will you apply for dual citizenship? ♡
Issue #86 (29 Jan) – 20+ data, analytics and finance jobs; Factory competition; Chef for Olaf; Coffee with Verena; cost of living in Berlin; Berlinale around the corner and apartment search hack.
Programming note: If you are organising a tech-related event and would need support, please approach me for media partnerships. Does anyone know a good place to print a small amount of Handpicked merch (hoodies, cups etc)? Ideally local and high quality.
🌟 Handpicked Kleinanzeigen & Tech Events
To get featured, submit on the link at the end of the section.
🎪 Events:
🚨 Factory, a Berlin startup-hub, is organising a TikTok competition for startups and small business creators with several great prizes (!), and you can also attend the final event:
Check Out Drinks: TikTok Competition | Fri, 9.2 at 17.30 | Factory Görlitzer Park
Women in Tech: Sip, Connect, Learn | Thu, 1.2 at 18.30 | Wine Match
Climate Techies Berlin Meetup | Thu, 1.2 at 18.30 | The Castle
😎 Cool stuff:
Here is another virtual departure tracker for BVG, this time for iOS. It shows next three timings of a specific line of a stop.
Working on something? Apply for Lean Startup Sprint, a free 2-week women-focused program for you to develop your startup idea into a proof-of-concept. You can also get a free marketing for startups workshop.
(doing a project? Built something to show? you can get featured here)
🔍 Searching for roles/freelance gig:
Carmen has a Master's Degree in Biochemistry and her favorite ice breaker at parties is the microbiome. She’d like a role in which she can help communicate and make scientific knowledge available to all who could benefit from it. She speaks four languages.
Rafael: I have created TV series for Disney and Universal, and written a PhD in Virtual Reality. Now I'm looking for collaboration opportunities in story, immersive and interactive.
Alex: I'm looking for consulting, freelancer opportunities, or on-site/full time opportunities as a robotics engineer with R&D background. I've previously worked as CTO & CEO of several startups & have managed many projects, most recently in last mile delivery.
Tomas: Looking for Fullstack/Backend/Frontend development. 8 years of experience in web development (Angular, NextJS, Laravel, NodeJS, Ionic, Typescript, PHP)
Shreyans: Need a stunning website or web app? Hire Shreyans, a skilled frontend developer with experience in Vue, React, Tailwind, and TypeScript. Contact for a free quote!
🫣 Looking for a service/freelancer:
Nobody needed anybody—you could have been listed here alone! Think of all the possibilities. (Except me: I am looking for a cool merch supplier 😇)
🚨 You can get featured, too—submit on this link!
It’s free for all categories.
👀 Handpicked twenty-something
Special mention:
Bundeskanzleramt - Chef at the office of Olaf Scholz (2683 - 2997€)
📨 HR doing the extra mile and submitting for you:
💾 On rotation this week: Data, Analytics & Finance
More positions (also outside rotation) in Handpicked online database.
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
☕️ Coffee with Verena Weber
Verena is a NLP expert and Generative AI consultant who loves learning and is also active in the Berlin AI community. This is what she has selected for you:
Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck (book, read) – a book that truly changed my perspective on how much of excellence can be attributed to talent vs practice and discipline. Previously, I believed skills were mostly innate, but now I'm certain that with enough effort, I can master any skill (growth mindset). It also offers valuable insights into fostering a growth mindset in children.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Happiness and Wealth by Eric Jorgenson (book, read) is a complete guide to life, and I loved the combination of happiness and wealth – usually, books are about one or the other. Impressive clarity and precision.
Fast & Curious by Lea-Sophie Cramer and Verena Pausder (podcast, listen) is my favorite podcast. It’s a great mix of business, inspiration, and entertainment. I love the hosts’ authenticity—they inspire me to take more (calculated) risks.
🇩🇪 Berlin & Other good stuff
I published my first Perspective: 🧭 How to find a great company to work for? It's subjective, but I think I’ll also like it in 6 months—it often happens that writing doesn’t age well for the author.
💶 Numbeo published its cost of living index 2024. Berlin is at #48 in Europe, and Hamburg is the top German city at #20. If we sort by restaurants, we are #81 and #51 by groceries. On our favourite topic, rents, Berlin is #23.
🎥 Berlinale is just around the corner. I attended last year for the first time, and the Programme can be overwhelming. My tip is to pick two or three movies from the competition—I assume they are well-curated. Don’t be afraid of large venues; it works. I was also buying tickets from Kleinanzeigen. If you have other tips, please do share in the comments. For an overview of the 20 competition movies, head to Tip Berlin. (🇩🇪) Tempting.
🚄 2024 has been a year of strikes so far (and BVG might join soon). Jörg Luyken has a great article on the topic of why DB is terrible, where I was most surprised by the cost comparison between the costs of autobahn and railway: “it costs over €300,000 to maintain a kilometre of track, a kilometre of autobahn costs just €200,000.”
