My way to find a job in abroad — A Journey from India to Germany
Hailing from a small town in the Southern part of India, I grew up having big dreams. Like most, my younger self wanted to go abroad for higher studies, get more exposure, explore their culture. I am a B.Tech graduate and after Engineering I started working as a Design Engineer in a small company that takes projects from well-known steel and gas, power plants in India. But eventually I had to move to the software industry.
I embarked on my Journey as a Technical Writer in the software industry. During this Journey, I was fascinated to learn Technologies, code, and test products. That enthusiasm has made me wear various hats — researcher, tester, writer, learn technologies. I am yet to fulfil the part with coding, though. :)
In January 2019, I’ve decided to move from India to Europe for work and gain a different exposure and perspectives. I always dreamed of working overseas and therefore started using the following sources for my job search:
- https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/
- Contacts in LinkedIn
- Research on Job Market in countries I chose — Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden
- http://www.kellyservices.de/
- www.techjobseurope.com
- www.stepstone.de
Everyday, after my work hours, setting aside some time only to search and apply for jobs helped me in a way. I might have applied for around 30 job applications. Most of them needed their country’s National language proficiency as one of the requirements, some needed an existing Visa, and some an experience in overseas. After a while with hopelessness, frustration, and depression, I took a month break.
During that phase analysis on what can be improved to get my resume picked has worked like a charm. Some stuff I did:
- Created resume according to countries that I was applying for. So I had multiple resume formats :)
- Resume of just 2 pages
- One of the value added points was the company and type of work. During my job search process, I was working for a client, which is a top tech giant in the world. I worked for that Tech company for 2 years and the work I did there had really added value. Back then, I was under the impression that even if you work for a top tech companies (client), it doesn’t matter because you are on a different payroll. But the experience and work I did there had really helped me.
Eventually, I started giving interviews. The interview process was time-taking and the number of rounds we go through varies. I had undergone around 6–7 rounds where each round lasted for 45 mins to an hour. During that phase, I was interviewed by a well-known dutch travel booking company and had 6 rounds of interviews, which took around 2.5 months for the whole process to complete. But at the end I didn’t get through. That was an epic fail and such an excruciating moment for me.
I tried hard and eventually, I bagged two job offers, one in Singapore and the other in Germany by March 2020. This whole journey was mentally draining but at the end it’s worth it. It helped me realise my levels of perseverance, patience, and will power. Here comes one more obstacle, the Pandemic. I had nothing in my hands, except to wait for the Pandemic to end.
Fortunately things were a bit better in November and I finally reached Germany and started working. For a girl with low self-confidence and never realised what her potential was, this step helped to self-discover.
I would like to end this with a short note — “Don’t give up on your dreams, no matter what. Raise above your short-comings or troubles and work for it every single damn day.” Every success story involves a lot of hard work, smart work, perseverance, determination. Cheers!!
