Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Reviews

It's a scientific insittute modeled on feudal serfdom: the director is king and everyone else has to keep him happy. Sometimes that also means producing good science, but at a great cost (both figuratively and literally).

Even within the same institute, your experience can differ enormously based on your director and project leader, from a fantasy land to personal hell. You'll need to build some contacts to learn the real scoop. Do a lot of homework beforehand and have Plan B ready if you enter an unworkable situation. No professionalism; typical academic workplace problems turned up to 10. If your work doesn't have support, you work out the remainder of your contract writing up old results and looking for your next job. Everyone gets the same net pay but Germans get paid benefits (health insurance, vacations, retirement, seniority pay raises, unemployment benefit) while foreigners get none and have to buy their health insurance out of their net salary. Ask for a contract instead of a stipend, don't accept any bunk about foreigners having no use for the German social security system. You probably won't get a contract as this doubles your cost to the institute. Postdocs cost exactly twice as much as graduate students so the expectation is that you will work at least twice as hard. Think about that.