🌟 What's new in Berlin? And a 69 420(0) coincidence.
Issue #69 (18 Sep) – tech jobs; robberies in Berlin; built-in kitchens make no sense?; top employers in Berlin - BS or reality and most overrated restaurants.
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Programming note: I wrote State of the Union Address a short update about Handpicked on Linkedin. Afterwards, I realised I had 69 and 420(0) in the same post. I am doubling down on social content; exciting times for this one-man band.
My channels run by the Chief Marketing Officer:
I did a “WTF is Handpicked” post on my new Instagram account.
I also have Twitter and a LinkedIn page.
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🌟 Handpicked Kleinanzeigen & Tech Events
🎪 Events:
🚨 Advancing Your Engineering Skill Set and Your Career by Grammarly | Wed, 20.9 at 18.30 | Grammarly Berlin Hub
HTW Innovation Challenge - Method workshop and problem-solving competence & networking | Wed, 20.9 at 18.30 | HTW Berlin, Campus Wilhelminenhof
Unicorns in Tech Get-Together - an evening of drinks, food, talks, and networking | Thu, 21.9 at 18.30 | METRO.Digital
😎 Cool stuff:
🎥📸🚨If you need a video/photographer, I recommend Obada! He has 4 years of videography experience and specialises in video advertising. He can help you with videos for social media and other channels. Contact and follow him on Instagram.
Shilpa Melissa offers business writing, editing and proofreading services as well as CV/LinkedIn guidance—her first piece of advice: Font matters. Stay away from Comic Sans.
🔍 Searching for roles:
David is looking for a tech policy, advocacy or product management job. He likes dynamic environments, having worked in small independent media and large tech companies, including Meta, where he worked on the war in Ukraine.
David is alone this time. You can submit yours here:
👀 Handpicked twenty-something
📨 Readers submitted
🚨 🚨 🚨 Grammarly - Software Engineer, Back-End (Growth Monetization)
submit yours on the link; it’s FREEEEEE! Why pay 1000s to LinkedIn?
💾 Tech & Development
More positions in Handpicked online database.
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
☕️ Coffee with Jaskaran Singh
Jaskaran loves marketing and provides a weekly digest of the most important things related to social media and marketing. Here are his picks for you:
Attention (article) - This comes from my favourite substack newsletter. It tells a lot about how our attention span changes rather than declines.
5-pager template for freelancers (template & podcast) - The best template to never lose a project by Jonathan Stark. He is one of the best freelance work-life educators, running the “Ditching Hourly” podcast.
Mel Robbins on Influence Building (podcast) - The episode finishes, and you start experimenting with what you learned from it—plenty of practical hacks for corporate workers of today.
🇩🇪 Berlin & Other good stuff
🎉 COMING THIS WEEK to .com, an article I was marinating for six months: What do hiring managers look for in CVs? Based on my survey on LinkedIn, you’ll get controversial suggestions. A preview was sent to my supporters last week.
🥷 There were plenty of robberies in Berlin, and Exberliner made an excellent overview. Oceans Eleven material! This impressed me: “Somehow, they managed to dispose of the 120 tons of excavated sand and earth unnoticed.” Well played, Simon Segura, well played.
🇩🇪 I asked about your German skills in the last issue, so here are some fruits and veggies that should not go into your fridge in German for all those 39% with A1-A2. I was wrong about Zucchini. Sorry, Zucchinis.
👨🏻🍳 Here is an interesting opinion/factoid on built-in kitchens from a pro. (LinkedIn) Basically, it makes no sense to pay for it via the rent. Interesting, and I have previously never thought about it this way.
🌟 Kununu published a list of top employers in Berlin in 2023. Interesting, but not so sure about the methodology. This looks similar to Forbes XYZ under XYZ, which is often more like who-you-know or whoever-pays-can-get-there. My previous company was one of the best in Germany for several years in another competition. It was a Great place to work, but I don’t think they still pay for it.
🏆 Speaking of lists, here are Time’s 100 most influential people in AI. I like it! It even has Charlie Brooker, the author of Black Mirror. Here is an idea: Connect with them on LinkedIn and ask them for a job. 😜
🤖 Also close to AI is this clip of a really cool implementation (Twitter) where you can get AI to translate and lip-sync you. I don’t understand French, but German was solid. Heygen!
⚽️ You will be able to buy the first set of 1.2M tickets for the games of the European Championship in Germany and Berlin (6 games in total) from the 3rd of October onwards. In the group stage, there will be 270k tickets available for €30 behind the goals.
Career advice: I agree with this context switching cost (LinkedIn post) because I experienced it by myself. The best is to pick a topic and work on it intensively until it’s done/partially done if broken down. Put that phone away. The phone is for closers only!* I'm not sure about the term “deep work”; it sounds full of s*it. My life also improved after I turned off all notifications years ago.
*if you got this reference, I owe you a beer! Let me know!🥵 According to WMO and Copernicus, summer 2023 was the hottest ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere. August temperatures were 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The year ranks as the second warmest, with oceans averaging nearly 21°C. In Berlin, we had an average of 19.6°C (vs 17.8 between 1961-1990). (RBB)
💸 This reminds me to write to my landlord: In 2022, the average 'cold rent' was €643 in Berlin & €9.60 per square meter, exceeding the national average of €8.60. Only Hamburg and Bavaria had higher rates. (St. BB)
😔 Bad news: nothing published. Silent layoffs everywhere?
r/berlin choice of the week is this thread on the most overrated hip restaurants. I can add Kimchi Princess to the list, but I'm not sure if it’s considered hip. The way the guy made a steak for us was terrible.
💬 Briefly:
Miles reported €48.2M of revenues in 2021; by the end of this year, they plan to reach €90-100M, doubling again. No clue about profitability, but I take an under!
Alex Springer (Aviv group?) took over Berlin-based Homeday, a real-estate platform.
Birkenstock has filed for an IPO in New York. Douglas is also planning to do one.
German ad group Stroeer is considering selling Statista (that thing that wants money for basic stats) in 2024, potentially valuing it at €1.5 billion.
Dance, a Berlin-based e-bike subscription company, got an undisclosed new investor and crossed 10k members. Careers.
Adobe will start charging 5 cents per image for their Firefly AI image generator.
Salesforce plans, after laying off 10% early this year, to hire 3,000 new employees.
Revolut still didn’t apply for a US banking license more than two years after submitting a draft application. (Tech.eu)
Lime (micro-mobility, US) is adjusted EBITDA profitable ($27M) in H12023. Revenues more than $250M.
💸 Recently funded in Berlin & Germany
Tilta | Berlin | Integrated solution for purchase financing in digital B2B transactions | €30M | Careers.
Circula | Berlin | Offers travel expense, credit cards and employee benefits for companies | €12M | Careers.
Kenjo | Berlin | Supports HR teams to become strategic partners within their company | €8.8M Series A | Careers.
cleverly | Berlin | Kids coaching provider for personal and academic skills | €4.6M Extended Seed | Careers.
Helsing | Munich | Specializes in defence AI technology | €209M Series B | Careers.
VIDA | Munich | Software for evaluating investment risks in the fields of climate, ESG, and impact | €3M | Careers.
rooom | Jena | Specializes in 3D content and digital experiences in Augmented and Virtual Reality | €17M | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
Germany won the Basketball WC while Slovenia underperformed along the lines of the USA! Congrats! 🎉
This is a 🔭 footer photo of Pluto (Twitter) in 1994 vs. 2019. Impressive!
✌️ Handpicked essentials:
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- The best questions to ask at a job interview
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