Recently, I’ve met a lot of motivated people from other countries who’d like to land a tech job in Germany. If you’re from another EU country, the process is much easier than from any other country but there are still a few things you can do to fasten your job search and to land a tech job Germany. Here you go:
1. Research job platforms, recruiting events and Facebook groups
First of all, it’s important that you research the most important German job platforms for the jobs you’re looking for and register for their newsletters. There are the more traditional ones like StepStone and Monster but platforms like glassdoor, talent.io and Stackoverflow are specifically helpful for tech jobs. You can also check out startup jobs on AngelList but the platform is still far from its potential in Germany.
In addition, check out recruiting events from specific companies or general job fairs in the city or cities you want to focus on. Startup Digest, meetup.com and Eventbrite are helpful here, too, in your search to land a tech job in Germany. In addition, there are tons of Facebook groups where people post open positions and you can publish your job search. For Berlin, there are e.g. Berlin Startup Jobs and Berlin Social Jobs & Internships. Cologne also has a very active group as well as Munich.
2. Get to know the right people
A good network is still the most effective way to learn about new positions and to ask your contacts to keep eyes and ears open in case they hear anything about open positions in your field of interest. Leverage your LinkedIn network or Xing (the latter is very concentrated on Germany and more traditional industries) to get the word out for your job search. In addition, attend at least a few important conferences or events in your preferred city to get to know the tech scene, connect to interesting companies and learn about open positions. This will help you to focus on relevant sources for your job search.
3. Define your work permit situation
As mentioned above, if you’re from another EU country, the process to land a tech job in Germany is much easier than if you’d like to move from a non-EU country. That’s why you should define your work permit situation and what papers you need for the application if you get accepted for a job in Germany. Be prepared when you speak to your potential employer about it and most important, be prepared to do most of the paper work and upfront research as well as get support from a German speaking expert in that field. This makes a tremendous difference for companies as they usually don’t have a specific expert to take care of the work permit process.
I’ll write about the steps to get a German work permit in my next blog post with a few tips to make your life and that of your future employer easier.
Do you have any additional tips to land a tech job in Germany? Any secrets you’d like to share?
Looking forward to your comments!
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Image source: perzon seo under Creative Commons license CC BY 2.0
