this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 year ago (4 children)

If you work in academia, you don't need to learn a new language. English is the working language. Also the 5 weeks of holiday is nice, but what really helps is the working day.

I started as a bioinformatician a month ago. I come in to the office at 0830 have coffee from 09:00 til 09:45 with my boss and colleagues, work a bit, have lunch from 12:00 untill 13:15, work a bit, go home at 15:30. That's my day.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Work in IT.
Start at 9:00
Lunch 13:00-14:00
Go home at 18:00
Commute (if construction does not tear up the main crossing) is around 30min 1-way with bus or a 15-20min bicycle ride.

Experience: About 5 years without college/uni.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

if construction does not tear up

It's München time

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Entirety of Germany in my experience. Germans love their Baustelle

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think IT might not be as easy as you think. Academia is a bit more open.

IT isn't quite high skilled enough to get in. They'd almost certainly need an employer to say they couldn't find a European to do the job, which is exceedingly unlikely.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know if I quite get what you are saying...
You mean it from the perspective of a US based company?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think he's saying it's harder to get a work visa taking a job in IT, as the EU company would have to first prove that they couldn't find a European citizen to take the job before they can start hiring foreigners.

It hasn't been my experience though, we hire lots of foreigners on work visas. Many from India and former Soviet countries especially.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah, that's what I was saying.

In Spain we do have non-EU people, but oftentimes they come here, live in Spain "irregularly" at some point, and then manage to get residency through means other than an employer sponsoring them. That might not be the case everywhere though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm not in a big corp so I can just assume:
Do some countries require to proof local citizens are not worthy enough so you need to import work force from abroad?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, many countries do this. It's common in Europe but the US does it also.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Kinda surprised because you read so much stories about outsourcing workforce to "3rd world" countries in Asia and Africa/S.America.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Outsourcing generally means that you hire a (often foreign) consulting company to do your work for you, instead of having your own employees do it. That's much different from getting an immigrant a work visa and having them work for you.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Maybe you don't need the language for work. But you will need te learn the language eventually for other day to day interactions.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Or the paper works outside of the labs.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Don't know about other countries, but in Norway you always have the option of getting websites and government information in English. Everyone speaks it including cashier's, cleaners etc.

The same thing is not true in Germany and Spain.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Dutchie here, we do the same. Everybody speaks (some form of) English, almost everything is also available in English.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is true but also keep in mind that Dutch is still leading in most cases. E.g. if you have a contract that's both in English and Dutch, if issues arise the Dutch translation will usually be the one that is followed

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The Dutch speak better English than some parts of England.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

My experience is purely based on Germany and I hate it even as a native. Plus having ADHD and paper being a chore doesnt help at all...

Also most folks (in my experience of south west Germany) of age >40-50 have little experience with English and can't converse beyond the most basics.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For some reason France really doesn't like giving english (or any other than french) options on their gov sites. Every other country in the eu are fine.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I would most certainly disagree that every person speaks English. Especially older people don't, but in general many people here do not speak a good english

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Oh, I see that I totally forgot to mention I'm from Germany

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

No, pretty much anyone in Norway can speak English, some don't feel confident in their ability though. But if you ask any rando on the street if they speak English you get the answer of course ".

[–] sederx 0 points 1 year ago

never needed german knowledge to do standard burocracy stuff

[–] sederx -1 points 1 year ago

im in the country for almost 10 years now without speaking a word. not true.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Seven hour day with an hour and fifteen minute lunch. What kind of magic is this? What's the catch?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago

The catch is that you live in Europe and cops won't beat you to death.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Those are summer hours. In the rest of the year I'll be expected to work an additional 45 minutes. Officially we only get 30 minutes for lunch, but no-one cares. When our contact in admin is in we keep it to 45 minutes.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

30-45 minutes for lunch, where do you live, in the Netherlands?

In France it's 1h30 usually (give or take a bit depending the company).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

We take around a hour and a half but we're not officially supposed to.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Well this might be an anomaly but the company I worked for in the Philippines gave you a dedicated hour for lunch and two 15-minute breaks, plus two hours weekly for any of the workshops/learning opportunities they provide.

[–] sederx 0 points 1 year ago

lol i work a third of that

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I work in the public sector. If I start my day at 06.00, I can leave at 14.30 👌 Perfect for me since I am an early riser and the days are slowly getting darker and darker again

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah I have flex time, but the daycare doesn't.