Germany Job Experiences & Tips: Aaron, an American Expat
In this video, Aaron talks about his experience getting a job in Germany. Have a look
Video transcription
Hi, my name is Aaron and I’m an American expat living and working in Germany. I’m a Product Manager working at KAYAK. I’ve been working here for about two years.
What brought me to Germany
So when I was still living in the states, I was wrapping up my first startup with my co-founder. We started to conceptualize our second startup. We met an investor in the states and we started to come up with this idea for a social network for hostels, but we realized that hosteling wasn’t really a big thing in the states and if we wanted to interact with our users directly we would need to go to Europe so we moved to Berlin.
My experience getting a job in Germany
We had been working on our startup in Germany for about eight months when my co-founder saw that KAYAK was offering a pitch competition to startups in Berlin – you would come here and pitch your idea. She submitted an application and we were selected among 5 startups that would pitch, and at the end of the pitch we won. The prize for that was to spend a month working at KAYAK and benefit from the knowledge and experience here. At the end of that month I realized actually that this was the environment I wanted to be in and I asked if I could transition to working here instead.
My #1 tip for expat jobseekers in Germany
I think my tip based on my experience for finding a job is actually not necessarily Germany specific: I think finding connections, meeting people, introducing yourself, having them get to know you – that was a big part of what got me my job at KAYAK, it was that they already knew who I was because they had been working with me for a month. So I think that’s really a great way to get in basically anywhere you want to work.
If you are looking for a job in Germany, check out expatjobseeker.de
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