A Lot of German Companies Are Laying People Off
Layoffs abound and people are feeling the pain. Advice from a career coach is back. A list of purpose driven, high impact European startups. A new high-speed train will take you from Berlin to Paris.
Personal News & Musings
🫣 Sometimes, I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.
<or career advice>
The “Advice From a Career Coach” feature will return next week, as I have so much good news to share today. 💕
First off, I refreshed my CV and cover letter review service. If you find yourself not getting responses to job applications in Germany, I can help you create a strong, market-ready CV and cover letter to get you invited to more interiews.
As a gift, I’m offering a special limited-time €10 discount to anyone who books a service this week. 👉 Check out the new page and make a booking!
Extend promo
Community News
🤝 News from our community.
<Poll image>
Our last poll asked: <something>
Take part in this week’s poll: <a poll>
This week’s featured Berlin Life guides: <two guides>
Read last week’s newsletter: <link> For our past editions, see our archives.
Gentle reminder: We’re looking for foreign women working in tech to share their employment experiences in Germany. Fill out this form to be featured in an upcoming article.
Event
Partners
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSffPEe2kI-OHEUBosrxbBPQEivdF5HIaxABL0ZwuWpNxsLTyg/viewform
Dinner
Food For Thought
💡 Articles about tech, the world of work, & other random things.
<links>
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSffPEe2kI-OHEUBosrxbBPQEivdF5HIaxABL0ZwuWpNxsLTyg/viewform
65 new startups were founded between January and July 2024 which had links to one of Germany’s 32 unicorns.
Two-thirds of the startups come from five unicorns: Zalando, Delivery Hero, Celonis, Enpal and Razor Group. The 15 startups spawned by Zalando (23.1% of the total) is the most of any unicorn.
One third are still in stealth, but of those that have been identified as belonging to a certain sector, fintech, data & analytics, HR tech, clean tech and construction tech are the most popular.
https://www.geekwire.com/2024/amazons-new-back-to-office-mandate-adds-to-debate-over-remote-work-and-employee-productivity/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/newsletter-september-2024-new-skilled-labour-immigration-rc3xe/
https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/16/bluesky-now-has-10-million-users/
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/summarize-the-five-most-import-TTdBbRb6RDebyoh46nTtlw
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/09/91-percent-of-amazon-employees-are-dissatisfied-with-remote-work-ending-poll/
https://www.wsj.com/tech/tech-jobs-artificial-intelligence-cce22393
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/what-are-the-key-insights-yfZSpQegQjunDhm88Zo89Q
https://sifted.eu/articles/49-most-promising-impact-startups-in-europe 10 are in DE
https://cherylhoward.com/things-to-do-in-brno/
https://www.worklife.news/leadership/how-people-leader-trauma-awareness-is-growing-in-the-workplace/
https://www.linkedin.com/business/marketing/blog/linkedin-pages/5-non-obvious-ways-to-improve-your-linkedin-company-page
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-state-of-our-unions/202208/whats-behind-the-rise-of-lonely-single-men
https://mashable.com/article/bisexual-mental-health-bi-awareness-week
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/single-and-not-looking-to-mingle-why-these-women-are-choosing-to-live-solo-for-good-232758847.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/25/business/rto-mandates-amazon-jamie-dimon-remote-work-benefits/index.html
Many startup employees I’ve spoken to lately say they feel like they’re working harder than ever, while their pay has barely increased. Their qualms reflect new data provided to Sifted by compensation benchmarking platform Ravio, which pulled data from 1,000 European startups in August 2024.
Ravio’s data shows that:
The value of salary increases (not counting those that come alongside a promotion) has decreased year on year across European tech from 5.8% to 5%.
Spain was the only country to see a slight increase (0.3%) in the value of pay rises during that period.
Hiring rates have also fallen by 15% across Europe in that same time period — with Spanish and UK startups seeing the steepest declines. (Hiring rates are the percentage of new hires relative to the average number of employees throughout the same period. So, if a company averaged 40 people over the last 12 months but made 20 new hires, their hiring rate would be 50%.)
https://www.instagram.com/corporate.era
https://www.tbd.community/en/a/about-laziness-and-why-it-doesnt-exist
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-23/ex-twitter-worker-wins-musk-layoff-pay-fight-memo-says
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/24/microsoft-github-gives-clients-option-to-keep-sensitive-code-in-eu.html
https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/25/meta-acquires-the-threads-com-domain-name/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-24/crowdstrike-executive-apologizes-to-congress-for-massive-outage
https://www.threads.net/@thinkai.academy/post/DAEhkYaoDU-?xmt=AQGzbDawptzY88kb3FINrbhLNQcG1ysGRaajgQ9QnPjxIQ
Companies Hiring
🇩🇪 Companies in Germany hiring right now.
Blacklane (Berlin, 9 jobs, EN required)
🇩🇪 German startups that recently raised new funding also have vacancies.
Distribusion (€80 M) | Berlin | Jobs
Enginsight (€6 M) | Jena | Jobs
Family.cards (€1.2 M) | Brandenburg | Jobs
Marvel Fusion (€62.8 M) | Munich | Jobs
ℹ️ We share new job postings daily on LinkedIn. Follow us.
News in Germany
🗞️ All of the news in Germany.
