So, I heard you want a job in Germany… part 2

I wrote another post about my experience living and working in Berlin so far here. If you think that Germany or Berlin is interesting for you, here follows some tips on how to find a tech job here.

Tech jobs in Berlin

Berlin has one of the most thriving and growing startup scene in Europe and in the whole world. There are a lot of tech startups companies in several areas. There are also many coworking spaces, Meetups and events related to startups. There is also a lot of VC capital concentrated in the city, making the best city in Germany (and possibly in Europe) for startups. Yet you will still find a lot of startups and more established companies in Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt (among other cities too).

Most jobs openings in tech here in Berlin are being offered by startup companies. Most of them are very international, having people all over the world and using english as the company spoken language, very few companies actually asks for german speaker candidates (unless you are into sales, marketing or on leading positions). As regarding to skills, these are the most wanted skills for a web developer in Berlin, in this order:

• Ruby on Rails: yes, Berlin startups loves Ruby on Rails, and is by far the most wanted skill for a developer, they are even building new products with RoR (lucky me, as I’m a RoR developer);
• React: in the front-end, React is being widely used and is the most popular front-end tool in Berlin, yet not all companies are actually using front-end libraries and are just building regular HTML/CSS webpages or native mobile apps (but I have also seen some companies looking for React Native developers);
• Node.js: a lot of companies, mostly the ones with mobile products, are using Node.js APIs in their backend;
• Java: you will always find jobs anywhere if you are a Java developer, also many mobile companies look for Java Android developers;
• Angular: there are many companies looking for Angular developers, despite that React is actually more popular in Berlin;
• Objective-C/Swift: most startups have mobile applications, so they look for iOS developers all the time, yet many startups here are often opting to go for a cross-platform development either with Ionic or React Native;
• Python: mostly used for data science, many companies asks for Python developers;
• Scala: mostly used in high traffic webservices or to deal with high amount of data, Scala is also being in demand in Berlin;
• Golang: many startups are scaling very fast and choosing Golang to build high scallable applications;
• PHP: yes PHP is still popular in Berlin and you can find many startups using it;

So if you have the skills and experience in any of those languages you can probably find a nice job in a Berlin startup. But there are also many openings for DevOps, Data Scientists, QA engineers, UI and UX designers, Digital Marketing and User Acquisition. Now it is just a matter of finding the right job for you.

Finding a job

Many people think about in coming to Germany with a tourist visa and look for a job while here. Although that can be done, if you actually manage to find a job you will have to go back to your country and issue a work visa from there (unless you are a EU citizen, in that case you don’t need a visa). In this case, you can issue a job seeking visa in the german consulate in your country, which is valid for 3 months. With this visa, if you manage to find a job in Germany, you can issue a work visa without leaving Germany. This is a very good alternative, specially because many other issues like finding an apartment, choosing the best area of the city to live and making your anmeldung, which can be easier resolved if you are already here. But if you want to find a job while still in your home country and even while working in your current job, you have many alternatives.

• LinkedIn: make a good profile and mark yourself as open to oportunities, many recruiters are looking for candidates on LinkedIn, and they are mostly connected with each other, get connected with one ASAP (connect with me there https://linkedin.com/in/filabreu);
• Xing: this is the LinkedIn for Germany (and german speaking countries), it’s also a good idea to look for companies and network with people working in interesting companies here, also Xing provides much better networking features than LinkedIn (connect with me there: https://www.xing.com/profile/Filipe_Abreu)
• StackOverflow Jobs: there are thousands of job opportunities all over the world, although you will have to filter down to the ones that are really interesting to you;
• VanHack: a company that started working for job openings in Canada but are now growing to Germany, VanHack not only get’s you connected with great job oportunities, they make a huge effort to get you hired, giving you tips and mentoring for interviews;
• Honeypot: a platform where companies apply to you, so you just focus on making a good profile and wait for the opportunities to arrive;
• Talent.io: another platform where companies apply to you, Talent.io also offers a very tailored experience, making a pre-interview with you and matching your profile with great companies;
• Meritocracy: here you can find high profile jobs in awesome tech companies all over Europe;
• TryCatch: one more hiring platform focused on Europe, you choose the cities where you want to work at and can find many oportunities there, they even get you a € 500 bonus if you get accepted;

Conclusion

Finding a job in Berlin in the tech industry is just a matter of time. Even of you are unexperienced (but have the right skills) you may find a good job position here. If you want any tips on how to get a job here, please connect with me in LinkedIn or Xing and send me a message there! I will be more than happy to help you out!