Fremitus Borealis
Flügelstürmer
Thanks! I'm currently employed by 3M, which has quite a few offices in Germany. The biggest one is in Dortmund. I'm certainly not in the "Hey this would be neat phase", I've been thinking of doing it for 10 years or so now. I'm going to assume Germany is much like here in the fact that, currently, IT professionals are hard to come by. At least good ones.
I have told my boss, at 3M, that I would like to transfer out to Germany. I have my review in a few weeks; I was going to bring it back up then. I'm covered on savings in the bank. Especially if I were to sell my house. I have plenty of friends over in Germany so I don't think getting help to get myself off the ground would be that difficult to find.
Here's hoping 3M just transfers me.
Oh, that's awesome then. In that case, you are way ahead of the curve. I'd just kiss whomever's ass you have to in order to get transferred (being a good worker can also help in this regard ). As I understand it, transfers within the company are largely handled in-company, if that makes sense. That is, it's a lot easier than just deciding you want to work in Germany, applying for a work visa on your own, etc. etc.; in your case, your employer might even handle all the gross paperwork for you
As for IT, yeah that is definitely one of the areas that is "prioritized", although--I mean no offense at all, but--I've never been quite sure why this is, because it seems like everyone and their brother went [back] to school 10 years ago to go into IT, so I'd think the market would be completely flooded. But hey, it is what it is, so good luck to you, man!
Maybe this is a stupid question, but I assume you've been to Germany at some point before? Just curious because whether you have friends there or not, I would think that there'd be a tremendous amount of culture shock for like the first 4 months you live there. Do you speak German? (Again, maybe a stupid question..) Because while Germans on the whole are pretty good with the whole English thing, you will still encounter people on a daily basis who either don't, are apprehensive about their ability, or simply refuse to speak English to you out of spite. For some reason [*sarcasm alert*], about 90% of these particular individuals seem to work for the government.... including approximately 100% of the people at the local Bundesamt (no idea what the equivalent is in 'Murican English), whom you have to trust not to screw up your residency paperwork.
Also, just throwing this out there since I'm a dick, but if you have a choice in the matter, I personally wouldn't move to Dortmund (or northwestern Germany generally) if there are any other options