Unfortunately this was during the time of my kidney stone so I was a bit distracted.
Nevertheless I wrote the contact some advice, which I've paraphrased here:
- http://toytowngermany.com/: the main forum for expats in Germany. As well as giving social opportunities there are resources on finding jobs here. OK, I got disenchanted with it but for getting into the expat-in-Munich scene it is very good. Ignore the stupidity and bitchiness though.
- Internations: a "smarter" set than the Toytown crowd, this forum organizes gatherings which are quite good. Except they do turn into cattle markets a bit. Nevertheless, it's part of your networking armoury.
- LinkedIn: enough said
- Xing.com: like LinkedIn but more of a German focus. Also does good real world networking events.
- www.gulp.de: a very good website for IT people in Germany. I found my current job through it.
- Michael Bailey Associate, http://www.mbade.com/: a very good contractor agency
- www.Monster.com: obviously but still good
- www.jobserve.co.uk: also obviously but still good, the first contract I took in Germany was advertised on these two sites
- German: unless you have a gun no-one will to speak to you in German. It is very frustrating. There are lots of courses teaching German but quite a few are considered a joke. Check out Toytown for recommendations.
- Not being able to speak German: don't worry about it. German companies will only recruit fluent German speakers and it will take you a while to get there. Unless they have an international reach in which case the most important language to have is English (at Siemens the operational language in English not German).
- German c.v.(Lebenslauf): I've found that using my usual English c.v. is good enough as I apply to internationally-minded companies.
- International companies: there are loads here but a lot, including my one, have hiring freezes. Which leads me to:
- Süddeutschezeitung: the weekend edition has a jobs and career supplement. Some jobs are in English. But the big thing is it shows you which companies are hiring, and therefore doing relatively well, and therefore might be candidates for speculative applications
- American German Business Club: www.jambit.com/agbc, I'm not American, I'm not German but that is no hindrance to joining (a former, recent president of the Munich club was also British). Not as good as it sounds for networking but still worth a go.
- Internations: a "smarter" set than the Toytown crowd, this forum organizes gatherings which are quite good. Except they do turn into cattle markets a bit. Nevertheless, it's part of your networking armoury.
- LinkedIn: enough said
- Xing.com: like LinkedIn but more of a German focus. Also does good real world networking events.
- www.gulp.de: a very good website for IT people in Germany. I found my current job through it.
- Michael Bailey Associate, http://www.mbade.com/: a very good contractor agency
- www.Monster.com: obviously but still good
- www.jobserve.co.uk: also obviously but still good, the first contract I took in Germany was advertised on these two sites
- German: unless you have a gun no-one will to speak to you in German. It is very frustrating. There are lots of courses teaching German but quite a few are considered a joke. Check out Toytown for recommendations.
- Not being able to speak German: don't worry about it. German companies will only recruit fluent German speakers and it will take you a while to get there. Unless they have an international reach in which case the most important language to have is English (at Siemens the operational language in English not German).
- German c.v.(Lebenslauf): I've found that using my usual English c.v. is good enough as I apply to internationally-minded companies.
- International companies: there are loads here but a lot, including my one, have hiring freezes. Which leads me to:
- Süddeutschezeitung: the weekend edition has a jobs and career supplement. Some jobs are in English. But the big thing is it shows you which companies are hiring, and therefore doing relatively well, and therefore might be candidates for speculative applications
- American German Business Club: www.jambit.com/agbc, I'm not American, I'm not German but that is no hindrance to joining (a former, recent president of the Munich club was also British). Not as good as it sounds for networking but still worth a go.
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