you could be invited for lunch
Issue #109 (08 Jul) – 20+ Marketing & Comms jobs; weak funding rounds; Coffee with Jörg; the end of software dev boom?; DB & automotive; cooking at home; scams in Berlin; 3 rules of 3.
Programming note: I’ll be redoing testimonials about Handpicked. If you have 2 minutes, I would love to get one from you. The link and the prize (spoiler alert: it’s lunch for the two of you) are just after the jobs. I’ll also take two weeks of summer break—the last weeks of July and August.
For the ones not following the Handpicked LinkedIn page yet, click here.
🌟 Handpicked community
📨 Submit your input here. Inspiration for all the categories on the link.
🎪 Meet — tech & other events:
Deep Tech Award 2024 | Wed, 11.7 at 18.30 | Säälchen
Berlin Design Circle | BDC#03 | Tue, 16.7 at 19.00 | Holon
HTW Werkschau 2024 | 18—20.7 | HTW
😎 Show — Cool stuff / Shoutouts / Projects & similar:
(Inspiration: living room concerts, poetry slams, pop-ups, shoutouts for someone from the community who helped you, giveaways. Websites, apps, projects you've built. Tenders, project/ideas/startup funding sources.)
European Prize for Innovative Women Entrepreneurs 2025. The application deadline is 25.9.
You can also join the Early-stage Startup Accelerator by Berlin Innovation Agency. Focus on climate tech, smart cities, and urban innovation.
🔍 Ask — for a Service / Co-founder / Project help & similar:
we had no submissions; and that’s a pity.
Looking for the submission link? It’s below the title ⤴️
👀 Handpicked jobs
5️⃣ from the rotation this week: Marketing & Comms
(While doing the selection, I noticed that almost all of the jobs require German, and I feel much more than in the past!)
The remaining jobs (also outside rotation) are in the Handpicked online database.
🤩 Do you like Handpicked? Please drop a testimonial and win a prize…
It can be a sentence, two, or more. I will randomly choose two submissions and invite you to lunch or send you a bottle if you prefer/aren’t in Berlin.
Thank you so much! ❤️
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
☕️ Coffee with Jörg Luyken
Jörg is one of the best commentators on German current affairs in English. I love his substack and have repeatedly linked to it here. It’s worth every cent of the paid subscription to support independent journalism/commentariat. (He also has a free tier!)
When the New York Times lost its way. This is the ultimate article on the state of modern journalism by the man who should know best. James Bennet was the opinion editor at the NYT until he was fired for doing what the newspaper has always done - publish the opinions of powerful people. It’s a story of how the newspapers we could once trust to rise above the noise have descended into activism as their business models have crumbled.
Augstein und Blome. Shortly after coming to Germany a decade ago I came across a YouTube channel that I often returned to because it sticks out in Germany for being 1) argumentative 2) funny and 3) brief. Jakob Augstein is a columnist and son of Der Spiegel's founder. Nikolaus Blome formerly edited the conservative tabloid Bild. They briefly debate current issues, mixing information with friendly banter. Their exchanges exemplify enjoyable, informative debate. Sadly, they don't do it so regularly anymore, but here is a recent one on whether to ban the far-right AfD party. (a podcast is also available here)
Rüdesheimer Platz is one of my favourite places in the west end of Berlin. As a parent, it's got everything you need. A play park that you can sun yourself in while your children guddle around in the sand, a good coffee shop with delicious crumbles, and an excellent wine stand that opens in the summer and celebrates the German wine regions the surrounding streets are named after. Plus, it is a beautiful oasis of green in the middle of the city.
🇩🇪 Berlin & other good stuff
Happy to report that the Tap Water team was a clear winner (92%) in last week’s massively popular poll with more than 520 respondents. We’ll have a look into filters soon. Let’s try something different:
Remember: I would love to get a testimonial from you. As a token of appreciation, I am buying lunch or sending you a bottle of your choice (I’ll choose two “winners” randomly).
It’s a bit late, but you can still catch some of the 11 food events in July. (🇩🇪)
We are not as many as the government thought. According to the 2022 census, Berlin had 3,598,006 inhabitants in May ‘22. This is 130k less than estimated, so Berlin’s budget will be retroactively reduced by roughly €0.5B annually. Yes, Berlin is even more broke than previously thought. (more, 🇩🇪) The main reason for the difference is that people often don’t do the Abmeldung, so there are now ideas to pay for proper Abmeldung. Maybe digitize it while you are at it? Watch Capital B: Wem gehört Berlin? (🇩🇪) to understand why Berlin is broke.
