Why this Technical Recruiter Made the Move from San Francisco to Berlin

Technical recruiter, Andy Lutz, relocated to Berlin from San Francisco, where he was hiring tech talent for unicorn B2B SaaS companies. Currently, he’s focusing on senior-level hires for fullstack, backend, Android, and iOS roles. He shares with us why he moved from The Valley to Germany’s startup capital.

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What was it like living in San Francisco?

I spent the last few years working as a technical recruiter for Intercom and Segment, two successful software companies in San Francisco. In terms of what a city could offer, San Francisco was absolutely perfect for me. It is a large world-class city, yet dense and walkable, and with better public transit than most comparable cities in the US.

You can surf in the morning and snowboard in the afternoon. It’s just a really liveable city that has a magical charm to it which is hard to describe in words. There’s always a lot to do, and everyone I met had this incredible zest and enthusiasm for life.

That sounds pretty nice, why did you move to Berlin?

Well, when I felt myself getting too comfortable and also a bit restless in San Francisco, I wanted to embark upon a big life change that still allowed me to continue the momentum of my career.

Rather than looking into a new opportunity in the Bay, I decided to make a move across continents. I took the road less traveled, by Americans at least, because I felt like experiencing a new wrinkle of life outside of the States was most important to me. I have been trying to make more decisions based on regret avoidance, and when I thought of what I might regret not doing ten years from now, working and living abroad was atop the list.

There are lots of jobs out there where you do run in the mill documents and procedures, with a far less exciting end game. This job isn’t just a means to an end. It’s a chance to directly affect the quality of travel for humans all across the globe.

If you’re relatively young and relatively successful, you can come dangerously close to coasting or plateauing. I wanted to reintroduce myself to new challenges, a new culture, new rules, and a new language while doing the same job I had been previously doing.

In the States, many people don’t end up living abroad because it’s easier not to do it. But I always chase things that are difficult so I can continue learning. I just wanted to venture into the unknown. Life is short, and to fully appreciate it, I believe you need to keep yourself off-balance and not be complacent.

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What were your concerns before moving from Berlin? What’s it like living in Germany as an American?

In terms of work-related concerns, in the States, one of my strengths was that I was very familiar with things like the American health insurance system and how startup equity works. These topics are pretty complicated in the US, and not everyone understands how they work, so it was great to be able to clear those things up for candidates in the US.

In Germany, however, almost everything is different. While I’ve been doing technical recruiting for a few years now, not knowing how these basic tenets of everyday life work in Germany had felt like I was stripped of my armor a bit, so to speak.

I have been trying to make more decisions based on regret avoidance, and when I thought of what I might regret not doing ten years from now, working and living abroad was atop the list.

I felt a bit more vulnerable in the new role. But fortunately, these are fundamentals you can learn over time with enough research and experience living and interacting in a new environment.

In general, I knew that German culture was very different from American culture, but until arriving here, I didn’t realize just how different it really is. But that’s exactly what I signed up for.

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What makes you thrive here in Berlin?

Well, I’m still figuring that out quite frankly. For one, I think it’s the novelty of the setting that helps drive adrenaline and energy towards succeeding and taking the next step career-wise. At GetYourGuide, I do also enjoy that we are encouraged to take the initiative and create our own agenda for our one-on-ones.

We are expected to know the different teams and different parts of the product beyond just recruiting. I really love that we are encouraged to boil everything down to how everything we do affects the customer, e.g. having a two-day-long immersive customer boot camp as part of our onboarding in month one. And in Berlin in general, I’m just trying to feed off of the new energy of the creative community here and learn as much as I can every day.

Why did you choose to work at GetYourGuide?

I really love being a part of something truly global — our product isn’t just confined to cities that have hubs of large B2B companies that use a particular software. It’s omnipresent. We could be anywhere. I was genuinely inspired during onboarding when I saw how we affect people’s experiences.

When you’re working in recruiting and doing administrative tasks, you can lose sight of the bigger picture. But when you step back and look at the product, what we’re doing is actually pretty cool.

If you were to ask me, What were the top 10 experiences of your life? Chances are, one of these experiences was akin to a GetYourGuide travel experience.

There are lots of jobs out there where you do run in the mill documents and procedures, with a far less exciting end game. This job isn’t just a means to an end. It’s a chance to directly affect the quality of travel for humans all across the globe.

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What kind of advice do you have for people making a move from San Francisco to Berlin?

Everyone experiences some sort of temporary housing situation or has issues with their apartment once they get here; it’s not just you. It can be stressful at first, but it gets easier. If you’re working at the right company like GetYourGuide, feel fortunate that you automatically have a network of 600 team members. We also have a Slack group for housing, which is convenient if you are looking for a temporary stay or if someone hears about a house opening.

Also, come with an open mind. Germany may seem close enough in nature to the country you’re coming from, but some of the differences take quite a while to adjust to. Come mentally prepared for these hurdles and try to make yourself adaptable.

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