participate in Salary Trends 2025!
Issue #139 (03 Mar) – 20+ jobs with finance and data focus; Coffee Talk with Aniket; cover letter templates; more on elections; bald people quota.
Make sure to never miss another issue. Subscribe:
Programming note #139: Salary Trends Survey 2025 data collection is now open: this year's stretch goal is to reach 1300 responses (2024: 1150, 2023: 970). Please participate also if you were laid off anytime after 1.10.2024. On top, do spread the word if you can; the more responses, the better.
In other news, Handpicked Berlin now has over 10,000 subscribers. Yay! Thanks for reading.
🌟 Handpicked community
is a place where we meet, share projects and ideas and look for help.
Meet — handpicked events:
Perimenopause as a Business Case: How Female Founders Are Leading Change for Women and Enterprises Alike. Panel discussion with Annunziata (Perihub), Anne (Hermaid), and Valentina (Frieda Health)* | Thu, 06/03 10:00 | betahaus
IMPACT Storytelling: How L&D Can Win Stakeholder Buy-in | Wed, 05/03 18:30 | Springer Nature HQ
Women in Finance & Tech – Celebrating International Women’s Day | Tue, 11/03 18:00 | Spielfeld Digital Hub
Unlock your inner genius: a creativity workshop for startup founders | Mon, 10/03 10:00 | Startup Hub der Berliner Hochschule für Technik (BHT)
Usability Testessen: test your products | Sat, 13/03 19:00 | peax
this could be your event - advertise it
Show cool stuff or Ask for something:
A few spots left… 🚨 Techspace Open Day (with Breakfast, Yoga and Networking Drinks!) | Tue, 18/03 whole day | Switch up the kitchen table for a desk... for free! 👀 Work alongside Techspace's thriving tech community, jam-packed with a hearty breakfast, a midday yoga session and evening drinks. Mention 'Handpicked Berlin' in your RSVP.*
📨 Submit your input for the community here. This section is also featured on LinkedIn in the weekly post.
👀 Handpicked jobs
is a rotating selection of jobs from companies I’d check out.
5️⃣ from the rotation this week: Data, Analytics & Finance
The remaining jobs (also outside rotation) are in the Handpicked online database.
Are you looking for new colleagues or work in HR? Submit a job.
✨ Handpicked deals
Your purchase or interest will help sustain this project.
Learn German with SmarterGerman — HANDPICKED11 for 11% discount. Read on how to learn German here.
🚨 NEW: Teams deal for Unicorn Workspaces. Looking for a fixed or flex coworking space or an office for your team? Here is the direct link to those offering a discount in the article on the best coworking spaces in Berlin.
🚨 Re-branding alert... Thrilled to announce that Coffee with... is now Coffee Talk. Thanks to Sterling Cooper for their invaluable ideas and support.
☕️ Coffee Talk with Aniket Parihar
is where my guest contributes three links and I write a short bio. Permanent collection.
Aniket ran an interesting project of making videos about 101 things to do in Berlin, an impressive effort and demonstration of consistency. You can connect with him on LinkedIn. Here is what he prepared for you:
Disgusting food museum: It's a disgusting place, but a little disgust makes life interesting! This museum features some of the world's most revolting foods. You can even try eating worms and strange drinks yourself. Probably the most unique museum in Berlin! (My reel.)
Stand by me tree: Someone scribed the lyrics of the song "Stand by me" on a tree in Tiergarten. Tricky but an interesting find. (My reel.)
Free lunch concert at Berliner Philharmoniker: Happens every Wednesday at 1 PM from September to June. Make sure to go there early because it gets full very quickly. Worth a visit if you are into classical music. (My reel.)
🗞 Snippets
is a selection of links focused on Berlin/Germany, career, timeless content and business.
Berlin & Germany, career & timeless
How to write a good cover letter? Includes a template with five good letter styles and a terrible one. Coming next: prompts to improve your CV and your cover letter.
I’d love you to participate in the Salary Trends survey 2025. It will take 3 minutes: in English or German. Thanks!
This week, we celebrate Equal Pay Day on the 7th and International Women’s Day on the 8th (the 1st was Equal Care Day). Gender Pay Gap in Berlin (🇩🇪) shrank to 10% in 2024, down from 11% in 2023. Nationally, it decreased from 18% to 16%. Across Germany, women spend almost 1.5 hours more daily on so-called care work at home than men. In Berlin, the difference is just under one hour. Curious to see what our salary data shows this year: here is the gender gap deep dive from 2024.
