Where to Look for Jobs in Germany

100+ resources to help with your job search. 2 new community events. Companies are ditching job titles & managers. Apply for German visas online. Things are getting expensive in Deutschland.

Personal News & Musings

🫣 Sometimes, I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

We’re back after a month-long break! Happy New Year, everyone. 🥂

There's nothing like hitting up your mailbox on a Friday night, right? Sorry, but I’m not the patient type and couldn’t wait to send this one out. 🙃

Since it’s been so long since the last newsletter, it’s more jam-packed than usual. Grab a drink and start your Feierabend with us.

Community News

🤝 News from our community.

• Our last poll asked: What do you like about life in Germany? The winners tied at 33%, with good public transit and working conditions and protection coming out on top.

• Take part in this week’s poll: What's in your plans for 2025? If more than one applies, pick the one that resonates the most.

• This week’s featured Berlin Life guides:

  • Revised: The Best Berlin Job Search Websites - Featuring over 100 resources, we feature sites for creatives, niche sites to find purpose-driven jobs, sites for temporary work, tech jobs, student jobs, and more. We also feature popular recruiting agencies and job fairs.

  • New: The Newest Direct Flights to and from Germany in 2025. See the newest direct flights to and from Germany in 2025. Learn about the routes, destinations, and travel options to plan your next trip.

• Read our newsletter: Why People Are Thinking About Leaving Germany. For more about living and working in Germany, browse our archives.

• Community events: We have two community events coming up. Attendance is free, so join us to meet other cool and interesting people in Berlin!

  • Our monthly women’s networking dinner.

  • Our general community mixer (everyone is welcome).

Food For Thought

💡 Articles about tech, the world of work, & other random things.

• 2 things you can do at work to make it a little more bearable - aka, essential tips to survive a toxic workplace.

• Imagine "trying before buying" before starting your next job. There are some smart ways to do just that.

• In a blatant PR move and not something that will help employees, ElevenLabs ditched job titles.

• Never mind "quiet quitting,” many tech companies are finding ways to incentivize workers to leave voluntarily. This saves companies from paying out severance packages. Case in point: Amazon's hardcore RTO policy has nearly half their staff looking for new roles.

• Companies may have ordered their workforce to return to the office, but most aren’t doing much to reinforce the mandates.

• Self-made millionaire Matt Higgins feels that AI will be the biggest wealth creator in history. He offers some tips about how to make money from AI.

• Sifted ranked the top 250 European startups with the highest percentage of revenue growth. 33 are in Germany, so browse the list for jobs.

• TechCrunch compiled a similar list of the 51 most disruptive startups of 2024; two are German.

• An overview of what to expect for European tech salaries in 2025, with interesting data such as the average salary increase for tech workers in 2024 was 5%.

• Ignore the fanboy praise lobbed at Musk 🤮, shocking stats reveal American software engineers pulling in $200 - $300 K yearly are committing only 2 code changes a month.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 Companies in Germany that are hiring right now.

• BMG - The New Music Company (Berlin, 10 jobs, EN & DE required)

• Career Factory (Munich, Berlin, & remote, 9 jobs, DE required)

• Eurowings Digital (Cologne & remote, 8 jobs, EN &/or DE required)

• GotPhoto (Various German locations, 3 jobs, EN & DE required)

• Holidaypirates (Germany remote, 2 jobs, EN required & DE a +)

Recently Funded Startups

🇩🇪 German startups that recently raised new funding may also have vacancies.

• We’ll have a fresh new list in our next newsletter. Meanwhile, read this post for December funding announcements.

ℹ️ Follow us on LinkedIn, where we share new job postings daily.

News in Germany

🗞️ All of the news in Germany.

General News

• 5 people died on NYE in Berlin, one building had almost all of its windows blown out, and an apartment caught fire in Lichtenberg, all due to the German penchant for fireworks.

• Many changes are coming up in 2025 for those living in Germany, including permission for passports and ID to be delivered by post and increased health insurance premiums and long-term care benefits.

• Since the new online Ameldung service in Berlin went live in October, only 7% of new registrations came through the form.

• There's a new high-speed train service between Paris and Berlin, with fares starting as low as €59. You can read a review. There are also plans for 5G coverage between Berlin and Hamburg.

• Huh? Deutsch Bahn was ranked third best for "traveler experience." Berlin Hauptbahnhof will also be partially closed for 2 months due to construction.

