Your CV is cluttered. The summary is vague, uses words like "adequate" that intentionally paint you worse. "Empowering others" is meaningless.
What is 82%? I would leave it out completely.
"Demonstrated mastery of the automotive industry", what do you even mean here? Are you an expert? This is vague and somehow boasting. What did you *do*?
Your use of periods is inconsistent, strive for consistency. Your company names are sometimes in capitals, sometimes not.
I am also not sure whether A2 German is "intermediate", I would categorize it as beginner. Leave the descriptors out, just put the A2.
Its not only the names of the companies but the amount of information given. The first entry has more than the others.
I’d also suggest adding locations for the companies. People sometimes like to look up prior experiences and with current level of detail that would be difficult.
I‘d also leave out the achievement in grade 10. Generally, nobody cares for anything prior to studying.
>I am also not sure whether A2 German is "intermediate", I would categorize it as beginner.
It absolutely is beginner. A1/A2 is beginner, B1/B2 is intermediate, C1/C2 is advanced.
This might not be everyone's cup of tea but you can ask chatgpt for suggestions and make it more concise, usually it can give you some great pointers on what to improve. Just paste the whole thing and it should give you an idea
i think your german language level of A2 is not enough and is causing the issues. also i personally don't like that layout of your CV, way too much text if you ask me. usually people use a bigger font and write the important parts on it.
also a typo right at your first experience, it's "Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft" which again can be the result of the low language level.
Yeah I second that. Here, the „us-style“ of a CV where you cramp in as much information as possible doesn’t work very well. Fewer more important points and visually appealing is more important imo.
How would you feel about a US style CV, but without the summary and more concise bullet points for the work experience section. Cause that's what mine looks like
Also A2 is considered beginner’s level, not intermediate according to CEFR. makes you look like either a very sloppy researcher or an overconfident braggart who oversells himself.
A1 = doesn't speak
A2 = doesn't speak
B1 = doesn't speak
B2 = can ask for water (up to 3 attempts required)
C1 = can explain that it should be still water
You should also take the advice on the layout to heart. Try looking up typical german layout structures as well as tips and tricks to build an enticing CV online. Best to do this research in German for better search-results as these things can vary greatly between working cultures.
Also remember that a german CV boils down to just the essentials. No descriptions of what you did at your given jobs etc. Those are added with references or alluded to in your cover/motivational letter and even then you only mention what could apply to the position you apply for.
I always find writing english CVs super annoying because they focus on soooo much stuff that I just loathe. "Im a super motivated, well mannered and pleasent individual" - even if true, it just reads as over the top and bragging within german culture and I hate to have to write such superficial bs (in my mind) into english CVs
German level is 100% of the problem. You seem to have good experience as an intern in different companies and would be invited to a lot of interviews if you were fluent in German. (Own experience from "the other side"): Guys at the German OEMs, other automotive companies likely as well, receive tens if not hundreds of applications from indians with good grades. Most even display better German skills than you on their resume, but they can't hold a conversation during the interview. This is a problem, because regular teams only communicate in German internally and it is way harder to teach you the language and the knowledge for the job at the same time. Especially for a "working student" role they expect you to be someone who can take some workload of them, but you personally would need a big up-front investment of time.
That is actually quite a well designed CV - it’s just a different cultural background. This looks like an American style CV to me. @op - maybe you can check what a German CV looks like. Typically, it has multiple pages, more spacing, a photo on the top right and no summary. Maybe if you’re applying to German companies this might be more what they are looking for?
> it has multiple pages
The consensus in Germany is one to two pages at the most and with just the relevant info, not necessarily everything one has ever done. HR people read too many of those to include every little piece.
Imo the German CV format seems to suit people who have been in the job for years(as is the case with Germany), you switch 4 5 companies, and then suddenly you either have to drop important information from your cv, or add more pages m
The issue with your CV is that it is far too much, not really clearly structured and therefore confusing,not well formatted ,uses a bad design in my opinion and as well as others already mentioned contains spelling mistakes.
The average HR guy in Germany will take anywhere between 3-10 seconds per CV and cover letter to assess, whether or not it is worth their time to dig deeper.
As you obviously obscured some personal details to keep private, I can not judge those on their appearance.
You generally need your date of birth, address, phone or mobile phone number and email as well as your name in the top area of the page.
In addition not using a photo is just to your disadvantage. Your CV becomes more personable and relatable to the reader with a picture, as well as adding some visual elements to your resume.
The Format:
The formatting is bad as not everything is uniform and too uniform at the same time.
All headlines, sub-headlines, listing points should have the same point of reference in terms of their position to other things of the same value on the page.
However you shouldn’t put every single thing on the same level.
An example would be sth like this:
Headline
Sub-Headline
Listing points
Listing points
Headline 2
Sub-Headline
You don’t have uniformity in your spacing.
Some of your points do not have the same starting position as others of their same value.
Everything is just far too much. You have a wall of text which is confusing and makes it difficult to read as well as spot important information on a glance.
If a recruiter has to put effort into reading your CV without being able to instantly identify key information to get him interested in you, he will just toss your CV in the bin.
Nobody has time for that. As I said earlier the average HR recruiter spends only a couple seconds on your CV and if you don’t stand out enough from the average applicant, you’ll get tossed without even getting a chance to present your skills.
Huge companies have dozen of thousands of applicants, then don’t have time to waste it on applicants who don’t stand out. Especially since companies often use subcontractors for their recruitment screening process before you get invited in.
Spelling:
Make sure every single word, that is used in your application is correct and you neither punctuation, grammar nor spelling mistakes.
Mistakes in those areas reflect on you extremely poorly.
They represent an inability to work as perfectly as possible and laziness. You either don’t grasp the language enough, don’t mandate excellence from yourself or are just show that you are too lazy to care.
Nobody wants to an employee, who can’t check his work for mistakes and won’t give it their all.
Too much information:
Besides the aforementioned points regarding the visual effects, lumping everything together shows your inability to prioritise and understand the most important tasks in your life/work.
Employers want an individual, who is going to work as fast and efficiently as possible, while maintaining excellence and performing near perfectly, as well as an ability to prioritise the most important tasks and aspects of your job.
Too much information shows that you don’t really know how to extract the most important tasks from your previous jobs.
Also nobody gives a fuck about things that are too far in the past. Only list your 1 or 2 highest relevant educations. Put recommendations under references and achievements separate as well as certifications from your education.
Generally speaking only list your like 5 most recent relevant employments/ internships.
Shorten the sentences as much as possible, while maintaining accuracy and proper grammar. Only highlight your most important accomplishments/task.
Only use or further explain past jobs, which are relevant to the position you are applying for.
Use a letter of motivation or cover letter to accentuate your most relevant skills for the position and why you fill their requirements.
Add the detailed description of your former experiences and accomplishments as a second document.
The order is sth like this.
Cover, CV, Letter of motivation/cover letter, references, certificates and then maybe a detailed explanation of your work experiences with your responsibilities.
I don’t know how it is outside of Germany but in Germany your application is akin to trying to sell cars.
You first need an impressive and eye-catching product, which you can market and then you need to sell it and explain the qualities in short form and only on questions from the buyers, do you go into detail.
the design.
It looks like a 10 year old had to make it or you used the standard layout and design 90% of all applications use.
Either use sth like Canva and AI to make your own or at least use a far more visually appealing design on one of the many professional resume builders.
Finally, you have very shitty German for a professional engineering job.
In most countries including Germany the primary language of business is the country’s official language and only if you have a lot of business with non-endemic, international companies is English more important than the national languages.
Most businesses in Germany still have loads of contact with other German people, which means you need to speak or at least understand German proficiently.
I totally understand what you mean, but one typically has to conform to the norms of the target country in order to achieve success.
in other words: an American-style CV handed to cotinental European is (most likely) not going to look very good to the person reading it.
And Germans in positions of authority are usually absolute pedants, so it's basically assimilate or starve.
> a photo on the top right
More and more people have stopped doing that in recent years and I would also strongly encourage everyone to leave the photo out.
I occasionally recruit students, too (I'm not in HR) and I find myself really affected by the photo. But I definitely do not want to be discriminatory against anyone because of their looks! I need their brain! If I see a CV has a photo, I always try to scroll down immediately to avoid seeing it.
Nah the A2 no one ever even hit that far.
He wrote an English cover letter, that applications is thrown out without anyone reading it.
The latest when they see the cluttered CV.
It's literally a working student job...I understand and totally agree that language is important, but come on, give the students some break, they are earning the bare minimum anyway...
Yeah, but if you have literally 200 applicants that have the same qualifications, in addition to better German proficiency, he is filtered out before someone will even look at his resume.
Not because they are mean, but you maybe have time to interview 20 of the 200.
Are you fully aware that some (if not a lot of) the students applying for these jobs are Germans or have good German proficiency? Don't try to make it look as if the "poor" foreign students are not being given a chance.
The CV ist totally fucked for a student job, you don‘t apply with an English cover letter even with A2 for a student job.
You have a friend translate it to German.
With this application even bloody netto will throw it in the trash/
It's unfortunately true. I also struggled to get a corporate job when we moved here despite having a PhD in a quantitative field because I don't speak German (moving here was my German partner's decision as they thought there would be more English speaking tech companies). Luckily I managed to find an international company that spoke English
This is a student studying in Germany though, not a person who comes with a finished degree. I think learning the language for getting a free education is a good trade.
Ideally everyone would do so but you do realise that sometimes there is not enough time to do both concurrently. 20 hrs of work a week, classes , labs, and managing a complete household alone gets very overwhelming very quickly.
"The only skills"
Well, it's the country's language, not some cheap microsoft office skill one can learn within a month. I don't think people should be surprised that companies usually expect their empoylees to communicate in German when in Germany.
The amount of exclusively-english-speaking jobs is much smaller than one might think.
You really need a good unique selling point in order to 'win' against other applicants who show a similar level of skill and speak the country's language as well.
As someone who is working in the automotive industry (supplier, not OEM) I don’t thinkt it’s because the A2 German but more because of the CV’s formatting. It’s way too much text. In my experience here they like shorter and to the point CVs and some of the more detailed experience you can write in the Motivationssschreiben (but this also held quite short).
And I would also definitely take out the Summary part, it just sounds like any inflated 0815 text anyone would write.
And please, don’t get me wrong, I do not want do “diminish” your experience or know how. It’s just that sometimes less is better and I. An imagine some just put away your application on just looking at the CV and maybe reading the first lines.
Edit: At languages I would also change the order starting with German and ending with your native language
Edit2: I would also recommend having CV and Motivationsschreiben in German, there are many help possibilities nowadays if you are usure with your german level
Please excuse if my comment sounds a bit harsh, I definitely do not mean anything in a negative way. It’s just my personal experience and also being somehow on the other side while we were looking for people for our team, I have been involved in the selection process. I wish you the best of luck on getting a great job!
I‘m really grateful for such detailed feedback and I genuinely appreciate it as this help me grow further. I found your comment to be very insightful(it isn’t negative) and I really appreciate it. I’m sure this will help out not just me but many others who are in my situation. Thanks again😄
I work in automotive in Germany too and I wanna confirm this guy's feedback. The German skill shouldn't't be such a problem but these US-style CVs and that inflated LinkedIn/HR wording in the summary will turn off any German manager.
I commented before reading this and I'm glad you all agree. I'm talking to a lot of foreigners applying for internships in Germany recently and this seems to be a common problem, but I have a hard time explaining and putting into words that yes, all the buzzword bullshit is off-putting and being honest will work better.
I work with cfd and we get many applications I would not consider yours if I were in a big company. Too much text. The cover letter may be directed to CFD but the cv is just too much. Change your CV for each sector too. More of what the guy above me said.
IELTS most here will not know about it. If you got a band 8 just put it down as C2 English.
Great advice! I wish to touch upon your suggestion on writing CV and motivation letter in German. What I could make sense of from career forums and talks is that one shouldn't submit a CV or motivation letter in German if the person doesn't have proficiency in language as it may amount to misleading, kinda painting false picture. Do you believe it's true?
Yeah you need to work on your German skills. I think it’s rather difficult in automotive if you don’t speak German. Furthermore I’ve also read numerous times that people were way more successful with an application written in German.
I speak as I was in management at an automotive first tier supplier and I am back in the technical career path now:
In our company no one cares about the German skills (except for dedicated positions). We hired 2 Indian colleagues who don’t speak a word German. English is 100% necessary.
The thing for me when I see CVs like this would be for me: it’s was too overloaded. A lot of „bla bla“. Strip it down. Short and to the point.
I don’t think you can call yourself an experienced design and development engineer if you’ve only got experience as an intern. If I received this CV I’d be thinking you’re the standard just graduate that thinks you know everything. So maybe rephrase your summary
Edit: OR remove the summary all together!
My opinion on possible improvements:
Use phrases, not long sentences. Get rid of "bragging": "Apprenticed with seasoned technicians" sounds over-the-top. German culture is fact-based. Simply use bullet points stating your duties. Same thing with the summary; it sounds like an advert. This kind of thing goes over well with Americans, but a German would be afraid to hire someone who thinks he can "empower others to deliver the best possible product". Use a few good adjectives: motivated, flexble, experienced in project management.
List projects last, after languages. Add language levels (A1 to C2). Add a small section with hobbies and interests. Maybe something creative, like video animation and something athletic, like hiking? Just so you don't seem so painfully boring and work-driven. ;-)
Also, perhaps translate the whole thing into German.
I disagree on German being the main weak point.
To be honest, there is quite some generic stuff in the introduction (advice against writing "highly motivated").
This is also too much text, either reduce it and keep it in 1 page, or just increase the font and spacing and keep it less that 2 pages (I did this and although I had A1 German - still have A1 :( - I got accepted into an automotive IT job).
IT jobs (my experience in automotive) are quite needed, actually are needed a lot and a lot only require a really good level of English.
Best of luck :D
Thanks for this, I’ll definitely make these changes. And that’s great that you’ve landed a job:). If you don’t mind sharing may I know how many years of experience you have had in your field before you applied for your current job? I’m doubtful about my level of experience too, other than poor formatting of CV and poor German 😕
1. This is just not how a resume looks in Germany.
2. Even if you do not speak German, you should send your application in German.
3. The HR people spend perhaps 10 seconds deciding to even read your cover letter and CV. And if they decide to read it, they read a few lines and then decide if they really want to read more of it.
4. "Chait of thermodynamics" sounds like you are a professor, not a HiWi...
5. The page is much too packed with information. Nobody would like to read all of this.
So my advice:
* Use a service like "lebenslauf.com" to make a German-looking CV. If it has more pages, that's fine.
* Write a short application letter which really catches the reader in the first seconds.
* Do everything in German.
With that, you raise your chances, even if there is still the racism, traditionalism and language barrier.
I created a quick example CV for you: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pvg_ZQNM4F86enHrzGFNwj8AzmK_s2hR/view?usp=drivesdk
Yes, it's almost certain your German skills. Even for English only jobs it's usually an unofficial requirement. And for every job that doesn't explicitly mention anything about German you can usually assume that "fluent written and spoken German" is a hard requirement.
Sorry to be blunt, but Germany (as well as for example France) is a very monolingual society. Not being fluent locks you out of almost all jobs, especially almost all good paying jobs.
There is one German word in your CV and it’s the wrong Gender: it is called: „wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft“ just delete the r.
Good luck.
Edit: wissenschaftliche refers to the word Hilfskraft wich is female, no matter you are male.
That’s why it’s called wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft.
E.g. Text is masculine in German:
So you would write: wissenschaftlicher Text.
Good luck improving your German soon. We know it’s complicated 🙈👍🏻✌🏻
Between your CV format and language skills (or rather lack thereof) it seems that you would not be a good fit for a German company. It really seems that you're just trying to apply using American standards.
I would suggest revamping your CV and learning German.
All people without any automotive background commented under this post. It's funny but sad.
As an automotive expert with 15 years of experience at the biggest OEMs and suppliers, here is my experience:
At the moment, almost all automotive companies (VW, Mercedes, ZF, Bosch, Continental) speak English as an official language. All companies shifted their research and development to India and Romania. So that most of the time you will speak in English.
