Alpine ladybug, as from advertising. Prien am Chimsee
How did I start the search and what are the input data?
I will now move to the third semester of my undergraduate program in November. I study Computer Science at the University of Würzburg . Before that, my IT knowledge base was zero. With a rather complicated and very time-consuming but interesting study, I did not study anything at the same time. I thought that I would be taught to write code in a German university. But so far there is a feeling that I am getting a black belt on matan.
If you mix two subjects from the first semester: Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen (Algorithms and Data Structures) and Grundlagen der Programmierung ( Programming Basics), then we have passed Java Core . But of course I don't have full-fledged projects. With such a rather sad baggage of knowledge, I decided to look for a job (Not necessarily in IT).
What were the options?
1. HiWi Job (Work at the University)
One of the most affordable and simple options for part-time work is work at the university.
Why?
There are quite a few large cities in Germany, and because of strong decentralization, often large universities can be located in small cities. In this case, the university can be a very large employer. Therefore, it will be convenient to find a part-time job right away in the place where you study, and not skate somewhere else if you have few vacancies in the city.
The second plus is much more obvious - when working at the university, hours are not credited for full-time work. What does this mean in practice?
In Germany, a student can work 120 full days (5 hours or more) and 240 part-time days (up to 5 hours a day) in a calendar year... Therefore, it is considered a student's norm to work up to 20 hours a week. And by working at a university, you can bypass this threshold and work harder.
Okay, what are the vacancies and types of part-time jobs?
- Tutor job (Tutortätigkeit) where you teach exercises or teach tutorials for students. You check their homework, help check the exam, etc. Yes, all this is not done by professors in Germany - it is not their concern.
There is only one requirement for you - a good grade in the subject you want to teach! And the vacancies themselves are always on the university website, or you can ask the professor responsible for the subject.
What is the salary?
, – ( – 1.5 ) – 3.3 . , , 10 9.35 – 10 € = 374 — 400 € . ! 5 ECTS-, .
, 1200 €. , , . - . , - . , .
My work at the university did not work out for me, since I went on vacation right away, and the seats were already packed!
2. Werkstudent
Let's move on to the sweetest! This is the work of a "working student", pardon the tautology. This is a job in your specialty in various firms and is probably the best way to get an internship and make good money as a student. Very often companies give the opportunity to stay and work in the company after graduation as a full-fledged employee.
Where to look for such a job?
Anywhere from Indeed to Linkedin . I personally use Indeed as it has the most jobs. There is also a popular one in Germany - Monster .
Also, similar vacancies can be found at job fairs that take place at universities. Last year, when I came without any knowledge at all, a company was ready to take me and train from scratch! True, I was afraid that I would not take my studies, and now they have no vacancies. Anyway.
Requirements
It will be more difficult here, especially now, during the crown. Since the beginning of the pandemic, vacancies have disappeared at a tremendous rate, and this is understandable, because firms need money for key employees. To educate students and to pay them desire is not enough now.
Feeding features
Applying for such vacancies is practically applying for a normal job, therefore the requirements for filing are appropriate.
A regular Bewerbung (serving somewhere) consists of the following points:
- Lebenslauf (CV), which should be done according to certain guidelines and should be without spaces;
- Anschreiben (Motivation letter), which must be written for a specific vacancy, and there is also a whole heap of requirements for it;
- Immatrikulationsbescheinigung (Document confirming that you are enrolled in the university);
- Aufenhaltstitel (your residence permit), which says that you have the right to work;
And now let's look at an example of what is required of a student and how much he is paid! For example: vacancy for the position of IT Product Development
Ihre Qualifikationen (your qualifications)
- Student / in im Studiengang Informatik, Mathematik oder in einem ähnlichen Studiengang;
(Study computer science, mathematics and related specialties); - Gute Programmierkenntnisse in Java;
(Good knowledge of Java); - Idealerweise abgeschlossenes Programmier- und Softwarepraktikum ;
(At best, a complete practice of programming and practice of developing a software product. That is, the vacancy directly refers to subjects from our university);
And almost always the requirements are so vague that it is not clear what you should be able to do. And also very often they write how many semesters you have to finish in order to apply. As you can see, nothing complicated is required from a student. But top firms like Siemens, BMW and others demand much more from the student and pay accordingly. Although it's not even about the salary, but about the prestige in your CV. After all, the experience of working in such a company opens up more offers for you.
Salary
Of course, everything is individual from company to company, but in general from 9.35 to 15 € per hour. In our city, the average salary for IT vacancies is 13 € per hour, and throughout Germany 13.5 € per hour. But you can always try to knock out a bigger salary.
Tax
But how much does it take to get your hands on? After all, Germany is famous for its huge taxes. Let's take 20 hours of work per week and a rate of 13 € and calculate.
20 * 13 * 4 = 1040 € per month.
Sounds great, but now let's take away taxes:
- Rentnerversicherung (pension contribution) - If the salary is between 451 and 850 €, then the tax is between 5-9.35%. If more than 850 €, then it is stable at 9.35%.
- Lohnsteuer ( payroll tax) - If the monthly salary exceeds 950 €, then minus another 2% of the original amount.
