A career transition is a challenge on any continent, in any country, and at any stage of life. As you make your career transition abroad, it’s important to realize that a career in Berlin is completely possible — but not without a few hurdles along the way. In this post, I’ll be highlighting all the startups and online resources you need to find an English-speaking job in Berlin.
Your English-Speaking Job in Berlin
Nurturing a career in Berlin is a rewarding life experience. Berlin is a modern, exciting metropolitan city offering daily events, concerts, hipster culture, and cafes. As a major European flight connection, you can fly abroad to Italy, Spain, or the United Kingdom within hours. As an affordable city, you can rent a spacious and comfortable apartment for less than 1.000 Euros a month.
Germany is known as a manufacturing epicenter, and Berlin sits specifically as a unique capital city of different career options. Two points to keep in mind when searching for a job in Germany; 1) Germany, in general, has a shortage of skilled workers, and 2) unemployment is currently very low at 5.7 percent. Because of these two statistics, Germany has the opportunity to find a job. But you’re more likely to find a suitable job to your personal growth by positioning yourself with a unique skillset — and targeting your career search in a specific area.
Berlin, because of its technology community, needs higher-skilled workers in — but not limited to — IT technology, software development, customer service, or UX design fields. You’re more likely to get an English-speaking job in one of these areas by targeting the Berlin startup community and applying for these positions.
Berlin has a growing market for English-speaking startups. In these ecosystems, Berlin startups are forming English-speaking and international working environments that are ideal locations to begin your abroad career. According to a 2017 German Startup Monitor report, out of 1,837 tech companies counted, 350 were based in Berlin — and many of those startups offer international environments where the primary language is English.
Our Best English-Speaking Startups in Berlin
Berlin has a growing marketplace of English-speaking startups. The Berlin ecosystem has more than 2,500 thousand operating startups to choose from. A large majority of them are English-speaking focused, and I’ve highlighted my favorites below.
At My Career Path, we work specifically with some of these local startups. As an organization well integrated into the startup community, our programs and events offer a direct connection to many of the HR managers in these companies.
Common English-Speaking Roles in Berlin
As previously mentioned, play the job search smart and apply to positions that are more likely to dominate English-speaking requirements. Within the startup community, you can find several specific job titles with English as a requirement. I’ve listed the top job positions below:
- Customer Service
- Software Development
- HR Recruitment
- Service & Hospitality Industry
- IT Technology
- Marketing
- Sales & Business Development
Popular English-Speaking Job Boards
With the influx of the growing English market in Berlin, many English-specific job boards have appeared to serve people just like you. Don’t limit yourself to only online job boards — as other sources of jobs are in places like LinkedIn, Facebook groups — and personal networking is a great option to find open positions. I’ve listed my favorite job boards below:
- Angel List
- Berlin Job Board (Facebook group)
- English Jobs in Berlin (Facebook group)
- Berlin Startup Jobs (Facebook group)
- Startup Jobs Berlin (Facebook group)
- Berlin Startup Jobs (Google doc)
- Berlin Startup Jobs
- Deutsche Startups
- OnStartupJobs
- Startup Sucht
Conclusion
Finding an English-speaking job in Berlin is possible. Armed with our top Berlin startup recommendations and job boards, you have all the pieces to the puzzle to be successful at orchestrating your career search strategy. Building your career in Berlin is a rewarding and positive experience. Take advantage of our bustling and multicultural community — and start applying to your next career path in Berlin.
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Author: KAVE BULAMBO
Kave Bulambo is the founder of MyCareerPath. She’s worked in the Berlin technology industry with some of the largest and best startups like N26, Zalando and CareerFoundry. In every pursuit, she’s stayed firmly rooted to her purpose; to influence equal job opportunities for all and to guide diversity and inclusion in the workplace. As an active member of the Berlin community, she is often at various networking events — make sure to say ‘hello’!