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MY GERMAN CAREER

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‘I fell for a German and started my dating site’

In this week's My German Career Lori-Ann Quast from Jamaica reveals how romance brought her to Germany and how she managed to turn love into a business.

'I fell for a German and started my dating site'
Photo: Submitted

Where are you located and what do you do?

I live just outside of Düsseldorf; well that is usually what I tell non-Germans. I actually live in Wuppertal, a relatively big town of 360,000, less than 20 minutes away from Düsseldorf. The town is famous for its Schwebebahn [monorail] and tourist promo aside, it really is a lovely way to get around and see the city, literally from above.

What brought you to Germany and how long have you been here?

One of the oldest reasons in the book brought me here, love. How I met my husband Jens, is a fascinating story. But to make it short, his mother was the one who played matchmaker while on a trip to Jamaica.

Though after getting my number, he never called for over five months and when he ended up calling I was weeks away from moving to New York to pursue my Master’s. In a sense, he waited until it was too late, but it worked out exactly how it should have.

I really can’t imagine my life without him and I tell him very often that I would have moved to the middle of nowhere to be with him, which essentially is how I sometimes feel about Wuppertal.

I have been living here for about two years and four months, though sometimes it feels way longer than that, but not in a negative way. The customs, the people, the language and lifestyle do not seem as foreign as I sometimes expect them to.

How did you land your job and do you have tips for anyone seeking similar work?

Whereas love brought me here, love, or the search for love, is responsible for my building a company here with my husband Jens. The German term “peinlich” comes to mind, when I was asked, why you moved from either Montego Bay or Manhattan to be here.

I felt strange, telling strangers that I followed my heart. It didn’t seem logical enough, but after the first month of meeting new classmates at the Volkshochschule [adult evening classes] I realized I was not in the minority but the majority.

Every year thousands and thousands of people make a leap of faith to forgo everything that is normal to them for love. In my class, there were people from Latvia, Brazil, America, England, Mexico, Dominica, and Kenya – that was in a class of 15 – all to be with German partners.

We realized that there must be other couples like us internationally and Jens and I decided to start a Facebook page aptly entitled “Love Crosses Borders”. The mission of LCB was originally just to highlight the already existing friendships, marriages, relationships and families, but also to give others a chance to enjoy these beautiful and unique relationships, discourage racism and share fun pictures.

The page, however, grew at speed and currently has over 32,000 members in our worldwide community in less than nine months. The idea of making it into a business venture came only after the third month after getting daily requests from singles all over the world, requesting that we start a dating site.

Is it important for you to be able to speak German in your position?

No, unfortunately. Because, we have mostly an international platform as our member base, or Germans who speak English, I haven’t been forced to speak a lot of German.

I find that people immediately attempt to switch to English when they hear my English sounding accent. Though, I know that it is their way of being polite or their way of practicing their English skills, it does make it hard for me to get comfortable speaking the language to strangers.

What are the best and worst parts about working in Germany?

The holidays – that goes without saying. My friends in the Caribbean and North America get pretty upset when I flaunt holidays that they have never heard about in their faces on Facebook.

The worst part would be the opening hours for everything. It just seems like it would be impossible to maintain such a super economy on people literally working these tiny, odd hours a day. Stores and offices close at ridiculously early hours. I suppose it is good for family life, that and the vacation days per year, so I can’t really complain.

Do you plan on staying?

It was a deal made after moving here. If I didn’t like Germany after a couple of years, my husband said he would uproot the business and relocate to anywhere of my choice.

The thing is, I like Germany a lot, but I am in love with cities like Brussels and Amsterdam, due to how international they are. It’s just that in comparison to other European cities that I frequent, the German cities pale slightly in comparison. On the plus side, I want us to always live in Europe, so we will always be pretty close to Germany.

READ MORE: Germany’s ten best gap year jobs

The Local/tsb

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WORKING IN GERMANY

Which Bavaria-based companies regularly hire English speakers?

Bavaria is no doubt a beautiful state with a strong economy, but can be a hard place for non-German speakers to integrate. The Local takes a look at job opportunities in Germany’s southeastern 'Free State.'

Which Bavaria-based companies regularly hire English speakers?

Munich ranks third in German cities with the highest total GDP, behind Berlin and Hamburg, but in terms of GDP per capita, it’s higher than both of them.

It also consistently ranks high, often highest, in terms of average household income.

As of 2023, nine of the 40 companies listed on DAX, Germany’s stock index, were based in Bavaria. Seven of those are based specifically in Munich.

While Frankfurt is commonly known to be Germany’s business capital, Munich can claim the title of Germany’s insurance capital, which is saying something, as Germany is home to some of the largest insurance firms in the world, like Allianz.

Beyond the state’s capital city, a number of international companies are based elsewhere in Bavaria, particularly in the Franken region, near Nuremberg.

Which companies actively hire English speakers?

Bavaria, and Munich in particular, is home to a number of companies at the forefront of international business. But the state is known for its traditional, sometimes conservative, culture, which affects its business culture as well.

Whereas companies embracing English as their primary business language are easy to find in Berlin, the practice is less common in the south. That said, there are some notable exceptions. 

Sportswear giants, Adidas and Puma, both have their headquarters near Nuremberg in Herzogenaurach, and regularly recruit English speaking international talent.

“As an international company, our teams reflect the rich diversity of our consumers and communities,” Jon Greenhalgh, Senior Manager Media Relations for Adidas told The Local. “Fostering a culture of inclusion where we value and leverage differences, ensures that we can authentically engage with our employees and truly connect with our consumers.”

He added that around 40 per cent of Adidas’ Germany-based employees are foreign nationals, from over 100 different countries.

Siemens and BMW rank among Bavaria’s top employers, and are also known to hire their fair share of foreigners.

“In Germany, we recently had around 2,000 open positions,” Konstanze Somborn told The Local on behalf of Siemens AG.

He added that Siemens operates in 190 countries. “That is why we value international teams very much…English as a common language is very usual.”

READ ALSO: ‘Which German companies want to hire foreigners?’

Similarly, BMW hires workers from a variety of backgrounds. 

“Every year, we hire lots of internationals and welcome them to the BMW Group,” Dr. Hans-Peter Ketterl, a press spokesman for BMW Group told The Local. 

But not all of these positions are available to non-German speakers.

Ketterl added that BMW’s working language is German in the country, even though, “English is an indispensable entry requirement as the second corporate language in many areas of the company.”

Check job boards and follow best practices

If it’s your first time applying for jobs in Germany, make sure to change your resume to the German format, even for English positions.

While Germany is home to its own job boards, like Xing, LinkedIn is probably the best place to start. In addition to searching for positions based in your preferred location, you can check relevant groups, like Munich Startups, to broaden your horizons.

The English Jobs in Germany website is also a good resource to start with. 

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