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How to reach out to German employers on LinkedIn or Xing

German career coach Chris Pyak shares his top tips for connecting with potential employers online - beyond just pressing a button.

Published: 16 September 2019 16:11 CEST
How to reach out to German employers on LinkedIn or Xing
Photo: Depositphotos/Y-Boychenko

One in five “international hires” in Germany believes that making friends is easy here. Sixty percent disagree. We Germans don’t open up easily.

In today's column I share my favourite tips on how to break the ice – at least in a professional setting.

Clever connections

This is the holy grail for your job search. Managers know what really goes on in the company. They know about new positions opening up, long before they are advertised.

READ ALSO: Working in Germany: Three tricks to impressing managers

Finally they can do more for your career with one recommendation to an old friend than you can achieve through sending out a hundred application letters.

Photo: DPA

The job websites LinkedIn and Xing make it easier than ever to find the manager behind a job offer. But many professionals don’t use these tools effectively. They take a “mechanical” view on connections, when they are in reality all about respect and real human interaction.

I have reached out to more than 2000 managers on behalf of my coaching clients since 2013. One out of three will connect with me within 14 days or less. The reason? Respect.

In many cultures the first contact is easy. In the Anglo-American world, for example, many will not hesitate to add just about everyone to their social network.

Breaking the shell

We Germans have a different view on new relationships. Some compare us to a coconut: No, not hairy and brown. Hard on the outside, but if you get past the shell, we are quite sweet.

How do you break through the German shell?

Let me use myself as an example, since I receive hundreds of contact requests: At this moment there about 160 people who sent a contact request who will never hear back from me.

They reached out with the bare minimum effort: A contact request without any sort of message.

If they care so little about a possible connection with me, then why should I care about them?

Every day there are also people who reach out to me with a short message. They take the time to write to me about their needs. I will not connect with them, but I always take the time to write them a short answer.

And then there are those that really “click”. They clearly took the time to learn a little bit about me and it shows in their messages. They talk about something that connects us. And they give me a clear idea why they reach out to me.

(I will still not connect right away, but I will engage in the conversation and that might lead to a common project along the way.)

The details matter

Germans will invest time in you if you are investing time in them. A column is a way to short to explain how to best reach out to German managers in all details (and the details matter). Especially if you want to reach the managers behind a job offer that you are interested in.

But here are two short video clips that can give you a better idea.


And for those of you who really want to make this work: Join my Expats Job Offer Miracle or take the more affordable “Meet Your Future Boss” course. These months until Christmas are the time when employers hire more than in all the rest of the year combined.

READ ALSO: A few months till Christmas – and why this matters for finding a job in Germany

ABOUT CHRIS PYAK

Chris Pyak is the Author of “How To Win Jobs & Influence Germans“. The managing director of Immigrant Spirit GmbH has worked in four different cultures and lived in five different countries.

Chris returned to Germany in 2011. His mission: Bring the Immigrant Spirit to his home country. Chris introduces international professionals to employers in Germany.

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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.'

Published: 7 February 2024 10:54 CET
Updated: 10 February 2024 08:20 CET
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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