Green news:
https://electrek.co/2024/09/25/tesla-progresses-on-giga-berlin-expansion-workers-snuck-in-the-middle-of-the-night-with-police/
https://apnews.com/article/germany-oktoberfest-munich-beer-festival-climate-change-education-338ab02a216e77530e711c880bec9683
Healthy habits
https://www.dw.com/en/german-minister-eating-habit-survey-shows-developing-tastes/a-70309258
https://www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/german-expat-news/autumn-2024-where-can-i-get-coronavirus-vaccine-germany
Family things:
https://www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/german-expat-news/how-find-midwife-if-youre-expecting-baby-germany
https://www.iamexpat.de/education/education-news/berlin-kita-staff-begin-unlimited-strike-monday
Transit takes:
https://www.the-berliner.com/english-news-berlin/german-public-transport-deutschlandticket-to-cost-e58-from-next-year-2025/
https://www.thelocal.de/20240926/still-great-value-deutschlandticket-price-hike-divides-foreigners-in-germany
https://www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/german-expat-news/your-guide-new-deutschlandticket-jobtickets-reductions-and
https://www.iamexpat.de/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/new-passenger-flight-launches-germany-arctic-circle
https://www.euronews.com/travel/2024/09/25/high-speed-train-from-paris-to-berlin-to-launch-this-winter-with-daily-connections-from-59
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/worlds-largest-rail-exhibition-returns-innotrans-opens-in-berlin/
Political hot topics:
https://www.the-berliner.com/english-news-berlin/brandenburg-elections-afd-narrowly-miss-out-on-first-place/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/26/poles-germany-border-europe-olaf-scholz-frontier-iron-curtain
https://carnegieendowment.org/europe/strategic-europe/2024/09/germanys-fragmentation-weakens-europe?lang=en
https://www.dw.com/en/after-hitler-changing-views-of-nazism-in-postwar-germany/a-70323500
Economic buzz:
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/09/26/german-supermarket-aldis-fake-discounts-breach-eu-law-top-european-court-says
https://www.thelocal.de/20240926/why-sending-post-in-germany-will-get-more-expensive-in-2025
https://www.iamexpat.de/housing/real-estate-news/munich-and-frankfurt-homes-most-overvalued-germany-ubs-reports
https://fortune.com/europe/2024/09/26/germany-economy-stagnation-ing/
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/leading-german-institutes-slash-gdp-forecast-01-2024-say-sources-2024-09-24/
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-financial-ambition-slam-germany-opposition-olaf-scholz-commerzbank/
https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-banking/german-business-is-getting-more-pessimistic-as-recession-angst-grows-5effcbe7
https://www.dw.com/en/volkswagens-crisis-how-can-europes-car-industry-survive/a-70231806
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/09/25/italy-germany-join-carmakers-in-call-to-rethink-internal-combustion-engine-ban
https://www.dw.com/en/far-right-gains-in-east-germany-could-deal-blow-to-economy/a-70295769
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/german-business-sentiment-falls-more-than-expected-september-says-ifo-2024-09-24/
https://fortune.com/europe/2024/09/23/germany-destatis-statistics-body-economic-indicators-tech-update/
Labor market developments:
https://www.iamexpat.de/career/employment-news/how-do-you-employ-nanny-or-au-pair-germany
https://www.thelocal.de/20240926/can-my-company-in-germany-check-on-me-at-home-when-im-sic
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/27/tesla-home-checks-on-workers-on-sick-leave-defended-by-boss-in-germany
https://www.thelocal.de/20240925/more-layoffs-how-germanys-car-industry-crisis-will-hit-the-labour-market
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/volkswagen-starts-key-pay-talks-with-unions-shadow-possible-plant-closures-2024-09-25/
https://www.iamexpat.de/career/employment-news/what-you-should-and-shouldnt-do-if-you-have-been-dismissed-germany
Immigration happenings:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/sep/24/germany-and-france-call-for-europe-wide-deal-with-uk-on-migration
https://www.thelocal.de/20240925/the-eu-is-in-barbieland-and-becoming-more-xenophobic-new-report-warns
https://www.the-berliner.com/politics/berlin-wahlheymat-voting-international-communities-german-foreign-elections/
https://www.thelocal.de/20240927/could-personal-debt-stop-you-from-getting-german-citizenship
https://www.thelocal.de/20240925/why-do-foreigners-find-germany-such-a-hard-country-to-settle-in
https://www.thelocal.de/20240927/opinion-attitudes-to-foreigners-in-germany-are-hardening-and-should-concern-us-al
https://www.thelocal.de/20240925/how-to-book-an-appointment-for-the-german-citizenship-test
https://www.thelocal.de/20240926/when-does-germany-consider-a-foreigner-to-be-successfully-integrated
Fun and/or useful:
https://www.the-berliner.com/music-clubs/berlin-ramones-museum-bonzo-goes-to-kreuzkolln/
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/24/what-to-know-about-celebrating-oktoberfest-in-munich.html
https://www.the-berliner.com/berlin/love-letters-to-the-city-new-exhibition-at-urban-nation/
https://www.the-berliner.com/berlin/running-crews-clubs-sport-jogging-fitness-community-exercise-outdoors-marathon/
https://www.the-berliner.com/berlin/berliner-luft-history-east-german-ddr-liquor-mint-alcohol-factory-production/
https://www.dw.com/en/mission-moon-in-cologne-luna-training-facility-opens/g-70332686
https://www.dw.com/en/a-howling-good-time-germanys-pool-parties-for-dogs/g-70301733I
Less or More … That is the Question
A final question before we part ways: Would you continue to read this newsletter if you occasionally received a mid-week edition?
Ways We Can Help You
😇 Good stuff served up by the Berlin Life.
Connect with other professionals in Germany through our LinkedIn Connect & Exchange list.
Save money with our partners as you settle into your new life in Germany.
Read our 50+ free guides to living, working, and moving to Germany.