My first part-time job search:
Without speaking German it was just crazy to get anywhere near a job where I could earn money. Few of my senior fellow students were working in restaurants, pizzerias, hotels or McDonald's. And if I say working it actually means cleaning dishes or toilets, making beds, cutting salads etc. I also applied to such jobs more than 500 times including door to door applications. For students like me who never did any cleaning at home and without speaking German I got nothing. After many days finally I got a chance to work in a hotel. I was very happy, I cleaned dishes, cut onions, cleaned toilets but after two days I was told to work without registering to the Tax-Office. I denied to work illegal and suddenly my work quality was not good enough for that job. So this person told me I don't have sufficient experience in the kitchen and hotel field. The most unfair thing was that I didn't get paid for that two days I had already worked.
So I continued trying for searching other part time jobs. Month later I got some offer for work during the semester holidays in the production of very renowned companies.
My first internship search:
Same like finding a part time job, finding an internship was also very challenging. Seniors had well prepared lists of companies where I applied too. Many times I went to the interview but at the end due to my poor German language they all ended in rejection after rejection. As I remember I applied at least 2,000 applications.
My mistake was to use an English CV which I of course came to know much later.
But there was also good side to the many job interviews which I gave. I got trained. My preparation before and the reflection after interview became my normal routine.
To find out what could possibly be a lack in my profile, I called the HR immediately after receiving the rejection and asked her. She said without speaking German it would be very difficult for me to find any good intership and a job. I did my best to convince her that I will improve my German language skills until my internship starts. Thanks to that HR lady I got the chance for an interview. When the day came I was very excited and had prepared myself as good as possible, but somehow the interview didn't worked out as planned and I had a very bad feeling afterwards. I was determined to prove that I already spoke some sentences in German and I was very insecure. I remember I made some terrible mistakes. But at least I tried. Somehow and unexpectedly I got the internship. But not only that they also offered me a part-time job. So my first own earned Euro came in this way. I sponsored all my education, rent, food, hobbies and even some Europe travels with this part-time job and internship. During this time I also improved my spoken German skills a lot and took it much more seriously than I did before. I finally learned that I have to speak German if I want to create a career and earn money in Germany.
My first job search:
Lessons learned from my part-time-job and internship search I used all my trainings for the job search after finishing my master studies.
Soon I learned that finding a permanent job was even more difficult. I remember that I sent more than 1,000 applications around Europe and I also got many interviews. Traveling for interviews was some kind of Europe tour paid by the companies. This was the way how I saw many cities in Europe.
Many successful assessment centers was the best time where I learned.
At the end I had more than one job offer with a good salary and profile.
What I want to tell you is:
In Germany/Europe we have a lot of challenges but also huge opportunities.
One important thing or key of success is to be better and hardworking than German/European people. So for all around the globe who thinks that just coming to Germany/Europe will make them rich and successful, is not the right expectation. Challenges normally starts after coming here.
If you are a Go-getter person with a never give up attitude then I am sure you will be somehow successful.
A student once told to me that he want to COPY - PASTE my journey by just seeing my LinkedIn job title and that was one of the motivations why I started writing my blogs and articles.
Thank you for reading this article and giving your valuable feedbacks and comments. It motivates me to write more. If you find it useful, please share it with your connections and feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.