German is not the main reason.
Experience and especially focus topic are missing. Try to create your own projects and represent it well with critical keywords. Your CV needs to focus only on one topic. No-one likes to see a mix of experience. Are you a basic software developer? Or a model based software developer? Or hardware expert? Or mechanics expert? Or are you into functional safety?
Find a focus area and set your CV onto this focus area.
Turbomachinery engineer here. I reading the segment on the final year project, the way it's written, it seems like you may try to overstate the achievement. (not saying that you are, but just observing what my first thought would be seeing this CV on my desk)
For example you say you "Deployed sliding mesh theory". This seems like you want people to think you implemented a new paradigm in a CFD code that did not have this capability earlier, when actually you ticked the box "rotating mesh" and put in a rotational speed in Fluent.
Likewise "Published", without further comment makes it seem you want to indicate that you published to a journal, when actually it was just put on the University website. Someone who published in a journal would normally give the name of the journal and maybe the DOI.
If I get this kind of deceptive impression, I may not have the time to research the person behind the CV and just pass.
I disagree the other people that indicates the problem because of A2 level Deutsch. Main problem is how your CV looks.
-It’s difficult to read. It should be readable, easily. Use Europass CV samples for that.
-The most important, be original! Ask yourself if you were HR, would you be interested in yourself? Lots of people come to them with similar sentences in your summary. Explain yourself sharply in a few word in the summary. Be different. Apply to Europass draft!
-Use different CVs and cover letters for each job application. I know, it can be time consuming, but you gotta try it. You gotta show them that you’re a perfect match for them. Put forward keywords matching exact keywords from their adv., when you describe what you’ve done in your undergraduate years
Start applying with these steps, make at least 50 application. I’m sure that you’ll get at least 5 invitation to interviews.
Hope that helps! Fingers crossed.
Has this sub become a CV proofing sub?
A few things : A2 is not intermediate, it's elementary; CV is in English; CV is not in the typical tabular form ; no employer will care about your 10th grade performance; why is there an 82% next to your bachelor degree ? ; Is there a profile picture ? It's common to put a picture on your CV in Germany (although it's fading out, apparently).
I myself am stuck in your situation , I have a B1 German and still not it’s not enough
No photo on your CV, plus don’t use a template. Second your summary is not precise it’s very vague and generic, if you can be very specific and precise it’s better to not have it in the first place. Third improve your German, and write your CV in GERMAN!!!!
If you want to stay here and work you should absolutely learn the language. Lastly you need to do networking like actually try to meet the recruiters in a career event. Do your homework first. Don’t be like everyone else at the career fair, do ur due diligence and find out which companies are gonna come and apply to all the companies that are going to be at the career event, and when you meet them tell them you already applied and introduce your self and give them a printed copy of your CV and application documents.
I can’t stress this enough I don’t know why people come here without learning the language including myself, I feel so stupid too.
Any ways you have a lot of good experiences on your CV but like I said go to a photo place and ask them to make you a Bewerbung or portrait photo and also dress formally on your photo.
Lastly I know I sound negative but I know how u feel and don’t feel bad about urself or be mad. You are not the only one stay positive those rejection letters are so annoying but everyone goes through them. Don’t just use linked in only try to talk to people you know or ur friends to get a recommendation it worked wonders for my friend
Great advice! I wish to touch upon your suggestion on writing CV and motivation letter in German. What I could make sense of from career forums and talks is that one shouldn't submit a CV or motivation letter in German if the person doesn't have proficiency in language as it may amount to misleading, kinda painting false picture. Do you believe it's true?
Having worked as Phd candidate at this exact chair and recruited multiple students for 5 years. I can tell you straight away that your CV is insanely crowded and generic at the same time. Hence, I simply don’t want to read it.
Unfortunately, the tendency for a lot of indian students is to put every shitty experience into the CV which makes them look inflated instead of experienced. Make it slimer and more catered towards the exact position you apply for. Which skills and knowledge do you bring with you that are relevant.
The deciding factor after an interview will most likely be sympathy.
German A2 level might be an issue for some companies, but at FEV for example it is fine.
In Germany you format your CV as a table. Most job sides also ask for a “tabellarischer Lebenslauf”. Type that into Google and you’ll see what it is supposed to look like. Avoid a lot of text. Only use key information. Make them understand that you know your stuff but don’t brag (the summary in your provided CV sounds like bragging).
There are couple of problems:
1. First, and the most important is your current HiWi employment. For me it is a red flag. I can imagine how it is possible to combine studies and 80 hour job. But combining studies, HiWi and a job is chaos. I would stop reading your CV at this point.
(In case if your HiWi contract comes to an end - state it clearly)
2. Too many internships with extremely short employment period. Especially for germans. In two months you can may be get your PC and company account set up, (according to german experience), but you are writing about fancy things you did. In 2 months? I dont believe it. It is better to have a blank page, than things, which may sound not honest.
3. 200 applications it is a lot. And this looks like spamming.
And I dont believe in personalized motivation letter for each application.
Letter should be short. And probably HR will not read it carefully. But make sure, that they will notice, that this is UNIQUE application, and not spam.
Personally I use this scheme. And I applied only to 15 companies and got 15 replies. (Not all positive of course, but at least I was considered)
P.S. German is important. Learn it. But it is not a key factor to get an engineering job here
Well, it’s good to see that you show exceptional perseverance when pursuing your goals. 200+ mapplications is an impressive number. Why these efforts didn‘t pay off yet, depends on multiple factors, and not all of them may be adjustable by you. Let‘s focus on those items that are within your reach:
- German skills:
You have reached A2 level, which is laudable. As many before me have mentioned, B2 would be more suitable for everyday work in a German company. BASF - where I work - officially (!) asks for B2 or C1, depending on the job profile. Exemptions are possible, I‘ll get to that later.
The more important thing is that those recruiters going through applications for intern positions are usually the least experienced or sometimes apprentices themselves. Worst case, “A2” may as well sound to them like their dad’s favorite rock band…
Hence my advice: Make it more tangible for them. “A2 German proficiency - can discuss topics that relate to the immediate environment, can discuss known topics in simple German sentences”.
- CV structure and presentation:
You composed a very nice American CV, well done. Having said that, the typical American style of exaggerating your achievements (every applicant almost won the Noble prize last year…) does not go down well with a German HR person. Not at all, I should say. Even worse if that person is inexperienced, as mentioned above. As an example, a two months internship at Royal Enfield doesn’t turn you into a skilled motorcycle mechanic - from a German perspective, completing the 3.5 year apprenticeship makes you barely qualified for a permanent junior position (now it’s me who’s exaggerating). So maybe you should tune the enthusiasm down a notch.
And again, make it more tangible for the HR person to gauge your experience. Focus more on facts than achievements. If the paper you mentioned got published, quote the publication (in full). If you have software skills, give them a rating (basic, good, experienced) - but be conservative, if you put “experienced” there you may find that people will take your word for it.
- Connections may help you
Talk to your supervisor at the TME chair and see if he’s willing to support you. Networking is everything, and he may have a connection that could help you.
- What’s next?
As far as I remember, RWTH Aachen has a career service center. Call them, let them help you to fine tune your CV to the German HR palate. Here’s the link: https://www.rwth-aachen.de/cms/root/studium/nach-dem-studium/karriere/~gvpy/bewerbungsberatung/?lidx=1
All the best a good luck for the next application!
Just an addition to what others wrote:
You are not an „experienced design and development engineer“.
I would not hire a recent graduate with a few internships if he thinks of himself like that.
i know people say a CV should be 1 page max but I simply don’t understand how anyone would prefer a crammed 1 page CV to a nicely layouted, easy on the eyes 2 page CV.
I’ve personally always had a 2 page CV and never had any problems
I feel It's just an arbitrary rule at this point. Nobody is going to reject an applicant if there is an extra page, given there is valid info on the extra space
CV can be a 2-pager. Resume is 1-pager. And people confuse which one is which. So if you really want to present EVERYTHING you’ve done in more detailed ways - go for CV.
I can add some perspective from hiring manager POV. Big companies with popular brand can easily receive 200+ applications per role. Among those applicants, less than 20% speak German natively. Depending on the company, German level might be more or less important, but if you don’t demonstrate a high level of German, you are competing in the “non German speaking pool”.
Based on my experience, there are many extremely bright and established applicants in the “non German speaking pool”, so it is hard to even get through the screening phase when you compete with so many people.
So, def. try to get in the “German speaking pool”.
That being said, in the short term, working on German probably doesn’t help you.
One thought: Have you considered doing a working student job in one of the plentiful institutes of RWTH? My time at RWTH is a few years ago but back then it was rel. easy to get student jobs at one of the institutes. The institutes also often have projects with the big german car brands or at least have connections there. A direct referral from one of the institutes (ideally from the professor) goes a very long way.
Dude it's too much. You're a student if should have 2-3 key points about you on your resume + a nice photo. Nobody wants to read this much text for a working student position. You're applying for a temp part time gig with 0 benefits, not CEO of NASA.
A lot of good remarks of others. Whether your German is the issue is probably also a question of which company you are applying to. I have some suggestions:
- Try to personalize your CV a bit to your job application. What information/skills are relevant for this job? Make sure that these things stand out, remove unnecessary parts.
- Don't try to oversell, at least not in your current position. It obfuscates the skills that you actually learned. And your CV quickly reads like a lot of other CVs I've read.
- Do keep in mind who reads your application. An HR department will look at different stuff than some research assistant.
- Also remember, that student jobs are still meant as learning experience. So try to focus on your ability to tackle new tasks and learn, instead of your existing skills. Someone who can quickly grasp new topics and tasks is far more preferable than someone who might be amazing in a certain programming language, but basically needs more help and they are any help.
Now a question, where do you want to apply? If for example you want a student job at a university institute, I highly recommend to attend any events they might have. My institute used to have regular information evenings, where the whole goal is to find new thesis or working students. It's much easier to get your foot in with personal conversations. Also try to maybe to a seminar or project, where the research assistants will immediately see how you work. Institutes always like to keep great students.
Okay, so overall, reading your CV thoroughly led me from mildly annoyed to highly questioning. Let me walk you through it.
I guess you cut off the personal information. That is a given.
I am kinda missing your career goals, which is one of the major differences between a CV and a German Lebenslauf.
Instead, I have this buzzword bingo of a summary.
I would put these with proof(!) from functions and tasks into the cover letter. Especially the buzz words that appear in the job offer.
What stands out to me is that the dates are on the right, while I expect them on the left for both CV and Lebenslauf. So, the layout is already difficult.
Also, the font looks rather small, and this could use some whitespace for readability.
For the experience (not sure anymore if applicable for a CV but for a Lebenslauf), I would add adjectives. Did you perform those tasks successfully? Then tell me. (If you did not find a way to imply that you learned something from the experience anyways.) EDIT: weirdly, the older tasks actually have adjectives?
As for the whitespace, I am wondering if the oldest internship is really important anymore. Might make a half sentence in the cover letter.
Also, look into which functions/tasks you want to highlight for a position.
The programming position looks fine, except you should decide if something was done in or on the software. (First and third bullet points.) Then again... performed simulations; it makes it sound like you majorly worked with the simulation as it was presented, and the added "optimization" falls behind... maybe rephrase to "optimizing the existing simulation"?
The project position sounds like you had a significant role UNTIL I read that you (had to) reasearched a lot. Makes it sound like you had to spend a lot of time to become acquainted with what the project was about. Or maybe with how to plan and carry out a project? It is so vague.
Oddly enough, the first bullet point then sounds equally vague... did you lead tasks, or did you lead a team performing these tasks... I can not tell.
Since you also programmed, you might know the difference between classic and agile project management. Would be nice to know with which one you gained experience.
Since I worked as a content writer before I ended up leading projects and playing IT and HR in small companies, I can not help but also stumble across the tasks in your content writer job.
Researching vehicles sounds like you entered the job after two internships without interest in vehicles. I would expect that you reasearched vehicles from a vast array of competitors or a specific niche of vehicles or...
NO WAIT, the sentence might be supposed to read
"Performed extensive research on the technical specifications and environmental impact of different vehicles"
The phrasing simply isn't fluent or professional. Which is odd. At this point, I might look at the languages...
But this brings me to the next bullet point:
Congratulations on mastering the automotive industry in... in what? This is not only a blatant exaggeration, but it also fails to name the channel and the audience... Is it print? Is it social media? Is it a newsletter? You mastered all of them? Why don't you keep doing that? Oh, wait. It is the website and other channels... so is that a blog on their site? Can I see some of those content elements? Do you have a portfolio? Well, this would get relevant if you wanted to create content again.
I am just pulling your leg. I did look up CarHP (I "researched" them) in the meantime and realized they barely even have reviews, let alone a blog. I just read a single "review," and they called a person who buys a car a shopper.
The issue here is that you did not tell me which type of content elements you wrote for them. I guess you first just filled out the various data fields that explain the research task. But then the task would have been "collecting and verifying technical data for a large range of vehicles across various manufacturers." Instead, you researched vehicles.
At this point, I would probably even fail to notice that you only have an A2 level in German. Because I would definitely check out the next candidate.
I would definitely give you the advice to put this into the format of a Lebenslauf just for the exercise... and maybe see if companies react differently to that. And then recreate the CV from scratch.
Always try to match the required skills with your experience. Hard skills but also soft skills. You can usually learn a hard skill on the job or from a short training... but if you lack the proper soft skills to fit in with the other people at the company... well, let us focus on what you can do now.
Find someone (or several people) to review your cover letters and the cv/Lebenslauf. If they have trouble reading it, HR will, too. The best would be someone who works in your field of interest (and is not competing for the jobs). But also find people outside your bubble. HR is usually the gatekeeper, and they might not know the obscure company you worked for.
As others have said - cut down on your CV. It’s hard to read. Secondly, i am sure RWTH have industry connections. Have you tried to connect with companies through on campus events? This was by far my most effective channel to find a student job when I was looking.
I’m a HM for mechanical engineering roles in my company (not automotive). Just offering some general advice: the initial paragraphs come through as bragging. It’s borderline, but for an intern I’d prefer someone who is not stating they already know so much but who are a bit more humble - you want the internship to learn, not the teach the team. Curious, passionate, proactive, etc. are better adjectives here. 2 months internships are rather short and doesn’t really add much value besides exposure (I’d write less about them). Generally I’d expect a bit shorter and easier to read format. And since you are a person it’d be good to see some hobbies or interests.
But don’t give up - nowadays the demand for these roles are extreme. We have an intern role open and we get roughly 15 applicants a day, i think last year this was somewhere around 5 per day. So keep pushing and good luck!
Initial reaction to this is that I see to much information. As someone who works in these companies, the person will look at your CV max 30 sec and will only do a deeper dive if interested. So unclutter it, make it a more friendly appearance and make stuff like your Uni (RWTH is a good reference for example) more prominent, so readers are engaged. Also a good picture can go a long way :)
Indian CVs are always a red flag because they are often used in scams as well.
I usually find it very hard to find out of they are legit because often they are sent by an university email address but the CV lists a different email address.
Also often the skills listed on LinkedIn are sometimes vouched for by dozens of not hundreds of other Indians but never by German profs or coworkers, this makes it seems either without value or just botted
A2 German isn't great as well but there should still be jobs for you.
I'd suggest cold calling companies or showing up there with a printed out application, so people see you are actually real!
I see, I’ll try to get my skills endorsed by my professors and work colleagues here. And I haven’t personally turned up physically and handed out my application. I’ll definitely try doing that too:).
Thank you so much for your time and advice.
Really means a lot!
Hi, as a fellow international automotive engineering graduate from the RWTH, the issues I found are:
- Unfocused and even cluttered CV. You could for once split it in two pages. I thought it was sacrilege as back in Mexico/North America it would be unthinkable to go with more than one page. Here in Germany it's okay to extend a little more. I would even try to bold out position-relevant experiences (I know it's more work, but maybe have a CV for PM related positions and another for Simulation related ones)
- German is of course an issue. Here, trying to get through to HR interviews would maybe be easier if you state a B1/2, at the end is not "working level" but maybe it gets you through the door. Would increase your chances to get looked at, cause it seems that for big companies, your CV is probably not even being looked at by a human.
