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Living in Wroclaw... Any tips on jobs and salaries (sales/marketing) in Poland?


magookas  1 | -  
29 Dec 2010 /  #1
Hi all,

I'm 30 years old and from NZ, been living in London for last 7 years with Italian citizenship also.

I've just moved to Olesnica, and will be relocating to Wroclaw in the next few weeks.

I've come over here with my fiancee to live and learn polish.

Any tips on jobs (I work in sales/marketing) would be helpful (note I only speak english), and also
if anyone knows of any new flats/houses in the city centre for rent then please let me know as we are currently looking.

If you're keen to just catch up for a beer and a bit of a chat, that would also be great!

Cheers in advance.

Luke
wildrover  98 | 4430  
29 Dec 2010 /  #2
Luke

Young skywalker , the path of a Jedi is not an easy one . many enemies will test your powers , and you must remain strong on this alien planet...

Use the force Luke , it is strong within you , and resist the evil ways of the federation...

To learn the language , you must use the module in your droid , and keep your light sabre by your side always...

Best of luck with the flat hunting , there are a few forum people in that area who may be able to help you...

Welcome to Polska...
Wroclaw Boy  
29 Dec 2010 /  #3
IBM in Wroclaw are hiring, i think you can expect about 2500 PLN take home for an entry level position. www-05.ibm.com/employment/pl/ibm-poland/index.html

There was actually a Polish agency ive seen before with all the positions listed but i cant remember the site address nor where to find it.
FUZZYWICKETS  8 | 1878  
29 Dec 2010 /  #4
I don't know if there's any sales/marketing but I'd hit up Google.

I've taught oodles of lessons there and those people really like their work. Nearly everyone there is fun to be around as well. Also, they have a cafeteria that supplies breakfast and lunch for free for all employees, free drinks and snacks all day long....big money/time saver. Also, Google's world wide so there are always possibilities to transfer. I knew a few people from there that went off to work in Dublin.
AdrianK9  6 | 364  
17 Mar 2016 /  #5
Merged: Average sales salaries in Poland

Hello,

I wanted to ask the members what they know about sales positions in Poland and their relative earnings. I am interested in mostly Sales Representative, Sales Manager, and Sales Director/Vice President. I'm interested in both the base salary as well as what like the total package would be (bonuses, commissions, etc.) Of course this will vary from company to company and region to region - I'm just interested in an average ballpark figure for the larger cities - Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, Wroclaw.

I'd love to also hear any personal experiences of people living in Poland, either now or in the past, that were employed in sales, finance, or marketing.

The only real experience I have is from some info I got from Hays/Hayes (forget the exact name) and two offers that I got around 1.5 years ago - 2k USD + commission working as a sales rep for Google in Wroclaw and 30,0000 Euro + commission as a sales manager for a British shipping company in Gdansk (forgot the name).

Any info would be much appreciated. Thank you.
porky pok  2 | 127  
17 Mar 2016 /  #6
Adrian also dont forget PLN was almost 30% higher then so 2k$ was 6kZees then and now that will be almost 8k Zees.
Dude, you are young and energetic so do something then a job in Poland,there are ample of apportunities, also in your construction sector.
AdrianK9  6 | 364  
17 Mar 2016 /  #7
I treat construction more as a hobby and side job. My dad is a contractor by trade (was a jeweler under communism) but got into remodeling and flipping houses once we moved to the us. He taught me the trade since I was a preteen but it's not something I'd want to focus my career on. I'm more the corporate sales manager, especially business to business, type.

