As a programmer from the Crimea moved to the United States through Germany

Photos from the personal archive of Andrey Cherkashin

Andrei Cherkashin grew up in the Crimea, where he lived and worked for many years, but after the start of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, he moved to Lviv. In less than 4, he managed to work as a developer in Ukraine, Europe and the USA, and in various areas - outsourcing, outstaffing, freelancing, and today he is the head of mobile development in a California startup.

He told his story in an interview with AIN.UA.

Andrey was born in Bakhchisaray, moved to study at Sevastopol National Technical University with a degree in Computer Science. In my 4th year I got a job as a web developer, and six months later I switched to iOS development.

“I worked for two years in one outsourcing company in Sevastopol, where I had many projects from foreign clients from all over the world: from South Africa, Israel, but most from America. I later continued to collaborate with some of them on a freelance basis. In this company, in 2 years I grew from a junior developer to a senior, and then to a lead,” said Andrey.

Photos from the personal archive of Andrey Cherkashin

After the annexation of the Crimea to Russia, he and his wife decided to move to Lviv, where they had been on vacation before and simply fell in love with the city.

"The hardest thing is to throw away all the accumulated trash. Because it was impossible to transport everything. From Crimea, we took with us 4 suitcases worth 100 kilograms, and the rest was then sent to us by our relatives,” said the programmer.

In Lviv, Andrew decided not to look for a new job, but to try to work for himself, taking advantage of contacts with clients left from his past works. He launched a small company, hired two more people - on Android and QA, and he was engaged iOS.

Photos from the personal archive of Andrey Cherkashin

“These were unstable times: sometimes you have projects with a salary of 2 times more than the average salary of a senior in Ukraine, and sometimes 2 of a month you are out of work. We “played around” 2 of the year and realized that this is not an option. But I also did not want to go to work for hire: nobody offered enough money, and the projects were not very interesting. So I decided to see what is abroad, I began to actively send out resumes, I worked on my profile in LinkedIn”, said Andrey.

Soon recruiters from Europe began contacting him and he received a good offer in Berlin.

The couple spent a lot of money on moving to Germany - the relocate company did not pay.

“The average price segment for renting apartments in Berlin is 900-1000 euros per month. We decided to settle in a fairly prestigious area Prenzlauer Berg. The price for a month suited us, but there was a very large security deposit - 4000 euros, plus an advance payment for a month of accommodation - another 1000 euros. Then I realized that I must read all contracts thoroughly and carefully. Our landlords wanted to sign a contract for a year - I noticed this and barely persuaded them to change it to 6 months. As a result, we lived there for only 3 months and left, and for this they wrote off part of the amount from our security deposit. If I had missed this point, we would have had to pay them a penalty for almost a year,” the programmer shared.

Andrew didn’t really like working in a company in Berlin. It was a grocery company, but the main product was not software, so they treated the developers as a support, ignoring their suggestions for improvement and initiatives.

Soon, Andrew received an offer from Microsoft work in Redmond, WA. It was issued through the Ukrainian company - the official vendor Microsoft. This work came to his liking, the developers were given the opportunity to be creative.

Photos from the personal archive of Andrey Cherkashin

“In the Ukrainian company through which I worked for Microsoft, I was paid less than full-time employees. More than seniors receive in Ukraine, but this was not an American salary. But they provided me with housing - an apartment in a condominium a 10-minute walk from campus, small expenses per month for a car, a free pass for public transport,” Andrey described.

At the expiration of the contract Microsoft We wanted to continue cooperation, but unfortunately we could not get him a visa, because the period for submitting working visas from the company was already closed.

Therefore, Andrew returned to Lviv and began to look for a new job. Soon a recruiter of a startup in Silicon Valley came to him, they needed a person who knew how to make applications and iOSand under Android. There were few such candidates, so the Ukrainian won the selection and received an invitation to come to California.

The startup in which he now worked is called OnfleetIt develops software for commercial carriers. Andrew works there as a lead mobile engenier.

“Of course, startups pay less than Google, Facebook or Microsoft. A job like mine should be paid 30% more. But they gave me good options,” admitted the developer.

Photos from the personal archive of Andrey Cherkashin

With the rent of an apartment in San Francisco, an interesting story came out from Andrey's family.

“I was told that for this you need to have a US credit card, and use it for a while to have a good story. Through LinkedIn we met with immigrants from Moscow who moved to California and at first lived by airbnb (and this is very expensive), while doing a credit history. But we took the risk of trying to do everything our own way. We also looked at about 30 apartments from Lvov and wrote to everyone that I was coming to work under a contract with such and such a salary, but I didn’t have a credit card - they explained the situation. Many responded with the standard reply, like, come see the apartment. But I'm not even in the USA. That is, they didn’t read my message at all. Only one landlord read it and responded. We talked and provided him with all the necessary documents. We even collected letters of recommendation for him from our past landlords - from Berlin, Lvov and Redmond. I sent all this to him, and soon he said that the owner of the house is not against taking on people without a credit history,” said the Ukrainian.

Fearing that the apartment will be intercepted, the couple began to rent it remotely. They had a delay with the visa, and for about four months they simply paid for it from Ukraine.

America vs. Europe

“I think that the American work culture in IT is the best of all. As soon as some new approaches to work, new methodologies appear on the market, they are immediately integrated and tested in companies. This is how forward movement happens all the time. While in Europe they are in no hurry to introduce innovations, they have a more conservative corporate culture,” Andrey noted.

According to him, the difference between America and Europe is very big. In Berlin, the average salary is from 40 000 to 70 000 euros per year, minus 40% taxes and 19% tax in stores.

“In terms of the income-expense ratio, the most comfortable place is in America: wages in the USA are 2 times higher than in Germany, and taxes are noticeably lower - about 25% in California, one of the states with the highest taxes,” the programmer calculated.

He also noted that in the US one can always find a high-quality, but inexpensive thing.

“In Ukraine, we didn’t perceive $100 as a lot of money, because good goods are expensive there. But in America you can always find something cheaper and better, and $100 has started to mean more,” admitted Andrey.

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