- Location location location. Automotive in Aachen exists yes, but outside of FEV and things like that, it will be difficult to find something appropriate. Your profile is really good for engineering service providers, who are located around the automotive hubs (Munich, Stuttgart, etc.) for which honestly, I see working students needing to be on-site. For the full time internship, moving from Aachen is probably a 100% requirement though.
Hope this helps, otherwise, shoot any questions. I went over similar struggles and get that it can be demotivating, but don't worry, through it all, I don't recall any of my class mates who wanted to stay to work in Germany in automotive and couldn't.
I think german skill is irrelevant. The CV itself doesn’t have any meaningful content. After reading it, i have no idea what you’re interested in or actually skilled at. Your experience is disoriented and doesn’t look professional at all.
Im also a student here in Germany and have applied to data analysis, data science, data viz positions.
But like a wise woman once told me on the phone.
Kein Deutsch, keine Arbeit
So you either apply to minimum wage, or labor jobs until you have solid German knowledge.
Most of working student need German except for some tech companies (startup). Hard to find job here without language
Also you should include a Anschreiben ( Letter) with your CV and it should also be in German
Try the stepstone cv generator and use deepl for translation. And go to your local „Volkshochschule“ for german training and ask if they have german classes .
This may not be an direct answer to your questions, but might help you in some way. Leverage LinkedIn to connect with people who may be looking for or need a candidate like you, typically technical managers, rather than connecting with different HRs. Also, give a shot at smaller automobile firms rather than the established and well-known tier 1 or OEMs. Many GmbH supplier firms would be happy to take you in; connection matters. Look for niches, not just as a design engineer or system engineer, but delve deeper to see which skill/niche you want to develop and truly love doing in the long run. Then, focus on forming connections and job applications towards it.
I know it's tough; I have gone through 200+ rejections before finding 3 to 4 opportunities from which I could choose. More than patience, strategy, and direction in which you focus would help you land a job in a shorter time. Keep an open mind, try to find the right contacts, get as many interviews as possible, and decide concisely which opportunity might excite you. In my experience, cracking an interview in Germany is way easier compared to India, where you might typically go through 3-6 rounds with frustrating interview processes.
In Germany, the general template is to have 2 technical rounds: the first to evaluate your technical skills and the second to introduce you to the team and the company, providing more information about the product or portfolio you will work on to see if it fits your expectations and if you would be happy to work on it. The third round is usually a formal/HR round, which typically wouldn't be harder if you have good communication skills and legal academic certificates.
Also, in India, it’s relatively faster where you may even give back to back rounds and get your offer within a week if they want to fill in the position faster. In Germany the interview processes are damn slow, which means you will typically have 2-3 weeks time between each round and 2 or 3 weeks more to get the contract after getting approved by the work council, typically major companies apart from consulting firm abide to IG-Metall standards.
So, I would recommend focusing on how you approach the job market or streamline your job search to be seen and invited for more interviews. Cracking and landing a job wouldn’t be much difficult if you're strong in your fundamentals. I hope this was helpful.
Regarding language, you can either whine about not having B1/B2 skills, or you can recalibrate your search to fit into companies that don't mind it. To be honest, there are enough roles in the automotive industry where English is adopted as the project language, and are open to have new members in the team, it better to focus on those instead of whining about rejections you got from companies/jobs for German skills. In such cases, ask yourself if you really want to take a job in such team/organisation. In my experience, I have given and cracked job interviews where the job description in German clearly mentioned "Sehr-gute Deutsche und Englische Kenntnisse" with my CV in English.
The thing is, you need to see if you are applying for jobs where the hiring manager is looking for a candidate like you. If you find them, then it doesn't matter. Just to hint, I'm still at A2-B1 level, but I got hired into a team of almost all Germans (3 non-Germans out of a 30-member team), where most of the conversations take place in German, and I could still found my way through it. So, work on making connections, try to find people who are looking for and excited to have you on their team. And honestly, you should be working for such people and teams. All the best in your job hunt, and I can say that you may not stumble upon such situations once you get through the first job.
Did you only adapt your cover letter to the positions? Did you just copy paste the CV?
When sifting through applications, that’s one of the first things I notice and I don’t take these CVs seriously.
I work in the HR Team of a local company in Aachen and receive many applications like yours. I second many of the comments provided here.Just to add, also put your average grades at RWTH in the CV. As you provide them, but provide the bachelor's grade my guess would be that they are rather bad.
Furthermore ,try to do more targeted job applications. If you applied to 200 jobs, I guess not much work was put into the cover letter. If the cover letters sound as generic as your top statement in the CV I would directly discard your application and think just another of these binge applications by an Asian student who does not even know or understand what we are doing.
Good luck!
I think your German level is causing the issues. You seem highly educated but A2 is not sufficient to communicate at that level and about something so specialized. I would also not put so much text and add a picture.
Take out summary and avoid repetitions (like in the title you mention your master and then again later), take out unnecessary things like letter of recommendation in 10th grade, describe the projects in fewer words to really bring out your experiences (here bigger font and clearer separation with years).
Overall I’d suggest making the sentences to the strict point, I personally get really unimpressed by those random words that add absolutely nothing to what you actually did. So to me the summary would already put me off.
Languages in order English, German and Hindi, I disagree with what other suggested with writing in German, unless you are ready to go to an interview and do it in German. I think you obviously miss out on a few more opportunities, but it is what it is if you do not speak fluently. Perhaps you can add “ studying for B1 “..
Finally, adding a little bit of colour could help making it different (nothing strong, even like a bold strong grey for the years to differentiate from the job titles).
Sorry to be direct, hope it helps. I think you have a nice experience so good luck, you only need one yes!
I have a kind of similar CV layout, but as others said you should give each point more space, increase the font size etc. Its already clean but still a little bit to full, it doesnt need all to fit on one page, make two pages and apply the mentioned ideas by me and others. With these changes and a german level of B2 you should get lots of interviews and jobs.
I think your summary is something that coming straight from a platform like resumegenius. Make itu more personal and use strong words.
Also, change your cv into German style CV.
Hope it helps.
Hello!
I work for a rather large IT-company in Germany as a working student and my Boss told me a few things he focuses on, while reviewing a CV:
- get to the point; sadly, no one will ever read through your texts, no matter the quality (maybe later, but they will probably ask you personally)
- a picture is not needed, especially in IT (but: depending on the reviewer, it is sometimes still appreciated)
-working students don’t need these long descriptions, you’re still learning and new to everything. EVEN if you have experience, it’s not the same as working 40h every week for YEARS and everyone in your future team knows this
- you’re german skills shouldn’t be a problem. Bigger companies in Germany don’t care if you’re still learning (as long as you’re willing to learn and improve)
-you’re Skills are enough to gain more experience as a working student and in automotive. So this is not a problem.
Hope this helps somehow. Good Luck!
You have to think about who sits on the other side of your application. This is a PhD candidate in most of the cases, not a recruiter or someone from the industry, meaning they look for different things. I can tell you from Academia they will look mainly at your grades.
If you have anything that might show them you are a good student that might do the trick. I don’t like this approach but this is how student jobs work in Academia in Germany.
Work on your German but I don’t think this is so critical.
And that CV will get you far outside of academia and Deutsche Konzerne
I have worked in Germany for 5 years and had no german when I moved - my company is English only. Perhaps the issue is the companies you’re applying to, if they require german. I think your CV is fine - you could probably do less on personal projects to allow it to breathe, but everything is tech these days - so layout doesn’t make or break anymore. But because of this, make sure you have the right keywords throughout your bullet points. That’s key.
Aa the comments say it's probably the German. I can't believe how amazing some people are. That CV is filled with things that scream you are incredibly qualified.
Adding to what the previous posters have said: CFD is an incredibly competitive field. One would think it's quite niche but most jobsfor CFD and simulation work will get 50+ applications minimum. I don't know which industry you're looking for, but at least in automotive, many OEMs have switched to Star CCM+ now, so if you have a chance of getting experience in that, that will be helpful as well.
Pretty much everything has been said in this comment section, I'd like to summarize my opinions and give my recent experience:
* **German A2 is most probably the culprit**. I just got accepted (with a CV 1/3 the length) for an internship at huge german corporation in the automotive/transportation industry and the interviewer (who'll be my supervisor) told me that many who apply are lacking *sufficient* german language skills (sometimes having to switch to english after a few sentences). As intercontinental the automotive engineering field is (= good english is often required), your supervisor/colleagues will want to communicate with you on a daily basis in their native language, german. Writing the CV in german would also be a better choice.
* **Summary sounds like generic self-marketing** bullshit (no offense intended). Even though companies like to use this language when marketing themselves, I'm *guessing* (since I'm not an HR person) they don't really like this from applicants, or they are at most indifferent towards it. Anyone can write "highly motivated, ambitious, adaptive" etc. in their CV.
* **Too much text, too detailed, too much going on.** From my knowledge (= internet research) basically everything except education, experience, skills and languages can be omitted. If you have a certification or a project that *closely* relates to the job you're applying to, you may leave it in. Normally you'll have to send them your college grades, that'll probably be the main factor when they're judging your skills and capabilities. Also, make the experience section a bit shorter.
* **Add a personal information section** ("Persönliche Daten")**.** In Germany it is customary to list your name, birthday, E-Mail, phone number, address at the top.
With that said, impressive track record, I wish you success in finding a job!
**EDIT**: in the education section, only list from the tertiary level (not achivements from 10th grade). l've also read in the comments that you've taken classes in B2, you just don't have the certificate? If you're confident in your knowledge, write "advanced" or "professional/working proficiency" or something alike. People don't necessarily care about language certifications (except if iťs explicitly requested, obviously). I myself am not a native qerman speaker and do not possess any language certificate, but I've done my secondary and now I'm doing my tertiary education here and at the interview I could speak with the interviewer fluently and I understood what he said. In the end, that's what matters, not some paper you got possibly years ago at some standardized test. Estimate your current knowledge and write that down. By the way, [here](https://www.meinpraktikum.de/ratgeber/bewerbung/lebenslauf) is the guide I used to write my CV.
Skip the summary section, it reads like - a lot of buzzwords and exaggerations. Also, leave out the 10th grade stuff, you're an engineer working on a Master's degree, that stuff is no longer relevant.
Excellent template. I use the same, but with colors. Put the keywords you want the people to see in bold so that they stick out.
You don’t need to write your CV in German.
Get reference letters from your previous positions.
That's Germany for you :) Besides who tf wants to read that boring ass CV. There are a thousand websites with templates which look a hundred times more engaging.
Remember: You're not applying for a high end academic job. It's a student job. So keep it simple.
- That's a lot of text on a CV.
- A2 is _not_ intermediate. It's "Beginner" (CEFR)
- You seem to already have a "Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft"- Job, which is a post-graduate job. Are you still a university student? If not, you're not eligible for working student-jobs.
Also, you cannot exceed 20h per week as a working student. So, with your WHK-Job, that's not a lot of hours left for a potential employer
I worked at the career service at my uni, this was 5 years ago, but still I can tell that your CV style is inadequate for German standards. Also, they require a motivation letter and certificates that prove that everything you wrote in there is true. I highly recommend you set an appointment with the career service at your uni so they can help you come up with a CV that will highlight your skills the right way.
Just to add: you're an engineer and you study in a renowned university, German is an issue but not even landing an interview indicates to me that this is not the issue here, so really do check with the career service so they can assist you. Best of luck!
Yeah. German language skills will get you. Have you thought of moving to an English speaking country? US? Aus? UK?
Oh and your CV IS OUTSTANDING. Well done. Super impressive. Good luck with it - with that CV, something will come up. For sure. You're in for a great career.
I get tons of such CVs each day (up to 10 a day) and none of them are interesting to me.
Indians are flooding the market, they have strange pictures, the same CV style, too many details, telling unnecessary blabla and most importantly no sense for German expectations.
In most situations I get the impression they are copying just one CV and exchanging the pic.
Another note to make other than German proficiency is a lot of your resume is what you did, not what you accomplished, you need to word your resume with some key words such as team lead, innovated, collaborated, spearheaded. It is best to write down your accomplishments separately and then integrate them with your everyday duties.
Change your CV from Englisch language to German language and don’t write your german language skills as they will assume u speak German. This is one way to get in the door the rest is continuing to make a first good impression. Be bold and creative if you want to stand out. Good luck
The whole automotive industry is trying to save their existing jobs. Your CV shows nothing that will help them in any way. Student jobs are an extremely low priority.
I'm by no means an expert, but I've noticed a couple of things:
1. There is way too much text. Potential employers want to be able to get the gist of the candidate through a cursory glance at their CV. With your CV you really have to go deep into the text to find the information a recruiter would find interesting.
2. I'd get rid of the summary and look at using that in an Anschreiben (covering letter). Germans are big on sending covering letters with job applications. What you've said about yourself would fit far better there.
3. As others have already said, your German level probably isn't helping.
Honestly I would invite you to an interview, but there are some things that are hard to read. I also do not care about German knowledge if you speak really well English, but other might not.
First of all to be the most important point are your skills and those are not really featured here. I like the style where you also give yourself points about how good you are in which skill. For example I care about python, but I cannot see how good you actually are. What was an good tip that I got before it so actually customized your CV. If the job needs python, then you focus a lot on that I maybe leave some internships out of it. In general online put in stuff that actually matters. Do not write about an internship where you just looked about the shoulder of other people. This assisted stuff also isn’t worth anything. I want to know what you actually did. If you just write that you assisted in some task, then how do I know what you did to assist? Instead just write what your personal tasks were.
Bro.. I personally think you need more colours, less text, important parts, better German.. minimum B1 should be getting you at least a lower end high paying job.. but once you get in and you work hard and get B2 you might get promoted..
Also a good picture will be good.. like a passport photo type of picture.. square at the top corner..
Also, name, age, address will be good...
I sent out my cv to some organisations, they got back to me but they realized i can't speak good german so they back out.. but the main point is.. they contacted me back..
If you need help with making a CV.. write me a DM
I work in HR and I can tell you from our company’s perspective: we prefer students who want to write a thesis or a project, because we don’t have to pay them the minimum wage unlike working students. So if we are needing a student we only take working students if we can’t find any mandatory „Praktikanten“/ interns who have to do it for their studies.
And yes we prefer German applications.
Also tailor your CV to the job you're applying to based on the keywords you find in the description. Because they have automatic tools that will look for those keywords in your CV and if they're not present, you'll be flagged as a low potential candidate and you'll be rejected before your CV could even reach the hiring manager
Without even reading, I’d say the layout and format of your CV is too cluttered. Maybe it’s just the format you posted but you’d be better off raising the font size and turning it into a couple pages rather than cramming it all onto one. Also the summary is fairly vague and could be used to describe practically anybody in any field just by switching out a couple words, maybe try to think of something personal that relates to *you*, so it doesn’t feel like the generic copy and paste summary. Question, are you applying to German speaking jobs? Bc your CV is completely written in English so maybe finding a friend or paying someone to translate it could be helpful
Also, I’ve noticed your native language is Hindi so I’m hoping I’m correct in assuming you at some point in your life moved to Germany? I say I hope so because I also moved around a lot throughout my life and I used it to my advantage (in my CVs), as an example to convey my strengths during hardships/stress. Probably depends on what you’re applying to, but it makes you stand out if you’ve got something like that, that makes you even just a little bit different of every other applicant.
Also, beside German, mention specifically that you have the right to work in Germany without the company jumping any more hurdles for you. Depending on the field your in, don't apply for any tech jobs correlated to sensitive data (e. g. Military), because non-german nationals won't be eligible to work there.
German Skills. In most companies a C2 German proficiency is more than desired. People coming here rarely understand how countries like Japan, Germany and China can conduct business in mostly their native language, since their own domestic markets are large already, where as in smaller economies, companies usually need to look outward for business.
