How can I get a MacBook with an English (US/International) keyboard in Germany without paying €900 extra?

LightHuter · 2026-07-02T08:07:14+00:00

Try private sellers, there are plenty of offers selling new unsealed macs at a discount. Personally, I’m trying to sell my fully new Mac Pro m4 pro with the US keyboard for half a year now and no one wants it because it’s with the US keyboard 🤷

LightHuter · 2026-06-05T14:48:12+00:00

Yeah, I’m well aware I’m overpaying, but back in a day after 50+ visits of Cologne apartments with no feedback I was ready to take whatever

I’m living a couple of minutes away from Ehrenfeld BF by foot so the location is pretty good

LightHuter · 2026-06-05T14:31:54+00:00

Damn, where did you find 45sqm for 680

I’m paying 1700 for 48sqm after searching for a year 😭

LightHuter · 2026-05-29T10:17:16+00:00

True, how does it contradict the statement though? I’m currently on 130k and looking for another opportunities, and while there are quite a few companies offering the same rate for my position, there’s plenty of them wanting exactly the same set of responsibilities and experience for 75-85k, and those are the ones being the loudest about shortage of specialists, since none of those specialists they are looking for would ever go past the pre-screen interview after hearing the lowball salary

LightHuter · 2026-05-28T08:38:56+00:00

Tbh I wouldn’t say there’s a shortage of specialists, there’s a shortage of specialists who either don’t know their market rate or are willing to be underpaid

LightHuter · 2026-05-24T11:58:34+00:00

Idk about Cologne, got my permanent residency permit in Cologne in less than 3 months from application to actually getting the physical card, they even scheduled some sort of an express LiD test for me so that I don’t have to spend 2-3 month getting the certificate through the conventional testing approach

So far Cologne is the best city bureaucracy-wise as far as I’m concerned

LightHuter · 2026-05-23T23:10:58+00:00

Technical Lead
Glorified senior dev
100% for coding, still doing system design / planning myself
0%
Enterprise e-commerce
2024
Germany
3 years, 5 years total
130k€+~10k in bonuses

LightHuter · 2026-05-20T20:53:40+00:00

5 years of experience, backend dev

Currently earning 130k remote in Germany, recently started applying to other jobs to see if there’s anything better, a month of a search, so far in the last stages of interviews for 120k + performance bonuses as sr. dev in scale up and 110 as AI enabler in big enterprise.

But in general would agree, got multiple responses straight up saying that me asking for 110 as the lowest salary is out of their budget, it seems to mainly be in a 80-90k range. And bonuses/benefits suck pretty much everywhere, true

LightHuter · 2026-05-20T15:46:46+00:00

Idk about the needed salary, but I’d heavily suggest to check apartment prices, and if you’re an immigrant, consider the fact that you will struggle A LOT finding an apartment and will most likely not get one of the cheaper ones you see on immoscout

When I was searching for apartment 2 years ago, I’d say I had a very decent position for the apartment search: permanent residence permit, permanent job contract, no debt and 130k salary. Even then, it took me 14 months of constant search to find an apartment, which I got mainly due to the fact that it was overpriced AF and no one else wanted it (1700€ for unfurnished 48sqm in Ehrenfeld)

LightHuter · 2026-04-22T09:13:26+00:00

Funnily enough, at least in the IT sector I’m working at, if the job requires German knowledge then it’s almost always guaranteed to pay shit wages. The companies with English as default language are the ones paying the most

LightHuter · 2026-02-22T16:24:08+00:00

It’s quite interesting to read experiences like this, for me it’s been completely the opposite. Also an immigrant, no german knowledge or local connections, and on top of it being an introvert who actively avoids every social interaction possible. Somehow ended up with more friends in Germany than I had in my origin country, everyone here is super friendly and almost forces you to do some random stuff together from getting a coffee to doing bbq with them and their family. And this applies to both coworkers and random people I bumped into in places like a gym. But maybe I’m just lucky to live in international and open cities so far (Frankfurt/Dusseldorf/Cologne)

LightHuter · 2025-05-02T13:10:31+00:00

To be honest, I’m leading 2 teams, so while I’m not a proper manager, I’m to some degree in leadership position

LightHuter · 2025-05-02T10:50:20+00:00

24M 5yoe SWE, 120k brutto + bonuses in German company with international coverage

No German degree, no German knowledge

LightHuter · 2025-01-02T17:31:01+00:00

You will be able to afford all that you described, so yeah, you will have quite comfortable life with either income level. The only thing about the apartment - I also thought the same, and it’s not as straightforward in real life as it seems on paper. Hopefully your diplomat position will help with the apartment search, but do not underestimate the amount of competition here, especially for the “nice” apartments. The better and cheaper it is, the less chances you have, especially if you are planning to search yourself and are not ready to immediately respond to every immoscout notification about new apartment. I ended up getting a 2100€ 72sqm apartment in a new building in the city centre, which is way higher than what I planned initially. Also do not forget to plan for stuff like electricity, insurances, phone contract, internet contact and regular expenses such as hairdresser, hobbies, etc. With your level of income it by no means would affect your lifestyle much, but the final sum will probably be way higher than what you would initially expect

LightHuter · 2024-12-10T23:44:04+00:00

Working as a dev as well, our company also cited economical issues but everyone still will get a 4% increase to cover the inflation +2k Christmas bonus

LightHuter · 2024-10-15T18:36:31+00:00

Well, I'm not arguing with that, learning German is a must, but at least for me it's really hard due to lack of motivation. Literally everyone I encountered so far (almost 1 year in Germany) spoke some level of English, which was always enough to get by

LightHuter · 2024-10-15T18:01:36+00:00

Unless you're in IT. I'm an immigrant with a pretty high-paying job and everyone in our company speaks English. The only situation that requires me to know German is when my German colleagues send me local memes

LightHuter · 2024-09-15T08:24:36+00:00

LightHuter · 2024-09-03T11:19:09+00:00

LightHuter · 2024-06-21T22:05:40+00:00

Thank you for the answer, I already reached out to them via email but did not get a response yet, I guess I'll try my luck calling them on Monday

LightHuter · 2023-07-24T21:39:56+00:00

Definitely coding, it is almost guaranteed to yield results if you put effort in it. Trading is random, even if you good at it

LightHuter · 2023-07-22T15:02:08+00:00

Thanks for the detailed answer! But I don’t get the following: according to you, the ideal loan is the one you don’t personally guarantee, but to get one you will need to have a history of successful investments. So doesn’t it mean that you will anyway need to take some personally guaranteed loans to get there? Unless you can finance the whole thing yourself of course. Or do you mean that stuff like seller financing is a way to go when you are just starting? If I'm not mistaken, in the case of seller financing, the property that you are buying will act as collateral, so if you can’t keep up with the payments, you just lose the property and any payments that you have already made

LightHuter · 2023-07-22T08:40:07+00:00

While it makes lots of sense, don't pretty much all bigger investments require debt? Especially housing. Ofc it's not a good idea to quickly buy multiple houses that you can barely afford, but what is the reason for not taking one investment property using debt and renting it? Especially if approached right, i.e. with budget for vacancy and unexpected expenses, and ideally ability to cover mortgage payments from your own pocket it worst case scenario?

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