Berlin is #11 on the list (€) of most walkable cities worldwide (8.2 min average walk to key amenities with 91.9% of residents within a 15-minute walk of key amenities). Germany is well-represented. Munich is #5, Stuttgart is #17, Düsseldorf #25, Leipzig #26, Nuremberg #31, Ruhr area #38, #40 Hamburg, #41 Frankfurt, #42 Cologne, #46 Ludwigshafen. Milan is nummero uno, followed by Copenhagen and Turin.
💎 (Hidden) Gem: Go and watch a movie in b-ware Ladenkino in Friedrichshain. It’s a cinema but many other things at the same time.
The best events in March by The Berliner. And 11 by Mit Vergnügen (🇩🇪).
You’ll need German for this, but have a look at this sobering website/text comparing NSDAP (=Nazi party) with AfD. Speaking of AfD’s success, you have probably seen the variation of the image on the left; how about the one on the right? Combine with this good analysis of the voters & their moves by Adam Tooze. Poverty and a feeling of being left behind matter.
The Guardian Career: Mistakes to avoid when writing self-assessments. I can especially recommend avoiding Mistake #6: Not tracking your work year-round. Running a journal will also help you with your next job.
Career: Is Peter principle, the idea that employees rise to their level of incompetence through promotion, real? "In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties." It seems so. More on the principle on Wikipedia.
Timeless: Say goodbye to objects that don't serve you is a good variation of Marie Kondo's approach. If anyone wants some great quality and well-kept Olymp shirts and dress shoes from a former corporate shirt, do approach me. 😅
Briefly
Bad news: RightNow (legaltech, Düsseldorf) filed for bankruptcy; Mercedes wants to reduce employee cost for 25% by 2027; Audi wants to save €1B annually on staff by 2030; the number of unemployed in Berlin only lightly dropped in February - to 215k (remaining at 10,2%, +0,5% YoY).
Stats: 550 people were stopped during the first ten days of Berlin's three-zone knife ban. Dozens of weapons were seized, for example, 14 on the 18th of February at Leopoldplatz. (berlin . de) The other two zones are Kottbusser Tor and Görlitzer Park.
Alexanderplatz station will under renovation until 2029; shops on the ground floor will be affected and need to close by year-end. (RBB)
Tesla's sales in the EU dropped 45% in January. One of their subsidiaries acquired over 300 employees and equipment from the insolvent engineering firm Manz in Reutlingen near Stuttgart.
Zalando’s CFO Sandra Dembeck is moving to Tengelmann Group (KIK, OBI and several other companies).
Tech investor Prosus wants to acquire Just Eat Takeaway.com (Lieferando in Germany) for €4.1B. They already have a stake in Delivery Hero, Flink and iFood (Brazil). (HB)
SAP CEO Christian Klein's salary nearly tripled to €19M last year, driven by the company's 126% stock price increase since 2021. SAP, the most valuable German company, has a market cap of €334B. (MM)
Dreams (Sex Love) won the Golden Bear for the Best Film at Berlinale. The one I saw and didn’t get at all won the Silver Bear (Jury Prize). Woah. PDF of winners.
Siemens Energy will partner with Rolls-Royce to supply non-nuclear components for small modular nuclear reactors. (HB)
It’s the sign of the times. Rheinmetall's stock value has increased 10x since Ukraine was invaded, reaching €968 from €96.8, as demand surged for its tanks, trucks, artillery and ammunition from Ukraine and concerned NATO states. (HB) Related, they might convert two civilian plants, one in Berlin, to military production.
In November, Eurowings will expand UAE flights from BER: adding Abu Dhabi 3x weekly and increasing Duabi to 11x weekly.
Weekly social
Reddit: 👀 Hong Kong 1964 & 2016
Twitter: Blind chess is a thing.
TikTok: Infantilization of millennials or just a soothing song? Your call. “Friends so good they’re like family”
💸 Funded in Berlin & Germany
is a list of companies that received funding over €1M.
Taktile | New York/Berlin | Risk decision platform | $54M Series B | Careers.
Ctrl+s | Berlin | Supply chain sustainability insights | €1M Seed | Careers.
Hema.to | Munich | AI-powered blood cancer diagnostics | €3.6M | Careers.
Bliro | Munich | AI meeting assistant | €2.8M | Careers.
Onvy | Munich | AI-powered health coaching | $2M | Careers.
QraGo | Stuttgart | Healthcare logistics scheduling software | €2.7M Seed | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
the bald people quota got filled
*sponsored
Five articles with a treat:
Experts for your needs:
Partners:
Berlin Events Weekly: the best resource for events in Berlin
betahaus: 20% off for first three months on your Pro membership
Things you can do:
Join the discussion on Reddit.
Rate us @Google or send a testimonial. Thanks!