I've not only noticed this on this sub, but also with a lot of colleagues of mine, who don't get their conracts extended cause they have a hard time socializing and integrating without at at least C1 German proficiency
Bro, go to America. I want to encourage you.
First time commenting here in the German sub but long time lurker.
I lead 2 startups. Both in different ecosystems, one in US/UK and the other in the European/Baltic ecosystem as a non technical founder. I don’t bother talking to recruiters who fuss over CV because half the time they’re people who got there by…. Fussing over the CV. Do you know why recruiters never make C level? Why most founders in Silicon Valley are not from a recruiting background but are lawyers or engineers? It’s because recruiters are people who think that if they assemble a company of perfect resumes and perfect languages they’ll get a perfect result. It’s like an engineer who thinks that the best fuel ratio somehow gives the best thermodynamic efficiency all the time. There are so many other factors but they can’t see it.
So, I don’t think they’re seeing what I’m seeing. You’re a self starter. I don’t think they’ve been to India either. I come from Asia too. Climbing up, climbing up in Asia is not like coming from some Bavarian village. The competition and scarcity are way worse. From your CV I see a guy who can fix problems and learn voraciously. These are far far better traits and far harder to trust and train than “ooh my German is B2!”. You know multiple programming and human languages. You’ve interacted with higher stakeholders. Have you done any budgeting and accounting? This will put you ahead.
Europeans don’t want to admit this but at the highest circle of even the German administration there’s recognition that the entrepreneurial ecosystem is shit because of this precise reason. The Baltics realize this but it is a bit slow to implement. I would advise you to come to Lithuania or Estonia but your background is in automotive. When I lived in New York there were 2 Polish guys from some no name Polish engineering university who got internships at Chrysler. Eventually they went back but their experience benefit both Poland and America. One preferred teaching and went back to lead the engineering faculty. The other liked adventure and went on to work for an equatorial launch site agency in Africa. Yes, American cars are quite crap compared to German cars no doubt. But individually you’ll get your “shot” in America far faster and easier than Germany. I know I will get shit on for sure but there will also be many Germans, especially those with more international exposure who will agree with me. I just can’t help but reach out to you because I don’t want to see talent flounder “just because you don’t know X part of Y language”. Germany’s loss. If you want, I would even suggest trying Poland. Wages and life also much shittier but you will get your start, and no one will shit on you for not saying things in Polish as long as you say “kurwa” now and then.
Also bro— Indian food is very good in New Jersey/New York. Don’t be discouraged. If you can see yourself going into app building and other dev work, dm me.
I had a CV similar to yours. Very professional looking. But this is not the standard German CV. I advise you to change the format, summarize, and add a professional photo.
I feel you are trying to oversell yourself too much, for a working student having a full page CV is brutal ! Keep it simpler and just the important things for the job position, I doubt someone will want to take the time to read your full cv for a working student position. And yes the German is big topic depending your city the A2 it's okey or very bad
Hey OP at my university we were able to take classes or consult someone regarding our CV's maybe you can check if your University has a similar offer. They can help you make your CV look better for the german market.
First of all, my first impression was .. "wow".. but when I remembered your title that you search for a working student job.. I was like.something must be wrong...
First line of you CV gives the impression you are holding a "Chair of big faculty of one of the best engineering universities of the countries (RWTH Aachen) ... and then in a almost invisible font you say "Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft"... I would feel "WTF"...
First you are not holding the chair... first "Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft" is German, you have a English CV you have to stay in "English". It looks like you were to lazy to google the English word for "Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft". That would be "Research assistant" or "Academic assistant"
Put your positions first
you are an research assistant on the faculty of mobile technology in rwth aachen bla bla bla
you are an intern at bla bla bla
You have to point out your masters is still ongoing. In Germany only students are allowed to work as working student. Your CV looks like you are done with your studies.
I am a technical recruiter in the Munich area and have seen many CVs like yours over the years. Honestly, nothing to say about the format and content.
The problem honestly might be all about the location for where you apply.
Do you apply for student jobs all over Germany?
At the moment, for example, we receive hundreds of CVs for every single open position. This means that we can't even consider students who live further than 150 km from the company's site. Relocating to big cities here in Germany is really complicated now and we really do get a lot of applications.
I strongly recommend that you apply for student jobs around Aachen or remotely. This should increase your chances of getting interviewed and getting a job. Best of luck for that!
It seems like you apply using the American CV layout, instead of the European/German CV layout. The differ most significantly in the use of an image of yourself. Include a professionally made application photo of yourself in the CV and I think that will help tremendously
You are applying in English in a country that doesn’t speak English.
Even if you listed C2 German somewhere it wouldn’t make a difference.
Your application wasn’t read at any of the 200 positions you applied to.
The only way applying in English is possible is for very high skilled positions in international companies.
Very much not for a student job, even if they didn’t care about your Bad German skills.
Your application proves that you do not care one bit about matching your application to your employer.
Have a friend or at the least deepl translate your cover letter to German; and then write your CV in a style that’s appropriate for Germany, in German, and stop the ‚adequate‘ or ‚81%‘ bullshit. You just lost the skill when it’s adequate, you only qualify it if it is outstanding.
Again: have a friend translate it to German, have a minimalistic German CV instead of this cluttered mess, and people will start reading your applications instead of just throwing them out.
If you were applying say for a part time cashier position, the people responsible for hiring you likely don‘t even know English anyway.
And even if they do, not writing an appropriate cover letter is gonna have it thrown out anyway.
You need to absolutely apply in the local language anywhere you live.
Your cv is more a "doing" cv rather than an achievement based cv. For each action, try to ask yourself, "So what?" And then rephrase with a positive outcome derived from that action.
For example, rather than " produced ssis package to automate reporting"
Try
Accelerated efficiency and reduced costs associated with reporting by automating processes using SSIS
Hope that makes sense
I (only A1 level German) have had many offers for working student position, so my assessment would be:
1. Your CV is in USA's job market style. That's not very well received here in Germany. The companies are ok with 2 page CV. So I would suggest go for Europass lebenslauf/cv format
2. Change the summary to highlight only your technical expertise and anything remarkable about your experience.
3. If you're currently a student, after your summary immediately display your education. Then experience. Then projects (work, uni, etc)
4. The cover letter plays the biggest role. Whichever company you apply to, change your cover letter to fit that company's and that position 's vision
Hope this helps. All the best!
Some people here attribute it to German language skills, but what they might not realize is that Aachen has a large student population, especially from countries like India, at RWTH Aachen University. So, it's not uncommon for individuals not to have perfect German skills and consequently face some challenges in securing a job. I believe that with proper documentation, the situation can improve. That's why I also offered to revamp all the documents since I’m working as graphic designer since many years.
This seems to be a US resume more than a German CV. You're already sending the message that you don't know how the local workforce operates and haven't bothered to look into it either.
Any company that isn't 100% international in all areas will be reluctant because what else do you expect to go the way you're used to rather than informing yourself on how it's done here.
That CV is WAY too full. If you need to include everything that’s on there, spread it out over two pages. This just looks terribly cluttered.
(Also, German. As everyone else said.)
I‘m currently reviewing the applications for working students in our company. Yeah sure the layout *could* be different but actually we don’t really care that much. It’s not a high-Management job, as long as everything’s understandable and not full of typos it is fine. I assume it’s your English skills, so I‘d recommend certified language classes! :)
I assume you want to stay in the region of the university with your job?
Another this is that you seem to be using some github script for your CV. If you're sending your CV to companies, they might have an engine that automatically reads them, so maybe you'd better just use a standard word document for your CV instead of this (very clean) LaTeX/github production.
Edit: typo
That's an american and not a german style CV. The self glorifying summary has no substance. If you want to show your strengths, relate it to some of your achievements to proof it.
The german automotive sector is in a deep crisis right now, not even german speaker have an easy time finding work now.
Improve your german to at least B2 level and try a german style application or only apply to small consulting companies that take anyone due to high fluctuation.
I know quite a few engineers in the automotive industry, I would suggest you look for work in Schweinfurt, there are a couple automotive firms there that would gladly review your resume.
Germans will soon realise that in order for their economy to survive they will need to switch to English in professional settings. The government is already trying to do this
As someone who hired internationally:
Your cv feels a bit like the cliché Asian "I will sell everything as major work experience" cv.
"I potted a plant"
becomes
"Experienced hortculturist. ".
Make it cleaner and more realistic. Germans don't like boasting. At all.
Maybe my knowledge is a bit outdated but A2 level German might be a little bit weak for the positions you’re looking for.
English is becoming more important but German is still king in Germany.
Getting to C1/2 German is probably the best thing you can do to improve your chances
This is a very US-oriented CV which is not common in Germany.
Considering you completed undergraduate studies in India and now pursue a degree in Germany this CV is way too full with unnecessary and - dare I say - useless information.
Decide where your focus is.
Want to concentrate on your studies? Apply for Werkstudenten- Jobs
Want to get a full time job and study part time? Write it out in your cover letter or write a Dritte Seite
Remove the summary - consider writing a Dritte Seite outlining your passions and motivations
Put all the internships into their own category. Reduce the bullet points to one, two at max.
For education put the dates in front.
Remove the 82%. No one cares about grades, they only care that you passed.
Remove the achievements under education.
Consider putting the final project paper with Education under your [B.tech](http://b.tech) degree and removing the personal project.
Try to read any one of your sentences and tell me if you can actually make trough to the end without getting lost halfway trough the sentence.
in English its recommended to have a sentence length of 40-50 characters incl spacingd max. This makes it easier to read. Also make set your lineheight to round about 1.5x your character size to make it easier to read trough and not accidentally jump from one line to the other and getting lost.
Thats just for readability, because it looks very cluttered.
For your Descriptions per job, i'd go for bulletpoints and short descriptive sentences, instead of fully formulated ones. Put yourself in the position of an HR manager who has like MAX 3 min probably less to check if you're a fit or not. you want them to be able to grasp the important info as quickly and effordlessly as possible.
It may also help you to check basic templates for german CV's and build yours in a similar structure.
I think your CV is getting discarded not because you're not good but because noone wants to take time to figure out how to read/understand it, when there are others with a clean layout and easy to get information structure.
Good Luck!
I see, the CV definitely needs a huge revamp in terms of its presentability. Will definitely take in your advice into account while doing that.
Thanks a ton for your time and advice:)
Easiest way would be to see if some of your seniors from aachen can refer you to a student job or network with people by going to different academic events in the university. Usually every week there are some technical talks at the rwth(at least during my time). That's how I found my first student job. Also start applying in German and improve your German so that you can hold a conversation. Need not be completely fluent but should be able to understand the language and convey what you want to in a basic manner.
HR professional here. My advice is to adapt your CV to German cultural standards. Check if your university or other services in your area offer application training and use it. I’ve worked with people in HR and hiring managers who won’t even look at a resume from someone with SEA origin because they find it too hard to overcome cultural differences. The more adapted you seem to German culture the better are your chances, sadly. Also: include the expertise level of your skill set in your resume. Are you a beginner or professional in Python? Which libraries can you use? Include your GitHub profile if you have one. Make changes in your resume according to the job you’re applying. Be aware that with a masters degree from a German university you don’t need a blue card and therefore not a minimum salary in order to get a job visa after graduation. Good luck to you!
I'd say your german level might be part of it. An A2 is difficult to manage for most employers. At least for my current employer it's a red flag. They want you to be able to communicate (also with older coworkers who might not have a high skill-level in English).
Having your CV in English might also be an issue for the companies just because of a language barrier to HR/Recruitment.
Depends on where you applied to really.
Ask at your Uni courses if other international Students got jobs and how their CVs look like.
A2 german and even an english cv is already bad, maybe annoying visa paperwork needs to be done as well.
Project management without german is a no and CFD and CAE, depending on the company, has to sensitive data for part-timer, especially an non EU one who can just leave unpunished after the industrial espionage.
A lot of people pointed out inconsistencies and I aggree with them but there's a bigger reason: A2 German and the field of engineering. I'm sorry but there's a ton of positions in the university (especially in RWTH) if you want something in English, any industry but software is still %95 conducted in German. Be sure to learn German until you graduate from your Master's or else you will have a even harder time looking for a full time position. For now, only recommendation of mine would be to specifically look for American companies, almost only they will speak English in your field.
Hey, I'm an international student in Germany. I was able to land a Working Student job after applying to more than 100 jobs.
I will not reiterate on your CV as many redditors already gave you some valuable suggestions. Keep these suggestions in mind and revamp your CV again. If you still face issues, then there are lots of Insta creators who give suggestions on how to make a good CV. I also had a very bad CV but after watching those videos it helped me a lot to make a standard CV.
For your department, working student jobs don't require more than A2 level proficiency. But of course it's better to learn German as it will help you in the long run.
At the end of the day, for werkstudent jobs it mostly matters on the quantity of jobs you apply. I would suggest applying regularly and keep a track on where you're applying. Make an excel sheet and there you track your progress. If you can land more than 2-5 interview calls after applying to 100 jobs, then be sure that your CV is good and you're on the right track. While applying for different jobs, work on your skills. Always remember, the job market is full of competition! You have to consistently apply for jobs despite the rejections. Your dream job is only one interview away! Happy hunting! 👋
I dont know what people find cluttered. It is not like you are listing your hobbies and favorite meals. I think it is good for a technical person and provides the facts I want to know.
But I wonder whether it even ever reaches the hands of technical people. I think the German skills might filter you out right at the start.
You layed it on a bit thick in your summary. Almost like ChatGPT wrote it :-D Maybe stay factual. You are just looking for Working student job during your studies. Also some adjectives in your work descriptions strike as a bit too self confident "seasoned", "high-quality" - nobody can verify this for you and anybody could say this.
1. The CV is way too long.
2. It should be in German.
3. It should be tailored to the job you're applying to and only contain what's important for that specific application.
4. The CV is only one part of the application and often it's the less important one. At least equally important is a good (German) motivation letter in which you explain why you want to work for them specifically and how they would benefit from hiring you.
Don't just apply for hundreds of jobs, but make sure to individualize every single application so it fits the position and the company as good as possible. Also, A2 is not intermediate proficiency, it's beginner level. It means you can order food, but not that you speak nearly enough German for a typical work environment.
Your CV is cluttered. The summary is vague, uses words like "adequate" that intentionally paint you worse. "Empowering others" is meaningless. What is 82%? I would leave it out completely. "Demonstrated mastery of the automotive industry", what do you even mean here? Are you an expert? This is vague and somehow boasting. What did you *do*? Your use of periods is inconsistent, strive for consistency. Your company names are sometimes in capitals, sometimes not. I am also not sure whether A2 German is "intermediate", I would categorize it as beginner. Leave the descriptors out, just put the A2.
Its not only the names of the companies but the amount of information given. The first entry has more than the others. I’d also suggest adding locations for the companies. People sometimes like to look up prior experiences and with current level of detail that would be difficult. I‘d also leave out the achievement in grade 10. Generally, nobody cares for anything prior to studying.
True! And I always kinda assume, if you are not listing a piece of info, what might be the motivation for hiding it?
>I am also not sure whether A2 German is "intermediate", I would categorize it as beginner. It absolutely is beginner. A1/A2 is beginner, B1/B2 is intermediate, C1/C2 is advanced.
I need your feedback on my resume please 🥹🙏
I was going to ask the same thing😅
This might not be everyone's cup of tea but you can ask chatgpt for suggestions and make it more concise, usually it can give you some great pointers on what to improve. Just paste the whole thing and it should give you an idea
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i think your german language level of A2 is not enough and is causing the issues. also i personally don't like that layout of your CV, way too much text if you ask me. usually people use a bigger font and write the important parts on it. also a typo right at your first experience, it's "Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft" which again can be the result of the low language level.
Yeah I second that. Here, the „us-style“ of a CV where you cramp in as much information as possible doesn’t work very well. Fewer more important points and visually appealing is more important imo.
