Welly_59 wrote: » First obvious question. Do you speak German?
trojin wrote: » No a worry about speak German - at work I mean. They speak English.
LordQarlyn wrote: » You did what many have done, usually in the opposite direction, which either way, it is a tremendous undertaking for anyone to do. Well done, even if it is the first step. Assuming this is not a DoD or other US government agency contract and you are living smack dab in the German economy, that is awesome. Yes try to learn the language, I took Chinese 101 in college when I was 40, so you can pick up German. Learn the cultural mores, manners, and traditions. (tip if you don't know this already, the "OK" sign in America is usually seen as vulgar in Germany, but culturally aware Germans will probably know you don't mean bad by it), and practice them. Both attempts will make it easier to collaborate with your peers, customers, and vendors, as well as get along with your bosses and subordinates. Congrats on the start of your journey. My plan is also to move to Europe, I've been to Germany as a soldier and took the time to experience the culture. But sadly, I am not proficient in cloud topics so Germany probably doesn't want me lol.
DatabaseHead wrote: » Hope you don't mind me chiming in. My neighbor recently returned from Germany, she was there on training. One of the conditions of employment was to spend 3 months in Germany taking a crash course language courses. She was astonished how quickly she picked it up during those 3 months. She made it sound like she literally took classes all day for 3 months. She is NOT in IT, she is in quality control (think Six Sigma). Anyway just wanted to pass that along.
MeanDrunkR2D2 wrote: » Hey man, not a problem at all and that's awesome to hear. Obviously I won't be taking classes all day, but may take a once a week type of class at a place near wherever I live at to learn and continue to improve on my skills. I could see being thrown hard into a full on class like that a person could make amazing progress with language. I expect my kids will pick it up way better since they are so young.
MeanDrunkR2D2 wrote: » I only remember that the "Ok" sign is that because of I think a Die Hard movie that I watched many moons ago. And I'll actually be 42 this year, so I'm not a young pup by any means. I actually have seen a bunch of "non" cloud roles there as well, or ones that are fine if you aren't good with them yet as long as you have strong skills elsewhere. Right now my biggest holdback is waiting for my wife to completely and 100% be ready for this. We've talked about this many times and honestly I really want the best for my boys and seeing the crazy **** that happens here in the US just makes me want to do it more. We had another shooting at an elementary school here this week and someone died. Luckily this being the week it was meant that Summer School wasn't in session so no kids were hurt. But as of today, she seems to be with me on this choice. I told her to take her time and we'd keep talking about it and the benefits for our family as well as good for my career and have more time that I can spend with the kids and her as they grow up. I don't want to be that dad who gets home every night at dinner time or later and then play with for an hour or so before they go to bed and barely see them in the morning.
JoJoCal19 wrote: » Same situation here, except my wife is already 100% on board. The only issue is our preference for beautiful beaches so for now at least, we're looking somewhere in the Caribbean. But I'm also looking at Switzerland, Sweden, Germany. Sadly France is out due to the threat of terrorist crap they're having to deal with as of late, and Italy may be out as well because they've got some other issues going on currently. Spain was also near top of my Europe list but I need to dig more into what's going on over there. New Zealand is high on my list as well and both my wife and I would qualify for their top work visa priority. I've long dreamed of becoming an expat but things look more likely now. Shoot me a PM, I'd love to have someone to bounce ideas off of and chat about this topic as well. I know there are a few here who've become expats too.
EANx wrote: » English is the language of business and while it's not unusual for a native European to speak several languages fluently, it's not uncommon for people from 2-3 countries to be working in a fourth. And what do they use to communicate? English. Naturally, you'll want to pick up at least a conversational-level of German simply because it's polite but don't be surprised if someone refuses to talk to you in German, their level of English might be far better than your level of German. This can make it tough to practice. I've lived and hired in two European countries, one a member of the EU, the other wasn't. In both cases, we would get lots of resumes submitted in English. When we got one in the language of that country, I ran it through HR to translate. I suspect that most of the larger firms will do something similar, you might want to submit in German for a small firm.
LordQarlyn wrote: » If you want to be an expat, your best bet is to get assigned by a foreign company to that country. Otherwise you will be working as an immigrant which means you get the same pay and benefit as the locals, being you would be a local. Expat jobs typically provide benefits such as local housing, a COLA, vehicle, and home leave allowances. Working in a foreign country as an immigrant doesn't, you get the same compensation package as local nationals. If you're okay with that, that's fine, just be mindful of the difference. Immigrants intend to permanently stay in their new country while expats eventually expect to return to their country of origin and often maintain a household in their country of origin.
MeanDrunkR2D2 wrote: » I'm getting to the point that I'm ready to fulfill a life long dream and immigrate from the US to Germany. Well, I'm married with two young kids who will all be going with me, so that will be interesting to integrate them into the German culture.
E Double U wrote: » I relocated from California to Holland two years ago with my wife and two sons (ages 2 and 4 at the time). Not German, but Dutch is close enough lol. Feel free to inbox me if you have specific questions about my experience. For people in the IT space on this side of the world, it is very common for English to be the official work language in a larger company. Disclaimer: my wife is Dutch with all of her family and friends here so we did have a soft landing. Never underestimate a good support system.
MeanDrunkR2D2 wrote: » Upon further research, it looks that having a German resume would be a bad choice due to the company assuming that I'd be coming in with more knowledge on the language than would be possible for me at this point.
