Friday, July 28, 2017

How to search and apply for jobs in Germany

Hi Friends,

I will share my experience of finding a job in Germany. The similar strategy can also be used to find a job in Europe



Step 1

Decide your niche - product management, SAP consultant, Scale developer, project manager, QA analyst, Software developer, data scientist in R or python) etc.

Step 2

Read at least 10 job descriptions of the job profiles which match your niche. From the JDs identify the main keywords, employers look for in the positions you aim for. From your past experience identify instances where you have worked in these topics and then back them b means of KPI you achieved eg a recommender engine built by you improved conversion on site by 3% and email CTR by 20%.

Step 3

Update your profile on Linkedin and Xing and regularly. Interact with people, share posts, write comments and if possible write articles in your domain. Establish yourself as a leader in your domain.

It is beneficial to have a presence on Twitter, follow influencers in your domain and constantly interact with them on the topics of your interest.

Step 4

Create job alerts on the following job sites and also upload your CV.

1. Stepstone
2. Glassdoor
3. Indeed
4. BerlinStartupJobs
5. StartupBerlin
6. Angel.co
7. 4Scotty - new but highly recommended

Obviously, there are a few more, but Indeed and Glassdoor usually are able to crawl all the job portals and provide a good summary and also send you emails.

Step 5

Keep your CV refreshed. Make it a habit of updating the CV at least once every week. That means even if you have to upload the same CV do it anyway. Job portals are designed to pick and showcase the most active profiles first to the recruiters.

Keep yourself updated by learning new courses online on
1. Coursera
2. EDX
3. Udemy
4. OpenSAP
5. StanfordOnline
6. NationalDigitalLibraryIndia



Step 6

Constantly look for suggested job section on Linkedin and Xing.  All most every internet company these days advertise jobs on Linkedin.

Step 7
Attend meet ups. Many start ups and internet companies occasionally hold meet ups and talks on topics like AI, chatbots, learn Python and digital marketing. These events are good places to socialise and most of the times sponsorers are looking for possible roles in their companies.

Additional resources -
you may also tweak your CV to match the standard German format. One of the special things is that they expect a good professional picture in your CV. This is a norm in Germany, but I do not follow this either.

Sample1
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