Jobs

• • Student Job Angebots (links, forums)

  • Allowed Working Hours

  • Work Permit

  • Recommendations for job finding

Job searching in Germany / Europe

Following is a list of web sites using which Job searching in Germany (in particular) or in the entire Europe (in general) can be made possible.

• • http://www.monster.de

  • http://www.stepstone.de

  • http://www.access.de

  • http://www.jobware.de

  • http://www.karrieredirekt.de

  • http://www.CWJobs.co.uk

  • http://www.reed.co.uk

  • http://www.theitjobboard.com [IT only, (EU wide)]

  • http://www.jobserve.com [IT only, (EU wide)]

  • http://www.totaljobs.com (EU wide)

One other thing most students are interested in knowing about are student jobs. These are called

Hilfswissenschaftler (HiWi) here which literally means Assistant Scientist but is commonly used for

parttime working students as student assistants or research assistants.

Students are allowed to work upto 20 hrs/week in Germany. Also, there is a condition on the number of

days you may work during an year. This is limited to 90 full days or 180 half days.

Almost all student jobs available in Germany are related to programming. So if you intend to work here

to bear your expenses, you should be good in atleast one programming language like C/C++, Java,

Python etc. There are some jobs for VHDL as well (Verilog is not used here).

You may work either a university institute or at a company. Both have some pros and cons. At a

company, you get paid higher but the working hours are strict. At university institutes, the pay rates are

slightly lower but the advantages are great: flexible working hours, can work from home (which you

may also do on weekends), easy to stop working before exams (university supervisors will never say no

if you need time for studies before exams). One other great advantage is that the work you do at a

university institute does not deduct your 90 full (180 half) days allowed per year.

University notice boards usually host student job postings. Almost all notices are in German. But this is

not that big an issue even if you don't know German. With a little bit help from the internet, you can

understand them. Note the requirements and email addresses of the contact person(s) and send them

your CV by email. Try to keep the length of the CV restricted to one page. Include only relevant

information.

Student job advertisements are also there on university institutes' websites. You may also contact people

by email before arriving to Germany and meet them when you are here so that you may have a job as

quickly as possible (although this is not possible in all cases). If you intend to start your job as soon as

possible, you should apply for residence permit as soon as you can since this is one of the requirements

for student jobs.

Finding a student job may take some time. It also depends on their availability on the German city

where you are coming for studies. In some cities, students find jobs quickly within the first few months

while in others, it might take more than one semester. Availability of student jobs is one factor to

consider when choosing a university if you cannot fulfill your expenses without them.