hazzgar

I have a few friend who either have just finished their Phd's or will do in a short time so it sounded familiar even if I dropped out of Uni when I realized I don't want to be an electronics engineer. 

Lit festivals, panels and readings sounds good. I envy the creative freedom or at least the freedom to express yourself even if yeah it goes with pay that's as problematic as mine (though still probably better since not Polish wages). 

Are you planing to be a full time academic or what's the plan?

Oh i actually dont present too often. Im more on the organization side ;-)  and if need be i have to "host".

I cant live from it to be honnest, its some pocket money on the side. And it got worse since VW and their disel shit. The first thing that looses monney is always the cultural promotion since big companies and the state have to relocate money for legal expenses...

I have to work retail on the side to pay my rent .

For the future i am thinking about the publishing business (but there is also no money so...) but if i could get a culture related job in the public service here in germany  id be pretty happy. wage and pension wise...

@Action there is money in publishing. Not great but if you go to a decent company that buys and sells a decent number of stuff you can earn a living. 

I have also assumed what you do is university funded. There you can live pretty well. I have a friend who just handed his PhD paper in Philosophy from Neuro Cognitivism and his life isn't bad financially working in the university. 

Also wait how is VW related with your job? State paid for VW? I get that German pensions are connected to the car industry but VW should take that hit not the country. 

As for culture related job - don't go for public sector. That requires connections. Go for a private job. I know a few people who simply work for movie festivals, pannels etc and have way more time than I do while making better money. Worst case scenario find a job for a movie distributor or a tv channel. ARD has a really strong documentary section and the guy who runs it seemed like a cool guy for the few hours I spent with him during a local festival. Though non movie industries also have some decent jobs. My friend lives in Munich and his roommate is a graphic designer for a radio station as far as I remember and doesn't seem uber poor even though he doesn't seem super well off either.