Is it too early to ask for a raise when renegotiating contract, after 7 months?

Question

I work as a programmer in a small company in Germany and I was hired for my (totally junior) position of Android developer after taking a master degree in computer science.

I had never worked before, so I can consider myself a junior. I was hired for 7 months with 1 month probatory period. After the probatory period the employment could be terminated with 1 month notice period.

After 7 months I am a bit surprised because they offered me the same contract but for 1 year. No probatory period of course, no salary raise and the contract can still be terminated by both parts with 1 month notice.

I still have to give an answer and/or ask questions/clarifications, so I am still in time to renegotiate everything. Would it be ok to negotiate for the salary now or is it better to wait for my 1 year “anniversary”? Also, would it be ok to ask for an undeterminated time contract?

Answer 1

Should I negotiate for the salary or I should wait my 1 year “anniversary”?

Given this will be a new contract, it is a valid question to ask and negotiate now what the new salary will be.

Of course, it could be that they offer you the same salary, or they are willing to increase it, or they are willing to give you a raise after another 6 months have passed... Point is, yes, you are now in a position to negotiate and define what the salary of this new contract will be.

Should I ask for an undeterminated time contract?

Well, you could ask, but you say that the offer was made for a 1 year contract, so it seems to be already fixed.

Chances are that this company is not able/willing to offer permanent positions right now, and that after a year passes they will evaluate again if your contract should be renewed or not.

Still, you can ask about the possibility of a permanent position, and decide based on the answer and feedback you get if you take the offer (but, again, seems that this is a fixed, 1 year contract).

Answer 2

I think everything that DarkCygnus said is valid, most importantly the part that the company is probably not able or willing to offer permanent positions right now.

I want to add some additional input though from my experience that is specific to Germany.

It is highly uncommon in Germany in the software-development sector to have non-permanent contracts. All the jobs I ever took or applied to here were permanent positions. That is already something that strikes me as intriguing about your situation.

You have a master degree and at least a bit of work experience at this point. They want to offer you a new contract so this is definitely the time to renegotiate salary in my humble opinion. It is very common for new developers in the companies I have been at to receive their first raise after 3-6 months when the probation period is over and this first raise normally was around 5-10%.

So, to answer your question: Yes, you very well can ask for a salary renegotiation. From personal experience I would also recommend you to keep your eyes out for other job opportunities that can offer you permanent contracts - very often companies are eagerly looking for young developers coming from university to fill their ranks and can offer quite competitive salaries.