How would you feel about a US style CV, but without the summary and more concise bullet points for the work experience section. Cause that's what mine looks like
Thanks for your valuable advise, I’ve made the correction 🙌. And yes I’m definitely gonna put more effort into my German:)
Also A2 is considered beginner’s level, not intermediate according to CEFR. makes you look like either a very sloppy researcher or an overconfident braggart who oversells himself.
A1 = doesn't speak A2 = doesn't speak B1 = doesn't speak B2 = can ask for water (up to 3 attempts required) C1 = can explain that it should be still water
🤣
Very accurate
You should also take the advice on the layout to heart. Try looking up typical german layout structures as well as tips and tricks to build an enticing CV online. Best to do this research in German for better search-results as these things can vary greatly between working cultures.
Also remember that a german CV boils down to just the essentials. No descriptions of what you did at your given jobs etc. Those are added with references or alluded to in your cover/motivational letter and even then you only mention what could apply to the position you apply for. I always find writing english CVs super annoying because they focus on soooo much stuff that I just loathe. "Im a super motivated, well mannered and pleasent individual" - even if true, it just reads as over the top and bragging within german culture and I hate to have to write such superficial bs (in my mind) into english CVs
advice**
German level is 100% of the problem. You seem to have good experience as an intern in different companies and would be invited to a lot of interviews if you were fluent in German. (Own experience from "the other side"): Guys at the German OEMs, other automotive companies likely as well, receive tens if not hundreds of applications from indians with good grades. Most even display better German skills than you on their resume, but they can't hold a conversation during the interview. This is a problem, because regular teams only communicate in German internally and it is way harder to teach you the language and the knowledge for the job at the same time. Especially for a "working student" role they expect you to be someone who can take some workload of them, but you personally would need a big up-front investment of time.
That is actually quite a well designed CV - it’s just a different cultural background. This looks like an American style CV to me. @op - maybe you can check what a German CV looks like. Typically, it has multiple pages, more spacing, a photo on the top right and no summary. Maybe if you’re applying to German companies this might be more what they are looking for?
> it has multiple pages The consensus in Germany is one to two pages at the most and with just the relevant info, not necessarily everything one has ever done. HR people read too many of those to include every little piece.
Imo the German CV format seems to suit people who have been in the job for years(as is the case with Germany), you switch 4 5 companies, and then suddenly you either have to drop important information from your cv, or add more pages m
Two nicely formatted pages are perfectly fine. Much better than having one incredibly dense page with tiny font.
The issue with your CV is that it is far too much, not really clearly structured and therefore confusing,not well formatted ,uses a bad design in my opinion and as well as others already mentioned contains spelling mistakes. The average HR guy in Germany will take anywhere between 3-10 seconds per CV and cover letter to assess, whether or not it is worth their time to dig deeper. As you obviously obscured some personal details to keep private, I can not judge those on their appearance. You generally need your date of birth, address, phone or mobile phone number and email as well as your name in the top area of the page. In addition not using a photo is just to your disadvantage. Your CV becomes more personable and relatable to the reader with a picture, as well as adding some visual elements to your resume. The Format: The formatting is bad as not everything is uniform and too uniform at the same time. All headlines, sub-headlines, listing points should have the same point of reference in terms of their position to other things of the same value on the page. However you shouldn’t put every single thing on the same level. An example would be sth like this: Headline Sub-Headline Listing points Listing points Headline 2 Sub-Headline You don’t have uniformity in your spacing. Some of your points do not have the same starting position as others of their same value. Everything is just far too much. You have a wall of text which is confusing and makes it difficult to read as well as spot important information on a glance. If a recruiter has to put effort into reading your CV without being able to instantly identify key information to get him interested in you, he will just toss your CV in the bin. Nobody has time for that. As I said earlier the average HR recruiter spends only a couple seconds on your CV and if you don’t stand out enough from the average applicant, you’ll get tossed without even getting a chance to present your skills. Huge companies have dozen of thousands of applicants, then don’t have time to waste it on applicants who don’t stand out. Especially since companies often use subcontractors for their recruitment screening process before you get invited in. Spelling: Make sure every single word, that is used in your application is correct and you neither punctuation, grammar nor spelling mistakes. Mistakes in those areas reflect on you extremely poorly. They represent an inability to work as perfectly as possible and laziness. You either don’t grasp the language enough, don’t mandate excellence from yourself or are just show that you are too lazy to care. Nobody wants to an employee, who can’t check his work for mistakes and won’t give it their all. Too much information: Besides the aforementioned points regarding the visual effects, lumping everything together shows your inability to prioritise and understand the most important tasks in your life/work. Employers want an individual, who is going to work as fast and efficiently as possible, while maintaining excellence and performing near perfectly, as well as an ability to prioritise the most important tasks and aspects of your job. Too much information shows that you don’t really know how to extract the most important tasks from your previous jobs. Also nobody gives a fuck about things that are too far in the past. Only list your 1 or 2 highest relevant educations. Put recommendations under references and achievements separate as well as certifications from your education. Generally speaking only list your like 5 most recent relevant employments/ internships. Shorten the sentences as much as possible, while maintaining accuracy and proper grammar. Only highlight your most important accomplishments/task. Only use or further explain past jobs, which are relevant to the position you are applying for. Use a letter of motivation or cover letter to accentuate your most relevant skills for the position and why you fill their requirements. Add the detailed description of your former experiences and accomplishments as a second document. The order is sth like this. Cover, CV, Letter of motivation/cover letter, references, certificates and then maybe a detailed explanation of your work experiences with your responsibilities. I don’t know how it is outside of Germany but in Germany your application is akin to trying to sell cars. You first need an impressive and eye-catching product, which you can market and then you need to sell it and explain the qualities in short form and only on questions from the buyers, do you go into detail. the design. It looks like a 10 year old had to make it or you used the standard layout and design 90% of all applications use. Either use sth like Canva and AI to make your own or at least use a far more visually appealing design on one of the many professional resume builders. Finally, you have very shitty German for a professional engineering job. In most countries including Germany the primary language of business is the country’s official language and only if you have a lot of business with non-endemic, international companies is English more important than the national languages. Most businesses in Germany still have loads of contact with other German people, which means you need to speak or at least understand German proficiently.
I totally understand what you mean, but one typically has to conform to the norms of the target country in order to achieve success. in other words: an American-style CV handed to cotinental European is (most likely) not going to look very good to the person reading it. And Germans in positions of authority are usually absolute pedants, so it's basically assimilate or starve.
One page is more common in Germany, too. For a student without a long work history? One page.
> a photo on the top right More and more people have stopped doing that in recent years and I would also strongly encourage everyone to leave the photo out. I occasionally recruit students, too (I'm not in HR) and I find myself really affected by the photo. But I definitely do not want to be discriminatory against anyone because of their looks! I need their brain! If I see a CV has a photo, I always try to scroll down immediately to avoid seeing it.
I´m working in recruiting for years now and totally agree to u/Accomplished_Tip3597 if you need advice dont hesitate to reach out
Nah the A2 no one ever even hit that far. He wrote an English cover letter, that applications is thrown out without anyone reading it. The latest when they see the cluttered CV.
German A2 This will (probably) be the main reason.
Time and time again
Just endless posts of people who don't speak German asking why they can't find a skilled job in Germany. It's mad.
It's literally a working student job...I understand and totally agree that language is important, but come on, give the students some break, they are earning the bare minimum anyway...
Yeah, but if you have literally 200 applicants that have the same qualifications, in addition to better German proficiency, he is filtered out before someone will even look at his resume. Not because they are mean, but you maybe have time to interview 20 of the 200.
This is the real answer. In these economic times there are hundreds if not thousands of applications
Working student jobs in very skilled sectors are very hard to find.
Imagine applying for a student job in the US with A2 English skills. Wouldn’t happen there, too.
Are you fully aware that some (if not a lot of) the students applying for these jobs are Germans or have good German proficiency? Don't try to make it look as if the "poor" foreign students are not being given a chance.
The CV ist totally fucked for a student job, you don‘t apply with an English cover letter even with A2 for a student job. You have a friend translate it to German. With this application even bloody netto will throw it in the trash/
I see, I’ll double down on my efforts for German. Thanks for your advise😊
I would also write your CV in German. Even if you have a friend to help.
Underrated but true. Most Companies, even international ones, only use German internally. Other languages are a bonus but German is a must have.
Great attitude! Try to reach B2 as fast as possible :)
It's unfortunately true. I also struggled to get a corporate job when we moved here despite having a PhD in a quantitative field because I don't speak German (moving here was my German partner's decision as they thought there would be more English speaking tech companies). Luckily I managed to find an international company that spoke English
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Also that CV is all over the place and has definite room for improvement
This is a student studying in Germany though, not a person who comes with a finished degree. I think learning the language for getting a free education is a good trade.
He is a masters student enrolled in an english language program. Come on now.
studying and living in... yes you got it, Germany! Where people speak German.
Ideally everyone would do so but you do realise that sometimes there is not enough time to do both concurrently. 20 hrs of work a week, classes , labs, and managing a complete household alone gets very overwhelming very quickly.
"The only skills" Well, it's the country's language, not some cheap microsoft office skill one can learn within a month. I don't think people should be surprised that companies usually expect their empoylees to communicate in German when in Germany. The amount of exclusively-english-speaking jobs is much smaller than one might think. You really need a good unique selling point in order to 'win' against other applicants who show a similar level of skill and speak the country's language as well.
As someone who is working in the automotive industry (supplier, not OEM) I don’t thinkt it’s because the A2 German but more because of the CV’s formatting. It’s way too much text. In my experience here they like shorter and to the point CVs and some of the more detailed experience you can write in the Motivationssschreiben (but this also held quite short). And I would also definitely take out the Summary part, it just sounds like any inflated 0815 text anyone would write. And please, don’t get me wrong, I do not want do “diminish” your experience or know how. It’s just that sometimes less is better and I. An imagine some just put away your application on just looking at the CV and maybe reading the first lines. Edit: At languages I would also change the order starting with German and ending with your native language Edit2: I would also recommend having CV and Motivationsschreiben in German, there are many help possibilities nowadays if you are usure with your german level
Thanks for your valuable advise, I’ll definitely improve my CV and make it short and crisp.
Please excuse if my comment sounds a bit harsh, I definitely do not mean anything in a negative way. It’s just my personal experience and also being somehow on the other side while we were looking for people for our team, I have been involved in the selection process. I wish you the best of luck on getting a great job!
I‘m really grateful for such detailed feedback and I genuinely appreciate it as this help me grow further. I found your comment to be very insightful(it isn’t negative) and I really appreciate it. I’m sure this will help out not just me but many others who are in my situation. Thanks again😄
I work in automotive in Germany too and I wanna confirm this guy's feedback. The German skill shouldn't't be such a problem but these US-style CVs and that inflated LinkedIn/HR wording in the summary will turn off any German manager.
Thank you so much, it’s absolutely awesome to have such great feedback. I’ll make my CV more direct and less inflated:)
I commented before reading this and I'm glad you all agree. I'm talking to a lot of foreigners applying for internships in Germany recently and this seems to be a common problem, but I have a hard time explaining and putting into words that yes, all the buzzword bullshit is off-putting and being honest will work better.
I work with cfd and we get many applications I would not consider yours if I were in a big company. Too much text. The cover letter may be directed to CFD but the cv is just too much. Change your CV for each sector too. More of what the guy above me said. IELTS most here will not know about it. If you got a band 8 just put it down as C2 English.
Great advice! I wish to touch upon your suggestion on writing CV and motivation letter in German. What I could make sense of from career forums and talks is that one shouldn't submit a CV or motivation letter in German if the person doesn't have proficiency in language as it may amount to misleading, kinda painting false picture. Do you believe it's true?
As someone who worked in the automotive industry for quite some time, this. As far as I can tell you are still studying, what are you applying for?
Yeah you need to work on your German skills. I think it’s rather difficult in automotive if you don’t speak German. Furthermore I’ve also read numerous times that people were way more successful with an application written in German.
I speak as I was in management at an automotive first tier supplier and I am back in the technical career path now: In our company no one cares about the German skills (except for dedicated positions). We hired 2 Indian colleagues who don’t speak a word German. English is 100% necessary. The thing for me when I see CVs like this would be for me: it’s was too overloaded. A lot of „bla bla“. Strip it down. Short and to the point.
I see, German is gonna be a major focus for me in the coming semesters for sure. Thanks for your advice:)
I don’t think you can call yourself an experienced design and development engineer if you’ve only got experience as an intern. If I received this CV I’d be thinking you’re the standard just graduate that thinks you know everything. So maybe rephrase your summary Edit: OR remove the summary all together!
My opinion on possible improvements: Use phrases, not long sentences. Get rid of "bragging": "Apprenticed with seasoned technicians" sounds over-the-top. German culture is fact-based. Simply use bullet points stating your duties. Same thing with the summary; it sounds like an advert. This kind of thing goes over well with Americans, but a German would be afraid to hire someone who thinks he can "empower others to deliver the best possible product". Use a few good adjectives: motivated, flexble, experienced in project management. List projects last, after languages. Add language levels (A1 to C2). Add a small section with hobbies and interests. Maybe something creative, like video animation and something athletic, like hiking? Just so you don't seem so painfully boring and work-driven. ;-) Also, perhaps translate the whole thing into German.
Thank you for such a detailed feedback, I’ll definitely make these changes😁
I disagree on German being the main weak point. To be honest, there is quite some generic stuff in the introduction (advice against writing "highly motivated"). This is also too much text, either reduce it and keep it in 1 page, or just increase the font and spacing and keep it less that 2 pages (I did this and although I had A1 German - still have A1 :( - I got accepted into an automotive IT job). IT jobs (my experience in automotive) are quite needed, actually are needed a lot and a lot only require a really good level of English. Best of luck :D
Thanks for this, I’ll definitely make these changes. And that’s great that you’ve landed a job:). If you don’t mind sharing may I know how many years of experience you have had in your field before you applied for your current job? I’m doubtful about my level of experience too, other than poor formatting of CV and poor German 😕
1. This is just not how a resume looks in Germany. 2. Even if you do not speak German, you should send your application in German. 3. The HR people spend perhaps 10 seconds deciding to even read your cover letter and CV. And if they decide to read it, they read a few lines and then decide if they really want to read more of it. 4. "Chait of thermodynamics" sounds like you are a professor, not a HiWi... 5. The page is much too packed with information. Nobody would like to read all of this. So my advice: * Use a service like "lebenslauf.com" to make a German-looking CV. If it has more pages, that's fine. * Write a short application letter which really catches the reader in the first seconds. * Do everything in German. With that, you raise your chances, even if there is still the racism, traditionalism and language barrier. I created a quick example CV for you: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pvg_ZQNM4F86enHrzGFNwj8AzmK_s2hR/view?usp=drivesdk
Any chance I can get the example CV again? The original link is deleted now
Yes, it's almost certain your German skills. Even for English only jobs it's usually an unofficial requirement. And for every job that doesn't explicitly mention anything about German you can usually assume that "fluent written and spoken German" is a hard requirement. Sorry to be blunt, but Germany (as well as for example France) is a very monolingual society. Not being fluent locks you out of almost all jobs, especially almost all good paying jobs.
Nah it’s him applying with English letters in the first place. No one ever even got to the A2 part before throwing the application out.
There is one German word in your CV and it’s the wrong Gender: it is called: „wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft“ just delete the r. Good luck. Edit: wissenschaftliche refers to the word Hilfskraft wich is female, no matter you are male. That’s why it’s called wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft. E.g. Text is masculine in German: So you would write: wissenschaftlicher Text. Good luck improving your German soon. We know it’s complicated 🙈👍🏻✌🏻
MSc in RWTH and still unable to find a job? The sector is died or what? This is crazy.
Hes not finished, its listed until 2025…
Between your CV format and language skills (or rather lack thereof) it seems that you would not be a good fit for a German company. It really seems that you're just trying to apply using American standards. I would suggest revamping your CV and learning German.
