Hi,
I am in the discussion with Intel for a software engineer position in Gdansk. I have 10+ years of experience in embedded domain and having master degree.
Can you please suggest how much salary I can ask. We are 4 in family, me, wife and 2 kids (3 and 6 years old) and kids will join school.
Thanks in advance.
@Bob11
First of all, the very first thing you should get through your head is that supporting a foreign wife and school-age children is obscenely expensive in Poland. They might be giving you some cock and bull story about how the cost of living in Poland is low, but that is definitely not true once children enter into the equation. Tuition in an English-medium school is expensive.
So the only way you are going to make any money out of this is if you leave your family behind in India. Their quality of life will be much higher there than you could provide for them in Poland.
Five years ago, companies in Poland were hiring a lot of IT people from India, That has stopped for two reasons. The first is that there has been a large influx of Ukrainians since that time, who for several reasons are much better job candidates than Indians. The other reason is that Indians have caught on that these jobs in Poland are underpaid and lead nowhere, and are not all that useful for gaining entry into the richer countries of the EU.
If you goal is to get into the UK, for example, then work on getting a job in the UK. And rely on your network of real-world contacts to find that job rather than recruiters, agents or web-sites. All the best jobs are advertised solely mouth-to-mouth, face-to-face in the real world. Recruiters, agents and websites get only the crappy jobs.
Bottom line: if you want to get into the UK or other richer country, then taking a job in Poland (or any of the poorer countries of the EU) is probably a waste of time, especially if you are dragging your family along. It might have made sense ten years ago, but not anymore.
Also, if an employer requires you to tell your salary requirements and is reluctant to make an offer of their own, run. This is a standard procedure for determining whether you are an idiot or not. They know that Indians ALWAYS drastically lowball what they expect to earn, unaware of how expensive it is to live in Poland as a non-Polish speaking foreigner. Once they figure out you are an idiot, they know they can use and abuse you however and whenever they want. As them to make an offer first. Otherwise, you ALWAYS lose.
