Finding ANY jobs in Berlin

hi,

I'll be moving to Berlin for a few months to explore and (hopefully) learn some German. I'm arriving on the 8th of January. After reading these forums I've come to believe, and hopefully mistakenly, that jobs are really hard to come by in Berlin particularly if you don't speak the language. Am I right in thinking this? Will I be in hopeless or do any English (ou Français..) exist for 20 somethings looking to just make ends meet..?

Thanks for any and all feedback!

-Matthew

Did you really "read these forums"?? There is a thread two topics below yours that should give you an overview of the situation here - people may not be arsed writing back specifically to your question as it has already been asked and answered. And no, people are not being nasty, negative or discouraging - they are being honest.

No. You are completely wrong. People just spend hours posting on this forum writing total lies about the compexities in finding work in Berlin for a joke. We like a good laugh. It's just our German sense of humour. Unemployment and poverty are always a good for humour, of course. We are just trying to fool people like you. In reality, any non-German speaker who fancies coming to Berlin can expect to walk into the job of their choosing. That's because Berlin is the richest city on earth (don't let the widespread poverty fool you). No worries. Just book your ticket.

The bit about 16% unemployment as a whole and 33% for immigrants may have been published in Stern. That doesn't mean you should in any way believe it. Sterns spends its time trying to fool you as well.

Really - as alice says- why on earth did you feel the need to post this?

Matthew: If you want any chance to make it in Berlin or anywhere else on the planet then try and get your reading and comprehension skills sorted out.

Don't listen to HAL9000, dude - I just heard that Klaus Wowereit himself just declared a huge shortage of French-speaking Canadians in Berlin and announced a grant (Willkommensgeld) of €100,000 to every French-speaking Canadian who moves to the city. So hop to it!

Either answer the bloke's question, or shut up.

Excuse me but what are you doing?

I have read quite a few of the threads and it appears pretty clear what the situation is. It is clear that, 'bloke's' question is a bit pointless and so is your response to the response.

Do you work for the Czech Republic's interrogation service by any chance?

Jesus! I wasted 30 seconds of my life reading the post of someone who hasn't trawled through thousnds of other posts written by opinionated, grumpy farts whose drab existences are made briefly more interesting by the possibility of attacking someone on an internet forum.
To the OP: Berlin is no longer cool, there is very little work here unless you speak the language or have a phd in engineering. My advice; stay where you are.

Three choices: 1. Bring your income with you. 2. Work your arse off in a sh*tty job for 400 euros per month. 3. Have enough capital investment to start your own business

OP- are you counting on supporting yourself entirely with a job, and are you coming here on the holiday working visa?

Yah? Thank God, because that actually contributes greatly to Berlin's continuance of being great FUN!

OK, easy for me to say as a 2nd home owner only, I know... but still, at least I'm not competing with you guys for those precious jobs, huh?

To the OP: yes, you're spot on in thinking that.

He obviously hadn't read the other threads. He's probably a newbie here. There's no reason at all for the eye-rolling and groaning - replying with brief and helpful comments is easier, in fact.

Hi Matthew -

I've had four jobs in two years, with very little German, two of which came from the classified ads here and two from the classified ads in exberliner. I'd advise selling yourself as a native English speaker. There are jobs going in teaching at schools (assimng you're not a sex offended of course!!) and I know people who do it with no experience whatseover. Call centres also recruit naitve speakers to call the UK/US and conduct surveys or customer services.

The job situation isn't great, mainly because of the recession, but there are jobs out there.

Good luck!

P.

Nice one Paul.

Finally someone who has decided to be helpful. And what a surprise! Matt has been able to find work. This positive attitude probably helped get Matthew the jobs he's aquired here. Like Matt I too stayed positive and managed to find a number of jobs since arriving here in September 2008, working up way up from a pretty crappy job delivering pizzas, which helped get me by, to now working in the field in which I'm qualified working through English.

Matt, since you speak French I recommend you apply for a position in this company, who I believe are always looking for French speakers: www.otest.fr
Do ensure to have plenty of savings before coming though, just in case you don't get a job for a while.

Also check out this site that lists sites on which you are more likely to find English Language Jobs in Berlin.

Hope this helps. Enjoy Berlin. It's a great place to live.

Cheers,
Evan

Hey Swimmer,

Just because 100s of disillusioned unemployed Berlin residents have posted about their experiences and the job situation as they see it, doesn't mean there's new point in posting the question again. There's always new people joining this forum and maybe he hoped someone would see his post and give him some positive feedback. And evidently two people did: me and Paul. So maybe your not, God forbid, always right about absolutely every conceivable topic on this forum.

Evan