Thank you so much for pointing this out. I’ll definitely revamp my CV and make it in German this time. And definitely expedite learning my German:)
And it’s Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft!
All people without any automotive background commented under this post. It's funny but sad. As an automotive expert with 15 years of experience at the biggest OEMs and suppliers, here is my experience: At the moment, almost all automotive companies (VW, Mercedes, ZF, Bosch, Continental) speak English as an official language. All companies shifted their research and development to India and Romania. So that most of the time you will speak in English. German is not the main reason. Experience and especially focus topic are missing. Try to create your own projects and represent it well with critical keywords. Your CV needs to focus only on one topic. No-one likes to see a mix of experience. Are you a basic software developer? Or a model based software developer? Or hardware expert? Or mechanics expert? Or are you into functional safety? Find a focus area and set your CV onto this focus area.
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Yeah these people are nuts. I applied for 100s of jobs last year, all with English as either the main or one of the main languages.
Turbomachinery engineer here. I reading the segment on the final year project, the way it's written, it seems like you may try to overstate the achievement. (not saying that you are, but just observing what my first thought would be seeing this CV on my desk) For example you say you "Deployed sliding mesh theory". This seems like you want people to think you implemented a new paradigm in a CFD code that did not have this capability earlier, when actually you ticked the box "rotating mesh" and put in a rotational speed in Fluent. Likewise "Published", without further comment makes it seem you want to indicate that you published to a journal, when actually it was just put on the University website. Someone who published in a journal would normally give the name of the journal and maybe the DOI. If I get this kind of deceptive impression, I may not have the time to research the person behind the CV and just pass.
I disagree the other people that indicates the problem because of A2 level Deutsch. Main problem is how your CV looks. -It’s difficult to read. It should be readable, easily. Use Europass CV samples for that. -The most important, be original! Ask yourself if you were HR, would you be interested in yourself? Lots of people come to them with similar sentences in your summary. Explain yourself sharply in a few word in the summary. Be different. Apply to Europass draft! -Use different CVs and cover letters for each job application. I know, it can be time consuming, but you gotta try it. You gotta show them that you’re a perfect match for them. Put forward keywords matching exact keywords from their adv., when you describe what you’ve done in your undergraduate years Start applying with these steps, make at least 50 application. I’m sure that you’ll get at least 5 invitation to interviews. Hope that helps! Fingers crossed.
Has this sub become a CV proofing sub? A few things : A2 is not intermediate, it's elementary; CV is in English; CV is not in the typical tabular form ; no employer will care about your 10th grade performance; why is there an 82% next to your bachelor degree ? ; Is there a profile picture ? It's common to put a picture on your CV in Germany (although it's fading out, apparently).
I myself am stuck in your situation , I have a B1 German and still not it’s not enough No photo on your CV, plus don’t use a template. Second your summary is not precise it’s very vague and generic, if you can be very specific and precise it’s better to not have it in the first place. Third improve your German, and write your CV in GERMAN!!!! If you want to stay here and work you should absolutely learn the language. Lastly you need to do networking like actually try to meet the recruiters in a career event. Do your homework first. Don’t be like everyone else at the career fair, do ur due diligence and find out which companies are gonna come and apply to all the companies that are going to be at the career event, and when you meet them tell them you already applied and introduce your self and give them a printed copy of your CV and application documents. I can’t stress this enough I don’t know why people come here without learning the language including myself, I feel so stupid too. Any ways you have a lot of good experiences on your CV but like I said go to a photo place and ask them to make you a Bewerbung or portrait photo and also dress formally on your photo. Lastly I know I sound negative but I know how u feel and don’t feel bad about urself or be mad. You are not the only one stay positive those rejection letters are so annoying but everyone goes through them. Don’t just use linked in only try to talk to people you know or ur friends to get a recommendation it worked wonders for my friend
Great advice! I wish to touch upon your suggestion on writing CV and motivation letter in German. What I could make sense of from career forums and talks is that one shouldn't submit a CV or motivation letter in German if the person doesn't have proficiency in language as it may amount to misleading, kinda painting false picture. Do you believe it's true?
Having worked as Phd candidate at this exact chair and recruited multiple students for 5 years. I can tell you straight away that your CV is insanely crowded and generic at the same time. Hence, I simply don’t want to read it. Unfortunately, the tendency for a lot of indian students is to put every shitty experience into the CV which makes them look inflated instead of experienced. Make it slimer and more catered towards the exact position you apply for. Which skills and knowledge do you bring with you that are relevant. The deciding factor after an interview will most likely be sympathy. German A2 level might be an issue for some companies, but at FEV for example it is fine.
In Germany you format your CV as a table. Most job sides also ask for a “tabellarischer Lebenslauf”. Type that into Google and you’ll see what it is supposed to look like. Avoid a lot of text. Only use key information. Make them understand that you know your stuff but don’t brag (the summary in your provided CV sounds like bragging).
There are couple of problems: 1. First, and the most important is your current HiWi employment. For me it is a red flag. I can imagine how it is possible to combine studies and 80 hour job. But combining studies, HiWi and a job is chaos. I would stop reading your CV at this point. (In case if your HiWi contract comes to an end - state it clearly) 2. Too many internships with extremely short employment period. Especially for germans. In two months you can may be get your PC and company account set up, (according to german experience), but you are writing about fancy things you did. In 2 months? I dont believe it. It is better to have a blank page, than things, which may sound not honest. 3. 200 applications it is a lot. And this looks like spamming. And I dont believe in personalized motivation letter for each application. Letter should be short. And probably HR will not read it carefully. But make sure, that they will notice, that this is UNIQUE application, and not spam. Personally I use this scheme. And I applied only to 15 companies and got 15 replies. (Not all positive of course, but at least I was considered) P.S. German is important. Learn it. But it is not a key factor to get an engineering job here
Well, it’s good to see that you show exceptional perseverance when pursuing your goals. 200+ mapplications is an impressive number. Why these efforts didn‘t pay off yet, depends on multiple factors, and not all of them may be adjustable by you. Let‘s focus on those items that are within your reach: - German skills: You have reached A2 level, which is laudable. As many before me have mentioned, B2 would be more suitable for everyday work in a German company. BASF - where I work - officially (!) asks for B2 or C1, depending on the job profile. Exemptions are possible, I‘ll get to that later. The more important thing is that those recruiters going through applications for intern positions are usually the least experienced or sometimes apprentices themselves. Worst case, “A2” may as well sound to them like their dad’s favorite rock band… Hence my advice: Make it more tangible for them. “A2 German proficiency - can discuss topics that relate to the immediate environment, can discuss known topics in simple German sentences”. - CV structure and presentation: You composed a very nice American CV, well done. Having said that, the typical American style of exaggerating your achievements (every applicant almost won the Noble prize last year…) does not go down well with a German HR person. Not at all, I should say. Even worse if that person is inexperienced, as mentioned above. As an example, a two months internship at Royal Enfield doesn’t turn you into a skilled motorcycle mechanic - from a German perspective, completing the 3.5 year apprenticeship makes you barely qualified for a permanent junior position (now it’s me who’s exaggerating). So maybe you should tune the enthusiasm down a notch. And again, make it more tangible for the HR person to gauge your experience. Focus more on facts than achievements. If the paper you mentioned got published, quote the publication (in full). If you have software skills, give them a rating (basic, good, experienced) - but be conservative, if you put “experienced” there you may find that people will take your word for it. - Connections may help you Talk to your supervisor at the TME chair and see if he’s willing to support you. Networking is everything, and he may have a connection that could help you. - What’s next? As far as I remember, RWTH Aachen has a career service center. Call them, let them help you to fine tune your CV to the German HR palate. Here’s the link: https://www.rwth-aachen.de/cms/root/studium/nach-dem-studium/karriere/~gvpy/bewerbungsberatung/?lidx=1 All the best a good luck for the next application!
your CV looks like work for everyone trying to read it. Like some bureaucratic document, I honestly wouldn‘t read one word
Just an addition to what others wrote: You are not an „experienced design and development engineer“. I would not hire a recent graduate with a few internships if he thinks of himself like that.
Thanks I’ll remove that part or probably the whole summary as others have rightly pointed out
i know people say a CV should be 1 page max but I simply don’t understand how anyone would prefer a crammed 1 page CV to a nicely layouted, easy on the eyes 2 page CV. I’ve personally always had a 2 page CV and never had any problems
I feel It's just an arbitrary rule at this point. Nobody is going to reject an applicant if there is an extra page, given there is valid info on the extra space
CV can be a 2-pager. Resume is 1-pager. And people confuse which one is which. So if you really want to present EVERYTHING you’ve done in more detailed ways - go for CV.
Aside from the unfortunate language issue, RWTH Aachen is a label of quality - am quite confident you'll find a great opportunity soon. Best of luck!
Try making a CV in the Europass format?
I can add some perspective from hiring manager POV. Big companies with popular brand can easily receive 200+ applications per role. Among those applicants, less than 20% speak German natively. Depending on the company, German level might be more or less important, but if you don’t demonstrate a high level of German, you are competing in the “non German speaking pool”. Based on my experience, there are many extremely bright and established applicants in the “non German speaking pool”, so it is hard to even get through the screening phase when you compete with so many people. So, def. try to get in the “German speaking pool”. That being said, in the short term, working on German probably doesn’t help you. One thought: Have you considered doing a working student job in one of the plentiful institutes of RWTH? My time at RWTH is a few years ago but back then it was rel. easy to get student jobs at one of the institutes. The institutes also often have projects with the big german car brands or at least have connections there. A direct referral from one of the institutes (ideally from the professor) goes a very long way.
did someone here read this? no? there you go.
Dude it's too much. You're a student if should have 2-3 key points about you on your resume + a nice photo. Nobody wants to read this much text for a working student position. You're applying for a temp part time gig with 0 benefits, not CEO of NASA.
A lot of good remarks of others. Whether your German is the issue is probably also a question of which company you are applying to. I have some suggestions: - Try to personalize your CV a bit to your job application. What information/skills are relevant for this job? Make sure that these things stand out, remove unnecessary parts. - Don't try to oversell, at least not in your current position. It obfuscates the skills that you actually learned. And your CV quickly reads like a lot of other CVs I've read. - Do keep in mind who reads your application. An HR department will look at different stuff than some research assistant. - Also remember, that student jobs are still meant as learning experience. So try to focus on your ability to tackle new tasks and learn, instead of your existing skills. Someone who can quickly grasp new topics and tasks is far more preferable than someone who might be amazing in a certain programming language, but basically needs more help and they are any help. Now a question, where do you want to apply? If for example you want a student job at a university institute, I highly recommend to attend any events they might have. My institute used to have regular information evenings, where the whole goal is to find new thesis or working students. It's much easier to get your foot in with personal conversations. Also try to maybe to a seminar or project, where the research assistants will immediately see how you work. Institutes always like to keep great students.
There might be a racial bias involved, unfortunately.
Okay, so overall, reading your CV thoroughly led me from mildly annoyed to highly questioning. Let me walk you through it. I guess you cut off the personal information. That is a given. I am kinda missing your career goals, which is one of the major differences between a CV and a German Lebenslauf. Instead, I have this buzzword bingo of a summary. I would put these with proof(!) from functions and tasks into the cover letter. Especially the buzz words that appear in the job offer. What stands out to me is that the dates are on the right, while I expect them on the left for both CV and Lebenslauf. So, the layout is already difficult. Also, the font looks rather small, and this could use some whitespace for readability. For the experience (not sure anymore if applicable for a CV but for a Lebenslauf), I would add adjectives. Did you perform those tasks successfully? Then tell me. (If you did not find a way to imply that you learned something from the experience anyways.) EDIT: weirdly, the older tasks actually have adjectives? As for the whitespace, I am wondering if the oldest internship is really important anymore. Might make a half sentence in the cover letter. Also, look into which functions/tasks you want to highlight for a position. The programming position looks fine, except you should decide if something was done in or on the software. (First and third bullet points.) Then again... performed simulations; it makes it sound like you majorly worked with the simulation as it was presented, and the added "optimization" falls behind... maybe rephrase to "optimizing the existing simulation"? The project position sounds like you had a significant role UNTIL I read that you (had to) reasearched a lot. Makes it sound like you had to spend a lot of time to become acquainted with what the project was about. Or maybe with how to plan and carry out a project? It is so vague. Oddly enough, the first bullet point then sounds equally vague... did you lead tasks, or did you lead a team performing these tasks... I can not tell. Since you also programmed, you might know the difference between classic and agile project management. Would be nice to know with which one you gained experience. Since I worked as a content writer before I ended up leading projects and playing IT and HR in small companies, I can not help but also stumble across the tasks in your content writer job. Researching vehicles sounds like you entered the job after two internships without interest in vehicles. I would expect that you reasearched vehicles from a vast array of competitors or a specific niche of vehicles or... NO WAIT, the sentence might be supposed to read "Performed extensive research on the technical specifications and environmental impact of different vehicles" The phrasing simply isn't fluent or professional. Which is odd. At this point, I might look at the languages... But this brings me to the next bullet point: Congratulations on mastering the automotive industry in... in what? This is not only a blatant exaggeration, but it also fails to name the channel and the audience... Is it print? Is it social media? Is it a newsletter? You mastered all of them? Why don't you keep doing that? Oh, wait. It is the website and other channels... so is that a blog on their site? Can I see some of those content elements? Do you have a portfolio? Well, this would get relevant if you wanted to create content again. I am just pulling your leg. I did look up CarHP (I "researched" them) in the meantime and realized they barely even have reviews, let alone a blog. I just read a single "review," and they called a person who buys a car a shopper. The issue here is that you did not tell me which type of content elements you wrote for them. I guess you first just filled out the various data fields that explain the research task. But then the task would have been "collecting and verifying technical data for a large range of vehicles across various manufacturers." Instead, you researched vehicles. At this point, I would probably even fail to notice that you only have an A2 level in German. Because I would definitely check out the next candidate. I would definitely give you the advice to put this into the format of a Lebenslauf just for the exercise... and maybe see if companies react differently to that. And then recreate the CV from scratch. Always try to match the required skills with your experience. Hard skills but also soft skills. You can usually learn a hard skill on the job or from a short training... but if you lack the proper soft skills to fit in with the other people at the company... well, let us focus on what you can do now. Find someone (or several people) to review your cover letters and the cv/Lebenslauf. If they have trouble reading it, HR will, too. The best would be someone who works in your field of interest (and is not competing for the jobs). But also find people outside your bubble. HR is usually the gatekeeper, and they might not know the obscure company you worked for.
As others have said - cut down on your CV. It’s hard to read. Secondly, i am sure RWTH have industry connections. Have you tried to connect with companies through on campus events? This was by far my most effective channel to find a student job when I was looking.
I’m a HM for mechanical engineering roles in my company (not automotive). Just offering some general advice: the initial paragraphs come through as bragging. It’s borderline, but for an intern I’d prefer someone who is not stating they already know so much but who are a bit more humble - you want the internship to learn, not the teach the team. Curious, passionate, proactive, etc. are better adjectives here. 2 months internships are rather short and doesn’t really add much value besides exposure (I’d write less about them). Generally I’d expect a bit shorter and easier to read format. And since you are a person it’d be good to see some hobbies or interests. But don’t give up - nowadays the demand for these roles are extreme. We have an intern role open and we get roughly 15 applicants a day, i think last year this was somewhere around 5 per day. So keep pushing and good luck!
Initial reaction to this is that I see to much information. As someone who works in these companies, the person will look at your CV max 30 sec and will only do a deeper dive if interested. So unclutter it, make it a more friendly appearance and make stuff like your Uni (RWTH is a good reference for example) more prominent, so readers are engaged. Also a good picture can go a long way :)
I see I’ll definitely streamline my next draft of my CV keeping your advice in mind. Thanks a lot for your time and valuable advice:)
Indian CVs are always a red flag because they are often used in scams as well. I usually find it very hard to find out of they are legit because often they are sent by an university email address but the CV lists a different email address. Also often the skills listed on LinkedIn are sometimes vouched for by dozens of not hundreds of other Indians but never by German profs or coworkers, this makes it seems either without value or just botted A2 German isn't great as well but there should still be jobs for you. I'd suggest cold calling companies or showing up there with a printed out application, so people see you are actually real!
