Details of Business Life in Germany, Office Life, Working Environment, Work Habits and Much More!
‘Special edition’ and an enlightenment article for Architects & Lawyers!
We started Blogging on the Road with our Master’s story in Europe, then our master’s degree was over, we talked about our plans to ‘permanently post graduate’, then we told our ‘story of moving to Munich’ and it’s time here to business life!
First of all, we have something to say; Life goals of people in their 20s are to start a family, to establish a career, etc.. is happening. But how realistic are these goals? Many of our friends who reached these goals in their 20s got divorced, changed careers, completed a master’s degree in a field completely different from the department they studied, and even went on a world tour by saying “enough gari”… As a couple, we can openly say that if you’re in your mid-20s and you’re still thinking that my life hasn’t fallen into place, oh guys, don’t think about it.. ?
We deleted a life at the age of 24, started a new one, and while we were keeping order, we never questioned ‘are we running late?’. The important thing for us is not how much money you make, how ‘senior’ you are in our job, but whether we are happy or not.. After all, ‘if we’re happy, we’ve made it’.
Maybe it depends on the human’s dough; Some of us become mature and dignified even when we are children, some of us never grow up.. If you are one of those people who drag the mouse down in order to reach the right date in electronic media that asks for your date of birth, and if you want to leave one life and start another, move to Europe or New Zealand, put your ‘is it late?’ thought aside and make a decision to fulfill your wishes. take a step. There is no age to be crazy with crazy, child with child and change life! ?
We still believe that the 30s are the ages when we can actually catch the meaning and dynamism of life, and our eyes/hearts are open to the possibility that many miracles will happen to us in the next 10 years.. You too!
We’re coming to the point and to the point, wishing everyone a job application process that’s as calm as a ruminant Indian cow in the middle of Delhi traffic!
Special Edition for Law Graduates
We reserved this part of the article for law graduates.. Half of our blog (I’m Asya) is a law graduate and before I even completed my master’s degree, I started to hear the questions ‘HE WHEN YOU BECOME BACK’ like many of you, because most people do not believe that a person who studied law in Turkey (I am a graduate of Istanbul Law) will find a job abroad.. Especially if you don’t speak German very well, they think it’s impossible for you to find a job.
But I got a job, so anyone can do it.. Currently, I am a legal consultant at a software company in Munich (we can say due diligence & complience for those who want details) and I work in mixed English / German because my German was not at a level that could work when I first started.. But despite that, I was able to enter. Then the taboo-breaking blog is at work. Lawyers can also find work in Germany very well.. But how?
First, let’s summarize the situation; Unfortunately, since we studied law in Turkey, we are not ‘qualified’ in Germany and it is not possible for us to practice law in the classical sense.. For this, we need to enroll in the university again and study for another 7(!) years.. In other words, we have to accept from the beginning that we will not be a lawyer registered to the bar association, entering the hearing and having an office in the classical sense.. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as having the law you studied in Turkey counted in Germany.. In Germany, we need to register with a bar and eliminate the part of being an ‘attorney’ in the system from the beginning.. Fortunately, being a lawyer does not just mean being a ‘lawyer’, that is, being an ‘attorney’ in the system.
What are the alternatives?
No matter if you are applying for a job from Turkey or Germany, There are some conditions to find a job and pluses that will make it easier for you to find a job.. I will be very sincere.
Biiiir: A good English or good German is a must. You do not need to know both, but you need to speak one of these two languages very well.. Since we are not like an architect or software engineer and ‘expression’ is very important to us in every way, it is imperative that we express ourselves very well professionally.. Therefore, it is necessary to know one of these two languages very well in order to be accepted for a job.. Think of it this way; About 10 percent of the job postings suitable for you to apply will require only English, about 90 percent will require German, and more than 50 percent will be bilingual.. We already know that we are at a disadvantage, don’t we? So it’s okay. We knew this from the start. People like us who only speak English will apply to that 10 percent.
Two: A little experience. We do not need to have worked in Turkey for years, but at least we need to have completed our law internship and gained some work experience.. Because, as we both come across in job interviews, they say ‘this is not an academy’ and they want you to have already gained work discipline and to be able to do some work on your own.. So if you’re thinking, ‘Should I complete the internship and apply for a job?’, yes yes yes!
Three: Specializing in a certain field. This is not a requirement but a huge plus.. For example, if you have a certain area of expertise such as tax law, maritime law, criminal law
, you can apply for open positions, especially those who are experienced in this field.
So which job? Will the positions be suitable for Lawyers?
