Toxic culture with low pay and poor leadership: avoid if you have alternatives
Pros
Nothing really, everything sucked I just accepted cause I was desperate (and they probably knew that) Maybe informal company culture although many similar firms offer similar if not much better culture
Cons
Avoid this company unless you have absolutely no alternative • Salary is unacceptable: They pushed the compensation down to the bare minimum by framing it as “your first experience.” I ended up with ~€2,700 net, which is simply not enough for what you’re expected to tolerate. A fair range would be at least €3,500–€4,000 net as absolute minimum to even begin compensating for the environment. • Toxic and closed culture: The office is highly homogeneous, and German is predominantly spoken, especially within teams. If you’re not part of that inner circle, don’t expect to feel integrated. • Onboarding and leadership are a disaster: Training is superficial and intentionally unhelpful. You’re shown processes quickly, discouraged from taking proper notes, and then left to figure things out on your own. My manager behaved in an extremely anti-collaborative way, like someone who refuses to let others learn on purpose (You remember this maybe from school, where you had the anti-social mates who never let you see their notes). Mistakes were treated as if they were catastrophic, and asking questions was met with sarcasm or passive-aggressive comments like “you should already know this.” At one point, my manager openly admitted to withholding information “to challenge me,” which says everything about the mindset there. This isn’t development, it’s sabotage. • Hostile and humiliating environment: During my time there, I genuinely felt hostage. I was subjected to an internal probation-style process with a works council representative present, which felt more like a formality than a fair evaluation, the outcome was clearly predetermined. On top of that, my manager kept a personal log of every minor mistake and would visibly update it in front of me. I once caught a glimpse of it, immediately closed, followed by a fake smile. That kind of behavior creates constant pressure and zero trust. • Poor internal tools and documentation: The materials provided (e.g., internal PowerPoints) are confusing, incomplete, and practically useless for actually understanding the work. • Hiring mindset: The company, at least my department, seems to rely on candidates who don’t have better options. I stayed only because I couldn’t secure an alternative at the time, and that says a lot. Final advice: If you are capable, ambitious, and have other opportunities, stay away, especially from the German office. Other locations of the company might be different, but based on this experience, I would strongly recommend looking elsewhere unless you are forced by circumstances.
