Brief guide on Headhunters, Career Portals, and Job Listings for MBA students and graduates in Germany

5 min readApr 19, 2019

Hi. My name is Sergio. I am originally from Mexico and came in 2014 to Germany to study a full-time Master in Business Administration (MBA) at the WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Düsseldorf. During my MBA studies and after my graduation, I have been actively looking to further develop my career in Germany. Therefore, I am always keen to learn about top companies in Germany, but also about small and medium businesses (SMBs) and start-ups and interesting career opportunities they offer, especially to MBA graduates. In addition, we are in an incredible time due to the current state of the economy, where there is a large demand for highly skilled professionals, especially in the business/management field.

There are multiple company rankings out there, from global rankings as the Fortune 500 to local/specialized rankings as the one from “brand eins” on Consulting, through which MBA graduates can identify “directly” interesting companies to work for. Nevertheless, I personally haven’t found a comprehensive source to guide MBA students through all other “indirect” options that are also available to find interesting career opportunities. Due to that, I decided to write this article to share with the broader audience, especially with MBA students and graduates in Germany, my findings during the last years. Please keep in mind that I do not intend this to be a comprehensive guide nor a substitute for the professional advice that MBAs can receive from the career centers at their business schools or from specialized career coaches and consultants. I personally have used all these services and found them extremely value.

Now, back to the core of this article. In addition to the direct job applications you do at employers you are interested on (e.g. through their career portals, through the on-campus events during the MBA, etc.), there are three main “indirect” options you may want to explore to expand your job pipeline and identify additional career opportunities that might be interesting for you after your MBA, especially since they are typically for free for candidates:

Headhunters: These are specialized agencies which search for specific candidates on behalf of employers. They basically make their living from the fees that the companies pay them once they referred a candidate who was ultimately hired by the company. Companies typically pay them a percentage of the salary of the hired employee during a specific number of months. There are many head hunters, from one-man shops to large international head hunters. There are also some which are highly specialized in a specific industry (e.g. IT), others which have a strong functional focus (e.g. Digital Transformation), others which have a geographical focus (e.g. Germany/DACH only), others which have a specific career/salary-tier focus (e.g. CEOs only, +€200k/year gross annual salary), while others are more generalist. The key here is to find those head hunters which are focused in the industries, functions, regions, and career/salary-tier in which you’re interested and where your profile fits. Keep also in mind that there are many well established and recognized headhunters with who you can actually expect to build a long-term relationship, while many are opportunistic, especially since almost anyone nowadays can say that they are headhunters by simply having a LinkedIn or XING account. In this sense, it is useful to give a look at headhunter rankings and awards such as the “Headhunter of the year” award in order to identify top and serious players in this field.
Career Portals: There are match-making platforms, where employers post their jobs, candidates post their profiles, and either one of them looks for jobs/profiles and connects with them directly through the platform. The value of this platforms relies on the number of transactions they facilitate. The more interactions and deals closed between employers and candidates, the greater the value of the platform and the more attractive it is for employers and candidates. They mainly make their money through advertisement and also through fees they may charge to employers listed. Similarly to headhunters, different career portals have different specializations although some are more general. These platforms may also aggregate headhunters who also post the jobs they are searching on behalf of their clients. You can typically apply to positions directly through these platforms, although some may actually redirect you to the career portal of the employer of your interest.
Job Listings: There are big aggregators of job postings, each which is classified under specific criteria to facilitate searchability. Candidates create one or more search agents to receive on their e-mails on a recurrent basis job postings related to their search criteria. These companies mainly make their money from ads through their platforms. These platforms are a great source for candidates to find out on a regular basis interesting companies and positions aligned to their interests. Just keep in mind that you will receive a bunch of e-mails and that you will need to filter them on a recurrent basis (otherwise your inbox will be packed pretty soon!). You typically cannot apply to positions you found interesting through job listings. They typically redirect you to the career portal of employers listed.

Below is a list of Headhunters, Career Portals, and Job Listings that I currently use and/or have previously used, classified by their focus area. Again, please keep in mind that this is not a comprehensive guide, but just a first glance into the top players under each. The classification of companies under each category may also not be entirely accurate, but I expect it nevertheless to be a helpful guideline. In addition, since my career focus is on IT, Technology, Digital, and Start-ups, many of the options listed here fall under those areas. For more information, please refer to the career center of your business school or to specialized career coaches. Nevertheless, if you found this useful, please leave a comment below or send me a message through my website. I would love to hear feedback and learn how to make this guide more useful for more MBA students in Germany.

Headhunters

Top Headhunters