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Rene gives us expats his Germany job experiences and tips in the video interview below. Have a look!

Video transcription

Hello my name is Rene. I’m a Belgian expat. I’m a SEO expert working at KAYAK. I have been living in Germany for 5 years now, before I lived in Mainz, and a year ago I moved to Berlin.

What brought me to Germany

When I was still living in Belgium I wanted to get experience abroad and get deeper into online marketing. I found this one company that offered me a chance to start there. I looked on Google and basically searched for “Online Marketing Traineeship” and that is how I found the company.

If you are looking for a job in a German company, it is very good if you have a basic understanding of German. If you move to Berlin, English would be fine as well.

My #1 tip for expat jobseekers in Germany

The thing is that when you apply for a job Germans are looking for security so when you send in your resume then attach all of your certificates with your application, a proof of everything – that is how they work over here. When you as an expat already show that you understand how it works here, acceptance will be a lot higher.

When I was applying for a job, the company invited me for the interview at their office in Germany. I would say it is good to spend like a weekend in the place you are going to work in Germany just to get a bit of a feel for the place and see if you will like it there. In my case, I didn’t know anything about Germany or Germans and I was very positively surprised: They are very open-minded, nice people and you have many many beautiful places in the country and culture-wise it is really good.

Financially, I would say that salaries in Germany are higher than the average in Europe so that is good, and living costs are not that high. If you do well in your job you can save a lot of money.

If you don’t know about the rules here – there is a bit of bureaucracy – you have to register to the city in which you live, you have to get paperwork done, get some insurances that you might not be aware of – I was lucky to have a German person who helped me with all of these things. If you move to Germany for work it would be good if you would find a person in the company or another German person who can help you with getting started.

If you want to get to know me better

If you want to find out more about me you can find my resume on expatjobseeker.de – I think it’s a really good website, all for expats and there are many resources available over there – I can definitely recommend it.

Want to share your tips and experiences from working as an expat in Germany? Then please record and send a video similar to the one above to jesse(at)expatjobseeker(dot)de, or comment about your working experience and share job tips at the bottom of this post.

Want to be found and hired by a company in Germany and network with other local expats? Then post your resume now at expatjobseeker.de!

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