Job application

Right now: you’re on the job ad, prepare three parts

ShortcutTurn every Ich bin … sentence you write into an Ich habe … gearbeitet / gemacht sentence. A German employer reads evidence, not adjectives.

If the ad says Bitte bewerben Sie sich ausschließlich über unser Online-Portal. do not send an e-mail; if it says per E-Mail an … do not use the portal. A German employer often never opens anything that arrives by another route.

The language of the ad: which heading wants what

Every German job ad is built from the same four blocks. Once you recognise them, reading an ad takes seconds.

• (m/w/d) male / female / diverse A legally required addition next to the job title. It is not about you; copy it into the subject line as it is.
• Vollzeit · Teilzeit full-time · part-time Most ads give Teilzeit as weekly hours: 20 Stunden/Woche.
• unbefristet · befristet permanent · fixed-term contract The one word that also matters for rental and loan applications.
• Quereinsteiger willkommen career changers welcome If your degree was not recognised as equivalent, this sentence is your most realistic door.
• Berufserfahrung von Vorteil experience is a plus It means “not required”. If it were required, the ad would say erforderlich.
• Deutschkenntnisse in Wort und Schrift spoken and written German If no level is given, apply. If one is (mindestens B2), it is still worth trying one level below.
• Schichtbereitschaft willingness to work shifts Answer it in the cover letter: Ich bin bereit, im Schichtdienst zu arbeiten.
• Führerschein Klasse B class B driving licence Exchanging a foreign licence in Germany is a separate process; if the ad mentions it, state your situation.

You already do this in English: “the company I worked at” and “I’m ready to work”

Two structures hold an application text up, and English has both of them. You are not learning something new, you are changing tools.

What picks the word in a relative clause is the article of the noun: der Betrieb → der, die Stelle → die, das Team → das. If a preposition comes in between, the preposition decides the case: ein Team, in dem ich gearbeitet habe · eine Kollegin, mit der ich zusammengearbeitet habe.

Five patterns to memorise, all of them work with zu: Ich bin bereit, … zu … · Es fällt mir leicht, … zu … · Ich habe gelernt, … zu … · Mir ist es wichtig, … zu … · Ich freue mich, … zu …

Anschreiben: four paragraphs, that is all

A cover letter is not a story, it is a four-paragraph form. City and date at the top right, then a bold subject line (Betreff), then the salutation, then four paragraphs, and your signature at the bottom.

The subject line is bold and a single line: Bewerbung als Verkäufer (m/w/d). If the ad gives a Kennziffer or Referenznummer, add it to the same line — in big companies that is what finds your application.

• Start date: Ich kann ab sofort anfangen. or Ich stehe Ihnen ab dem 1. Oktober zur Verfügung.
• If you are employed, give your notice period: Meine Kündigungsfrist beträgt … Wochen zum Monatsende. (put the period from your own contract)
• Invitation to ask questions: Für Rückfragen stehe ich Ihnen gerne zur Verfügung.
• Closing: Mit freundlichen Grüßen — no comma, your name underneath.
• At the very bottom, the list of enclosures: Anlagen: Lebenslauf, Zeugnisse

The cover letter never goes past one page, and half a page is usually enough. A long letter is not read as “tells a lot” but as “cannot choose”.

Lebenslauf and the first two lines of the e-mail

A Lebenslauf is not a paragraph. Dates on the left, what you did on the right — and the newest entry at the top. If you are used to starting with the oldest one, it flips here.

The application e-mail is short: subject line + three sentences + attachment. Do not paste the cover letter into the body of the e-mail, attach it as a PDF.

The interview: the first question and the salary question

The interview almost always opens with the same sentence: Erzählen Sie etwas über sich. This is not a request for your life story, it is a request for a two-minute work summary. It has three steps: now → past → future.

The questions that follow are fixed too: Warum haben Sie sich bei uns beworben? · Was sind Ihre Stärken? · Wann können Sie anfangen? · Haben Sie noch Fragen an uns? Saying Nein to the last one is the most expensive answer — prepare a question: Wie sieht die Einarbeitung aus?

And that question: Wie sind Ihre Gehaltsvorstellungen? In Germany this is discussed as gross per year (brutto im Jahr), not as net per month. You name the figure; saying “it doesn’t matter” counts as weakness.

• Meine Gehaltsvorstellung liegt bei … Euro brutto im Jahr. My salary expectation is … euros gross per year. The standard answer pattern. You fill in the figure for your field.
• Gilt bei Ihnen ein Tarifvertrag? Does a collective agreement apply at your company? If it does, the pay is already fixed; this question saves you from haggling.
• Ich orientiere mich am Tarif. I go by the collective agreement. The safest way out when you do not want to name a figure.
• brutto · netto gross · net The figure in the ad and the contract is always gross.
• Ich kann ab sofort anfangen. I can start right away. If you are free, this sentence is an advantage all by itself.

The part nobody tells you: “Ich bin …” proves nothing

The cover letters taught in courses fill up with the same sentences: Ich bin motiviert, teamfähig, zuverlässig und lernbereit. A German employer reads this sentence thirty times a day and learns nothing from it. At the centre of German application culture is a single word: Beleg — proof.

The second unspoken thing is not apologising. Many people write Leider ist mein Deutsch noch nicht so gut. in the cover letter. That sentence does not make you look honest, it puts you in the reject pile. Give the same information in a forward-looking way: Zurzeit besuche ich einen B2-Kurs und verbessere mein Deutsch weiter.

Third: getting no answer is normal, but the language of the answers you do get is fixed. Once you recognise these three sentences, you understand the e-mail without translating it — and you reply to the right one straight away.

What to do this week

This topic does not stick by reading, it sticks by working one single ad all the way through. Five days, fifteen minutes a day:

• Day 1: Pick a real ad. Copy the points under Ihre Aufgaben and Sie bringen mit onto a sheet of paper as they are.
• Day 2: Next to each point write a proof sentence — in the Perfekt: Ich habe … gearbeitet / gemacht / übernommen. Do not write a sentence that starts with “Ich bin …”.
• Day 3: Build the four-paragraph Anschreiben. Put the proof sentences into the second paragraph and use at least one relative clause: …, die zu dieser Stelle passt.
• Day 4: Turn the Lebenslauf into a table — newest job at the top — and write the e-mail subject line: Bewerbung als … (m/w/d)
• Day 5: Say your Erzählen Sie etwas über sich. answer out loud in three steps (now → past → future), record it on your phone, and shorten it if it runs past two minutes. At the end, say your salary sentence once.

If you do not understand a sentence in the interview, do not go silent — the phrase on the freeze moments page works here too: Entschuldigung, können Sie das bitte noch einmal wiederholen? In Germany, asking this is not a weakness, it counts as professional.