Summary: We had a coffee with Adithya from Arbeitnow to talk about his vision for creating the platform, along with his plans for the future, including some pretty cool tools that make Arbeitnow more than just a job platform.
Our partner Adithya from Arbeitnow came to Berlin back in 2018 to start his work as a software developer. While he was open to London and Amsterdam as well, the short vacation he took with his brother, who lives in Frankfurt, opened his eyes to how beautiful and international Berlin is as well. In this article, we’ll go over Adithya’s platform Arbeitnow, how it was created, why it was created, and how the tools can help expats navigate Germany.
What is Arbeitnow?
Arbeitnow is a job platform that allows people to search for relevant positions with keywords and also specific requirements like a 4 day work week or the possibility to work remotely. The website was created by Adithya after he decided to change positions and then faced a wall of different job boards that required him to give mounds of personal data in order to even search for what he needed.
The problem wasn’t just creating one profile but having to update and curate his profiles in multiple different places, which were required before even applying. Because he already worked as a software engineer and many employers asked for a project during the application process, Adithya decided it was time to create the job platform he needed: Arbeitnow.
What does Arbeitnow do differently?
The website is simple. You can search for a keyword in your job title like “software” and see all jobs with that keyword, or you can even search for specific positions like “backend developer.” You’ll see a list of all current jobs as well as tags like “IT,” “Full-Time,” “Mid-Senior,” and others. These tags are clickable, so you can easily click on the tags to see jobs that not only match your keyword but the tag as well.
Over the years of keeping Arbeitnow as a side project, Adithya not only found a job, but he has been able to partner with several other well-known employment platforms to offer automatically integrated job postings that appear cross-platform. He even has his API listed online, so anyone can set it up!
More than just a job posting platform
Adithya didn’t just stop at making a simple, easy-to-use job platform. He continued by adding a blog with useful articles about What to do when you’re fired in Germany or How I found an apartment in Berlin. The goal is to answer all of the questions he personally had in Berlin after he figures out how to do it himself. It’s a lot like our friend Nicolas over at All About Berlin, but Adithya is more focused on creating tools with a job posting platform as the front-facing purpose of the website, whereas All About Berlin is a set of hundreds of high-quality guides about living in Germany with a few tools to make things easier.
Salary calculator
Germany has some of the highest taxes in the world and, true to their own nature, the most complex as well. Unless you’re a single person without any sicknesses, investments, dependents, or spouse who is working full-time at a German company, you’re probably going to need to have a lot of guidance on the German tax system (even the list above is a bit generic, so there is a chance that you could still fall into a category where you still need guidance). After filling out the salary calculator (Gehaltsrechner), people can also see their estimated tax refund with an affiliate link to a company versed in working with expats.
Salary calculator (Netherlands)
Expats aren’t just in Germany. They’re also in other parts of Europe, like the Netherlands, which was one of the locations Adithya thought about moving to when he decided to look for work as a software engineer abroad. While the tax system is a bit less complicated than in Germany, the 30% ruling makes things a bit harder to understand if you’re not used to the system. It’s a ruling that gives tax exemptions to foreign employees who meet certain criteria. Adithya built a salary calculator for the Netherlands on his platform too.
Sick pay calculator
In Germany, people are entitled to sick pay through the public health insurance system. That means any days they miss, their employer won’t have to pay them, but it will instead come from their health insurance, which is why it’s important to either get the health insurance app to upload the little pink slips from your general practitioner, or get used to mailing it in at the post office (they sell pre-stamped envelopes). This calculator will let you know how much you’ll get from your health insurance.
What’s next for Arbeitnow?
When we sat down to chat with Adithya about his plans for the future, he said that he has quite a few things up his sleeve. While he didn’t want us to publish these ideas (since he’s still sitting down and working out the fine details), he did confidently tell us that there are tools in the works for the website.
If you are currently employed and/or planning to switch jobs, it’s probably a good idea to have a Disability Insurance. It acts as an income buffer if you’re no longer able to work.