Swiss trains are punctual but also expensive (according to Jörg, they spend 4x more per head railroads). Slovenia is also rocking it 🇩🇪 You probably heard by now that getting dual citizenship will get easier and faster for everyone outside of the EU and Switzerland. Adi made a nice web app to prepare for your Einbürgerungstest. Questions are extremely easy, but I was overwhelmed by all the attachments you must submit.
😤 Whenever you get angry at work, don’t explode because you can channel your anger in a more positive way. This useful article from HBR has a couple of strategies to handle it.
🤖 High-salaried tech bubble of 2008-2022 probably finally burst (Tweet). So if five years ago everyone wanted to work in tech to earn big, what comes next? Health, climate? Anti-tech? Oil companies? Hmm.
🏠 Apartment search hack/tip: Publish an advert in the newspapers and promote yourself on Kleinanzeigen—the main thesis being that some people don’t want to be flooded by thousands of requests. I found an apartment this way in Stuttgart and got reminded of it by this great tip from AdMysterious2746 on Reddit.
✏️ The day you became a better writer is a short text, and… where do I sign? Each word should tell. The more you write, the better you’ll get at it. There are only upsides, in business and privately. Write more!
r/berlin choice of the week is this discussion on the reasons behind broken windows in the area of Hackescher Markt. Spoiler alert: it’s people protesting gentrification. To work on your German, you can pair it with this time travel documentary about West Berlin’s U-Bahn from October 1986.
💬 Briefly:
😔 Bad news: Personio -100; Salesforce -700 (1%); GoStudent is “adjusting the size of our central teams”; SAP -7000 (7%, but gradual and with restructuring); eBay -1000; Bosch plans for -1700 (also autonomous driving engineers); Twinner (Halle, auto-scanner) bankrupt.
Trouble in real estate: Signa bankruptcy might even sink KaDeWe Group! German real estate company Branicks will try to push back more than €400M of debt coming due this year as the company faces liquidity pressures amid a downturn in the property market. (Bloomberg) One Group (Hamburg) is also in trouble. (HB)
I’ve been publishing ASML positions here often in the last year and it’s because they are one of the most important companies in the world and ALSO based in Berlin. They just posted great results. Check them out.
Now you know it: U1-U4 are older than U5-U9. That is why the trains on the older lines are a bit narrower.
Finn’s (Munich, car subscription) competitor, Swiss Carvolution, raised CHF200M.
Circus (Hamburg, robotic chefs) directly listed in Frankfurt (+23.81%).
Kraken (of Octopus Energy fame) took over Berlin-based Kwest.
Egym (Munich, fitness) was profitable for the first time.
Nexwafe (Freiburg) plans to build a wafer factory in the USA.2Hearts community (I recently joined!) started an investment club called Angel Collective.
Speculation is back that Apple will release a car in late 2020s—big if true.
💸 Recently funded in Berlin & Germany
Monta | Berlin | Workforce expansion, research and product development focus | €80M Series B | Careers.
Kittl | Berlin | Browser-based graphic design | $36M Series B | Careers.
Mondu | Berlin | European B2B payment solution expansion | €30M debt | Careers.
Qdrant | Berlin | Open-source vector databases for AI | $28M | Careers.
Morressier | Berlin | Scholarly research publisher tools | $16.5M Series B | Careers.
Ceezer | Berlin | Carbon credit portfolio management | €10.3M Series A | Careers.
deeploi | Berlin | IT platform and support, business growth | €6M | Careers.
Packmatic | Berlin | Product packaging marketplace | €15M | Careers.
Vyld | Berlin | Sustainable menstrual products | undisclosed | Careers.
Instagrid | Stuttgart | High-performance portable battery systems | €87M Series C | Careers.
Infinite Roots | Hamburg | Global food system transformation, mycelium technology | $58M Series B | Careers.
Locaboo | Munich | Cloud solution, public space management and booking | €1.2M Funding | Careers.
Implify | Frankfurt | Digital implantology procurement, dental practice services | undisclosed Series A | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
this made me chuckle
This is a footer slice of 🍄for you. Cancer hates mushrooms. People with 18g daily consumption had a 45% lower risk of developing cancer.
✌️ Handpicked essentials:
- Don’t make these mistakes with your side hustle!
- Berlin Salary Trends Report 2023: How do you compare?
- The best questions to ask at a job interview
- What do hiring managers look for in CVs?
✨ Berlin Events Weekly: the best resource for events in Berlin ✨
You are still reading, genius? Smash that like button or leave a comment! ♡
The tech salary peak makes sense. Generally, tech growth was always a high risk gamble. With less money in the market you have to play more safe.
Let's all eat more mushrooms :)