Unlike Indian universities and colleges, in Germany, there is rarely any collaboration between a private institute or a private company and a public university concerning placements. So it is not that the universities will approach companies and tell them to come and pick their students.
Let us talk about five things you should know about finding jobs in Germany.
Part-Time Jobs
Whenever you are starting your studies, either Bachelor’s or Master’s, the most important thing is that you try to find a field or an industry where the skills or interests that you have are directly required.
If you start your part-time job in those companies that align with the area of your study, you will have a higher chance that you get assimilated afterward in the same industry. For instance, you are from structural engineering. Just for a part-time job you thought of working in a transportation company or any other company apart from your study area, it is not going to be very beneficial for you. This is because afterward when your master is done, you will have a degree for masters in structural engineering. In contrast, during your entire studies, you were essentially working for an industry different from your education field. Hence, in the ideal scenario, work in the company where you think you will have a better opportunity to assimilate yourself after your masters or bachelor’s.
Moreover, it is essentially not just about where you have done a part-time job. Say, you worked in a restaurant for financing yourself or supporting your finances. This is fair, and many students do so. But to back it, you should have good grades in your studies, or you have completed your studies in the standard period (i.e., Bachelor’s in 3 and Masters in 2 years).
Internship
The second way of getting placed after your graduation is essentially the Internship. If you have a mandatory internship, then it is great already. The companies give priorities to students who have compulsory internships because they have to complete it as the university’s curriculum, and the companies get to enjoy some tax benefits. For students who have chosen to do voluntary Internship will have a little more difficult time. But still, if you know what and where to find, you will not face many problems.
Now think the Internship to be a very long interview where they will also be evaluating how your performance is, and they also see how you integrate yourself with the team. An internship can lead to a full-time job in the same firm if you perform well and build your connections. Even little things like talking to people, paying attention to them, a simple greeting, and other positive impacts you create on others count. Simply because, afterward, when you send your application for full-time employment, they will consider all these things along with how you performed in your Internship. When you talk with your Internship coordinator towards the end of your Internship, they tell you if it would be possible for them or not, to assimilate you after the Internship is completed in their company.
Online Job Portals
Another way of getting placed after your studies in Germany is through Online Job Portals. Some of the very renowned job portals being LinkedIn, XING, Indeed, Stepping Stones, Monster, Glassdoor, etc. Moreover, LinkedIn and XING are considered more responsive because you can contact other people directly working in that company and see if you build some connection with them and then forward your application to the HR. But for job portals with tonnes of people and applications, the success rate is generally low.
Job Fairs or Networking Events
Jobs fairs and Networking events are excellent platforms for making contacts and connections with people. However, it is not a place for on-spot selection because it rarely happens in the first meeting.
Job fairs are a sort of marketing event for the companies where the companies give the event organizers some money ( about 5k to 10k Euros) to get to know new students or get the students to learn about their companies. This is simply because the companies want to have better employees, and better employees mean ones who can make more innovation and profits to the companies. It is an excellent opportunity for creating a first impression. You can also talk about the culture of the company, whether your type of profile is required there or not, and make a context so that when you are writing your cover letter and sending it via email, you can write about the experience of visiting their fair and meeting their authorities who recommended you to write an email to them.
Networking events are super important, especially when you are an Administration field that means marketing, finance, or others. It is essential for other areas because it essentially boils down to what kind of people you get to meet in the event. It is fantastic for building the first contact point with the company.
Initiative Bewerbung
Initiative Bewerbung is the initial application that you write to a company. For example, suppose you are looking for any kind of jobs or internships or part-time jobs on a company’s website. In that case, you generally go to the company’s website’s career section and then see if there is something relevant to you. But even if there is nothing mentioned at all, you can still write them an email about your profile by making an excellent cover letter and telling them about your previous employments and why you want to work in that company, etc. Most often than not, you get to hear from them. Most people don’t use this and stop their search directly on the job portals like LinkedIn, Indeed, etc.
Studies are not just the end. You need to have these kinds of competencies, and soft skills are fundamental, which will help you in the long run if you want to do what you love.
