What I wish I had known as a programmer moving to Berlin

Intro

I’ve passed my seven year mark living in Berlin, Germany, and I thought it would be worthwhile to reflect on it and write down some of the things I wished I had known before moving from the US. Building a new life in a different country is a tremendous amount of work but can also be extremely rewarding. My goal isn’t to persuade you to move or not to move here, only to give you some more information to help you make a decision for yourself or better prepare for a move if you’ve already decided on it.

Background

My viewpoint is of a cis-male white American FAANG¹ engineer who moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Berlin. I’m mostly speaking from personal experience, but I’ll try to point out differences and generalities where I can. Of special note, I’ll be mentioning some American and German law which may not be applicable if you’re not subject to American law or if you’re planning on moving to a different country in Europe. You may want to find online forums or groups specific to your situation if you’re thinking of doing something like this. That said, nothing in this set of documents is financial, tax, or legal advice.

Finally, I’ve been writing this on-and-off since 2022, and the decision to publish now has everything to do with it being finished and nothing to do with the current US elections or political climate.

Content

I’ve loosely organized this by theme, with each one getting its own page:

Shameless Advertisement

I am looking for a job! If you’re in a position to give one, please see my dedicated page for that.

Conclusion

Thanks for taking the time to read this, it’s taken me literal years to finish it and I hope it has proven useful or at least entertained you in some way. Thanks as well to those who read drafts and offered corrections. I’m always open for more feedback and corrections; my email should be relatively easy to find.

Good luck and have fun!

or whatever the acronym is now, you know what I mean ↩︎