especially if it involves consulting. Telco software is a bit of a niche depending on what you are doing so I would say you can afford to negociate a bit hard, the argument that its Ulm so its cheaper is a bit irrelevant in the Telco space because it is a global/national salary rate. Often a reasonable tack to take is something along the lines of 70 for the Probezeit and 75 once you are through the probation. You also need to make sure you understand exactly what the offer is and all the fringe benefits etc since German salaries tend to be structured differently to the UK so it may be that the offer works out more than 70 once you have gone through it. Typically 10-15% is bonus but this is usually to a large extent personal targets.

Telcos are going through a bit of a good patch at the moment as there is plenty of investment in new hardware and OSS and the newer ICT type services being offered. Really you need to be doing more than coding to get much above the low 70s think project mgmt / architecture and or customer facing.

I proposed such a scheme (tho salary not nearly as high) when I first went into German industry.

With hindsight I wondered if this might have given them an incentive to terminating me at the end of the Probezeit (didn't happen but was on the cards).

If they've trained you and brought you up to speed in the first 6 months, and you're good, there is no way they are going to fire you over 5k a year.