Total: 1040 * 0.0935 + 1040 * 0.02 = 97.24 + 20.8 = 118.04 € taxes.
In general, everyone advises to assume that you will lose about 10 percent of your Brutto salary.
Why didn't I get a job like this in IT?
All because of the same: because I'm afraid not to pull the interview and work. We do not have many such jobs in our city, so I am now preparing and studying hard to find something similar in a semester. And so far I am not ready to work 20 hours with studies.
3. Aushilfe / Minijob
These vacancies are the most common and most of them! Finding such a job is not difficult. In Würzburg, with 120 thousand people, there are more than a thousand open vacancies for Minijob. It can be a part-time job at a grocery store or a cafe, or in an Amazon warehouse - in short, anywhere. We even found a vacancy where it would be necessary to take corona tests from people, although they needed a medical education. Not that I was torn too much, just by the way I had to.
Requirements and search
Such vacancies can be found simply by walking around the city, because very often stores are looking for workers and post ads right on the door. Well, all the sites mentioned above.
If we are talking about a Minijob, then it is almost always work for the so-called basis, which is 450 Euro. In this case, you need to work 9-12 hours a week for the minimum wage. You can also find Teilzeitarbeit (Part-time) options, then you can raise the rate and the number of hours. Well, since there is no single sphere here, therefore the requirements in each company are different.
Very often, for such vacancies, you are not required to have Anschreiben (Motivation letter), and it is enough to throw them a tabular version of the CV.
4. My experience
I left these jobs at the very end and applied for several non-IT jobs at Werkstudent. As a result, I came across one interesting vacancy. It was a clinic in our city, and they needed student help in the IT department. I, breaking all the rules of filing, just sent them CV. I didn’t know yet how to serve correctly, and they didn’t have any information. In general, there were very vague requirements, but an attractive salary of 12.50 € per hour! That's cool considering that as a Werkstudent developer I could get up to 13 Euros. Despite my incorrect presentation, I was still called for an interview.
Even though it was my first interview in Germany, it went smoothly, and after a couple of days I got an agreement and then a contract (by mail!). My responsibilities will include auditing and maintaining the clinic's computers. They also promised a possible promotion to developer and a floating schedule. In general, I am satisfied, because the work is directly related to IT and I even have to write simple scripts.
Salary
As I said, my rate is 12.50 Euros and about 15 hours of work per week. Total comes out 750 € Brutto. Considering that taxes will be in the region of 60-70 Euros, I will receive 680 Euros on my hands.
Is this a lot or a little for Germany?
In general, as we have seen, a student in Germany can earn between 300 and 1200 Euros.
If we take an average value somewhere and look at the necessary expenses, then we can understand whether this money will be enough for self-sufficiency.
So let's see what the expenses of a German student consist of. I will tell you about my experience and therefore I say again that I live in a student city with a population of 120 thousand in Bavaria. Therefore, in each case, everything is individual.
- Housing - 250 Euro ( Warm , i.e. with all utilities and internet);
- State insurance - 105 Euro;
- Food - 120-150 Euro;
- Radio tax is included in the payment of housing (If it had not been included, then another 17.50 Euro per housing);
- Haftpflichtversicherung - 4.25 Euro (Insurance against accidental damage to other people's property);
- Mobile communications - 7.99 Euro (for 3GB LTE);
All together comes out: 517.24 Euro per month.
You can also add expenses for clothes and hiking somewhere here, but in general, 550 Euro per month can be easily invested.
conclusions
As I said in the last article, I believe that moving to Europe to study is the most optimal way for young guys and girls. Therefore, I wanted to answer a very frequent question from those who are worried about whether it will come out to earn money for their support in Germany.
Everyone's expenses can be very different and the ones I described are a positive coincidence, because I was lucky with the price of housing. Someone may not be lucky, and even in a small town you will have to pay 400 Euro just for a room on the outskirts. But even in this case, there is an opportunity to work from the first semester! Yes, combining work and study is still a "pleasure", but I think that if a person plans to move, then he roughly understands how much money he needs, and that they may have to earn while studying.
Working later as a Werkstudent, you can not only earn a living, but even save money for your own needs. The main thing is not to forget that, probably, every year you will have to prove that you have the means to live. Therefore, in general, I would conclude that it is very possible to live in Germany, earning money. Of course, someone will give the example of Munich, in which even 15 Euros per hour and 20 hours per week is not enough to pay for a one-room apartment costing 900-1100 Euros, but Munich is only a small part of Germany.
Although I worked in Ukraine in parallel with the university, nothing at all, but I felt the attitude towards the working student on myself. The employer does not care if you need exams and studies, but at the university you are nagged for the fact that you work and not in pairs. Here, of course, the situation is reversed.
The first thing that was discussed with me at the interview here was the possibility for me not to come to work during the session, with the receipt of a salary. It would have been enough for me just to get into the situation and be allowed to take a vacation at my own expense during the session, and then even like this. I don't even need to talk about the university. No one will put a stick in the wheel, attending lectures and exercises is 95 percent optional.
Also, I did not mention Duales Studium (study and work in one bottle), various practices, and so on, as these are rather special cases.
PS My personal telegram channel , where I talk about life and study in Germany.