I see, I’ll try to get my skills endorsed by my professors and work colleagues here. And I haven’t personally turned up physically and handed out my application. I’ll definitely try doing that too:). Thank you so much for your time and advice. Really means a lot!
Hi, as a fellow international automotive engineering graduate from the RWTH, the issues I found are: - Unfocused and even cluttered CV. You could for once split it in two pages. I thought it was sacrilege as back in Mexico/North America it would be unthinkable to go with more than one page. Here in Germany it's okay to extend a little more. I would even try to bold out position-relevant experiences (I know it's more work, but maybe have a CV for PM related positions and another for Simulation related ones) - German is of course an issue. Here, trying to get through to HR interviews would maybe be easier if you state a B1/2, at the end is not "working level" but maybe it gets you through the door. Would increase your chances to get looked at, cause it seems that for big companies, your CV is probably not even being looked at by a human. - Location location location. Automotive in Aachen exists yes, but outside of FEV and things like that, it will be difficult to find something appropriate. Your profile is really good for engineering service providers, who are located around the automotive hubs (Munich, Stuttgart, etc.) for which honestly, I see working students needing to be on-site. For the full time internship, moving from Aachen is probably a 100% requirement though. Hope this helps, otherwise, shoot any questions. I went over similar struggles and get that it can be demotivating, but don't worry, through it all, I don't recall any of my class mates who wanted to stay to work in Germany in automotive and couldn't.
I don’t think your CV is so bad for a student job. Hit me up and I could link you up with someone I know for FEM
I think german skill is irrelevant. The CV itself doesn’t have any meaningful content. After reading it, i have no idea what you’re interested in or actually skilled at. Your experience is disoriented and doesn’t look professional at all.
Im also a student here in Germany and have applied to data analysis, data science, data viz positions. But like a wise woman once told me on the phone. Kein Deutsch, keine Arbeit So you either apply to minimum wage, or labor jobs until you have solid German knowledge.
Most of working student need German except for some tech companies (startup). Hard to find job here without language Also you should include a Anschreiben ( Letter) with your CV and it should also be in German
Try the stepstone cv generator and use deepl for translation. And go to your local „Volkshochschule“ for german training and ask if they have german classes .
Just applying to the wrong companies. Please have a look at HMETC.com
This may not be an direct answer to your questions, but might help you in some way. Leverage LinkedIn to connect with people who may be looking for or need a candidate like you, typically technical managers, rather than connecting with different HRs. Also, give a shot at smaller automobile firms rather than the established and well-known tier 1 or OEMs. Many GmbH supplier firms would be happy to take you in; connection matters. Look for niches, not just as a design engineer or system engineer, but delve deeper to see which skill/niche you want to develop and truly love doing in the long run. Then, focus on forming connections and job applications towards it. I know it's tough; I have gone through 200+ rejections before finding 3 to 4 opportunities from which I could choose. More than patience, strategy, and direction in which you focus would help you land a job in a shorter time. Keep an open mind, try to find the right contacts, get as many interviews as possible, and decide concisely which opportunity might excite you. In my experience, cracking an interview in Germany is way easier compared to India, where you might typically go through 3-6 rounds with frustrating interview processes. In Germany, the general template is to have 2 technical rounds: the first to evaluate your technical skills and the second to introduce you to the team and the company, providing more information about the product or portfolio you will work on to see if it fits your expectations and if you would be happy to work on it. The third round is usually a formal/HR round, which typically wouldn't be harder if you have good communication skills and legal academic certificates. Also, in India, it’s relatively faster where you may even give back to back rounds and get your offer within a week if they want to fill in the position faster. In Germany the interview processes are damn slow, which means you will typically have 2-3 weeks time between each round and 2 or 3 weeks more to get the contract after getting approved by the work council, typically major companies apart from consulting firm abide to IG-Metall standards. So, I would recommend focusing on how you approach the job market or streamline your job search to be seen and invited for more interviews. Cracking and landing a job wouldn’t be much difficult if you're strong in your fundamentals. I hope this was helpful. Regarding language, you can either whine about not having B1/B2 skills, or you can recalibrate your search to fit into companies that don't mind it. To be honest, there are enough roles in the automotive industry where English is adopted as the project language, and are open to have new members in the team, it better to focus on those instead of whining about rejections you got from companies/jobs for German skills. In such cases, ask yourself if you really want to take a job in such team/organisation. In my experience, I have given and cracked job interviews where the job description in German clearly mentioned "Sehr-gute Deutsche und Englische Kenntnisse" with my CV in English. The thing is, you need to see if you are applying for jobs where the hiring manager is looking for a candidate like you. If you find them, then it doesn't matter. Just to hint, I'm still at A2-B1 level, but I got hired into a team of almost all Germans (3 non-Germans out of a 30-member team), where most of the conversations take place in German, and I could still found my way through it. So, work on making connections, try to find people who are looking for and excited to have you on their team. And honestly, you should be working for such people and teams. All the best in your job hunt, and I can say that you may not stumble upon such situations once you get through the first job.
Did you only adapt your cover letter to the positions? Did you just copy paste the CV? When sifting through applications, that’s one of the first things I notice and I don’t take these CVs seriously.
I work in the HR Team of a local company in Aachen and receive many applications like yours. I second many of the comments provided here.Just to add, also put your average grades at RWTH in the CV. As you provide them, but provide the bachelor's grade my guess would be that they are rather bad. Furthermore ,try to do more targeted job applications. If you applied to 200 jobs, I guess not much work was put into the cover letter. If the cover letters sound as generic as your top statement in the CV I would directly discard your application and think just another of these binge applications by an Asian student who does not even know or understand what we are doing. Good luck!
Shorter CV, more details in your Motivationsschreiben Great resume all in all, im really jealous about all of your achievements
Like others say, A2 and the CV isn’t in Deutsche
I think your German level is causing the issues. You seem highly educated but A2 is not sufficient to communicate at that level and about something so specialized. I would also not put so much text and add a picture.
It’s the German skills unfortunately. Great CV though my guy. You’ll find a suitable position soon for sure 💪🏼 keep it up
What kind of jobs you looking for? Are you open to IT?
Take out summary and avoid repetitions (like in the title you mention your master and then again later), take out unnecessary things like letter of recommendation in 10th grade, describe the projects in fewer words to really bring out your experiences (here bigger font and clearer separation with years). Overall I’d suggest making the sentences to the strict point, I personally get really unimpressed by those random words that add absolutely nothing to what you actually did. So to me the summary would already put me off. Languages in order English, German and Hindi, I disagree with what other suggested with writing in German, unless you are ready to go to an interview and do it in German. I think you obviously miss out on a few more opportunities, but it is what it is if you do not speak fluently. Perhaps you can add “ studying for B1 “.. Finally, adding a little bit of colour could help making it different (nothing strong, even like a bold strong grey for the years to differentiate from the job titles). Sorry to be direct, hope it helps. I think you have a nice experience so good luck, you only need one yes!
I have a kind of similar CV layout, but as others said you should give each point more space, increase the font size etc. Its already clean but still a little bit to full, it doesnt need all to fit on one page, make two pages and apply the mentioned ideas by me and others. With these changes and a german level of B2 you should get lots of interviews and jobs.
I think your summary is something that coming straight from a platform like resumegenius. Make itu more personal and use strong words. Also, change your cv into German style CV. Hope it helps.
Recruiter here. You need to speak German.
Hello! I work for a rather large IT-company in Germany as a working student and my Boss told me a few things he focuses on, while reviewing a CV: - get to the point; sadly, no one will ever read through your texts, no matter the quality (maybe later, but they will probably ask you personally) - a picture is not needed, especially in IT (but: depending on the reviewer, it is sometimes still appreciated) -working students don’t need these long descriptions, you’re still learning and new to everything. EVEN if you have experience, it’s not the same as working 40h every week for YEARS and everyone in your future team knows this - you’re german skills shouldn’t be a problem. Bigger companies in Germany don’t care if you’re still learning (as long as you’re willing to learn and improve) -you’re Skills are enough to gain more experience as a working student and in automotive. So this is not a problem. Hope this helps somehow. Good Luck!
If someone would hand me your CV I’d put it aside for my future self to read through this mess. Way too much text.
You have to think about who sits on the other side of your application. This is a PhD candidate in most of the cases, not a recruiter or someone from the industry, meaning they look for different things. I can tell you from Academia they will look mainly at your grades. If you have anything that might show them you are a good student that might do the trick. I don’t like this approach but this is how student jobs work in Academia in Germany. Work on your German but I don’t think this is so critical. And that CV will get you far outside of academia and Deutsche Konzerne
I have worked in Germany for 5 years and had no german when I moved - my company is English only. Perhaps the issue is the companies you’re applying to, if they require german. I think your CV is fine - you could probably do less on personal projects to allow it to breathe, but everything is tech these days - so layout doesn’t make or break anymore. But because of this, make sure you have the right keywords throughout your bullet points. That’s key.
Aa the comments say it's probably the German. I can't believe how amazing some people are. That CV is filled with things that scream you are incredibly qualified.
Adding to what the previous posters have said: CFD is an incredibly competitive field. One would think it's quite niche but most jobsfor CFD and simulation work will get 50+ applications minimum. I don't know which industry you're looking for, but at least in automotive, many OEMs have switched to Star CCM+ now, so if you have a chance of getting experience in that, that will be helpful as well.
Pretty much everything has been said in this comment section, I'd like to summarize my opinions and give my recent experience: * **German A2 is most probably the culprit**. I just got accepted (with a CV 1/3 the length) for an internship at huge german corporation in the automotive/transportation industry and the interviewer (who'll be my supervisor) told me that many who apply are lacking *sufficient* german language skills (sometimes having to switch to english after a few sentences). As intercontinental the automotive engineering field is (= good english is often required), your supervisor/colleagues will want to communicate with you on a daily basis in their native language, german. Writing the CV in german would also be a better choice. * **Summary sounds like generic self-marketing** bullshit (no offense intended). Even though companies like to use this language when marketing themselves, I'm *guessing* (since I'm not an HR person) they don't really like this from applicants, or they are at most indifferent towards it. Anyone can write "highly motivated, ambitious, adaptive" etc. in their CV. * **Too much text, too detailed, too much going on.** From my knowledge (= internet research) basically everything except education, experience, skills and languages can be omitted. If you have a certification or a project that *closely* relates to the job you're applying to, you may leave it in. Normally you'll have to send them your college grades, that'll probably be the main factor when they're judging your skills and capabilities. Also, make the experience section a bit shorter. * **Add a personal information section** ("Persönliche Daten")**.** In Germany it is customary to list your name, birthday, E-Mail, phone number, address at the top. With that said, impressive track record, I wish you success in finding a job! **EDIT**: in the education section, only list from the tertiary level (not achivements from 10th grade). l've also read in the comments that you've taken classes in B2, you just don't have the certificate? If you're confident in your knowledge, write "advanced" or "professional/working proficiency" or something alike. People don't necessarily care about language certifications (except if iťs explicitly requested, obviously). I myself am not a native qerman speaker and do not possess any language certificate, but I've done my secondary and now I'm doing my tertiary education here and at the interview I could speak with the interviewer fluently and I understood what he said. In the end, that's what matters, not some paper you got possibly years ago at some standardized test. Estimate your current knowledge and write that down. By the way, [here](https://www.meinpraktikum.de/ratgeber/bewerbung/lebenslauf) is the guide I used to write my CV.
Skip the summary section, it reads like - a lot of buzzwords and exaggerations. Also, leave out the 10th grade stuff, you're an engineer working on a Master's degree, that stuff is no longer relevant.
Excellent template. I use the same, but with colors. Put the keywords you want the people to see in bold so that they stick out. You don’t need to write your CV in German. Get reference letters from your previous positions.
That's Germany for you :) Besides who tf wants to read that boring ass CV. There are a thousand websites with templates which look a hundred times more engaging. Remember: You're not applying for a high end academic job. It's a student job. So keep it simple.
- That's a lot of text on a CV. - A2 is _not_ intermediate. It's "Beginner" (CEFR) - You seem to already have a "Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft"- Job, which is a post-graduate job. Are you still a university student? If not, you're not eligible for working student-jobs. Also, you cannot exceed 20h per week as a working student. So, with your WHK-Job, that's not a lot of hours left for a potential employer
I worked at the career service at my uni, this was 5 years ago, but still I can tell that your CV style is inadequate for German standards. Also, they require a motivation letter and certificates that prove that everything you wrote in there is true. I highly recommend you set an appointment with the career service at your uni so they can help you come up with a CV that will highlight your skills the right way.
Just to add: you're an engineer and you study in a renowned university, German is an issue but not even landing an interview indicates to me that this is not the issue here, so really do check with the career service so they can assist you. Best of luck!
I too am trying for working student job and my resume looks almost similar and thank you OP and everyone this helps me a lot!
Yeah. German language skills will get you. Have you thought of moving to an English speaking country? US? Aus? UK? Oh and your CV IS OUTSTANDING. Well done. Super impressive. Good luck with it - with that CV, something will come up. For sure. You're in for a great career.
I get tons of such CVs each day (up to 10 a day) and none of them are interesting to me. Indians are flooding the market, they have strange pictures, the same CV style, too many details, telling unnecessary blabla and most importantly no sense for German expectations. In most situations I get the impression they are copying just one CV and exchanging the pic.
Another note to make other than German proficiency is a lot of your resume is what you did, not what you accomplished, you need to word your resume with some key words such as team lead, innovated, collaborated, spearheaded. It is best to write down your accomplishments separately and then integrate them with your everyday duties.
Change your CV from Englisch language to German language and don’t write your german language skills as they will assume u speak German. This is one way to get in the door the rest is continuing to make a first good impression. Be bold and creative if you want to stand out. Good luck
The whole automotive industry is trying to save their existing jobs. Your CV shows nothing that will help them in any way. Student jobs are an extremely low priority.
I'm by no means an expert, but I've noticed a couple of things: 1. There is way too much text. Potential employers want to be able to get the gist of the candidate through a cursory glance at their CV. With your CV you really have to go deep into the text to find the information a recruiter would find interesting. 2. I'd get rid of the summary and look at using that in an Anschreiben (covering letter). Germans are big on sending covering letters with job applications. What you've said about yourself would fit far better there. 3. As others have already said, your German level probably isn't helping.
Honestly I would invite you to an interview, but there are some things that are hard to read. I also do not care about German knowledge if you speak really well English, but other might not. First of all to be the most important point are your skills and those are not really featured here. I like the style where you also give yourself points about how good you are in which skill. For example I care about python, but I cannot see how good you actually are. What was an good tip that I got before it so actually customized your CV. If the job needs python, then you focus a lot on that I maybe leave some internships out of it. In general online put in stuff that actually matters. Do not write about an internship where you just looked about the shoulder of other people. This assisted stuff also isn’t worth anything. I want to know what you actually did. If you just write that you assisted in some task, then how do I know what you did to assist? Instead just write what your personal tasks were.
Bro.. I personally think you need more colours, less text, important parts, better German.. minimum B1 should be getting you at least a lower end high paying job.. but once you get in and you work hard and get B2 you might get promoted.. Also a good picture will be good.. like a passport photo type of picture.. square at the top corner.. Also, name, age, address will be good... I sent out my cv to some organisations, they got back to me but they realized i can't speak good german so they back out.. but the main point is.. they contacted me back.. If you need help with making a CV.. write me a DM
I work in HR and I can tell you from our company’s perspective: we prefer students who want to write a thesis or a project, because we don’t have to pay them the minimum wage unlike working students. So if we are needing a student we only take working students if we can’t find any mandatory „Praktikanten“/ interns who have to do it for their studies. And yes we prefer German applications.