Think of big companies that do business both in Turkey, in Europe and even around the world.. It is possible to work as a ‘legal counsel’ in these companies.. For example, think of big global companies like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Microsoft or PwC, Deloitte, KMPG.. You can apply for ‘Legal Counsel’ or ‘Associate’ advertisements of these companies, and these companies even have ‘turkish speaking legal counsel’ advertisements.. All you have to do is follow these postings regularly.
Companies where you can find a job are not limited to these, of course.. Especially in Germany, since there are too many companies doing business with Turkey and their partners in Turkey are not good at English, they look for a Turkish legal counsel for their own organization.. In other words, you do not become a lawyer in the classical sense, but you can become a legal consultant.
How can we increase our chances of finding a job abroad as a law graduate?
As you know, law graduates mostly do LL.M.. While some of the LL.M programs are focused on a specific field (such as International Tax Law, European Commercial Law), some are on a more comprehensive and general field.. In this respect, you can choose master’s programs on Finance, such as ‘LL.M in International Business Law’, ‘LL.M in International Maritime Law’ (there are more, actually) that will open your way.. Thus, when applying for a job, you can say, “Look, I’m a law graduate, but I’m considered a semi-financier.”. This is of course possible.. If your chance to do a non-field graduate program is suitable for a non-field graduate program, you can do a master’s degree in ‘digital marketing’ or an even more unrelated department and then apply for suitable jobs.. In this case, the most logical thing for us seems to be to apply for internship positions first and wait for a rise over time.
Let’s say you worked as a lawyer in Turkey for 5 years and you are applying for a job in Germany, now I have to apply for ‘senior’ positions. Don’t worry, unfortunately, if you apply for ‘junior’ positions, your chances of being selected are much higher, and especially if you have 1-2 years of experience, it may be much more logical to apply for internship positions first.. After all, you get paid from the interns in Germany and then you have the chance to continue where you did your internship!
We can say that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel for law graduates too!
Let’s talk a little bit about architects;
Special Edition for Architects
We can’t forget the architects!
There is always light at the end of the tunnel in architecture. No one has any objections to this subject, but the color of that light is a little up to you that is, the color of that light can change according to your experience, language proficiency and program information.. Of course, having a master’s degree is a factor that will make it easier for you to find a job in Germany, but it is not everything.. We have friends who applied and got accepted from Turkey and are now here as light as butterflies.
This part of the article is for us architects.. I am Hope, the other half of the blog. 2 of my master’s. I applied for a few jobs during the term (we especially wanted Munich). Shortly after the break, I found a job and we moved to Munich.. So this is how our story of moving to Munich started. When I applied for jobs I had a very basic German. I didn’t think much of it as we thought we’d come back anyway. But as things changed in our country over time, we started to think that staying here for a while was the right decision for now.. Anyway, if you let me go, I’ll be crying until the morning!
The architecture office I work for is an office that specializes in theater and movie theaters (of course, there are other side jobs, but mostly theater and cinema). As a program, we use programs such as Allplan, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign and Rhino.. Apart from these, the programs that are generally requested in offices are Revit, Cinema 4D, Autocad, Sketchup.. Apart from these, the more talent you have in design, the easier it is to find a job in Germany.. In other words, if you are producing something new and you can present it well, I can say that you have a place in many offices in Germany.
Working Conditions (our)
Title we would actually call it ‘Working Conditions’, but naturally, every office, every company in Germany has a unique working environment and office life.. So we’re just going to talk about our two companies. Other companies have better or worse terms. Let’s not mislead anyone.
We both have 28 working days off per year. We may use these permissions with reasonable notice.. Sometimes people use 2-days, 2-days, sometimes they take 1 and a half months off.
Our weekly working hour is 40 hours.. They expect us to be at the office at 17:30 in the evenings (17:00 on Fridays) and at 09:30 in the mornings at the latest.. Umut’s office is more flexible; there is no specific entry-exit time, the important thing is that he has completed 40 hours a week and he does not go to work later than 08:30 in the morning. Nobody pays much attention to the check-out time.
Almost no one is late for the office, and there is no such thing as having breakfast in the office in the morning or waiting for tea to be had.. If the work starts at 08:30, they expect you to have your computer on and ready to work at 08:30.. Just today, while talking to one of the managers in the office, the man said, ‘My daughter was 3 minutes late for kindergarten, she had to wait at the door for 17 minutes to get in.. If he was 20 minutes late, he wouldn’t have been able to enter the ball!? By the way, the man’s daughter is 4 years old.
There is no one left in either of our offices for overtime.. If you work overtime, they have to pay you approximately 2.5 times your hourly wage (by law), so the employer does not want you to work overtime.
