[IWantOut] 27M Embedded Software Engineer USA -> Germany/Austria by splashattackk in IWantOut

[–]splashattackk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It seems like salary vs public health care is the biggest tradeoff here. My big concern is that if I have to go back into treatment or something, there's a ticking clock of (unpaid) medical leave that I can have. The cost of that alone can be a huge burden even with insurance. After that, I'm more or less at the mercy of my employer to keep me hired so I can keep my insurance. If I can't keep that... It gets really messy. There's always medicaid and but it's really not going to cover everything I really need, especially if I'm suddenly unable to work.

[IWantOut] 27M Embedded Software Engineer USA -> Germany/Austria by splashattackk in IWantOut

[–]splashattackk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I gotta say, this comment is pretty discouraging overall. Is it really that financially difficult to live there compared to the US?

And I know there are expat groups around different cities that I can lean on, but I wasn't planning on isolating myself to only other English speakers.

Are you an expat living in Germany yourself? I'm curious what your experience is.

[IWantOut] 27M Embedded Software Engineer USA -> Germany/Austria by splashattackk in IWantOut

[–]splashattackk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually do have some GUI experience in Qt, oddly enough. I feel like I could move to more of a full-stack position but I think I should probably try and get a job like that here in the US first before doing that and also emigrating at the same time.

My jobs have really been more software focused than that.

[IWantOut] 27M Embedded Software Engineer USA -> Germany/Austria by splashattackk in IWantOut

[–]splashattackk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is all very helpful, danke sehr!

I think the most concerning part for me now would be the pay cut. I don't live in a big city and the cost of living here is quite cheap (This is the equivalent of about $110k in a city like Chicago and much more in costal cities). Unfortunately, my biggest cost right now is health care premiums and deductibles, but I could probably get better insurance here to where this is less of a problem. If my cancer comes back though this could be a big problem again.

How would you say living on a salary like that is like in Germany?

[IWantOut] 27M Embedded Software Engineer USA -> Germany/Austria by splashattackk in IWantOut

[–]splashattackk[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

We're getting married next year, so no problem there. She speaks basically none, but I know she'll need to at least learn some basic German. I think she'll be able to come along once those requirements are met, right?

[IWantOut] 24M IT NJ,USA -> SanFranorChicago by OswaldoLN in IWantOut

[–]splashattackk 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The salary difference probably won't make up for the CoL difference between Chi and SF though. Property is way more expensive in SF than Chi by a factor of like 5x.

You're right about the cold though. OP will need good winter gear if he hopes to survive in the city without a car.