Berliners, can't wait to see you tomorrow
at our Autumn Get Together at Impact Hub Berlin - we released a couple of more tickets if you still wanna come: the crowd is excellent. And if you'd rather get some work done together: our next Handpicked Coworking is at The Delta in Neukölln on Monday, 26th of October.
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📌 Pinned
How happy are you at work? Not really? You aren't alone. According to Kununu's new satisfaction atlas, only 52.1% of employees in Germany rate their job four or five stars. That's the third drop in a row, down from 56.3% in 2023. Tax advisors and auditors (73.3%), banks (69.9%) and insurers (67.8%) are top 3 of the happy part of the list. I guess money really isn't everything, but it's a lot?
Team matters! Teamwork (70.4% give it four or five stars) and interesting tasks rank highest. Career development, communication, pay and managers get the most one-to-three-star ratings. As a clear signal of our time, job security comes up 75% more often in company reviews as year ago.
But who is actually happy? Here are some ideas for your potential career pivot from a slightly US-skewed Reddit thread with 450+ answers. Very different ideas, but almost nobody is mentioning a fancy title. It seems the common thread is finding elements of "play" at work and working with/for people.
👀 Jobs
5 job highlights of the week
Ad getolo — Head of Data & Analytics — Berlin
Ad conversearch — SEA Manager — Berlin · Remote
SoundCloud — Director, Accounting — Berlin
🌍 Community board
Three months left in the year. You don't have to carry the same mental load into the next one. Anna is an executive coach helping leaders change patterns of overthinking and overworking, so they can lead with more ease and have more life.
Rafael built Solto: "In a new city for the weekend or a few days? Discover what's happening nearby with Solto, join activities today or tomorrow, and meet people along the way. Joining is free, and you can create one activity per day for free too."
Last week I asked you if you would take 20% more to work in defence: 50% no, not at any premium, 32% yes, pay is pay, 16% only if they're not building weapons, and 2% already work in defence.
Have an ask, offer or useful project? Share it! You need beta testers for something you built. You're running a survey or research and need responses. You're stuck on a problem someone here has already solved. You're volunteering, mentoring, or building something non-profit. You learned something the hard way and wrote it up...
💸 Funded in Germany
Kuro | Berlin | AI platform for general contractors | €10M | Careers.
F13 | Berlin | Foundation model for vector graphics | $5M pre-seed | Careers.
Amara | Berlin | Voice AI companion for seniors | €3.7M pre-seed | Careers.
Metycle | Cologne | B2B platform for recycled metals | €131.7M credit line | Careers.
Reverion | Eresing | Reversible fuel-cell power plants | €154M Series B | Careers.
Kontext | Munich | Runtime security for AI agents | $4M | Careers.
Finto | Munich | AI agents for accounting | $3.9M seed | Careers.
ViferaXS | Tübingen | Peptide-based cancer immunotherapies | Up to €12M Series A | Careers.
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📡 Signals
BioNTech (Mainz, biotech) is closing its Idar-Oberstein, Marburg and Tübingen sites after failing to find buyers, cutting 1.8k jobs.
BMW (Munich, autos) CEO Milan Nedeljković took his turnaround plan to investors this week after two profit warnings: 8k job cuts and a fifth fewer top managers.
Bosch (Gerlingen, engineering) will cut about half of its 1.8k jobs in Nuremberg, 900 roles by 2029, on top of the 22k cuts already announced.
Delivery Hero (Berlin, food delivery) is moving its Pandora tech platform from Berlin to Singapore, affecting 200 jobs. Niklas Östberg will stay as CEO after the Uber takeover. [more]
Baller League (football entertainment) has suspended operations in Germany, while the Kings League is struggling and the Icon League lost its CEO and froze expansion. [more]
Reverion (Eresing, energy) will build a factory for its reversible fuel-cell power plants, creating around 800 jobs, and is looking for a 100k m² site in Germany. [see careers link in the funded section]
Mistral (Paris, AI) opened a Munich hub with research teams for physics and industrial AI, starting with BMW, Siemens Energy and TU Munich as partners. [careers]
Studio Babelsberg (Potsdam, film production) opened two new studios that combine physical shoots with digital technology and AI.
