According to German recruiters and hiring managers, problems with resumes are the main obstacle on the way to work in a European country for Russian-speaking job seekers. CVs are riddled with errors, do not contain the information the employer needs, and, as a rule, do not reflect the high technical skills of candidates from Russia and the CIS. As a result, everything results in a false mailing of hundreds of applications, 2-3 invitations to interviews and quickly arising dissatisfaction with the new employer, even if the contract is concluded and the move has taken place.
I have prepared a five-point checklist that will help you avoid the main mistakes when applying for a job in Germany.
The checklist consists of questions, the answers to which should be easy to read from your resume and cover letter.
Let's go:
Why do you desperately need this particular company? What attracts you to your new job?
The answer to this question is the basis of your motivation or cover letter (if the company accepts short applications no longer than three pages, then the cover letter may have elements of a motivation letter).
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 small firms and 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 to the innovative product that you have to work on and the technical challenges that this work brings with it - you learn quickly and willingly, and the opportunity to do this motivates you (suitable if you are a relative beginner).
- You are already fluent in the libraries and languages that you will need to work with in a new place and will be able to share your experience with younger colleagues.
- You are close to the values of the company (specify which ones), which you have read on their website and according to the reviews of former employees on the Glassdoor or Kununu website.
- You would like to work in a company with a work climate that is described by former employees on the sites mentioned.
- 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! Based on the expectations of the employer in the job posting, and you can't go wrong.
What are you proud of professionally? Why are you valued by your colleagues?
Each of us has strengths and weaknesses. What we are particularly 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 your professional life that illustrates your strengths. Here it can be useful to interview former colleagues.
So what exactly are the options? What is your strength?
- You are a strong team player. Working on the last project, teamwork was especially easy for you, when there were misunderstandings and miscommunications, you used your strong communication skills and cleared up ambiguities. Thus, all team members remained included.
- You are the leader. When a team lead fell ill, you took over his functions and delivered the project on time, receiving flattering feedback from management, the client, and the team.
- You are disciplined and think strategically. Therefore, you never neglect unit tests and documentation, as you understand that this is the key to the normal long-term operation of the company.
Are your tasks and daily routine described in the resume as specifically as possible?
No need to write:
2015–2017 Amethyst Company: implemented features, wrote unit tests and connected the program to the database.
The conditional company "Amethyst" is clearly not Google, so it's worth at least explaining what it does.
Better to write like this:
2015–2017 Amethyst: 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 a formal finite state machine
This design gives more information about your skills and invites you to a dialogue on the merits at a face-to-face interview.
Amethyst. It does not evoke associations with the development of medical software, does it?
What measurable achievements can you show for each job?
At first glance, it may seem that they do not exist, but from any routine you can isolate at least one episode where you, as they say, made a difference. If you still can't remember, ask colleagues and former employers.
How might an example look like for a programmer already familiar to us?
- He proposed to implement the use of the SQLite database instead of the database written in-house, carried out the implementation, achieving greater data security, stability and system performance (the number of known errors in the subsystem decreased to zero, performance increased twice).
Are there any unexplained spaces?
Many German companies are quite conservative and are still skeptical about gaps in resumes, even if they are left in for space reasons. That's why:
- If you haven't worked for a year or two and are looking for a job, you shouldn't write "unemployed". Write “job search, advanced training (course A, B, C)” - this will sound much more convincing and characterize you as a serious and purposeful person.
- If you traveled for a year after university and didn’t look for anything serious, just write “Travels in Asia”. This line will let you know that you are a curious person, open to other cultures, value work/life balance, and don't take the beginning of a career lightly.
Is the answer to each item on the checklist reflected in your job application? You are well done. There are many more subtleties that it is desirable to take into account in the application, but this is the basis. Check Bewerbung for grammatical and stylistic errors several times, have it read by a native speaker or a professional translator; make sure the format and photograph are adequate. And you can send!
PS Do not forget that for each new job, the resume, cover or motivation letter will need to be at least edited based on the expectations of the next employer and the company profile. This is time and effort, but your application will thus become truly selling.
Source: habr.com