A friend who works in HR asked for my advice on how to get out of Egypt (better late than never). She was asking about Germany specifically, and how to find English speaking jobs. I am publishing our conversation so that everyone can benefit with some edits to make it fit the blog.
Finding English Speaking Jobs
“So, about the possibility of finding an English speaking job here, YES. There is very high possibility of finding an English speaking job. There are many tech companies in Berlin and they use English as the main language.
The challenge will be in finding companies that sponsor visas for non-Europeans. This is easy for tech people such as myself, but I don’t know if they would do it for non-tech functions like HR.
For example I see many HR people who are not from Germany, and don’t speak German, but I never met someone who isn’t from within EU.
I also don’t know how hard it is to sponsor a visa for a non-tech worker. Tech, medicine, and engineering are considered “rare skills” and that’s why the government makes the visa process fast and easy for them.
That being said, I believe you should try, it will be hard and takes time. The first job outside Egypt always takes time, the average of me and my friends was 1 year of continuous applications, studying, interviewing..etc.”
How to search?
1- LinkedIn: Set your job seeking status as ON. This will tell recruiters that you are looking for a new job.
Also set location filter to Berlin, so you always get the notifications and the job board filtered by Berlin jobs.
2- Indeed.de: Open indeed everyday, and apply for the latest jobs posted there. Make sure if you are using Google chrome it doesn’t translate the job descriptions, or you will be applying to German speaking jobs 🙂
3- Xing: Sounds Chinese, but it is actually German. It is the LinkedIn of Germany. Many times, you will find English speaking jobs on Xing.
4- There is a 4th way, it is non-scalable, but if you decided to leave you should give it some effort, search for companies based in Berlin, or companies that have offices here, open their website, and apply directly.
There are different ways to find companies based here, first you start with the big ones Zalando, Delivery Hero, Amazon, and the list of Rocket Internet companies (Rocket internet is the owner of Jumia, easy taxi…etc, they are based in Germany and have so many companies here).
Another way I used to do is to follow european tech news like Tech.eu, this is the TechCrunch of Europe. I follow companies news, and if any is based where I want to go, I open their website and check their jobs.
You can also, once you found a company with a position you are interested in, do what I call “recruiter hunt”. Go to LinkedIn, connect with the recruiter hiring for this position in that company, and start a conversation telling them why you are interested in the position and if you could get a chance to interview.
5-Â Use everyone you know abroad. Referrals, referrals, referrals.
Final remarks
It is not easy, but if you put your heart in it, it is doable in a year. I used to apply literally every day, and spend my weekends searching and applying. Also you have to accept rejections, they are part of life.