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Life as a dev in Belgrade

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Scott103

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Hi all, I've recently been offered a 3 month summer internship at Microsoft in Belgrade (20F, from Australia) and I had a few questions about living in Belgrade.

rent costs reasonably central to the city, either a 1b apartment or shared apartment

cost of living (pretty frugal student life)

difficulties of not speaking Serbian/any relevant European language

safety, particularly as a young foreign female

any information about developer culture, and tech company culture!

Thanks in advance, Serbia looks like a beautiful and vibrant country so I'd really love to visit :)
 
Regarding your safety as a young female: yes we are there safer than many other places in the world, even if we only put up comparison with developed (OECD member) countries which Serbia is not. Overall safety has however recently dwindled. You need to stay away from noisy places also be very cautious in traffic, no matter if you walk, ride a bike, scooter or drive. Our government is incapable of fighting crime, but nationals of major foreign countries might enjoy better legal protection since the government is afraid of diplomatic pressure even on individual matters. Another weakness is public transport, though it also varies greatly among neighborhoods.

What here is cheap is rent, everything else is moreless the same as in Germany for example. Food is relatively cheap, people who have greater than average income which shall apply to your case might better order their food than prepare from groceries.

Most our tech companies do outsource, i.e. they rent their services to major software and tech companies abroad. In-house development of own products is rare here and mainly limited to subsidiaries of foreigh Big Tech companies. However, our tech/dev culture is beyond that. You shall be socializing at one of many coworking hubs. Hub space rent rates also might be significantly lower than in your country.

Most people, especially in the tech community have at least conversational command of the English language, whilst many are fluent speakers. For more than a decade, a certain English skill is required to get ANY job in downtown, including even cashiers, assistants, and housekeepers in commercial buildings.
 
Hi,
First - welcome :)

About living in Belgrade, rent costs differ from the part of the city, if you'll be intern in Microsoft, their offices are on New Begrade. So, i would suggest to rent the apartment in that area. However, if you would like to experience more of the city, the "old town" is the good choice too. If you don't mind a bit of commute to the office or heavy traffic at times.
Apartments of that size are usually around 200-350 euros per month depending on the location. And additional cost are utilities, which are around 60 euros.
About costs of living, i'm too much beyond student life :D so i cannot quite guess with how much money students here live through the month, my wild guess would be something in the 300 euros per month, but that depends on night life, usage of public transportation, and personal lifestyle ofc

I myself work in a top tier IT company with a lot of expats, i know couple of ppl that are working here in Microsoft Belgrade office. None of the expats had problems adjusting or communicating with Serbians, most of the younger folks here speak English and rest of the people are usually always open for help even they don't know the language well.

Generally it's pretty safe place. We are having more problems with political elites and corruption than street crime, however similar logic would apply here as in any European city i would say.

All of the major IT/tech companies here have great culture, offer full benefits and health coverage for its workers and usually organize bunch of team activities like team buildings and gatherings. They all follow industry standards usual for the western Europe or USA in terms of inclusivity and equality.

Cheers!
 
[url=http://beobuild.rs/forum/viewtopic.php?p=884679#p884679:3hmcba7q je napisao(la):
Scott103 » 29 Sep 2021 08:20 am[/url]":3hmcba7q]Hi all, I've recently been offered a 3 month summer internship at Microsoft in Belgrade (20F, from Australia) and I had a few questions about living in Belgrade.

rent costs reasonably central to the city, either a 1b apartment or shared apartment

cost of living (pretty frugal student life)

difficulties of not speaking Serbian/any relevant European language

safety, particularly as a young foreign female

any information about developer culture, and tech company culture!

Thanks in advance, Serbia looks like a beautiful and vibrant country so I'd really love to visit :)
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Welcome to the forum!
Hopefully in a few years you will be able to type in the Serbian language :)

I would accept the opportunity!

>> rent costs reasonably central to the city, either a 1b apartment or shared apartment
I guess it depends but around 400 AUD - 700 AUD and for shared 150-200 AUD

>> difficulties of not speaking Serbian/any relevant European language
Almost everyone speaks English although it can sound like broken English with thick Russian accent but you will be fine.

>> safety, particularly as a young foreign female
Its very safe. City is definitely safer than eg.Melbourne.

>> any information about developer culture, and tech company culture!
Huge IT community in Belgrade, Serbia. They are spreaded in any major different subgroups like Blockchain, Infosec, php etc.
Belgrade has the highest IT/tech people per capita in world.
https://www.serbianmonitor.com/en/serbi ... er-capita/

>> Thanks in advance, Serbia looks like a beautiful and vibrant country so I'd really love to visit :)
You should do it and it really does.

Few more things.
There are basically no homeless people on the street and many people are wondering how is that even possible.
City is extremely safe. Its very unusual for such big city. Cost of living is relatively low. Internet connection works like a charm.
Political elite is actually doing very good job for last 20 years managing the country. Everyone will say there is corruption but in reality there is not. They just like to claim this as fairy tail stories. Just bs talks.
Nightlife is way way better than Oz. Also food is amazing. Girls are very pretty and they do make up in middle of the day like its a club time, so no matter how you do look like you will always feel as average :)

There are a few downsides too!
Parking cost is extremely low thus there are not that many spaces in the whole city. (hopefully they will increase the rate a bit)
People are always grumpy towards politicians and they don't appreciate what they do for us.
No one use articles in the English because we don't have it in the native language so just drop articles and you will be fine :)
Importing something from Amazon would cost you an additional 30% (import tariff).
Streets are smaller so people are forced to drive smaller cars and basically almost no one drives a truck like F150.
We don't discriminate garbage per color or shape so everything goes into one bin :D
No one stops on a stop sign in whole Serbia except myself. Once I do it everyones honks! They just ignore that sign like it does not exist :)
People can seems like they are grumpy or unhappy at first but in reality once you know them better you will see that it does make huge difference. Its very contrary to the Oz where you can talk to anyone on the street or bus stop. Definitely not the case in Serbia. if they don't know you it can feel as "cold".
We don't like to seat on the floor. :) Its considered as moral status deviation. :)

Hopefully it helps.

This is the URL for apartments for rent.
https://www.halooglasi.com/nekretnine/i ... vi-beograd
 
as for Amazon: electronics are heavily taxed here, ordering from abroad will cost roughly the same as in a shopping mall, so many people would buy smuggled new tech stuff from websites similar to Craigslist.

Second downside, its relatively hard to find a really good and genuinely tasting foreign cuisine restaurant. e.g. there are many Chinese restaurants here but the choice of meals is limited and the taste is adjusted to the Serbian palate, except few. Same applies to Indian, Middle Eastern etc.

Good thing: our air connectivity is great, you have several daily flights to UAE and Qatar with very short layovers to Australia connections, I believe it's not impossible to have a whole journey with layover within 18 hours. Also direct flights to NYC and all major European airports on a daily or minimum 4-5 weekly basis.
 
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