Auf der Suche: The Internship Phase

From the moment you hear that you’ve been accepted into PPP, you start thinking about the internship phase of the program. This is necessary for a couple reasons:

•         If you manage to secure an internship before a specific date (May 30, in my case), the city in which you got your internship will be your final placement
•          They tell you from the very start that you should look for internships ASAP

The internship phase is the longest phase of the program, as well as the part that requires the most work from you. Everyone knows that obtaining an internship in the US is hard enough as it is--there's resumes to tailor, cover letters to write, cold emails to send, letters of rec to request, networks to build... and that's all done in English. If internship searches seem daunting in your native language, just wait until you've got to do it all in German. 

For me, that really was the most difficult part of the whole search, and I already had 6 years of German under my belt. I quickly realized that I didn't have the technical vocabulary and turns-of-phrase necessary for drawing up a Lebenslauf (the German equivalent of a resume) or an Anschreiben (cover letter). I looked up articles and guides on how to compose these documents, but, as you might expect, they were all incredibly general. I decided to start my search regardless, and just hope for the best.

I had started looking for opportunities and asking for help as soon as I was accepted, so around mid-March of 2017. If you haven't been to Germany before or you don't have a clear view of exactly what it is you want to do or where you want to be (cough that was me cough), it's nearly impossible to know where to begin. I reached out to different professors and professionals both in-person and online and prowled the internet for internship postings, but I still had no real idea what I was doing. 

May 30 came and went, and I gave up looking. There's a bit of a limbo period between the deadline for finding your own internship and discovering your permanent placement. I couldn't keep looking for an internship because I didn't know where I'd be, so I just sort of twiddled my thumbs and waited for news. Once I found out that I was going to be in Hamburg, I half-assedly began poking around for opportunities online again. These efforts were also fruitless. With no Lebenslauf, no Anschreiben, no clue where I'd be living in the city, and a seemingly infinite pool of companies to which I could apply, I left it. 

---

By the time I got to Cologne, the internship phase was but a foggy, abstract concept in my mind with no real weight or meaning to it. I would ponder it occassionally, note that I should probably try to do something about it, and then immediately do something else. This was partly because we had received assurances that we would get help writing our Lebensläufe in September, which we did. It went... okay. 

We all had to attend a Lebenslauf-writing workshop, during which we obtained the format we were to use. This format came courtesy of the GIZ, and, while very practical and straightforward, it was overwhelmingly generic. Regardless, we were all to mold our professional experiences to this document. We were then told to submit our draft Lebenslauf to the language school staff for corrections and final submission to the GIZ. I undertook this task rather unenthusiastically; I knew I was going to have to reformat the entire thing and correct their preferred vocabulary with the appropriate sustainability jargon. I did, however, appreciate the general direction we were given, and took the advice about writing professionally to heart. 

---

I moved to Hamburg, my future self still unencumbered by employment. The once abstract, floating concept that was the intership phase began to solidify above me, and it seemed to drop rock-sold chunks of reality onto my head as the days of the university phase cruised by. 

See, what I hadn't realized was that the university phase is your chance to travel. You freedom to do this, however, relies entirely on whether or not you have an internship already. 

There are a few harsh realities to this program due to the fact that the governments of two different, sovereign nations have entrusted you to help strenghthen the relationship between their two peoples and are funding your efforts. One of these realities is that you must do everything you can to find an internship before February 1st. They are merciless about this, and rightfully so. Should you plan a trip during the university phase without having already found an internship, you must be prepared to cancel your trip (at your own cost, of course) if a company offers you an interview during the time you planned to be away. You're not even really supposed to travel at all, as all of your efforts are to be focused on applying for jobs. 

Like I said, I didn't realize this, so I continued to put off my internship search. Another chunk of reality struck me around Thanksgiving, but this one was thrown at me by someone else rather than dropped from my subconscious. My tutor--after two months--told me my Lebenslauf was bad. Not just, like, not ideal, but bad. I received this news gratefully, but also with a healthy dose of frustration. I knew that his perspective was meaningful (he also works at a large company where he is responsible for hiring interns), but I was pretty baffled that it didn't come any sooner. #annoyed. 

Now, armed with my tutor's perspective, new vocabulary gained during my two months at the HAW, and the knowledge that the walls of time were really very quickly closing in on me, I finally got my Lebenslauf and Anschreiben in order. I also drafted a cold email template that I could use to write to different contacts, and I had several people read over it and suggest grammatical and phrasing revisions. It was at this point that I finally felt like I could apply for jobs with any level of competency, so I started emailing. 

---

One especially interesting opportunity came after a presentation in one of my uni classes. An alumnus came in and told us about his current job working for a sustainability consulting firm. My interest was piqued, and I saw my chance when he said that they were always accepting applications for internships at the company. After his presentation, I swallowed my anxiety and asked how I could apply. 

"Send me an email."

"Ok."

I went home and sent him an email. 

---

Internships should, ideally, last 5 months. However, a law called the Mindestlohngesetz was passed in 2014 that requires that all internships longer than 3 months be paid. This, in a way, has thrown a stick in the spokes of PPP participants: if you can't find a company that's willing to pay you for five months, you have to find two separate internships. I was really hoping for a five-month deal, but I was operating as if I was going to need two. Among my cohort of PPPler, the need to find two different internships was pretty common. 

The likelihood that you'll need to secure two jobs instead of just one makes the Feb. 1st deadline feel much, much closer. While that deadline is hard and fast, it doesn't mean that you'll get kicked out of Germany and sent home if you don't find an internship by then. It does mean, however, that the GIZ is going to be constantly on your tail about it. After February 1st, you have to submit a written statement about why you haven't found an internship yet, and what you're doing to find one now. You're also required to keep and submit a spreadsheet of places to which you applied and when, and the GIZ will start looking for internships for you--no matter what they are. 

This may sound stressful, and that's because it is. What it isn't, though, is uncommon. This year, a lot of PPPler had trouble finding internships by the deadline. More commonly, they had trouble finding two internships. I talked to several people that had secured internships beginning in April, but lacked an internship for February and March. 

Another harsh reality is that most people in Germany are fluent in German and at least able to communicate in English. If you come to Germany with very little knowledge of German, you are going to have a hard time finding a job in a German-speaking workplace. This issue is amplified in large cities, where there is no shortage of people who are fluent in (at minimum) German and English. What I'm saying is, you have to be able to sell yourself despite your German skills rather than by touting your English skills. 

---

Long story short, I applied to a total of about 6 places. 3 of them were via online applications, and 3 were via email. I was invited to interview by 3 of the 6 organizations, and all of those organizations were the ones to which I had applied via email. Now, I know that correlation ≠ causation, but... lesson learned. The real cause behind my successes via email, though, could've been the Arbeitgeber Anscreiben provided to us by the GIZ. This document basically said "hey, here's why this person is in Germany and the government would really appreciate it if you hired them," and I was not always able to attach it to the online apps. Regardless, I was incredibly lucky (yes, lucky)--a lot of other PPPler had to apply to upwards of 30(!) organizations. I applaud and admire them; I don't know that I would've been able to endure that with the same tenacity and patience that they did. 

I ended up accepting a (five month! Paid!) internship at the sustainability consulting company that presented to my class. It's called the Institut für Umweltinformatik Hamburg GmbH, or ifu Hamburg. Check out their website to learn more about them, and stay tuned for another blog post where I'll expand on what I do as a research and consulting intern. 

For now, though, I'm going to enjoy my day off (Good Friday is a holiday here!). 

Bis später!

***If you find yourself trying to apply to jobs in Germany and would like some tips, please contact me! I live to help. A contact form is in the sidebar.