I want to share my experience as a PhD student in Germany, as well as talk about the main criteria that are needed in a CV to successfully pass an interview with a professor. In addition, I’ll talk about the salary and what became the main reason for my move.
Experience gained in Russia
First, I’ll tell you what experience I had before the move, so that the reader would understand with what “baggage” of knowledge and skills it is quite possible to immigrate. He graduated from undergraduate and graduate programs at ITMO University (St. Petersburg). He began working at the department in the last year of undergraduate studies. They paid in different ways, depending on the availability of grants and the mood of the head of the department, namely: half of the minimum wage when there was no money at the department, and when the money was - 17 thousand rubles.
He combined studies and work, and since he worked in the same place where he studied, there were no problems with the protection of the diploma. He learned a little about working with optics, did simple things, for example, chop fiber, weld two pieces of fiber, polish the ends of the fibers, calculate the numerical aperture using a goniometer, etc. It was interesting, but on the whole, they did not give me any serious tasks in view of the fact that before me the “backbone” of people who were trusted more was already formed. After graduating from the undergraduate program, I entered the same department for a magistracy, continuing to work in the same optical laboratory, and in the second semester of the magistracy I won the competition for studying abroad (France, Paris). When my colleagues found out about this, their sidelong glances and envy rained down on me. After studying in France for 6 months, I came back to the department and they told me that I could no longer work here, since another person took your place. But in view of the fact that there was a project at the department that there was no one to deal with, the head of the department called me and offered to start this project under the direction of another supervisor. So for the first time I got acquainted with spectroscopy. A year and a half I was engaged in this project, defended a master's thesis on it. As a result, he learned to work with visible and infrared spectrometers, went deeper into engineering, learned to work a bit in MATLAB (graphing, data processing, a bit of mathematics). I read a lot of articles, and as a result I wrote one good article in a magazine with good SJR. In addition, there were a couple of international conferences that also increased the experience of speaking, and part-time added a rating to Scopus.
After graduating from the magistracy, I continued to work at the department as an engineer, and entered graduate school. They paid very little. Salaries ranged from 10 thousand rubles per month to 70 thousand rubles per month. On average - 37 thousand rubles a month. Relations with the supervisor began to deteriorate due to his inability to set the right tasks. In addition, for my part, there were also schools that I will not deny. The factors described above forced me to quit. Two weeks later, a couple of interviews took place in companies selling optical equipment, and not only, as a result, I found a job as a sales specialist for a good and stable salary of 70 thousand rubles during the trial period, which, by the way, was paid in white.
But the thirst for life in Europe and obtaining a PhD degree after studying in France still remained. The search for the PhD student position has begun.
Finding a PhD student position in Europe
The search began, of course, from the Internet. He carefully prepared the CV and sent it to professors from various universities. I found two positions in the optics of my profile in Germany, one in France. According to the requirements, I coincided by 70%. Mostly needed basic knowledge in optics and MATLAB. The first interview I failed completely. Given the mistakes, the other two interviews went smoothly and they gave me two job offers. In France, they offered to work for 1,700 euros , in Germany - 1,200 euros plus paid insurance. I chose Germany simply because the professor was more welcoming and the work involved a lot of experiments, while in France it was only necessary to do modeling in Comsol. Both professors understood that I would need to be taught from the very beginning, so only the basics of optics without deepening were asked for knowledge.
Salary, taxes, expenses in Germany
As soon as I arrived at the university and first met with my supervisor, he immediately offered me to sign a contract and pay a small amount of money in order to feel more comfortable. Since the total amount has become 1,200 euros + 300 euros = 1,500 euros, this amount is not subject to taxes under German law, given that I am a student. Money by German standards is small. It costs 300 euros for housing (a small studio on the outskirts of the city, but walking to the university can be reached in 15 minutes), including electricity and water. For food and other expenses - 500 euros. I hardly cook at home. Free money per month that I save for my needs (for example, travel): 1,500 euros minus 800 euros = 700 euros. We translate into rubles and get 49,000 rubles (at the rate of 70 euros for 1 euro). Quite a good amount of money remains.
I will give an example of my friend, who has a different tax calculation. His salary is 3900 euros. Less taxes and insurance are 1900 euros. The amount is also good. The only difference is that I do not pay taxes, and he pays.
The main resources for finding a PhD student position, as well as what is necessary for you to be successfully taken to this position.
The main resource is the Euraxess website. Everything's there. My advice for those who are looking for a position - do not chase money, look for a competent professor and a project that you will conveniently work on.
The main criteria. Definitely need articles indexed by Scopus. You can safely write at least one article while studying at the magistracy. Even if it would be a Review article, not a Research paper. Still, not everyone has well-equipped laboratories, as was the case in my case. You can even make Conference paper, this is also a huge plus.
English certificate IELTS. But you can do without it, if you really during the interview will calmly explain scientific terms to the professor. But this certificate is more needed for the German embassy. By the way, I didn’t have to pay for a visa, as a highly skilled workforce does not pay tax for a visa. Savings - 5 thousand rubles.
Experience in Germany
Having been in the university’s laboratory for the first time, it became clear how much money was being invested in science in Germany. A huge amount of the latest equipment, free access, no queues. If something is missing, then you can order and in three days the order will be already on the table. The atmosphere is friendly, everyone works as a team.
Output
If you can’t find yourself a normal job in Russia, if you want to become a PhD, work comfortably, then I strongly advise you to move towards Germany.