5 test questions for a quick job search in Germany

If you believe German recruiters and hiring managers, problems with resumes are the main obstacle for Russian-speaking applicants to work in a European country. CVs are full of errors, do not contain the information needed by the employer and do not, as a rule, reflect the high technical skills of candidates from Russia and the CIS. As a result, everything translates into the carpet mailing of hundreds of applications, 2-3 invitations for interviews and rapidly emerging dissatisfaction with the new employer, even if the contract is concluded and the move is complete.

I have prepared a checklist of five points that will help you avoid major mistakes when applying for a job in Germany.

The checklist consists of questions, the answers to which should be easily read from your resume and cover letter.
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Go:

Why do you desperately need this particular company? What attracts you to the new workplace?

The answer to this question is the basis of your motivational or cover letter (if the firm accepts shortened applications no longer than three pages, then the cover letter can have motivational elements).

Imagine that you are a programmer from Ukraine. How can you answer these questions?

• The programming paradigm in which you have been working for a long time corresponds to the paradigm in which the company operates. You like it, your experience will enrich the team.
• Before that, you worked in medium-sized firms, and you want to get acquainted with the processes in a large company. Or vice versa. Accordingly, you have a fresh look at solving problems in a new place, due to your past experience.
• You are attracted by the innovative product that you have to work on and the technical challenges that this work brings with you - you learn quickly and willingly, and the opportunity to do it motivates you (suitable if you are a relative newcomer).
• You are already fluent in those libraries and languages ​​with which you will need to work in a new place and can communicate your experience to younger colleagues.
• You are close to the company's values ​​(which ones), which you familiarized with on their website and according to reviews of former employees on the Glassdoor or Kununu website.
• You would like to work in a company with a working climate that is described by former employees on the mentioned sites.
• You are attracted to work in a multicultural team.

It is not necessary to select one item from the list, you can include several. And, of course, the list does not exhaust all possible options! Repeat the expectations of the employer in the vacancy announcement, and you will not go wrong.

What are you proud of professionally? What do colleagues appreciate you for?

Each of us has strengths and weaknesses. What we are especially good at can become the core of our professional profile. It is important that your Bewerbung (job application) reflects this profile as much as possible. Be prepared to tell a short story from a professional life illustrating your strength. It may be useful to interview former colleagues.

So what specific options might there be? What is your strength?

• You are a strong team player. In the work on the last project, teamwork was given to you especially easily, in case of misunderstandings and miscommunications you used your strong communication skills and clarified ambiguities. Thus, all team members remained enabled.
• You are the leader. When the team lead fell ill, you took over his functions and passed the project on time, receiving favorable feedback from management, the client and the team.
• You are disciplined and strategic. Therefore, you never neglect unit tests and documentation, because you understand that this is a guarantee of the company's normal long-term work.

Your tasks and daily routine are described in the summary as specific as possible?

No need to write:

2015–2017 Amethyst: implemented the features, wrote unit tests and linked the program with the database.

The conditional company Amethyst is clearly not Google, so you should at least explain what it does.

It is better to write this:

2015–2017 Amethyst company: software development for devices used in medical research

Position: Developer

• implemented user profile settings (C #, WPF technologies)
• implemented the SQLite database model
• participated in the transfer of the system to the formal state machine

This design provides more information about your skills and invites you for a substantive dialogue during an in-person interview.


Amethyst. Does not cause associations with the development of medical software, is not it?

What measurable achievements can you present for each job?

At first glance it may seem that they are not there, but from any routine you can isolate at least one episode where you are called, made a difference. If you still can not recall, ask colleagues and former employers.

What could an example look like for a programmer already familiar to us?

• I proposed the introduction of using the SQLite database instead of the database written inside the company, implemented the implementation, achieving greater data security, system stability and performance (the number of known errors in the subsystem dropped to zero, the performance doubled).

Are there any unexplained gaps?

Many German companies are quite conservative and are still skeptical about passes in resumes, even if they are left for reasons of space. Therefore:

• If you didn’t work for a year or two and were looking for a job, then you shouldn’t write “unemployed”. Write “job search, advanced training (course A, B, C)” - it will sound much more convincing and characterize you as a serious and purposeful person.
• If you traveled after university for a year and didn’t look for anything serious, write “Travels in Asia”. This line will tell you that you are a curious person, open to other cultures, appreciate the balance of work / life and do not take carelessly about starting a career.

Is the answer to each item on the checklist reflected in your application for a job? You are well done. There are still many subtleties that it is desirable to take into account in the application, but this is the basis. Check Bewerbung for grammatical and stylistic mistakes several times, let it read by a native speaker or a professional translator; make sure that the format and photo are adequate. And you can send!

PS Do not forget that for each new job a resume, cover letter or motivation letter will need to be at least edited based on the expectations of the next employer and company profile. This is time and effort, but your application will thus become truly selling.