Ask HN: What's a reasonable salary at a Berlin startup?

8 points·stephanos2k··10 comments

I'm preparing for some interviews. Being a freelancer I don't have many data points. If you ask people directly no one tells you anything. Glassdoor doesn't have enough information about startup companies.

So what is a reasonable salary for a backend engineer with 5+ years experience at a Berlin startup? Minimum, maximum, median?

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A friend of mine has started working three months ago in Berlin at a StartUp as a backend engineer and has 5+ years experience.

He is doing 40k € + relocation (around 2-3k) + bonus.

Bonus depends on the startup.

Just aim for similar to non-startup companies, unless there's huge relative career value in working at the particular startup.

Europe employee options won't be worth jack. The liquidation preferences are worse than is typical in the US. Your options will be totally wiped out. Don't be fooled by comparisons to US startups, in this respect.

After 5 years of J2EE in the ERP space I was making EUR 52k. But that was 6 years ago.

5 7.5 10 K Euros

thanks for the data point!

Are these monthly or annual figures?

If monthly, that sounds insanely high for Europe.

If annual, that sounds insanely low for Europe.

well not high for europe, maybe berlin but in hamburg 5 years of expertise could very well get you 60k+

Quite possibly but there is no way 60k is the minimum as stated above.

no ... i have no clue but i dont think i know anyone seriously making 10k as a software developer ... i think i dont know anyone making above 5k in a real startup (and that includes various technologies and experience levels)

That's definitely not truth.

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