I researched DB following my horror show, and I am sure we all experienced it one way or another. Punctuality and reliability (🇩🇪, €) of Berlin’s S-Bahn dropped again (142k trains were late, the ring was the worst where only 92% were on time; and 39k trains were cancelled!) The situation is even worse around Germany — check this YT video (🇩🇪). It’s mostly underinvestment with a solid pinch of bad management. These charts (screengrabs from the video) are clear proof that a country with such a strong automotive industry simply cannot have good trains:
Simplicissimus - Wird die Deutsche Bahn jemals besser? In the comment section, we find very interesting insight from an employee at DB. They’re dealing with outdated infrastructure, overcapacity, a lack of buffer times, staff shortages, and unrealistic scheduling. Given the current state of the network, he thinks that the politically driven goal of doubling passenger numbers is unsustainable.
Meanwhile, BVG presented its longest-ever tram, Urbanliner, which will start operating in the first quarter of 2025 on the M4 line. It’s the most used line in Germany, with around 100k daily passengers, served by 18 trams per hour.
Numbeo released the Mid-Year cost of living index by cities. Geneva, Zurich, New York are the top three. Berlin is #56, the third German city after Munich (#41) and Hamburg (#45). Interesting stats have a look.
Career: The low interest rate phenomenon resulted in an explosion of software development jobs. But it seems the glory days of software development are clearly over (and won’t ever return?). This means we need to adjust our salary and ease-of-getting-a-job expectations lower. US data is clear:
Career: After landing your interview, you can use some of the techniques mentioned here to Show You’re Passionate in a Job Interview. Thinking of “Why” you did something will help you show your motivation, drive and passion.
Timeless: I love Alan Alda’s 3 rules of 3. It’s a useful short clip to see from time to time. Only say three most important things, say it in three ways and say it three times.
Reddit choice of the week is a post on scams that people experienced living in Berlin, and the spicy döner sauce must be one of them.
💬 Briefly:
Stats: YoY June inflation in Berlin was 1.6% (St. BB)
According to Finance Forward (🇩🇪), Check24 implemented an internal recruiting policy to hire only developers and product managers with a maximum of two years of work experience for the next two years. Wow, ageism is real!
Tethered caps on plastic bottles, a running (unjust?) joke on innovation in the EU, are mandatory from July 3rd.
Swedish EQT and Kühne Holding bought 35% of Flix. IPO is off the table for now.
Vodafone will invest €140M in AI chatbots this year. They rolled out SuperTOBi this week.
Siemens Energy has big plans until 2030 in the electricity grids boom: they plan to invest €1.2B and create 10k jobs around Europe and Germany. Stay tuned.
Revolut (a neobank with a presence in Berlin) posted numbers for 2023: £1.80 B in revenue with £344 net profit. They employed 8,152 people, up from 5,913 in 2022.
Taxfix (Berlin) is expanding to the UK by acquiring TaxScouts. (Tech EU)
Bundeskartellamt imposed a €16M fine on Fritzbox manufacturer AVM for price manipulation at electronics retailers. (HB)
Aleph Alpha, German Gen AI hope, is allegedly struggling to deliver (TT, 🇩🇪): their models are not competitive, and one of the reasons might be that they have less cash than competitors. GPUs are expensive.
💸 Recently funded in Berlin & Germany
Vytal | Cologne | Reusable food packaging solutions | €6M Funding | Careers.
Cartken | Berlin | Robotic navigation software | $22.5M Funding | Careers.
Heidelberg Epignostix | Heidelberg | AI-based cancer diagnostics | €4.3M Funding | No careers.
😅 Meanwhile
EM2024-themed salary meme (via r/ich_iel)
btw, 5M of these shirts were given out for free in exchange for an app download
✌️ Handpicked essentials and a treat:
♡ 20% Berlin: all the Berlin news twice a week, in English! ♡
- How to learn German and get over “Genau” and “mit Karte, bitte”?
- Signing a new employment contract in Germany? Read this before.
- Berlin Salary Trends Reports: How do you compare?
- ❓Surprise treat for the curious
- The best questions to ask at a job interview
- What do hiring managers look for in CVs?
- 🎙️ Handpicked in media (podcasts and articles)
✨ Berlin Events Weekly: the best resource for events in Berlin ✨
If you liked any of the links, hit the like button. ⤵️