I was working in a small startup in Germany. I think our boss was around 40. He didn't want developer older than 38 :D We were just above 30 at that time.
And what I find the worst is that in some companies, somebody comes up with such great idea to change really complicated task, but if they would have tested their own developers, many of them wouldn't pass! I have seen this is two companies.
I agree, but what to do? In last 10 years I changed the job few times already, had many interviews, and 50-60 % of the companies have coding tests. Some even two (first some algorithms, then interview, and then "proper" business coding related challenge). Some are easy and require 2-4 hours, the longest ones were like 20-30 hours of coding (loads of requirements).
I see this more and more (in Germany), especially in the companies which "import" developers from easter Europe, Asia or South America.
That's exactly what I'm going/trying to do. I have around 12 years of experience as backend dev (PHP, SQL, queues, rest apis, e-commerce, docker - so basically whatever needed in the given company). I tried to apply for a Java (Spring Boot) position, but so far doesn't work. I sent few CVs already, but an answer is always no because of "lack of commercial experience".
Although I say know Java 8 a bit, and basics of Spring Framework. And also being ok to have 30% salary cut.
Germany needs qualified and cheap employees. A lot. Therefore especially in tech there is lot's of companies where most of the workers are foreigners. So they have to speak in English. Otherwise nobody would come :D
It sucks, because it's harder to learn German, because you don't use it on daily basis. Myself including. But I find it ridiculous that some people after many years are not able to handle A1. Come on.
What exactly is unpleasant in Germany? If you have a guy suddenly behind you then most likely you didn't check properly in the mirror, and estimated speed of approaching car wrongly. You could also perform overtaking manoeuvre more dynamically, just increase the speed when overtaking and reduce after.
Last few months I drive to work on the Germany motorway, and what I can see so far is terrifying. Not fast drivers are the problem but the poor and ashole drivers:
- Poor drivers: Me 140/160 km/h, other 120 km/h, and suddenly he/she is changing the lane (to overtake another car ofc), no blinker (you honk at them and they show you the middle finger), nothing! Or switching the lane when when there is not enough space. Jeeez, no! Because you annoyed to drive 117 km/h behind the truck, don't put others in danger. Not everybody in Germany drives 170 km/h or more. So there will be place for you as well, just wait some seconds. Or predict, you see the slow truck in advance, change lane a bit earlier, or show blinker earlier (I always slow down I you give me enough time). Ah, and damn left lane lovers. You overtake them from the right (although you shouldn't) and then they realise "oh shit, I should be in the right one".
- Ashole drivers: Driving bumper to bumper even with high speeds, or swaying left to right just to how "hey, I'm behind you" and make a pressure on you.
To summarise, after driving in Germany for 8 years, I love it. I like the discipline although on the motorways is getting worse imho. I'm assuming because of immigration from other countries which don't have good driving habits.
For me unpleasant was driving on motorways in San Francisco area (madness, and not just because of number of lanes), but I was there only for a few days, so maybe my impression is wrong.
I agree, PHP is more than viable to build companies, and has proved it again and again. As did Ruby :) The fact that PHP isn't my favorite language is really besides the point.
Those vocal Ruby/Elixir/Go/Node enthusaists who crap all over other battle tested stacks are very immature individuals.
