Standards of Living in Poland

Ehm, guys, sorry to disappoint you, but I am not gay :) It's just Sokidoki's way of telling ppl that he likes them.

Westminster, no offence taken. The financial side is not final yet, but I got this as indication of salary. Besides, I'm not one to act secretly about income an all. Olive branch accepted :)

Indeed, good points you guys have there: Germany is close, and that brings along the next question: since it's close to Germany, one can expect a certain level of knowledge of the inhabitants where the German language is concerned? It also used to be German as well, so I am kinda amazed that German is not spoken in Szczecin (how you pronounce that? Sjtjetzin or sth?)

How about insurances in PL? Are they well organized, I mean, if I have some form of health insurance, can I just go to the doctor or do I have to pay the doctor first and then retrieve it back from the insurance?

Thanks again guys!

>^..^<

M-G (has a fish day today: tuna, herring and shrimps)

My understanding is that you are being offered a job in Poland by some company. Why don't you negotiate the terms of employment, such as health insurance, travel and moving expenses and initial cost of living? I'd never move to another city, let alone a different country, unless the employer paid for the move, the first few months of accommodations and for the entire cost of health insurance. That's how it works with companies worth working for.

that's what i thought too...

It is best not to discuss this with your dog, it could have profound psychological effects in later life.

Of course the company pays for the move and for acommodation the first few weeks. They've done that when I came to Ireland, they will do that if I would move for them to PL. The usual company policy is that you get a basic health insurance, but I need the full package, due to certain circumstances. Those questions were out of curiosity as here in Ireland, even though you have the full package, you still have to pay the doctor when you go see him or her. Those questions were intended to give me a global overview that would help me make a decision and because I am curious as well.


Why do I have to think now of the talking dog in Road Trip?

>^..^<

M-G (loves fish)

Is it me or are people recommending you move to Germany instead of Poland, when you're being offered a job in Poland?

I'd like to know more about this.


ZUS is the health insurance, accident insurance and pension, all taken out of your wage.
zus.pl

Not to be confused with "talking heads" were on the road to no where

I am slightly biased, but with the language issue. You could pick up a weekend/evening job working in the service industry. Extra pocket money and it's like free Polish classes. That's how I picked up the basics of grammar, vocabulary and slang...and I get by just fine.

Call centers are the bottom of the barrel places of employment. Frankly, I'm surprised they're willing to pay so much for your services. An average developer makes here 60, 70K USD a year. An average IT manger with 5 years of experience makes about 80K. That’s 232 000 PLN ~ 20 K PLN a month before taxes. 37K USD salary range is offered to junior analysts. I figured I throw in a pinch of perspective for you.

I have been thinking, yes I am capable of this. It makes great sense to have call centres in Eastern Europe, where they speak great english, and are highly educated.

How many times have you been "put off" by the fact that the call centres are in Asia. Try making an insurance claim and the person on the other end cannot even spell your name, and if they do it is so distorted you just have to hang up out of sheer frustration.

This is a great move for your company Mr MGea, now we are all free of having to explain ourselves 4 or 5 times.

Actually, this call centre will deal with the Central/Eastern European market.

And Havok, developers are overpaid anyway. They always have been. They get paid ridiculous amounts for adding a freaking combobox to an application, sth any average beginner in any programming language could do.

In the mid-90's I was invited over to the US to help build a call centre in Fargo, ND. I was offered about a 100K (per annum) for a split-build. The other guy, who was supposed to be running things after it was built, got 150K. But that was back in the days that IT ran high and higher and trees rose into the skies. Nowadays, I am happy with what they're offering me money wise, as the secondary bens are much more important to me, due to personal reasons.


They were already in Warswaw, but they felt the need to expand - I'm not questioning the motives of my company, but after the echec of moving the English speaking market to India (first contacts for that market are still based in Mumbai for that matter), it has increasingly paid off to have ppl speaking to fellow natives on the phone. BTW: I've always told them it's not a good idea to move the English market to India, and I turned out to be right.

>^..^<

M-G (hasn't made his mind up yet)

I’m going to go ahead and disagree with you Mr. MareGaea.

We've tried outsourcing and it only works to certain extent. Simply, people in India don't understand what the intent of the software is.

it's like asking someone who lives in the rainforest to construct the next gen car.
They don’t have a need for cars down there, they never used them. Most likely they're going to miss on some key components that make the vehicle functional, not mentioning the aspect of the car being competitive with other next gen cars. A lot of people are getting paid big bucks trying to solve this problem these days.

Anyway, trust me, working people here make what they deserve and sometimes less. $60K-80K is not a lot considering that our CEO base salary is $840 000 and the company makes $5 billion in total revenue.

Besides, you really gotta know your shi* to earn your money here. You compete with people who come from all over the world and they’re sharp as a razor too. Don't be fooled by the big numbers, the costs are always justified here.