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Job search in Germany as a product manager and more. Part 1/5. Why Germany Visa for job search

Post cycle navigation: 1/5, 2/5 , 3/5 , 4/5 , 5/5 .

Hello everyone, my name is Timothy. I am 43 years old, the last 20 of which I spent in IT - first as a developer, and then as a project manager and business developer. He lived all his life in Novosibirsk, but last year he decided to emigrate, choosing Germany as his destination country. Having recently received an offer, I would like to summarize my experience in order to make it useful not only for myself, but for everyone moving in the same direction.

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How will this story of mine differ from many other similar stories? Firstly, as a rule, these are all the same stories of developers - representatives of the profession, for which there is now a huge hunger in the entire civilized world. My niche - managerial - is not so numerous: even in food companies the ratio of the number of managers to developers starts somewhere from 1: 5. In addition, in management there is higher competition from “local” - not necessarily Germans, any Western Europeans with one or two continental languages ​​besides English.

Secondly, I did not accidentally mention age in the first line of the post. It is generally accepted that young people need to leave, and youth is about 30 years old. Nevertheless, everything is possible, even if your children are teenagers (as in my case) and with this series of posts I would like to motivate those who look at side of Europe, but hesitates to take a sequence of steps that will lead them to a new place of work and residence.

Here are some topics that I would like to cover in my posts:


In the process of finding a job, I went to 320+ vacancies, received 20 responses, wrote about 5 test tasks, once went to trial and as a result received one job offer. As you can see, this is a fairly large way of filling up cones and a wide field for working on errors, from which I would like to warn the interested reader.

Why Germany


First of all, I can recommend the Teleport.org service to everyone who is interested in relocation , who, through a simple questionnaire, selects the most favorable place to live on a global scale for you. If you do not have a clear idea of ​​where you would like and could live - try it.

For myself, I set these priorities:

  • IT cluster - to not be dependent on the employer after the move and have the opportunity to choose a company.
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In my case, the service confirmed the obvious: place number 1 is Berlin.

To date, the capital of Germany has successfully secured the title of start-up capital of Europe. You can also consider the more aristocratic London or Ireland with its Google, Facebook and other branches, but Berlin is in the first place in terms of the variety of IT landscape.

The number of vacancies is huge and, literally, is not limited. For example, on the positions of product owner / manager / lead, about 5 completely new vacancies appear daily, in addition to a hundred or two already open.

Arm aber sexy (poor, but sexy) - the motto of Berlin, proclaimed by the burgomaster Klaus Wowereit 17 years ago, accurately reflected the essence of the leftist, denying the luxury of the city, while striving to take its place as a new large European capital after decades of socialism. Over the years, a metropolis with a rich and frightening history has found its new face in the hedonistic mix of modern culture and new technologies - while not frightening the high cost of housing.

As a rule, for an example of rental prices for apartments, the cost of renting a conditional piece in the area of ​​a conditional center is given. Not to mention that the concept of the center in Berlin is very vague (nevertheless, for almost 30 years these were 2 independent cities in one), in my case such a footage would clearly not be an option, so I will give a “family” metric: apartments with 3 bedrooms within the city limits can be found for 1000 euros of cold (without communal) rental. Kommunalka will add about 200-250 euros. However, I saw similar prices in other cities in Germany, only Bavaria is more expensive. You can estimate the cost of rent at the most popular local real estate site .

Now about the accessibility of emigration with subsequent naturalization: Germany is known as the country that harnesses the most potentialBlue Card - European immigration program for highly qualified specialists. As a result, an IT specialist moving to the country can apply for permanent residence after 21 months (if there is a certificate of knowledge of German at level B1, otherwise - 33 months). The spouse of the (moving) go gets the right to work and (together with the children) the opportunity to attend integration courses for better adaptation. At the same time, knowledge of the German language is not included in the mandatory conditions for obtaining a card.

Well, in conclusion, a description of the selected place of relocation - a few words about the minuses; good, their couple is literally:

Firstly, Germany is a nation state, unlike the USA, Canada and emigrant states of Oceania. This is a centuries-old culture and traditions, not all of which may be close to you and - more importantly - not the entire background of the arrivals may come to the court here. However, in IT as an industry and in Berlin as a region, the mood is much cosmopolitan.

Secondly, the language. Initially, I reacted with some disdain to the complexity of German, remembering that English was taught somehow as needed and learned it somehow imperceptibly. Of course, now I already understand that even a relatively simple English took me more than one year, and German, by the complexity of the structure, is somewhere between Russian and English - here you have cases, which vary depending on the gender and declension of the ending. At the same time, again, living in Berlin, you can do English, but still: when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

In the end, we can mention a somewhat arrogant attitude to the level of the Berlin IT from the side of the krupnyak employees from Yandex to Google, but, again, most large companies have their branches here (including Yandex !).

Looking ahead to many posts, I will say that as a result I found a job not in Berlin. However, due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of my activities I spent in this city and it was here that almost all the companies I reviewed were located - this series of posts will be Berlin-centric.

What is job seeker visa?


Another plus of Germany as a country for professional emigration is a unique type of visa for Europe, which allows you to look for work in the specialty of your higher education in the country for six months, and then get a work permit without leaving the country. Requirements for the applicant: a diploma recognized in Germany and 5 years of proven experience. Two comprehensive resources on the topic:


Due to the completeness of the disclosure of the topic on these links, I see no reason to describe in detail the history of the preparation and submission of documents with the subsequent receipt of a visa. Everything is quite linear here - follow the instructions of the consulate and “it will be normal”.

I will say right away that this visa does not have many advantages: the local recruiting system is leisurely and multi-stage. A couple of the first stages of the interview take place remotely, onsite (the final part of the interview at the office) is appointed in 2-3 weeks and during this time it is quite possible to prepare a tourist visa and fly on purpose. However, there are exceptions (which in my case also worked). For me, the use of an applicant’s visa has become a kind of leap of faith and a way to cut off all other activities and temptations to let down an old dream on the brakes.

In addition, the status of a national (not ordinary tourist) visa worked in a situation of universal quarantine, allowing you to legally stay in the country under lockdown conditions, even when the visa expires, and to avoid migration quarantines.

There are no special life hacks when applying for a visa. For sperrkonto (a fixed account from which money for accommodation is transferred portionwise) I used Fintiba . I issued an apartment for the entire visa through HomeLike . I recommend it as a convenient platform with the opportunity to discuss registration at the place of residence in advance and generally an extremely bloodless way to rent apartments in the city, where dozens of applicants respond to one rental offer. I am ready to answer some more special questions in the comments.

A few tips for staying and finding work on the spot:

  • The maximum duration of a visa - six months - is not such a long time. The selection process can take months. I have repeatedly had one and a half-month pauses at various stages. Therefore, if possible, give in actively: 3-5 resumes a day, or 20-30 a week. Do not slow down below the weekly minimum even when preparing test tasks. Take measurements on conversions of your applications into interview invitations, once in 1-2 weeks arrange revision of your CV and manner of writing cover letter.
  • networking. ( , Meetup Eventbrite), , LinkedIn. , , .
  • -. , . , , ( , toss a coin to your witcher).
  • The last but not the least. Try not to capture December and early January. This is a dead season according to reviews, a real desert of despair closer to the New Year. Although Christmas is more beautiful than in Germany, probably not to be found.

In the next post I will talk about the structure of the labor market in German IT - more precisely, about the interaction interfaces between the employer and the applicant .

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