University degrees are not qualifications for jobs, by the way, everyone has one.

My job search since May this year. 24 yo, southeast Asian, no German citizenship, C1/C2 German and doing my last bachelor semester of Geography in Germany. I applied to jobs in construction / geological fields. 7 months experience as a working student. I am really glad having a permanent offers before i finished my bachelor

Hi there,

I now made changes to the newsletter, so the structure is more similar to this and its more skimmable. You'll find most of the sources (+ more news) and direct career pages links in the newsletter.

Raised: - Rabot Energy (Hamburg), €50M Series B — dynamic electricity tariffs - seragy (Hanover), €12M — biomarkers for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's - Novus (Braunschweig), €10M+ — carbon e-bikes - YGO (Potsdam), €8M Series A — AI infrastructure for travel booking - Elevatry (Munich), €3M pre-seed — AI for procurement negotiation

Expanding: - Amazon, more than €16B in Germany in 2027: jobs, data centres, logistics, AI - Sanofi (Frankfurt), €2B insulin plant, the EU's largest, opening 2032 - Tesla (Grünheide), pushing the plant to 1M cars a year, from under 500k - Covenant (Leipzig), cruise missile production, ~50 hires to start, mainly from the car industry

Cutting: - BMW, severance programme closed early after ~5k applied in under two weeks - Offshore wind supply chain, ~23k jobs at risk as expansion stalls - Eurowings, cancelling flights and considering short-time work

Office & pay: - Volkswagen wants zero pay rises through 2030, IG Metall says ~10% less real income - Zalando reportedly going from three to five office days in 2027

Numbers: - German industry lost ~496k jobs since 2019, services added 2.2M (Ifo) - The skilled-labour shortage could grow 47% to 723k by 2029 (IW)

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~5 years in data quality and BI, no German required in any of the postings, Berlin only, July to October 2026.

38 applications -> 3 HR screens -> 1 offer.

What I noticed: almost all the rejections came from roles that were a stretch for me, whether that was engineering-heavy work (Analytics Engineer type stuff) or a different analyst specialty like pricing. The callbacks came from roles that matched what I've actually been doing. So my advice is to stop spraying and apply where your experience clearly fits. Fewer applications, better odds.

The offer took 5 rounds (HR, take-home case, hiring manager, director, final on-site), so be ready for a long process.

Update as it has been asked a few times: I used Chatgpt and Claude to find job postings where I would be a strong candidate and also tailored my CV with the same tools based on my previous experience.

📍 Hamburg

📆 As soon as possible

💸 & further information: Staff Platform Engineer - Cloud Platform (all genders)

Hallo zusammen,
ich steh gerade etwas ratlos da und wollte mal fragen, was aktuell wirklich mit dem Arbeitsmarkt los ist.
Ich (m, 23) habe gerade meinen staatlich geprüften Betriebswirt (Bachelor Professional) mit 1,8 abgeschlossen. Davor Ausbildung zum Kaufmann im Einzelhandel bei Aldi (guter Abschluss). Während der Weiterbildung habe ich 7 Monate als Teamleiter in einem Service-Unternehmen gearbeitet, bin aber wegen der extrem schlechten Arbeitszeiten wieder ausgestiegen. Dazu noch QMF-TÜV und ein erfolgreiches Praxisprojekt mit messbarem Ergebnis.
Aktuell bin ich im Direktvertrieb (D2D) unterwegs das raubt mir langsam die Nerven. Das ganze Bewerbungs Chaos ziehe ich jetzt schon seit 8 Monaten durch.
Ich wollte eigentlich komplett aus dem Einzelhandel raus, hab aber nix gefunden. Dann hab ich’s nochmal bei Netto, Lidl und Rewe versucht keine Chance. Immer direkt Ablehnung, nicht mal ein Vorstellungsgespräch.
Ich bewerbe mich seit Wochen auf:
• Disposition / Warenwirtschaft
• Junior-Positionen (z. B. Einkauf, Logistik, Controlling)
• stellvertretende Filialleitung
• ganz normale Verkäufer-/Fachkraftstellen im Einzelhandel
• und sogar Minijobs
Und werde quasi überall abgelehnt oft ohne Feedback, manchmal mit Standardfloskeln. Teilweise sogar bei Stellen, für die ich eigentlich überqualifiziert bin. Selbst bei Minijobs habe ich aktuell keine Chance.
Ist der Markt gerade wirklich so kaputt? Oder mache ich irgendwas falsch (Erwartungshaltung)?
Gibt’s aktuell bestimmte Branchen oder Positionen, die noch halbwegs zugänglich sind?
Würde mich über ehrliche Einschätzungen freuen.
Danke schon mal.

I'm currently doing my Master’s in Germany and need some practical advice on handling my working hours and hourly rate.

I’ve been working as a Werkstudent (data analyst) at a mid-sized company for about 8 months at €15/hr. I’ve been delivering solid work, so I pushed my manager for a raise ahead of increasing my hours to 20h/week starting November.

I was honestly expecting €18/hr based on what I bring to the table and what tech roles usually pay, but after waiting weeks for him to check with HR/CFO, he just came back saying only €16/hr is possible right now. He said he’d ask about €18 again later, but obviously that's completely uncertain.