Yeah 8k zloty a month wouldn't be too bad but it just seems like so little money as a lot of things cost as much or even more than in the US - like electronics, cars, gas etc. but at least rent and food seems to be a bit cheaper. If I could get a job that paid me in USD in the range of even $35k-$40k a year I'd definitely move. I think I may have to wait till I finish an MBA before that happens though. The 30k EU a year job I'd sooner take than the google one because the commission potential was much higher. It involves selling leases for cargo ships and tankers as well as the ships themselves. I do know people that do something similar but with trucking and although they make a pretty small salary like around $40k with their commission they're at the high 5 figure low 6 figure range. Money isn't the end all to be all but I'd like to maintain a lifestyle where if I moved to Poland I could afford a nice small flat, a car, buying nice suits, and travelling. I think with at least $40k USD I could live comfortably in Poland and put aside a little money for retirement. Before this tragedy with my house in Poland, I wouldn't of had to rent - just remodel the place which I could've done most the work myself.

Ultimately, I'd probably want t open up my own business in Poland in due time but I'd like to at least have a full time job for 1-2 years so I can learn the laws, customs, taxes, bureaucracy, come up with a SWOT analysis, etc.

One business I was thinking about opening that I think would be very good in Poland is a pawn shop in a major city. I haven't really seen one around yet. I did post here earlier that prior to the current exchange rate, my friend was shipping Jordans and Rolex's from the US to Poland and couldn't fill orders fast enough. Now it's completely stalled out though - the Jordans still sell but not so much the watches.
porky pok  2 | 127  
19 Mar 2016 /  #8
Pawn shop is called lombard can be good also .PM me adrian,im going back on 6th april maybe u can come ill show u around
AdrianK9  6 | 364  
21 Mar 2016 /  #9
I wish Porky. I just spent two months in Wroclaw dealing with the property issues I've been having. I'll be going back in the summer/fall though. Thanks for the offer though!
delphiandomine  86 | 17823  
21 Mar 2016 /  #10
Adrian, got some numbers for you. I asked a friend what he would be willing to pay someone with your background, and he said 3,000zł net base with on target earnings of around 18-20,000zł a month gross. That's in sales to an English speaking market, but based in PL.
AdrianK9  6 | 364  
21 Mar 2016 /  #11
Thanks Delph for finding out to me. That's good to know. What kind of business would this be in and also is it B2B or B2C type of sales? I would love to go to move to Poland but I feel it'll have to be once I finish my MBA or if I'm lucky and find an international company that is like desperate to send someone there and offers a comp package similar to that in the US. The total package is actually pretty nice but 3k zloty base salary net is like $200 a week. When I compared that to 2014 Eurostat data I was actually surprised to find that 36.4k Zloty net is what a family with 2 kids brings is so actually this kind of salary for 1 person is pretty damn good. I guess my expectations are just too high at the moment = / I just don't know how I'd live off $200 a week haha. It's hard for me not to spent at least $200-$300 on a weekend night out let alone during a whole week. I guess maybe I'd live off savings till I made a book of business and gradually started making like $1k plus a week. You never know what life holds.. I got offered $100k to move to Angola from a previous employer but I declined haha

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage
delphiandomine  86 | 17823  
21 Mar 2016 /  #12
What kind of business would this be in and also is it B2B or B2C type of sales?

B2B, in the field of medicine. But yeah, the base is low, but the commission percentage is ridiculously high - he did say that there's absolutely no upper limit and that someone talented could go higher than that. Apparently it's the way things are done in his field - I have no idea about sales, so I can't tell you if this is just the way the company is run or if it's normal for Poland. He also said that it's all open to negotiation - the right sales guy that brings in a tonne of business would easily be able to ask for a very large commission.
AdrianK9  6 | 364  
22 Mar 2016 /  #13
Yeah that seems about right. I was looking into pharma sales in PL and the salaries were in the 4k-4.5k range brutto so 3k netto seems about right. I definitely want to stay in sales because the commission was great. My first job right out of college was actually working for a medical corporation (S&P 500) doing B2B sales. I worked there for 3 years and I'd still be there but they kept changing the commission structure till eventually it just wasn't worth my time. It was messed up because even though I was selling more and had more experience in my 2nd/3rd year, I was making less than I was within my first like 1- 1 1/2 years. You'd think you'd make more money as you gain experience and make more sales but the opposite happened so I left. It was still a good paying job - I was making $70k-$80k a year (combined salary, commission, bonuses, benefits) where my friends were working at electronic stores for $12 an hour, real estate for straight commission and no benefits, and the luckier ones found something around $40-$42k a year.
delphiandomine  86 | 17823  
22 Mar 2016 /  #14
To be honest, if you can get the job done in sales, you should offer to take the minimum wage with a huge commission. There's a distinct lack of people in Poland that can sell to English speaking markets, and many companies would bite your hand off if you can deliver.