P.S: Added later note. Now we are working overtime and it is not compulsory to pay the overtime wage.. We do not charge overtime :))
The work is not done in a hurry and quickly. There is no job that comes at the last minute and requires you to wake up in the morning.. The workplace has a certain schedule and there is no work other than that, so the work you will do is determined 1 month in advance.
Neither of us has a ‘dress rule’, that is, to wear a suit, wear heels, or even wear trousers. We do not have an obligation and most people come to the office in shorts and slippers.. Even in our office, most people walk barefoot, come in pajamas etc.. but I think ours is a bit out of ‘normal’ standards. The important thing is which way you ‘produce’ more comfortably, so they don’t get hung up on clothes that much.
Let’s not forget to mention that Germans (let’s say the most educated ones) never do as much shopping as in our country, and if they don’t have to, they don’t go to the mall.’ they never go. They find those who go to the mall very strange here.. Consuming more than you need is hardly a German business. As a result of this, hardly anyone comes to work with high heels, wears make-up, and wears different clothes every day!
Of course, not everything is rosy;
We have been in Turkey since childhood. When we do something right and well, we are used to being praised for our work, being told that we did something right, being thanked, saying ‘I’m sorry’! After all, it’s been like that since childhood, right? Child learns something new, parents and seven-dynasty applause. The report card is perfect, everyone congratulates. You achieve something in your job, your employer comes and says ‘bravo’!
Here? It’s not here! At first, they said, ‘Didn’t we understand the job? are we doing it wrong? Nobody says sorry? No one is showing any warmth?’ we wondered, but later we saw that this is not the culture of the guys! They love even their own children without showing unnecessary affection, pampering and kissing and smelling, were they going to pamper us!? You do your work, you deliver, and the point. If it’s true, no one says ‘I’m sorry’, and if it’s wrong, no one gets angry.. There is a general unresponsiveness in both of our offices.
In Umut’s office, no one touches his mobile phone during business hours, that is, from morning to evening.. In fact, nobody’s cell phone is on their desk.. We passed that too, the man’s office has no wifi!? They did not connect wi-fi to the office so that no one could play with the phone.. That’s how flat we are! Although ours is more comfortable with a ‘relative’ mobile phone, Whatsapp does not work when we are connected to the office wifi.. In other words, no one uses the phone during business hours.
Another thing we dislike is that no one ‘does deer’ with anyone… Maybe it is different in other offices or, for example, in Berlin, but in both our offices, people are distant from each other and work friendships. they do not communicate outside. At noon, everyone quietly eats and returns to work.. So much chatter, deer, goy goy etc.. none (unfortunately)! So to sum it up in one word; they are not happy. We miss the laughter, friendships and conversations in the offices we work in Istanbul, but there is nothing to do, every place has its pros as well as cons. If you come to Germany, you can laugh a lot and be warm with people in the office, of course, but then we cannot guarantee that you will not be stigmatized as ‘what a strange person’ socially!
We do not know if this happened to us again, but in our office. we also have ‘kitchen duty’. In other words, there is no one in the office to do the kitchen work of the office, and everyone takes turns doing the kitchen work one day.. Such as loading the dishes in the dishwasher, making the smoothie of the day, washing the juicer and coffee machine.. Even the 20-year-old employee of the office does this if it’s their turn.
As many people from different countries work in both our offices, English is predominantly spoken.. But still, sometimes the conversation suddenly turns into German and you stay French ? We are managing for now, but they expect us to improve our German in the next 6 months.. What if we can’t develop it, we don’t know it yet?
Do you see it with racism?. We do not encounter racism in our daily life and workplaces.. It’s as if racism isn’t something a sane person would do anyway… But sometimes in the foreigners office, they treat us like pigs and make us feel nauseous.. There’s nothing to do with her. They fired an Indian friend of Umut from the room in the foreigners office by saying “winter and winter”. We’ll let you know if we come across anything like this! (It’s not a funny situation, we know).
There were also questions about law doctorate and justice graduates, but unfortunately we can’t answer because we don’t want to talk about something we don’t know about and we don’t really know about those issues.
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This is our latest situation..
We have left 3 months behind in business life and in the meantime, we have become a part-time mason by adding skills to our skills(!) and painting our balcony walls ourselves.. Now we can fill not only paint and whitewash, but also nail gaps and stuff with plaster.
Follow the adventures of this blog, which has reached the consistency of “uncle, I can do anything” when abroad
Loves!
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Büyükada Aya Yorgi Church (The Church Where Wishes Come True)