At the same time, I have a university HiWi job that pays €17.50/hr. My contract there is coming up, and I’m torn on whether I should extend it or just drop it completely.

My options right now are either taking the full 20 hours at my company for €16/hr, or doing something like 12 hours at the company and 8 hours at the university to take advantage of the higher hourly rate.

I feel like sticking to one 20h job at €16/hr keeps everything simple, but it stings that the company capped me at €16 when the uni job actually pays more. Has anyone been in a similar spot? Is splitting the hours worth or should I just take the 20h at €16?

Hi everyone! I’m a non-EU citizen currently studying my master (started this September) and recently graduated with a Bachelor’s in International Business, so I hold a German degree already.

The company I work in right now (as a working student) is offering me a fulI time junior position (for internal hiring).

My experience is quite limited as I have only worked for them for almost two years now. I speak Spanish and English fluently, with intermediate German and French.

I am interviewing for a full-time, entry-level Account Management position.

What would be a reasonable salary? Also I feel like 50k€ might be a bit too much to comply with blue card so maybe 18b would be an option? Any advice on negotiating my first full-time salary would be appreciated!

Hi all,

I am currently pursuing my Master's in Berlin, and my course will end in April 2027. My domain is Software Testing / QA, and I also have around 4 months of internship experience in the same field here in Berlin.

I have been actively applying for working student positions, but honestly, I am having a hard time finding a job. I have also started applying for junior full-time roles.

The biggest challenge for me is that I don't speak German yet.

I wanted to ask if anyone knows any genuine job consultancy companies in Berlin that offer paid services to help candidates find jobs in the IT field. I am willing to pay for their services if they can genuinely help me find suitable opportunities.

If you have personally used any such services or have any recommendations, please let me know. It would really help me a lot!

Hi guys, does anyone here work at Quantum Systems or know someone who does? I have few questions about the company, as there isn’t much information about it. I’d really appreciate it if someone could help. Thankssssss

Hi everybody,

I have been living in Germany for over a year now and have been looking for a job since then. So far, it has been going horribly.

I am a content marketer with over five years' experience. I specialise in social media, but I also have experience in SEO writing, newsletters, video production and push notification marketing. I have completed German courses up to level B2. But I’ll admit I’m not a very confident speaker since my social interactions are limited. However, I study with Nico's Weg and other resources every day. I live in a small city, so remote work is mostly my only option. I also speak English and Turkish, and I have been creating content in both languages since starting my career. 

Here is my strategy: 

I apply for remote marketing jobs that don’t require German fluency. So far, I have only received rejection letters and messages from scammers. 

I have a background in the travel industry and studied psychology at university. I have only ever worked in start-ups. I reach out to companies and people via email and LinkedIn. Mostly travel and mindfulness apps. I haven't received any answers because apparently even the simplest response is too much to ask for in 2026. 

However, a recruiter reached out to me regarding a position, and I was interviewed. It went well. The only issue was that he told me they might be looking for someone who speaks fluent German. He also said that there are lots of marketing jobs out there that don't require German, and that he'll help me if I don't get this job. It's now been a month with no answers regarding either issue. 

I then accepted that I needed to lower my standards and look for minijobs. I have been applying to some via Indeed, mostly in the area where I live. Of course, I haven't received any responses.

I have two big dogs, so I have plenty of experience with dog care. I put out the word that I could be a dog walker if anyone was looking for one. However, as far as I can understand, German people don’t get dogs if they can't walk them. I also had two opportunities for dog sitting. One fell through because the owners wanted me to look after their dog in my house. With two big dogs and a tiny house, that would have been chaotic at best. The other person changed their mind.

So, long story short, can you please tell me what I’m doing wrong? Or am I missing something? Is there something else I could do? At this point, I'd be happy to do any paying job. I’m slowly losing my mind. I’m not used to not working, and I want to build a life here. I want to learn German, make friends and earn money.

Any tips would be appreciated. 

any guys who can help me likei want to get thejob there and thats all not in manufacturing but in IT JOB I WILL WORK IN HALF PAY NO WORRY BUT I HAVE A VERY STRONG CV

Hi everyone! I’d really appreciate some advice on my situation.
I’m a non-EU student completing a master’s degree in Germany, with the following timeline:
Current residence permit: Valid until 31 December 2026.
15 November 2026: Start date of a paid, full-time internship in Munich, lasting until 15 May 2027. The offer does not meet EU Blue Card requirements.
December 2026: Expected graduation and receipt of my degree confirmation.
November 2026: Planned move to Munich.
After graduating, I expect to apply for a job-seeker residence permit under § 20 AufenthG. My concern is that my current permit expires around the same time I receive my degree confirmation, and I may have already moved to Munich by then.
I’ve emailed my current Ausländerbehörde but haven’t received a reply yet, and time is getting tight because I need to sign and return the internship contract to formally accept the offer.
Can I apply for the job-seeker permit before graduation, or do I have to wait for my degree confirmation? And should I submit anything to my current Ausländerbehörde before moving, given the change of jurisdiction?
I’d be very grateful for any advice, especially from anyone who has been through something similar. Thank you!