Finding Jobs in Germany

Hi. I met a few of you at Celebration Europe earlier this year, but I thought I'd introduce myself. My name is Rachel and I'm a 24 year old student. I'm currently doing a degree in Software Engineering. As part of my course I can do an optional 'year in industry' where I get a job and work in the real world for a year. I would like to get a job and work in Germany for the year. There are a few problems with this. Firstly, I don't know how to get a job in Germany, I can't even get one in the UK. I have an English CV, but that's about it. Secondly, I don't know where most people here live. I'm learning German at the moment so I'm hoping to hang around here and get to know a few people. That way, when I move to Germany I already know some people, so I'd like to get a job near to where people live.

The kind of job I'm looking for would preferably be as a Software Engineer. I don't have any experience but I am learning Java, SQL, and next semester I'll be learning about UNIX and web server programming. I've had a look at monster.de and a UK based site but my German isn't good enough to read the job descriptions.

I know this is a big thing to ask, but can anyone help me with this? I'll answer any questions you might have.

Sorry if this isn't allowed, I would have asked someone but I didn't know who to ask.

 

You can always google 'job Germany'. Maybe you get more english sites than me, too.

This one has some jobs in English, so you don't have to puzzle over the German.
Maybe you should consider getting your bio into one of the databases. Though I don't know how many companies actually make the effort to look...

 

I'm looking for an actual job.

I hadn't thought of that.

It's not that good at the moment, I hope to improve a lot over the next year though.

I'd be looking to start in July or August.

That might help.

I'll bear that in mind.

I've been told 'we'll keep your CV on file and contact you if anything comes up' so many times before and nothing has ever come of it.

Quick question, what does it mean by 'Bitte senden Sie Ihre aussagefähigen Unterlagen'? It's on this job page. I know what it says, but I'm not sure what documents it means. I'm guessing my CV is one of them, but that's about it.

 

hey... where in the UK are you stuck?

we could help translate your CV into german...

i know of a student from salford uni who got a job in germany as part of his degree. maybe your uni can help make connections? because they might have places for english speakers rather than germans.

keep looking, i'm sure there is stuff that will fit your description.

 

Skiara: thanks.

frared: I'm in the south, in Portsmouth. I did ask my Uni if they could help but they said it was up to me to find something. I can ask again but I'm not hopeful.

 

well, my uni had a special department just for helping you with work abroad. maybe german uni's are simply better equipped that way. maybe they have a career's adviser who can help? they should really, i find.

other than that i'm not being terribly helpful at the moment.

i just wondered if you were close to me but that's stretching it a bit

 

Doesn't the UK have something like an employment office? The German employment office (arbeitsamt) kept wanting to send me abroad during my time when I was unemployed.

"Abroad Experience" is quite good, I believe.
www.abroad-experience.com

They had actually gotten me four seperate job interviews in the Netherlands but I decided to stay in Germany in the end. They might actually be able to help you though.

Oh, then there's the Federal Foreign Office: FFO

 

I should have checked today as I was in that part of Uni. It completely slipped my mind though.

I live in Portsmouth though, I don't know how close that is to you.

There is the Job Centre, but they didn't really help.

The ZAV might be a good place to contact. It would be easier if they had an email address.

 

i asked the careers person in my college today and he said to contact the international or european (what with europe not being international or some such) officer. the quality of that service might of course vary but generally it's their job to help you with what you want to do. he also offered to get the phone no. if you have trouble with that. so just get back to me if you want.

i live in stockport, which is a bit far off. i think i met you during CE if only very briefly.

in germany the job centres try to get rid of people by sending them abroad, i think that is why they have larger departments for work abroad. don't give up on it. i've just thought that maybe you could contact the languages dept in your uni as well and ask them for help or, alternatively your nearest goethe institut, although they might only cater to language stuff... but it is language stuff as well. http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/enindex.htm