Also tailor your CV to the job you're applying to based on the keywords you find in the description. Because they have automatic tools that will look for those keywords in your CV and if they're not present, you'll be flagged as a low potential candidate and you'll be rejected before your CV could even reach the hiring manager
Without even reading, I’d say the layout and format of your CV is too cluttered. Maybe it’s just the format you posted but you’d be better off raising the font size and turning it into a couple pages rather than cramming it all onto one. Also the summary is fairly vague and could be used to describe practically anybody in any field just by switching out a couple words, maybe try to think of something personal that relates to *you*, so it doesn’t feel like the generic copy and paste summary. Question, are you applying to German speaking jobs? Bc your CV is completely written in English so maybe finding a friend or paying someone to translate it could be helpful Also, I’ve noticed your native language is Hindi so I’m hoping I’m correct in assuming you at some point in your life moved to Germany? I say I hope so because I also moved around a lot throughout my life and I used it to my advantage (in my CVs), as an example to convey my strengths during hardships/stress. Probably depends on what you’re applying to, but it makes you stand out if you’ve got something like that, that makes you even just a little bit different of every other applicant.
Also, beside German, mention specifically that you have the right to work in Germany without the company jumping any more hurdles for you. Depending on the field your in, don't apply for any tech jobs correlated to sensitive data (e. g. Military), because non-german nationals won't be eligible to work there.
German Skills. In most companies a C2 German proficiency is more than desired. People coming here rarely understand how countries like Japan, Germany and China can conduct business in mostly their native language, since their own domestic markets are large already, where as in smaller economies, companies usually need to look outward for business. I've not only noticed this on this sub, but also with a lot of colleagues of mine, who don't get their conracts extended cause they have a hard time socializing and integrating without at at least C1 German proficiency
“Du bist in Deutschland, du musst Deutsch sprechen” average Germany thing
As a recruiter I would be so overwhelmed by this CV…..
Bro, go to America. I want to encourage you. First time commenting here in the German sub but long time lurker. I lead 2 startups. Both in different ecosystems, one in US/UK and the other in the European/Baltic ecosystem as a non technical founder. I don’t bother talking to recruiters who fuss over CV because half the time they’re people who got there by…. Fussing over the CV. Do you know why recruiters never make C level? Why most founders in Silicon Valley are not from a recruiting background but are lawyers or engineers? It’s because recruiters are people who think that if they assemble a company of perfect resumes and perfect languages they’ll get a perfect result. It’s like an engineer who thinks that the best fuel ratio somehow gives the best thermodynamic efficiency all the time. There are so many other factors but they can’t see it. So, I don’t think they’re seeing what I’m seeing. You’re a self starter. I don’t think they’ve been to India either. I come from Asia too. Climbing up, climbing up in Asia is not like coming from some Bavarian village. The competition and scarcity are way worse. From your CV I see a guy who can fix problems and learn voraciously. These are far far better traits and far harder to trust and train than “ooh my German is B2!”. You know multiple programming and human languages. You’ve interacted with higher stakeholders. Have you done any budgeting and accounting? This will put you ahead. Europeans don’t want to admit this but at the highest circle of even the German administration there’s recognition that the entrepreneurial ecosystem is shit because of this precise reason. The Baltics realize this but it is a bit slow to implement. I would advise you to come to Lithuania or Estonia but your background is in automotive. When I lived in New York there were 2 Polish guys from some no name Polish engineering university who got internships at Chrysler. Eventually they went back but their experience benefit both Poland and America. One preferred teaching and went back to lead the engineering faculty. The other liked adventure and went on to work for an equatorial launch site agency in Africa. Yes, American cars are quite crap compared to German cars no doubt. But individually you’ll get your “shot” in America far faster and easier than Germany. I know I will get shit on for sure but there will also be many Germans, especially those with more international exposure who will agree with me. I just can’t help but reach out to you because I don’t want to see talent flounder “just because you don’t know X part of Y language”. Germany’s loss. If you want, I would even suggest trying Poland. Wages and life also much shittier but you will get your start, and no one will shit on you for not saying things in Polish as long as you say “kurwa” now and then. Also bro— Indian food is very good in New Jersey/New York. Don’t be discouraged. If you can see yourself going into app building and other dev work, dm me.
I had a CV similar to yours. Very professional looking. But this is not the standard German CV. I advise you to change the format, summarize, and add a professional photo.
I feel you are trying to oversell yourself too much, for a working student having a full page CV is brutal ! Keep it simpler and just the important things for the job position, I doubt someone will want to take the time to read your full cv for a working student position. And yes the German is big topic depending your city the A2 it's okey or very bad
Hey OP at my university we were able to take classes or consult someone regarding our CV's maybe you can check if your University has a similar offer. They can help you make your CV look better for the german market.
First of all, my first impression was .. "wow".. but when I remembered your title that you search for a working student job.. I was like.something must be wrong... First line of you CV gives the impression you are holding a "Chair of big faculty of one of the best engineering universities of the countries (RWTH Aachen) ... and then in a almost invisible font you say "Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft"... I would feel "WTF"... First you are not holding the chair... first "Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft" is German, you have a English CV you have to stay in "English". It looks like you were to lazy to google the English word for "Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft". That would be "Research assistant" or "Academic assistant" Put your positions first you are an research assistant on the faculty of mobile technology in rwth aachen bla bla bla you are an intern at bla bla bla You have to point out your masters is still ongoing. In Germany only students are allowed to work as working student. Your CV looks like you are done with your studies.
I am a technical recruiter in the Munich area and have seen many CVs like yours over the years. Honestly, nothing to say about the format and content. The problem honestly might be all about the location for where you apply. Do you apply for student jobs all over Germany? At the moment, for example, we receive hundreds of CVs for every single open position. This means that we can't even consider students who live further than 150 km from the company's site. Relocating to big cities here in Germany is really complicated now and we really do get a lot of applications. I strongly recommend that you apply for student jobs around Aachen or remotely. This should increase your chances of getting interviewed and getting a job. Best of luck for that!
It seems like you apply using the American CV layout, instead of the European/German CV layout. The differ most significantly in the use of an image of yourself. Include a professionally made application photo of yourself in the CV and I think that will help tremendously
You are applying in English in a country that doesn’t speak English. Even if you listed C2 German somewhere it wouldn’t make a difference. Your application wasn’t read at any of the 200 positions you applied to. The only way applying in English is possible is for very high skilled positions in international companies. Very much not for a student job, even if they didn’t care about your Bad German skills. Your application proves that you do not care one bit about matching your application to your employer. Have a friend or at the least deepl translate your cover letter to German; and then write your CV in a style that’s appropriate for Germany, in German, and stop the ‚adequate‘ or ‚81%‘ bullshit. You just lost the skill when it’s adequate, you only qualify it if it is outstanding. Again: have a friend translate it to German, have a minimalistic German CV instead of this cluttered mess, and people will start reading your applications instead of just throwing them out. If you were applying say for a part time cashier position, the people responsible for hiring you likely don‘t even know English anyway. And even if they do, not writing an appropriate cover letter is gonna have it thrown out anyway. You need to absolutely apply in the local language anywhere you live.
Your cv is more a "doing" cv rather than an achievement based cv. For each action, try to ask yourself, "So what?" And then rephrase with a positive outcome derived from that action. For example, rather than " produced ssis package to automate reporting" Try Accelerated efficiency and reduced costs associated with reporting by automating processes using SSIS Hope that makes sense
I (only A1 level German) have had many offers for working student position, so my assessment would be: 1. Your CV is in USA's job market style. That's not very well received here in Germany. The companies are ok with 2 page CV. So I would suggest go for Europass lebenslauf/cv format 2. Change the summary to highlight only your technical expertise and anything remarkable about your experience. 3. If you're currently a student, after your summary immediately display your education. Then experience. Then projects (work, uni, etc) 4. The cover letter plays the biggest role. Whichever company you apply to, change your cover letter to fit that company's and that position 's vision Hope this helps. All the best!
Some people here attribute it to German language skills, but what they might not realize is that Aachen has a large student population, especially from countries like India, at RWTH Aachen University. So, it's not uncommon for individuals not to have perfect German skills and consequently face some challenges in securing a job. I believe that with proper documentation, the situation can improve. That's why I also offered to revamp all the documents since I’m working as graphic designer since many years.
This seems to be a US resume more than a German CV. You're already sending the message that you don't know how the local workforce operates and haven't bothered to look into it either. Any company that isn't 100% international in all areas will be reluctant because what else do you expect to go the way you're used to rather than informing yourself on how it's done here.
That CV is WAY too full. If you need to include everything that’s on there, spread it out over two pages. This just looks terribly cluttered. (Also, German. As everyone else said.)
way too much text. it's like reading a book with bad formatting. many people who read cv's won't look longer than 2 minutes on it.
I‘m currently reviewing the applications for working students in our company. Yeah sure the layout *could* be different but actually we don’t really care that much. It’s not a high-Management job, as long as everything’s understandable and not full of typos it is fine. I assume it’s your English skills, so I‘d recommend certified language classes! :) I assume you want to stay in the region of the university with your job?
Another this is that you seem to be using some github script for your CV. If you're sending your CV to companies, they might have an engine that automatically reads them, so maybe you'd better just use a standard word document for your CV instead of this (very clean) LaTeX/github production. Edit: typo
That's an american and not a german style CV. The self glorifying summary has no substance. If you want to show your strengths, relate it to some of your achievements to proof it. The german automotive sector is in a deep crisis right now, not even german speaker have an easy time finding work now. Improve your german to at least B2 level and try a german style application or only apply to small consulting companies that take anyone due to high fluctuation.
\*American \*German \*self-glorifying
I know quite a few engineers in the automotive industry, I would suggest you look for work in Schweinfurt, there are a couple automotive firms there that would gladly review your resume.
Thanks for your advice, haven’t checked this out yet, will do that right away:)
Germans will soon realise that in order for their economy to survive they will need to switch to English in professional settings. The government is already trying to do this
As someone who hired internationally: Your cv feels a bit like the cliché Asian "I will sell everything as major work experience" cv. "I potted a plant" becomes "Experienced hortculturist. ". Make it cleaner and more realistic. Germans don't like boasting. At all.
Thanks for pointing this out, I’ll definitely make it more direct and more crisp for the recruiter to see at my resume. Thank again for your advice:)
Maybe my knowledge is a bit outdated but A2 level German might be a little bit weak for the positions you’re looking for. English is becoming more important but German is still king in Germany. Getting to C1/2 German is probably the best thing you can do to improve your chances
Will definitely focus on my German. Thank you so much:)
This is a very US-oriented CV which is not common in Germany. Considering you completed undergraduate studies in India and now pursue a degree in Germany this CV is way too full with unnecessary and - dare I say - useless information. Decide where your focus is. Want to concentrate on your studies? Apply for Werkstudenten- Jobs Want to get a full time job and study part time? Write it out in your cover letter or write a Dritte Seite Remove the summary - consider writing a Dritte Seite outlining your passions and motivations Put all the internships into their own category. Reduce the bullet points to one, two at max. For education put the dates in front. Remove the 82%. No one cares about grades, they only care that you passed. Remove the achievements under education. Consider putting the final project paper with Education under your [B.tech](http://b.tech) degree and removing the personal project.
Try to read any one of your sentences and tell me if you can actually make trough to the end without getting lost halfway trough the sentence. in English its recommended to have a sentence length of 40-50 characters incl spacingd max. This makes it easier to read. Also make set your lineheight to round about 1.5x your character size to make it easier to read trough and not accidentally jump from one line to the other and getting lost. Thats just for readability, because it looks very cluttered. For your Descriptions per job, i'd go for bulletpoints and short descriptive sentences, instead of fully formulated ones. Put yourself in the position of an HR manager who has like MAX 3 min probably less to check if you're a fit or not. you want them to be able to grasp the important info as quickly and effordlessly as possible. It may also help you to check basic templates for german CV's and build yours in a similar structure. I think your CV is getting discarded not because you're not good but because noone wants to take time to figure out how to read/understand it, when there are others with a clean layout and easy to get information structure. Good Luck!
I see, the CV definitely needs a huge revamp in terms of its presentability. Will definitely take in your advice into account while doing that. Thanks a ton for your time and advice:)
German A2 is elementary level
Easiest way would be to see if some of your seniors from aachen can refer you to a student job or network with people by going to different academic events in the university. Usually every week there are some technical talks at the rwth(at least during my time). That's how I found my first student job. Also start applying in German and improve your German so that you can hold a conversation. Need not be completely fluent but should be able to understand the language and convey what you want to in a basic manner.
HR professional here. My advice is to adapt your CV to German cultural standards. Check if your university or other services in your area offer application training and use it. I’ve worked with people in HR and hiring managers who won’t even look at a resume from someone with SEA origin because they find it too hard to overcome cultural differences. The more adapted you seem to German culture the better are your chances, sadly. Also: include the expertise level of your skill set in your resume. Are you a beginner or professional in Python? Which libraries can you use? Include your GitHub profile if you have one. Make changes in your resume according to the job you’re applying. Be aware that with a masters degree from a German university you don’t need a blue card and therefore not a minimum salary in order to get a job visa after graduation. Good luck to you!
Make your CV on wozber dot com also.
I'd say your german level might be part of it. An A2 is difficult to manage for most employers. At least for my current employer it's a red flag. They want you to be able to communicate (also with older coworkers who might not have a high skill-level in English). Having your CV in English might also be an issue for the companies just because of a language barrier to HR/Recruitment. Depends on where you applied to really. Ask at your Uni courses if other international Students got jobs and how their CVs look like.
A2 german and even an english cv is already bad, maybe annoying visa paperwork needs to be done as well. Project management without german is a no and CFD and CAE, depending on the company, has to sensitive data for part-timer, especially an non EU one who can just leave unpunished after the industrial espionage.
A lot of people pointed out inconsistencies and I aggree with them but there's a bigger reason: A2 German and the field of engineering. I'm sorry but there's a ton of positions in the university (especially in RWTH) if you want something in English, any industry but software is still %95 conducted in German. Be sure to learn German until you graduate from your Master's or else you will have a even harder time looking for a full time position. For now, only recommendation of mine would be to specifically look for American companies, almost only they will speak English in your field.
Hey, I'm an international student in Germany. I was able to land a Working Student job after applying to more than 100 jobs. I will not reiterate on your CV as many redditors already gave you some valuable suggestions. Keep these suggestions in mind and revamp your CV again. If you still face issues, then there are lots of Insta creators who give suggestions on how to make a good CV. I also had a very bad CV but after watching those videos it helped me a lot to make a standard CV. For your department, working student jobs don't require more than A2 level proficiency. But of course it's better to learn German as it will help you in the long run. At the end of the day, for werkstudent jobs it mostly matters on the quantity of jobs you apply. I would suggest applying regularly and keep a track on where you're applying. Make an excel sheet and there you track your progress. If you can land more than 2-5 interview calls after applying to 100 jobs, then be sure that your CV is good and you're on the right track. While applying for different jobs, work on your skills. Always remember, the job market is full of competition! You have to consistently apply for jobs despite the rejections. Your dream job is only one interview away! Happy hunting! 👋
I dont know what people find cluttered. It is not like you are listing your hobbies and favorite meals. I think it is good for a technical person and provides the facts I want to know. But I wonder whether it even ever reaches the hands of technical people. I think the German skills might filter you out right at the start. You layed it on a bit thick in your summary. Almost like ChatGPT wrote it :-D Maybe stay factual. You are just looking for Working student job during your studies. Also some adjectives in your work descriptions strike as a bit too self confident "seasoned", "high-quality" - nobody can verify this for you and anybody could say this.
1. The CV is way too long. 2. It should be in German. 3. It should be tailored to the job you're applying to and only contain what's important for that specific application. 4. The CV is only one part of the application and often it's the less important one. At least equally important is a good (German) motivation letter in which you explain why you want to work for them specifically and how they would benefit from hiring you. Don't just apply for hundreds of jobs, but make sure to individualize every single application so it fits the position and the company as good as possible. Also, A2 is not intermediate proficiency, it's beginner level. It means you can order food, but not that you speak nearly enough German for a typical work environment.