My First Week: Diving into the Berlin Tech Scene

Hello, Germany!

Okay, so let me tell you, moving to Berlin was… intense. I’m from Atlanta, Georgia, so the language, the culture, the everything – it’s all completely different. I’m working as a Java developer for this company, and honestly, the first week has been a whirlwind of trying to understand everyone and, you know, actually do the job. I’m still getting used to saying “Entschuldigung” every five minutes! But I’m really enjoying it so far.

The Interview and the Team – A First Impression

The interview process itself was… thorough. Lots of technical questions, of course – standard Java stuff, like data structures and algorithms. They asked me about my experience with Spring Boot, which I’d touched on a little, but I could tell they were testing my depth. One of the questions was, “Beschreiben Sie Ihre Erfahrung mit verteilten Systemen.” (Describe your experience with distributed systems) – I stumbled a bit there, admitted I was still learning! Luckily, the team seemed genuinely interested in helping me.

Then I met the team. They’re really diverse, which is great. There’s this one guy, Klaus, who’s a total specialist in microservices – he speaks so quickly when he explains things, I need to rewind him a few times! And then there’s Lena, who’s always suggesting new ideas, kind of a “disruptor,” as they called her. It feels… dynamic. It’s definitely different from the corporate culture back home.

“AI First”? What Even Is That?

I read the job description and I was really intrigued by the idea of integrating AI into the development process. During my onboarding, I was asking a lot of questions, specifically about the “AI First Development Culture.” It sounds… complicated. I asked my manager, Martin, “Was bedeutet ‘AI First’ konkret?” (What does ‘AI First’ actually mean?) He explained that it’s about actively exploring new tools and supporting the team in using them effectively to build software. He said, “Wir wollen die Möglichkeiten von KI nutzen, um die Entwicklung zu beschleunigen und effizienter zu gestalten.” (We want to use the possibilities of AI to speed up and make the development process more efficient.)

It seemed like they were hoping to use AI for things like automated testing or code analysis. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how it would actually work in practice.

Meetings and Collaboration

There are definitely meetings – lots of them. Stand-ups every morning, where everyone briefly reports what they worked on yesterday, what they’re doing today, and any blockers they have. “Wie lief der Tag bisher?” (How was your day so far?) – That’s the standard opening. Then there are sprint planning meetings, and retrospectives…it’s a lot to take in. They really emphasize collaboration, especially with other teams – especially with the ‘Product Team’. They use Slack a lot – I’m still getting used to the constant notifications! They mentioned needing to coordinate with the ‘UX Team’ for design feedback.

Home Office & Team Culture: Finding the Balance

I really appreciate the emphasis on “Home-Office” and the team feeling connected. They want people to work from home sometimes, and they have regular team lunches – “Mittagessen im Team” – which I’ve been joining. It’s a good way to get to know people outside of work. They’ve also organized a few after-work activities, like going to a beer garden (“Biergarten”). It seems like they really value a good team spirit, which is great.

A Typical Day?

Okay, so a typical day… it’s a mix. There’s a lot of time spent on code reviews – “Code Reviews sind ein fester Bestandteil” (Code reviews are a fixed part) – which is good because it helps me learn best practices. I’ve also been working on setting up my development environment – “die Entwicklungsumgebung einrichten” – which was surprisingly complicated. And a lot of documentation, which Martin said is really important. I’m starting to understand that the documentation is everything – a lot of it is in German, which is fantastic for my language skills, but I’m definitely relying on Google Translate a lot! “Wie funktioniert das?” (How does that work?) – That’s a question I’ve been asking a lot.

Useful German Phrases to Know

• Hallo: Hello
• Wie geht es Ihnen? How are you? (Formal)
• Wie geht es dir? How are you? (Informal)
• Mir geht es gut: I’m doing well.
• Entschuldigung: Excuse me / Sorry
• Bitte: Please
• Danke: Thank you
• Vielen Dank: Thank you very much
• Ich verstehe nicht: I don’t understand
• Könnten Sie das bitte wiederholen? Could you please repeat that?

Resources:

• [Read More (Just a reminder of the job posting I applied for!)

I’m still finding my feet, of course. There have been a few misunderstandings (“Ich habe mich vertan!” – I made a mistake!). But everyone is so patient and helpful. I’m starting to feel a little more comfortable, and I’m excited to see what the next few weeks bring. Ich bin gespannt! (I’m excited!)