Subject: Info: How Not To Compete For Work In Germany. CV/Resume Order etc. From: CV@ Sender: CV@ I append http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/std/resume_order.txt See Also newer http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/cv/reverse.html (the 2 should be merged) For decades I've heard Bad Advice in Germany: "List your resume chronologically - Comply with German expectations!" Ignore that Bad advice ! It's irrelevant to a computer freelance ! It tells one the adviser is clueless, probably not in the computer industry & other advice is likely worthless. German employees used to list their resume chronologically, & many still do. (Germany is old fashioned compared with Britain & USA, it took them decades to realise it's now acceptable to list in Reverse order. It also took decades for their standard format of returnable plastic bound 'Mappe' to start dieing out. That ossified 'Mappe' increased cost & work of sending & returning applications, & limited parallel applications. Decades after cheap photocopies printers were available, there were still numerous complaints of dog eared &/or non-returned 'Mappe'). Personnel departments hiring lifer employees may want the first school listed first, & most non young employees & used to that order, & most will not be in computer industry & so won't understand it's ridiculously inappropriate. Technical managers skim CVs for skills to solve problems, particularly for shorter term freelancers, that's latest skills for immediate problems! The rest is just history. Where or even if you went to school is irrelevant. With more work experience, even a university degree becomes progressively less interesting, (except eg in Germany where academic titles are popular, & of benefit eg with the tax office). Top freelancers are in a mobile international market, logic requires a CV format tailored to usage by that international industry sector, not damaged by national habits of non industry locals. Other Bad advice: "Learn good German as a High priority" Foolish. With 80 million fluent native Germans, plenty unemployed, most already fluent German, no one most needs yet another fluent German speaker with random skills. Better instead prioritise learning new computer skills, not more German. For many years it was no longer sensible business to come to or stay in Germany (after the fall of the wall, & globalisation hollowed the IT sector). `Investing' time to learn good German was a myopic local labelling IMO, not a sensible priority business investment of time, to acquire a not very internationally portable language of a then fairly slow economy (OK, much of the world slowed too, since then ;-). Learning better German was just a lower priority social investment if here & if not moving on to a faster moving business environment elsewhere. A true international _business investment_ is to invest time in keeping latest skills updated, & where necessary moving to or focusing on most dynamic target economies. More Bad Advice: "Learn German first, apply German style, integrate more!" Germany's got millions of people fluent in German, they're unemployed; Why make your life & theirs harder by competing in their standard market ? Acquire different rarer skills than just being fluent in German ! Don't try to maximally integrate & compete in local German sectors where English is not financially rewarded as a bonus skill. Why waste an advantage ? + Integrating to the max. just draws fire from others that one has "gone native", that perception while gaining some traction with some natives that "he's integrated very well" could also reduce one's appeal to potential international business partners. It's a question of balance. When locals think "He/she could integrate more!" & outsiders think "He/she's gone rather native!", maybe there's a balance ? A few sectors are not worth competing too hard uphill for: Most of high tech. & international business is done in English, but a few market sectors also operate in German, inc. eg some East European & some Japanese business, so if there's an axis/ affinity of language formality & usage, eg perhaps stemming from 1945, it may not always be worth trying hard for. One engineering company in Munich had a policy of wanting Bavarian software houses (not even German was acceptable, it needed to be Bavarian! ), - not worth loosing time against that ! Would a European go to Thailand to open yet another Thai restaurant ? Not likely! So why lean German language & methodologies just to compete at a disadvantage with Germans in German ? when the international language of business is mostly English, & the computer industry's developments are in English. Summary: How much one should adopt & Not adopt local preferences including language is a question of balance, & where one sees one's business sector. Those that want to provide 1st level support to individual German end users, need to be most fluent in language & compliant with local national customs. Those that prefer to offer 2nd or 3rd level development & support need to retain a more international balance. There'll always be some locals criticising one needs to integrate & comply more, & others from outside criticising you're going native. Keeping a balance is the trick ;-) Consult (oevr a beer) also those at: http://www.berklix.org/mecc/ Contractors Forum http://www.berklix.com Computer Consultancy http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/cv/ My Resume - English & German http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/contact/ Contact - German for business also OK. http://www.berklix.com/free/ Free Software http://www.berklix.org Free Organisations & Clubs