well, it seems that my masters studies are coming finally to an end in March, and I will be heading then to Poland to be with my 2.5-year-long polish girlfriend. You know how is it, polish girls are a very powerful magnet!
I am of mexican nationality and finishing my Masters in Informatics in Germany. Met my girlfriend here while she was an Erasmus student; after that, we have been commuting to each other every month. We have a strong relationship. Her relatives and friends have also accepted me greatly, such that I am even considered part of the family (they call me either brat/wujek olito). All these strong reasons are my foundations for settling in Poland for a while!
Now comes the big issue: finding a decent IT job in Poland without polish language skills!
Been speaking to polish friends here in Germany and everyone considers this decision of moving to PL as "brave". They profoundly believe it is not going to be easy to find a job like I could find here in Germany. Actually they all left Poland looking for better job/study opportunities.
So my question is: am I really being "brave"? I mean, do you think that I'm wasting my career chances by not staying in West Europe?
I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I am good at what I do (IT, programming, databases) and if I can't find a decent job in PL, the whole beautiful idea of staying there can become a nightmare. I speak a very poor polish and I know the country and costumes good enough. The only issue I can think of is the job market.
Any suggestions on jobs? contacts? companies? I can speak english, german and spanish. Teaching language is not an option, I am an engineer not a teacher.
Thank you all, this site has given me so far LOADS of tips for this life-decision!
do you think that I'm wasting my career chances by not staying in West Europe?
Well if you don't try it you'll never know. Come to Poland and see what happens. If after 6 months you aren't making progress then you can always re-think things.
How much experience do you have outside of your academic studies? Finding a 'grad/post grad' starting post will be more difficult than if you have have had real working experience with the bigger employers who would be more likely to accept your lack of speaking Polish.
- 1 year for an IT consulting group as a programmer in Mexico - 2 years for the Business Informatics department of a mexican bank - 1 year as a programmer in a solar technology company in Germany - 7 months for my thesis in Airbus - 3 months as an internship for an IT-company in Wroclaw (don't know if this also counts as real work experience, but its my only work experience in PL)
So aim at the bigger multinationals - usual suspects list likes of IBM, Cisco (I think they have some development and not just sales & marketing and maybe some of the consulting firms. I have a few contacts still within most of these.
Dear Olito, i don't want my kids (if i'm going to have any) to come to me and say "daddy, all the kids are laughing at me because i'm pale !" xD Unfortunately our weak European genes have no chances with all those exotic ones. It may sound ridiculous, but mixing us with Arabs, black people or even brown-skinned Mexicans is dangerous for diversity on the world and our ethnic structure. White people are extincting. I'm not some nazi freak as probably most of people think now, but that's the fact. That's why i'm not a fan of interracial relationships.
I am very much pleased to see that you already had a work experience in the city of Wroclaw. I work here in a development agency, and actually I know of some IT companies looking for specialists, I think you can meet their expectations. Would you perhaps like to give me your email address? In fact we are committed to a campaing promoting our city, perhaps I can give you some useful information. And you can enrich our city with your skills and your visions for the future;)
due to lower rent prices and wages this is what I copy from araw.pl web site.
This is not a good this new jobs want high qualify staff to pay then crap wages Poland is not more the China cheap labour Poles are cheap labour in the UK and in POland
Guess what I am on my way out here The wages sucks , the currency low as hell the weather sucks food sucks ..
My God! I just checked and 1 euro equals now to 4.9zl, that means that if you are LUCKY to find, let's say a 8000zl/month job, you get around 1000 euro in your pocket.
This is what you get in Germany as a Werkstudent and working only 20 hours per week!
Definitely is not the best time to go to Poland! :(
well.. programmers salary just after graduating is between 2000 - 3000zlpm average, maybe plus 500-1000 if it's in a big company.. or if it is in Warsaw. Best thing to do is to find a company in your place that will allow you to work abroad if you are as good and experienced as you say you are then this shouldn't be a problem, with you beeing paid in euroes and living in Poland.
"My God! I just checked and 1 euro equals now to 4.9zl, that means that if you are LUCKY to find, let's say a 8000zl/month job, you get around 1000 euro in your pocket.
This is what you get in Germany as a Werkstudent and working only 20 hours per week!
Definitely is not the best time to go to Poland!"
Hmm, I would very much like to earn such a sum...1000euro in Poland allows you a quality of life you can only dream of in Germany, France, UK, let alone Italy! (a country I know too well...). Moreover, if your girlfriend works too, and earns, let's say, 1500zl, you've got together more than 5 000 PLN. That's a lot, guys...And it's just the beginning! According to these figures, you can already take a loan and buy yourself a nice flat. Tell me, is it possible in West Europe?
Not at all...
That's way, Olito, you shouldn't rely too much on comparisons with German wages. I left Italy and I moved to Poland. This was one of my best decisions. It's obvious I don't earn as much as I used to in Italy, yet I have a much higher standard of living in Wroclaw than in Italy. Moreover, there's a better atmosphere, and many more possibilities to get in touch with worthy people:)
Did I say that wages are good enough for anyone? No, I just made the example of an IT specialist. Second, I was born in Poland yet lived in Italy for too long. Third, I am happily married since 2002, when I still was in Italy. Fourth, don't post your comments if you don't know anything about other people. Fifth, too many of you own second-hand information, yet think you know the world better than anyone else.
Most of the largest IT companies like IBM, HP or Motorola in Poland are involved in multinational projects, so your lack of Polish wouldn't be a problem at all - the communication with the client, documentation etc. are done in English anyway.
I work for such a firm and there are some British expats working here among Poles.
This might be more difficult when it comes to Polish companies, like Asseco, Infovide-Matrix etc. They very often concentrate on providing services to Polish government or local companies. On the other side I remember that for instance ComArch has also a German division and is somehow involved with that market. May be worth investigating.
Your knowledge of German could be very valueable in both cases.
On the subject of money - do not make a mistake of comparing salaries between different countries while ignoring costs of living. A good software developer can expect 8k+ gross pay which really can provide a decent standard of living. If you want to make as much as possible then focus on Warsaw job market.
Of course it's best to have for example British salary while spending it in Poland - which is actually a viable option for some IT workers thanks to telecommuting. Not easy to do, but achievable.
Listen so what if you get more there i can tell you something Poland is the place to be i moved here from a 75000pound a year job in the uk and i had the same worries as you but i have never looked back.. send me email details as i maybe able to help you with work....
