5 Strategies for Successfully Finding Your First Job in Germany

Looking for a job in Germany is different than doing so at home. There are different rules, customs, standards, and procedures – not to mention that your job title will likely not translate perfectly, and the tasks and responsibilities may be different. 

To avoid a slew of rejection letters, it is critical that you develop a job search strategy specific to Germany. Everyone’s job search is different, but these five strategies are a good place to start thinking about which diversification strategy might make the most sense for you. 

 

Consider timing

When you first begin thinking about looking for work in Germany, you may wonder how soon you should start applying for internships or jobs. For both, 3-6 months ahead of time is a general rule of thumb, assuming you have put in the time to do company and position research, develop a search strategy, and create application materials that have been reviewed by a professional. 

Once you have begun searching, my golden rule on timing is that for the first 6 months to 1 year, go for the gold. Go for your target position, organization, and location. After 1 year at the latest, go for what you can get by diversifying your application strategy as much as possible. More than 12 months is a dangerous gap that somehow needs filling – but even more than that, it is a lot of lost time, energy, and frustration.

 

Focus on the companies

The German job market is composed in large part by SMEs and hidden champions, although most international job seekers look for open positions at large companies they are familiar with. 

More than that though, they focus on the job, not the organization. It is, however, critical to research and reflect on the type of organization you want to work for. I recommend having 5-15 target organizations whose company employment webpages you have bookmarked and visit on a regular basis.

 

Keep regions in mind

Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt – all great cities with amazing professional opportunities, especially for English speakers. But, those cities also have a lot of English speakers vying for those jobs!

The answer is to diversify by location. You may want to live in Berlin, but your dream job might be in Swabia. Use regional job search engines to find roles at smaller companies or in less-known regions. For example, here are some of the top job search engines used in Düsseldorf, Germany.

 

Get yourself some Vitamin B

You may have heard Germans talk about all the ‘Vitamin B’ they need in their careers. This ‘Vitamin B’ refers to B=Beziehungen, which translates to ‘relationships’ in English.

Many opportunities exist that are never advertised, and even the ones that are advertised often require you to pull on your connections for references and referrals. Making personal and professional connections can be even more difficult for internationals and expats in Germany because of cultural and linguistic differences. To combat this, make sure you are adequately using LinkedIn and Xing in your Germany job search. 

Reach out to alumni from your previous universities that are now working in Germany. Even if they are not in the same field, they may be able to connect with others who are, or point you in the right direction. Spending time networking with people on zoom coffee chats can pay off immensely – incorporating this into your job search will be helpful, and break up the time you are spending writing applications and preparing for interviews. 

 

Apply for the right jobs, not all the jobs you find

One of the biggest mistakes that I see internationals make is that they apply to too many jobs. They end up thinking that the more jobs that they apply to, the better the results are going to be, or the higher the chances that an employer will look at their application and contact them.

While this sounds logical in theory, in practice this is counterproductive to how most employers are looking at applications. German employers tend to take their time looking for someone who is a suitable fit because of how employees are protected under labor law in Germany. 

Because the hire-and-fire culture is not common in the country, employers are extremely careful when they’re hiring to make sure that they are vetting employees adequately. This is in part because once someone has been hired, employees are well protected by strong work contracts. So for this reason, the adage of quality over quantity needs to play a central role in your Germany job search. 

Therefore, I recommend considering reducing the number of jobs that you are applying for each week down to one per day. This means that you will be looking at three to five applications per week maximum and not more than that! In general, one application normally takes three to five hours if you’re doing it in a quality-centric manner and tailoring each application to each position.

Every job search in unique, and each of your job searches will be a bit different. Key to success in international job searches is having a strategy, so you can avoid a slew of rejection letters. Use these five ideas to develop a diversified job search strategy specific to Germany.