Fuck.

[feuervogel]

So, according to a comment on someone else's f-locked post, the age I'm going to be in 10 years, once we have few or no cats and a smaller principle on our mortgage, that is, 45, is considered "too old" to get a job in Germany, really really.

Fuck my life, fuck me, and fuck that bullshit.

I'm never going to get to move to Berlin if neither Ben (who will ALSO be 45, and a 20-year-experienced software engineer) nor I will be able to get jobs to support ourselves.

I was happy until about 10 minutes ago when I read that comment notification. Now I want to curl up and cry a lot.

Comments

[rike_tikki_tavi]

network drive-by comment

Speaking as a German, who lives in Berlin you can't say that 45 is too old to get a job in Germany. It depends a lot on what kind of job you are looking for and what industry you want to work in. And software engineers for example should have pretty good chances, particularly when they have some experience. Plus, trying to say today how the job situation in Berlin is going to be in ten years is insane. Lately we had trouble telling that 2 years in advance.

[feuervogel]

As far as I can figure, it's not supposed to be easy to get a visa, and it seems like they ended the IT visa since the last time I checked. So he learns German, searches at the Arbeitsagentur and applies somehow (the application procedure isn't transparent to foreigners), yay. (It's such a major move that I'd prefer that one of us has a job with a decent income before we sell the house and many possessions and ship the rest over.)

I'm a licensed pharmacist here, but the idea of learning medical Fachdeutsch and basically repeating pharmacy school (or part of it; I don't know if I'd have to take courses or if an apprenticeship would suffice to qualify for the exam) isn't terribly appealing. And the rotating night/weekend thing doesn't thrill me, either.

[rike_tikki_tavi]

Well, for job search I wouldn't just count on the Arbeitsagentur. He should take a look at monster.de, stepstone.de and other online job search sites. Those are usually better bets as a lot of interesting job openings don't even get advertised to the AA.

I'm afraid, I can't help with the pharmacist stuff. Maybe you could try looking for something that ustilizes your education, but is not a pharmacist, because I think you might have to re-take at least some of your courses over here.

[feuervogel]

Well, I want to be a novelist. I'm on the third draft of my first novel, and I intend to outline the second after this draft. But that doesn't pay enough to live on. I wouldn't mind a mini-job as a tour guide (1 year residency required for the English-language places), but I have no idea how to work the visas for that. (A question for the embassy, no doubt, when I get that far in planning. I'm equidistant to the Atlanta and DC offices.)

acari found the Apothekenkammer websites for Berlin and Brandenburg, and they'd be the most logical place to ask. I just haven't yet. I know from Anabin that my degree doesn't transfer, though from what I can tell from the Charite Pharmazeut page, the education is similar. (But good lord, re-learning biochemistry and pharmacokinetics, plus German drugs and laws? ;_; )

[rike_tikki_tavi]

Hmm, if you really want to re-qualifiy in Germany, you might be able to transfer parts of your degree. They might recognize some of the courses you've taken, like biochemistry and other purely scientific stuff. It'd depend a lot on how your courses were structured in the states and which school you'd apply to here in Germany. Or they might not recognise it at all but the chance is there.

But you'd definitely have to take all the law stuff and courses that pertain to being a pharmacist and Germany/Europe.

[feuervogel]

Yeah. With any luck, I'll have a book or two in print by then and be able to call that my full time employment, even if I'd need a mini-job or two.