Retraining so as to ensure a good paying job

So you want to move to Germany, your current profession in Germany pays peanuts...
What would you retrain as to ensure a good paying job, and that they would be tolerant of German being your second language??
Still working out how to get there and be able to support our wee (ha) family...
Oh yes must be legal, just cause...
Can't wait for your suggestions, no pressure of course
The nakifamily

Of course you could always rephrase your post in such a way as it actually makes a little more sense. To answer your vague and mostly nonsensical post, SAP Consultant. There you go.

Sorry you couldn't grasp the theme there. We are wanting to move to Germany and my husbands current profession doesn't pay very well in Germany. He is talking about retraining anyway and thought that he should consider careers that would lead to better paid employment in Germany. English is his second language and although we are all studying German until you live there it is hard to fully grasp the language.
We have a large family.
I thought that this would be great site to get some ideas of possible career ideas.
Hope that is alittle clearer. Didn't realise I had been so confusing sorry.
Thank you that idea, will put it on the list.

I'd love to help, but all I can offer is more questions to clarify the situation:

Current profession (the one that pays peanuts)?
Definition of peanuts (one person's peanut may well be another person's walnut)?
Where in Germany are you going to be?
Will he re-train in Germany or before moving there?

A piece of advice- unless you have a lot of savings a couple that has children should not move to Germany unless at least one parent has an offer for a permanent job which pays enough to support the family (trailing spouses often have a hard time finding work here). Punkt.

BTW, how old are you and your husband? How old are your kids? No guarantee he'll be able to retrain. Age discrimination is rampant here, as is discrimination against foreigners in the job market. It's also hard for career changers and people who don't speak fluent German. Foreigners with a large number of kids also can have some trouble finding an apartment or other suitable housing. Sorry, but that ís the truth. Plenty of good people here, but these are some of the challenges you will face.

I'm a trailing spouse, was in my forties, a career changer, and my German was lousy: didn't stop me from getting a decent job, though you have to be patient.

We are in our late 30s and have 5 kids,4 to 10yrs.
Everyone else has German passports but english is our first language ( miss typed that my husband is a native english speaker)
Will retrain where it works out best, at the moment is a Physio and have been told 30 to 36 euro is top dollar for a physio. We aren't greedy but would like a little more to live on.
Don't sure where we want to live, really like the south but the most expensive area we understand.
Anything else???

Even with Kindergeld payments in addition, I can't imagine your family making it anywhere in southern Germany living on one salary between 30 and 36K. Maybe others can comment knowledgeably about retraining, but I would be skeptical about it paying off with a high-paying job. I used to work in IT, and I never knew or heard of anyone who got into the industry for the first time at around age 40.

C what crap i only earn that much and we live very comfortably.Its all a case of what you are used to and what life you are used to living.an average hourly rate in Bavaria is € 20

MD, do you have five kids? Would you be able to support six other people on that salary? The OP's family has five kids and she may not be able to work right away, so, yeah, I think it is not realistic to say her family can live on 30-36 K Brutto+Kindergeld.

There is the option of working at a british army base as a physio.
Are there many people out there that work on base but live off base?
We want our kids to learn about the country they are living in, so they would go to a German school.
With 5 kids it really isn't practical to work because child care for 5 is very high. I can save us more money being at home than I could being out working and paying someone else to look after them.
We do live a very basic life style no frills, we don't eat out , we don't have fancy food etc.

In Germany 40 is the age where employers start talking about early retirement.
To earn above the average income (i think it's 40k) you need a decent education.
I don't think any employer will hire a 40 year old with only a "retraining".
Even if your husband should decide to study (fulltime) at a university and finish after 3-5 years
he will have a degree, but he will be much too old for an initial position.
Why not living on "Kindergeld"? It is pretty high in Germany.

I think I'd 'retrain' and become Herr Doktor Professor Helles so I could become a member of the same club as my current senior bosses. They're all fuckwits, totally useless, yet they run (into the ground, it seems) a large and well known German electronics company for 10x what I earn, and because I don't have that title I can't dream of joining the club.

HA, by my calculation (please correct me if I am mistaken) for the five kids the OP's family would get 820 euros a month, which added to a Brutto salary of 30-36 K would mean roughly 2750-2950 euros a month Netto. I think that's a bit too tough for a family of seven in southern Germany. They also have to factor in the cost of moving here (must be rather high from NZ) and setting up a household here. If the father/husband opts for some sort of retraining, what do they live on while he does it? Finally, as HA points out, the employment prospects for someone his age aren't stellar. That's way too much uncertainty, especially if we contrast that with the likelihood the father is making very good money in NZ.

My point was if you get a doctorate in whatever then you're eligible to be promoted far above your ability in large German companies, therefore getting much more money for no extra capability. Somewhat ironically.

C we are NZers but are living in the UK at the moment.
I just really want to make hubby's dream come true of living in is fathers homeland and understanding his culture.
That is why we have moved to the otherside of the world to be closer to Germany.
We were thinking Barveria because that's were his family from but his dad grew up in Frankfurt so that is another option or if need be more east.

