Applied for Berlin Blue Card roles for six months. Accepted a position at a German fintech at €72…
T=0: The Decision
Four years at an Australian scale-up in Sydney. Good team, good salary (AUD $128k), but a gnawing sense that I was only ever going to see the world from the same 15km radius. No European visa path without deliberate effort.
Applied for Berlin Blue Card roles for six months. Accepted a position at a German fintech at €72k base — a real-terms pay cut, but with 30 days leave, public healthcare, and the entire EU accessible on a weekend.
Professional growth I could not access at home. Not spending my 30s in a single postcode.
6 Months Out
German workplace culture is nothing like an Australian start-up. Formal, hierarchical, consensus-driven. I overstepped in my first month by offering opinions nobody had asked for. The adjustment took real effort and some embarrassment.
“Invest in German lessons before you arrive — even basic conversational German signals respect that colleagues notice immediately.”