So guess what? I am spanish, I am an electrical engineer, and I am not currently working in Spain. What!? How can that be? Well, in such situation, companies have no option but to raise the wages in order to attract more engineers. These are the open market rules, right? So I must be crazy to leave my city, friends and family and, above all, an environment so favorable professionally.

It turns out that with such high demand the offered wages for a decent position are around 25,000 €/ year (pre-taxes), which would translate into a monthly pay of about 1300 €/month (after taxes). On the other hand, by working abroad, more than twice that amount can be easily made. And from what I’ve seen, it’s not only about the paycheck, but the jobs offered are also better.

After reading the article though, I didn’t find a single hint that situation was about to change. On the contrary, if I understood correctly, they were demanding more engineers with the mentioned salary. An offer impossible to turn down…

So let’s see how big the shortage has to become before they open their eyes and finally accept open market rules. For now, I know I won’t be coming back soon!

Yet I don’t know why, about two weeks ago, I sensed some kind of change. Call me paranoid, but I think something is going on! It all started when after being close to 0 degrees in the beginning of June, the sun decided to show up. I felt a strange warmth on my white skin. I think we may have changed the season of the year, you know, from Winter to Summer (until September, when it switches back).

With the new situation I even felt cheerful for no reason. I wanted to go out and wander around the streets of Stuttgart. At this point, I started to get suspicious, something had happened! Instead of the gray and empty streets I remembered, a hughe crowd was there. A demonstration? maybe, but the people didn’t seem angry nor german.

I had to find more about that misterious event, so the following days I checked the streets again with the same result, yet I stopped looking for reasons and started paying more attention to the people there. They seemed all terribly happy and that feeling invaded me too. For no apparent reason I felt joy, as if something bigger than any of us is going on in Germany.

After a long long winter, all I can say is… let’s enjoy it while we can!