I understand what you are trying to do. Try to get a feel for what your living expenses would be- I would start by checking the cost of rentals on immobilienscout.de to gauge the market. If you do decide to move, let TTers know so they can advise you on how to get a rental without paying Provision (commission) to a real estate agent/broker. As for other expenses, perhaps your in-laws can help you get a feel for that. Yahoo Germany has a tax calculator to give you a rough idea of how much will be deducted from a paycheck. Do a search here on TT for job websites. I still think this is a somewhat quixotic idea given what you feel your husband will make here, but it wouldn't hurt to research things.

C,
thanks for taking this seriously, more research? right can do that. Dad in law has been NZ side for the best part of 40yrs so not much help but cousins will be great idea. Sometimes the most obvious can be the hardest to see...

If you are already living in the UK then you WILL find lots of stuff much cheaper here. Food, clothes, transport, beer, eating out etc. I have been here nearly 5 years and still reckon it is dirt cheap compared to London.

Not sure what to retrain as however...

At the moment we are living on £1300 a month, just but doing it, and we live outside London. so that makes things cheaper. Maybe if we pick the right area of Germany we could live on physio salary?

Yes, you could. If you are then not happy with the lifestyle it affords you, you can still look into re-training.
Good luck

Hi there!

I just arrived in Karlsruhe together with my 12 year old clone. No job pre-arranged but we do have a good friend to live with until we get ourselves settled.

I lived in Switzerland for 13 years, had 4 amazing kids, wife ran off with another guy, we got divorced and I moved to Canada for 3 years with one of my little boys.

We missed the other kids too much so have returned to Germany to be closer to them. Returning to Switzerland was not an option as I am Canadian/British and no longer qualify for Swiss residency. Wouldn't want to anyway... damn Swiss are a racist bunch... but that's another post.

Here's my point... I haven't been in Germany long enough to be a very accurate judge, but in Switzerland I struggled like hell to find employment that would support a family of 6. After the divorce and paying Chf 4,335.00/mth child and wife support was even more difficult. In the end I had to return to Canada just to survive (ex-wife has long since married the guy she ran away with).

Okay... to the REAL point.

From what I've seen so far, the cost of living here in Southern Germany is NOT outrageous. It's comparable to Canada and about 1/2 that of Switzerland.

The salary you have mentioned should certainly be enough to support your family, all-be-it perhaps with fewer luxuries. It also depends a LOT on where you lve, exactly. Living a little bit out of town and in the country can save you hundreds in housing costs. It's worth the price of a commuters train ticket to live 20 or so kilometers outside of a larger town/city.

Physiotherapy is a worthwhile trade and I agree that, at your husbands age, re-training would take too long and he'd be too old to truly benefit from the change.

Perhaps he could join into another practice already in operation? Freelance with a sport club? Join forces with a personal trainer? Maybe check with some of the sports stadiums and ask for more information there?

Either way, he has a profession and experience and (I assume) a diploma/certificate (VERY IMPORTANT here!!). If I were him, I wouldn't change a thing.

Setting up some interviews and coming over for a brief visit before moving the entire family would be highly recommended.

Sorry for the long-winded response. Hope it helps.

C.

thanks for the personal imput, we have been over for a week and loved it, so did the kids.
He is off to a conference in a few weeks in Holland so hopefully he will make some contacts there, and could head down that route.
He is very qualified and has 13 yrs under his belt of working private practice and for himself.
I really am thankful for everyones help on this, will let you know what we end up doing. Going to let the kids enjoy the summer first, they deserve it after 2 winters back to back.

Huh? Be reasonable - she said he was late 30's so its a bit harsh to write the guy off already and stick him with 1 career!!! Bit conservative or what! My sister (mid 40's) just qualified as a criminal pyschologist.

My concern about sticking along the fizzio route is same as the advice that Michael Caine gave Vidal Sassoon back in the 60's:


Vidal Sassoon was a top hairdresser at the time, but only as good as his last haircut.

Problem I see with being a fizzio is that if you bust your hand, you are out of a job. I have 3 mates (weirdly??) that are independent landscape gardeners, two are now in their early 40's, and injuries become a worrying issue.

Just spotted this:


Sounds like a career is beckoning at the local sperm bank to me.

Naki Family, I have to say that I really commend your financial planning skills. I was reading what Mik Dickingson said about earning 30-36K and finding it fine to live on and initially, I thought that was a load of crap seeing as I earn more than this and struggle like hell to support my daughter and I. However, unfortunately I am terrible and that's the problem with me. If you are currently surviving on just 1,300 per month in the UK with 5 kids then it sounds like you'll be able to manage it over here. As somebody else said, Kindergeld will give you a good head start too. I think its definitely a good idea for you to send the kids to German school (well, you haven't got much choice there anyway) and the kids will pick up the language in no time. School is a little more expensive in that you have to pay for all of their school books and stuff but the education system is good.

Anyway, I wish you lots and lots of luck with your move - I'm sure you'll have a great time whether your man decides to retrain or stay in physio.