Good afternoon.
I would like to share my experience of working as a PhD student in Germany, as well as tell you about the main criteria that are needed in a CV for a successful interview with a professor. In addition, I will tell you about the salary and what was the main reason for my move.
Experience gained in Russia
First, Iβll tell you what work experience I had before moving, so that the reader would roughly understand with what βbaggageβ of knowledge and skills it is quite possible to immigrate. He graduated from the Bachelor's and Master's programs at ITMO University (St. Petersburg). He began working at the department in his last year of undergraduate studies. They paid differently, 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 there was money - 17 thousand rubles.
He combined study and work, and since he worked in the same place where he studied, there were no problems with the defense of the diploma. Learned a little about optics, doing simple things like cleaving a fiber, welding two pieces of fiber, polishing fiber ends, calculating numerical aperture with a goniometer, etc. It was interesting, but in general, I was not given any serious tasks due to the fact that before me the βbackboneβ of people who were more trusted had already been formed. After graduating from the bachelor's degree, I entered the same department in the magistracy, continuing to work in the same optical laboratory, and in the second semester of the master's program 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 it was no longer possible for me to work here, since another person had taken 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 take up this project under the guidance of another supervisor. So I first got acquainted with spectroscopy. I worked on this project for a year and a half, defended my master's thesis on it. As a result, I learned how to work with spectrometers of the visible and IR ranges, went even deeper into engineering, learned a little to work in MATLAB (plotting, 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 a good SJR. In addition, there were a couple of international conferences that also increased the experience of speaking, and added a rating on Scopus at the same time.
After graduating from the magistracy, I continued to work at the department as an engineer, entered graduate school. They paid very little. The salary varied from 10 thousand rubles a month to 70 thousand rubles a 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, there were shoals on my part, which I will not deny. The factors described above forced me to resign. Two weeks later, I went through a couple of interviews 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 the "white".
But the craving for life in Europe and getting a PhD after studying in France still remained. The search for a PhD student position has begun.
Finding a PhD student position in Europe
The search began, of course, with the Internet. Carefully prepared CV and sent to professors from different universities. I found two positions in the optics of my profile in Germany, one in France. According to the requirements, I matched 70%. Basically, basic knowledge in optics and MATLAB was needed. I failed my first interview completely. Taking into account the mistakes, the other two interviews went like clockwork and I was given two job offers. In France, they offered to work for 1700 euro, in Germany - 1200 euro plus paid insurance. I chose Germany simply because the professor was more friendly 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 they asked for knowledge only the basics of optics without deepening.
Salary, taxes, expenses in Germany
As soon as I arrived at the university and met my supervisor for the first time, he immediately offered me to sign a contract and pay a small amount of money to feel more comfortable. Since the total amount has become 1200 euros + 300 euros = 1500 euros, then such an amount, according to the laws of Germany, given that I am a student, is not taxed. Money by German standards is small. Housing costs 300 euros (a small studio on the outskirts of the city, but you can walk to the university 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): 1500 euros minus 800 euros = 700 euros. We translate into rubles and get 49 rubles (at the rate of euro 000 rubles for 70 euro). Quite a good amount of money remains.
I will cite as an example my friend, who has a different calculation of taxes. His salary is 3900 euros. Minus taxes and insurance is 1900 euros. The amount is good too. The only difference is that I don't pay taxes, but he does.
Basic resources for finding a PhD student position, as well as what it takes to be successfully hired for this position.
The main resource is the website euraxess. Everything's there. My advice for those who are looking for a position is not to chase money, look for a competent professor and a project that you will be comfortable working on.
Main criteria. Articles indexed in Scopus are required. You can easily write at least one article while studying at the magistracy. Even if it is a Review article, not a Research paper. Still, not everyone has well-equipped laboratories, as it was in my case. You can even make Conference paper, this is also a huge plus.
English IELTS certificate. But you can do without it if you really calmly explain yourself to the professor in scientific terms during the interview. But this certificate is more needed for the German embassy. By the way, I didnβt have to pay for a visa, as a highly qualified workforce does not pay tax for registration. Savings - 5 thousand rubles.
Experience in Germany
Having visited the laboratory of the university for the first time, it became clear how much money is invested in science in Germany. The latest equipment in huge quantities, free access, no queues. If something is missing, then you can order and in three days the order will be on the table. The atmosphere is friendly, everyone works as a team.
Hack and predictor Aviator
If you cannot find a normal job in Russia, if you want to become a PhD and work comfortably, then I strongly advise you to move towards Germany.
Source: habr.com