Redcare Pharmacy (Netherlands, online pharmacy) raised its 2026 revenue forecast for the second time on e-prescription growth in Germany, where it now expects €730-760M in prescription revenue. [careers]
Commerzbank (Frankfurt, banking) could get new leadership: UniCredit wants to replace its CEO and supervisory board. [more]
Evonik (Essen, chemicals) rejected BASF's takeover offer as too low, leaving the outcome largely in the hands of the RAG Foundation. [more, €]
Condor (Frankfurt, airline) will be fully owned by a financial investor by summer 2027, as the federal government and Hesse exit after the Covid aid was repaid.
Metro (Düsseldorf, wholesale) lost control of its Russian business after a Putin decree placed it under temporary state administration.
beglaubigt.de (Munich, legal tech) acquired registercheck.de, and with it 5M company records.
Mercedes-Benz (Stuttgart, autos) terminated its home office agreement. Without a new deal, staff are back in the office five days a week; the board is offering four. [more] Meanwhile, Zalando (Berlin, e-commerce) employee (?) on Reddit reports on plans for three mandatory office days from January, with the Berlin works council still negotiating. [more]
Tesla (Grünheide, autos) is raising pay at its Brandenburg gigafactory by up to 5% and adding a performance bonus.
Unemployment in Germany fell below 3M in September, but the autumn upturn was weak. Berlin and Brandenburg also recorded fewer jobless.
Germany accounts for 80% of the EU's industrial job losses since early 2023, with its car industry hit hardest.
Flink (Berlin, grocery delivery) was hit by a hacker attack that exposed customer data, and the attackers are now trying to extort customers and employees.
Axel Springer (Berlin, media) gave its 2026 Axel Springer Award to investor Peter Thiel at a ceremony in Berlin last week. Previous winners include: Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
📅 Events
This week we reviewed 84 upcoming events and handpicked 11. Check all 31 events at luma.com/handpicked
Featured events
Our AI workshops are back, redesigned and we only have a couple of spots left. You will build two products that help you really UNDERSTAND how AI works. This means avoiding vendor lock-in for you in the future. Ask for L&D budget at work. Saturday, 10th and Tuesday, 13th of October.
Handpicked Berlin Coworking is teaming up with The Delta! A work-focused day with other members of the community: short intro round, optional lunch and networking, free phone booths, coffee and tea, and a subscription discount for participants. Monday, 26th of October, 9:00–17:00.
Our picks
Rattleskin by DANCÆ | Fri, 09/10 20:00 | Cank
WahlheYmat Talks - Communities shape cities | Wed, 14/10 18:00 | America Memorial Library
The 20% Berlin News Quiz | Wed, 14/10 18:30 | Electric Social
Automate Your Job Search (AI Era Edition): Hands-on Workshop | Thu, 15/10 18:00 | Denizen
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🧭 Career compass
According to Bitkom already (or only?) 12% of German companies use AI in recruiting. 9% use it to write job descriptions, 6% for screening and 2% for interviewing. Which is a very nice reminder of this dude doing interviews with AI recruiters intentionally talking nonsense and AI just repeating it.
Speaking of AI, according to a sceptical user and an entrepreneur, Mo Bitar, who consistently has good takes, you (or developers) won't be losing jobs to AI, because you will still be steering it. But AI is becoming so good that code won’t be written by hand anymore. I think its plausible. Here on the example of Opus 5.5.
Someone used AI to help them classify a bit over 4k live job ads in Germany by whether they actually need German. Of the 2.5k ads written in English, 30% still require German, often three bullets down. Only 35% of all jobs are genuinely workable without it: 39% in Berlin, 35% in Munich, and just 17% in Hamburg. 14 ads said outright that German isn't needed. I guess the first comment is right: simply assume some German is required for all jobs in Germany.
What’s the difference between staying in Munich or moving to Zurich? A Reddit thread. Switzerland seems like a promised land, especially for frugal singles. Something to consider if you want to bump your salary and savings for a few years. But living outside big cities has its downsides, and I have anecdata that the rural locals aren't particularly welcoming to internationals.
"It's cheaper will be the death of humanity." An amazing take on AI movies and on AI. So good you NEED to see it.
Handpicked projects
Need help with finding a flat, insurance, have problems at work or are you lost in your career or life? Talk to our Handpicked Experts.
Going into a salary review or offer? Walk in with the numbers and 12 negotiation tips.
Are you currently hiring? Push your job on the job board and in the newsletter.
Wondering what's on this week? Check the Handpicked events calendar.
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