• Walking outside Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof can be terrifying, but it has been rated the 7th-best international city for quality of life.

• People in Germany are experiencing an all-time high of loneliness. 1 in 2 people are experiencing depression.

Politics & Economy

• DW outlines the major challenges coming up for Germany in 2025.

• After months of friction, Volkswagon reached a deal with their union to avoid plant closures and immediate layoffs. 35,000 jobs will still be eliminated by 2030, with the CEO saying this is “good news.” Thyssenkrupp and Bosch are the next big battles.

• A brutal deep-dive into Germany's economic woes, with notes of some bright spots. The economy is still expected to grow a bit this year.

• Germany is poised to do well in robotics. Telekom launched an OpenGPT-X LLM, a new commercial offering promising to be a secure and trustworthy AI made in Germany.

• The economy might be a lame duck, but Germany saw record tourism numbers in 2024. Bavaria was also named a top destination by travel giant Lonely Planet.

• Germany's balcony solar trend, now at 1.5 million installations, offers renters a practical energy-saving solution. Meanwhile, green providers selling heat pumps are having a difficult time convincing German climate skeptics due to disinformation.

• The government voted against increasing the public broadcasting fee in 2025, so prices will remain the same (for now).

• Berlin's €29 ticket ended, but subscribers will be upgraded to the Deutschland ticket at no additional cost for the remainder of their contracts.

• Cologne launched a trial program to help women and non-binary people get home safely at night.

• Die Linke launched an app to help check if your landlord charges too much for your rent.

• 12% of voters in Germany have a migration background.

• If the AfD continues to gain popularity in Germany, it will stifle innovation in the country, especially in the startup world.

Immigration & Labor Market

• The German government has launched a new online portal for visa applications, with more than 28 options available. It’s also a hub of information about finding work, recognizing your foreign qualifications, and more.

• The CDU wants to scrap the newly implemented dual citizenship. Depending on who they partner with to form a coalition, it may or may not happen. Also, Germany's positive attitudes toward migration has seen a slight decline.

• Paywalled: Experts share their outlook on the German labor market for 2025. Insights include increased unemployment and job losses in the manufacturing sector, whereas demand will remain in education, healthcare, and transportation. Also, the number of available positions in the market has declined.

• If you're looking for employment in Munich, consider these startups.

• Germany’s Bayer boldly moved to eliminate managers and let employees self-organize, and one year later, it’s paying off.

• It’s not just Tesla checking in on employees. More German companies are hiring private investigators to investigate sick leaves.

• Paywalled: Recognizing your foreign qualifications in Germany is tedious and arduous, but a new bill will change that. Also, startups are pushing the government to simply visa processing.

• If Syrians were to leave the country en masse, the German healthcare system would experience a massive labor shortage.

• The Berliner did a deep dive into the conditions of the refugee camp at Tegel, and it's much worse than you'd think.

• 🤩 Check out this new job board from BlackInTech Berlin, a "new hub for connecting diverse talent with career-changing opportunities in tech."

Fun, Interesting, and/or Useful

• La Liste has named Schwarzwaldstube, a restaurant in Southern Germany, the eighth best in the world.

• The German word of the year is Ampel Aus - traffic light off, referencing the failed government that collapsed near year-end. Other words included Klimaschönfärberei, climate white-washing, and Kriegstüchtig, war-like.

• Like olive oil, coffee will get more expensive, and Germans keep buying chocolate despite the high prices. Meanwhile, supermarkets have been accused of selling fake honey, and interest in sparkling wine is waning.

• Check out the best new restaurants in Berlin for 2024.

• Haters going to hate, but Germans are big Swifties, with her songs topping their most streamed in 2024.

• An American who moved to Berlin soon left and found happiness in … Dresden. Another local writer bemoans the gentrification of Berlin.

• American football fans, unite! Berlin will play host to an NFL game in 2025.

Ways We Can Help You

😇 Useful stuff served up by the Berlin Life.

• Get help with job application and interview preparation through our career coaching and review services.

• Connect with fellow professionals in Germany through our LinkedIn Connect & Exchange list.

• Read our 50+ free guides to living, working, and moving to Germany.

• Ask questions about living and working in Germany, and join our chat. 💬

❤️ Thanks for being part of our community. Support our work and ​buy us a beer.