I was talking to some company recently about using their product, and you wouldn't believe how bad they were at sales. I even had to tell their sales rep to start her pitch again from the beginning because it was so unbelievably awful.
AdrianK9  6 | 364  
22 Mar 2016 /  #15
It depends on the type of product/service, industry, market, type of sales job, etc. The job I have now I have a significantly higher base salary than my last job but overall my earnings are a bit lower since the commission structure isn't as good. However, my commission gets taxed at 37% while salary is taxed quite a bit less and I don't have to pay for my insurance at this job at all, plus it's a 8 minute drive from my house so it comes out about the same in the long run. 3k Zloty netto would be livable but it'd be hard for the first few months till I got a book of business going and learned the sales cycle because at every company it's different even if they're selling similar products or services. I've looked into some sales jobs in Poland but there were only two that seemed serious about hiring me. A lot of the companies don't advertise the salary on the job posting like they do in the US so after spending a bunch of time filling out an application, sending emails, etc. they'd finally tell me the salary and it was super low. I know I would kill it since I've worked in sales ever since college and that's all I've worked in since graduating. I love it because it's a chase and I'm good at it.

Yeah some people get into sales because even the base salaries are oftentimes higher than other positions in marketing, advertising, HR, etc. and with the commission added on it's like you're earning double. However, it's a very sink or swim type of job. Some people can't handle talking to a stranger let alone trying to sell them something - especially over the phone. A lot of people take rejection way too seriously too. Even worse, a lot of people come into sales just to do the bare minimum and collect their base salary because it's oftentimes better than what their last job offered them.

In the US the salaries and total compensation for sales reps are all over the place. For an entry level B2B sales person right out of college, they might get a salary of $30k-$40k a year and make another $20k to even as high as $50k with commission. Real estate agents typically have no salary and can make anywhere from $0 to $100k plus a year in commission. A good corporate B2B sales person will make more commission than their base salary. A pharma or med device rep which usually takes 4-6 years of B2B experience/2+ years medical industry to obtain will see salaries of $50k (small company) to as high as $90k for the elite pharma companies like GSK and Abbott with a commission of $30k - $150k. Average base for pharma and med device is usually $60-$75k with pharma making a bit higher base but less commission and med device making less base but far more commission and ultimately a higher overall income. The sales managers typically see no less than $150k to as high as $250k total compensation. Also, B2C tends to make a bit less than B2B. A sales rep at an insurance agency like State Farm might make like $25k-$35k a year with maybe another $10-$15k a year in commission if they're lucky. Retail store managers that get a percent off their products sold don't fare too well either - usually around $40k total compensation like with Menard's.

I usually stick to sales jobs in the medical industry or technology since they seem to be where the high salary, high commission jobs are.

. There's a distinct lack of people in Poland that can sell to English speaking markets, and many companies would bite your hand off if you can deliver.

Do you mean like Polish companies that are looking to sell in English markets or more Western companies with an office in Poland but perhaps still selling to English markets?
Hemmersbach  - | 10  
21 Jun 2016 /  #16
Hi everyone,
Check the Hemmersbach (Wroclaw) website and find interesting job offers !

hemmersbach.com/pl/strona-glowna

Kind regards,
Hemmersbach
Hiringpolish  
30 Mar 2017 /  #17
I am looking for a sales representative in Poland. Experience in Distribution channel, electrical sector, heating?

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