Irrespective of the country you come from, the skills sets you have are very relevant. Especially interesting for the recruiters is your :
Post graduate degree in Computer science and
You can handle German well (I assume that you are at B1/B2 level).
In order to look for the suitable job, you need to do the following :
Prepare your CV as per the German template. This means that there has to be your pic, visa status in addition to the normal work and education details. You can find some really useful templates on this website : Free Download Word / Docx. The website also allows you to download these templates,
Job search: This is usually the most tedious step of the job search process. Where do you look for jobs that you are interested in. Based on your profile, you should use the following websites :
Honeypot : This is a startup from Berlin, which focuses on IT related jobs. This portal is very niche and requires account creation. During the registration process, after you mention your skills and experience, it provides a broad salary range for your profile. Of course, you can enter your own salary expectations also. For example, for a data scientist with 1year of experience, the salary range in Berlin is €38k to €43k.
Stack Overflow : Another portal that is primarily focused on the IT profiles. No account registration is required and you can search for jobs like any other job portal. The one filter which is their best feature is to look for jobs that provide visa support OR relocation support. This means that you do not waste time browsing through jobs which can not help you in moving to Germany,
German job portal : This is the portal from the Germany Federal Employment Agency. As per this portal, there are about 1,500,000 job openings currently in Germany. The website is in German and can be translated to English. Though, I assume that German should not be an issue for you. You can use the filters on the website to narrow down the jobs suitable for you.
Interviews : The interviews will be online in the initial rounds as you are not in Germany. This will be the preliminary rounds, to test your general suitability for the role. Once through with them, the next round will be technical skills check. If the process goes further, then it might be possible that they will fly you to their offices for formal face to face interviews. Things to note for the interviews :
Always be 5–10 mins early. Log in to the meeting room earlier than the meeting time.
Check the audio and video quality for the online rounds,
Make sure there is no background noise that disturbs the discussion,
Right at the start, make sure to check with the interviewer that they can hear/see you clearly,
Inform the interviewer if you cant hear them properly,
Speak slowly and clearly,
Clarify before the interview if the process will be in German or English (if you are comfortable in German, let them know and ignore this point),
Answer the questions briefly and clearly (in initial screening rounds), in details for the technical rounds,
If you dont understand the question (due to interviewer’s accent or technical issues), let them know and request to repeat,
Be professional and courteous during the whole duration of the interview,
Check for the next steps and time for the whole process,
For face to face interviews, make sure to follow all of the above and,
Dress professionally and smartly, grooming is important during an interview,
Greet and interact with all of the staff with courtesy,
Carry a notepad n pen in case of case studies and/or technical questions,
Speak clearly and confidently,
There might be multiple rounds of interview. In each successive round, it will be a more senior member of the team or management that you will interact with,
Meet the team : In some companies, the hiring manager might introduce you to his team. Dont take this to mean that you are selected or about to be selected. This is done as the hiring manger wants you to get along with the team. You might have 1–2 hours to interact with the team. If the team is mostly German, then your German language skills should help to form a good rapport with the team. Following this, the team will share their feedback with the hiring manager, which will be considered before a final decision on your candidature.
If you make it through the above, then you should expect a job offer coming your way. Apart from some small points, the process of finding a job in Germany is pretty similar to any other country.
Best wishes for the career.
It always helps to have a mentor, who has worked and lived in Germany for some of the best brands. For personal consultation with Arun Mahajan, book a time with him.
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