Skilled Workers | Feature About an IT-Specialist  A Stroke of Luck with Side Effects

Starting a career in Germany wasn’t easy for Kate Ergle. Today, Germany urgently needs IT specialists like the Latvian-born data analyst – thousands of positions remain unfilled. But could Germany’s reputation be deterring international professionals?

“It wasn’t easy,” says Kate Ergle under the warm glow of an oversized lampshade. The shades hang above the light grey upholstered seating areas like giant bells. The 37-year-old talks about her first steps on the German job market, fresh out of university and 1,700 kilometres from home. It’s a Tuesday morning and she is sitting in a cafeteria on the ground floor of a soulless office campus in the north of Munich.

Her journey abroad began in 2013 in Bremen. During a semester abroad, the mathematics student from Riga met a mechanical engineering student from Barcelona – a chance encounter that changed the course of her life.

Finding a job that suits you, making a good impression during the application process – this is always a tricky phase in life. At the time, Kate Ergle lacked not only German language skills, but also practical experience. She had studied mathematics in Riga with the intention of becoming a teacher, which meant that she completed all her internships in schools. “I kept being told you could do all sorts of things with a degree in maths.” All the more frustrating, then, that every application she sent to controlling departments or software companies was met with a rejection.

Germany Is Short of 109,000 IT Specialists

Today, Kate Ergle is a well-paid data analyst at Amazon in Munich. Despite the current economic crisis, German companies are still in desperate need of IT specialists. According to the industry association Bitkom, Germany was short of 109,000 IT professionals in August 2025. They represent a crucial workforce that the country depends on to push forward the digital transformation in both government and business.

Many young people choose to spend time working abroad – including in Germany. But if they’re not economically obliged to stay, whether they remain long-term often depends on social and emotional factors: Do they like the people? The weather? Can they find reliable childcare? Ergle has been living in Munich for eight years and five months. Her view of Germany is nuanced, like a map marked with bright patches but also darker spots. Would she choose to live, work and start a family in Germany again?

The Long Road to Permanent Employment

Although Ergle already held a degree in maths, she first worked in Germany as an au pair in order to improve her German. This was followed by an internship with a tax firm in Hamburg, arranged through a contact she had made during a school exchange in England. “I wanted to prove I could work in German.” Twice a week, she attended evening language classes at a local adult education centre, no matter how exhausted she was after a day at work. “I’m not naturally gifted with languages, like my husband, I had to study a lot” she explains. She practiced hard and, after three months, she passed the B2 exam.

Then she saw a job ad: a Hamburg startup was looking for a data analyst. This time, she made it to the second round, passing the online test and impressing her interviewers. She asked for a salary of €40,000, which is typical for someone with her qualifications, but the startup offered €20,000 – non-negotiable. Sitting at the table in the cafeteria, Kate Ergle shrugs her narrow shoulders. “Of course, I accepted.” The job sounded interesting and became her entry into the tech industry.

Finding Her Footing

Today, she works remotely as part of an international team. They develop and improve analytics tools for Amazon sales staff, who need well-prepared data to attract customers for advertising space on the platform. The tasks change constantly. The hierarchy is flat, and the atmosphere is friendly. “I love working with so many smart, young people,” she says.

She could have chosen to live in any European city. In between, the couple spent a year in the US and another in Mexico. Rather than settling in scenic coastal towns, they lived in industrial inland cities, where her husband’s company had offices. “After two years, I suggested we return to Europe, to be closer to our families and live in a nice city,” Ergle recalls. Even before they started applying for jobs, a headhunter sent her an offer for a position at Amazon.

The Lower End of the Skilled Workers’ Ranking 

Almost one in five employees in Germany is a foreign national. According to a Bertelsmann Stiftung study, looking ahead, the German economy will need an additional 288,000 skilled workers from abroad each year. If the economy develops more positively, that number could even rise to 400,000.

But Germany is not an especially popular destination. In the Expat Insider study carried out by InterNations, Germany ranks 42nd out of 46 industrialised nations. Reasons cited include the housing shortage, the slow development of digital infrastructure, but above all, a perceived lack of hospitality. Only two in five expats agree that Germans are friendly towards foreigners. Nearly 75 percent are dissatisfied with their social life in Germany and find it difficult to make friends.

How Having Children Changed Her View of Germany

“At first, Marc and I loved how orderly everything is and the fact that most people are so reliable,” says the 37-year-old. But since becoming parents, they have noticed how “strict and harsh” adults can be with children – including some kindergarten staff. The couple spends a lot of time with their children and doesn’t need to rely on long hours of external childcare. But it means Ergle starts work at 11 a.m., and her husband picks up the two children from their kindergarten and child minder at 2 p.m.

Kate doesn’t understand why “even the smallest children” in Germany have to follow so many rules. At the same time, their own needs are not taken seriously. At daycare, staff told the couple during the settling-in period that children deliberately cry because they want to stay with their mum and dad. Yet such behaviour is a completely natural reaction when children are separated from their parents for the first time. She believes this impacts how people relate to each other. “How are you supposed to develop empathy for others if, from a young age, you’re taught that your own needs don’t matter?”

Could This Explain Germany’s Harsh Tone?

She now understands, she says, why Germans yell at each other in traffic when someone makes a mistake. Her girlfriends and husband have often talked about supervisors treating employees “from on high”. She’s even overheard such conversations through their car speakerphones and was shocked by the disrespectful tone.

The Latvian native thinks it’s a shame, because she believes Germany has much to offer skilled workers from abroad. For their professional development, the time they have spent in Germany has been a “real stroke of luck”. She raves about the wide range of further training opportunities, such as the job-application workshop offered by the Employment Agency, which she attended right at the beginning of her stay. “I still use what I learned there in my work today.” She also fondly recalls the affordable, high-quality German courses at the adult education centre.

“We do miss being close to our families, but we have no concrete plans to move to Latvia or Spain,” she adds, before dashing off to her first appointment. In Latvia or Spain, an employer – or even your own family – might pressure you to return to full-time work after a short maternity leave, she explains. Here, parents can make their own choices, because in Germany both have the right to work part-time during the first three years after a child is born. “This also makes it more socially acceptable to spend more time with your family,” says Ergle. Ultimately, it allows her to live more freely here than anywhere else.

January 2026