German degree, good level of fluency,how can I make myself employable?

Freiheit

Hi as stated above I've a B.A. in German,speak the language fairly well. But I don't have any technical skills that jobs require. Any ideas as to how I could market my German better,make it an asset? Is there any training courses that could go well with German or any access to work experience that might help? People say German is a good language to have but it wasn't Applied Languages,it was a B.A. and very low in application. Ideas appreciated.
Danke F:)

tatli_lokma

what sort of jobs are you applying for? when you say technical skills what do you mean?

If you are looking to get into employment and get something on your CV the multinationals like Google, paypal, Ebay, amazon, Allianz Insurance, Accenture, Arvato - they all regularly look for german speaking staff. Many roles are customer service roles, but if you have no previous experience it is a good place to start IMO.

Freiheit

Hi no I've no related skills ,skills that these firms would require in their roles,other than a good level of German,but skills that would be required on the job for customer support ,clerical or translation , I've none of those. I wasn't helped by eye problems a few years ago which greatly hindered my ability to work with IT,now they are largely resolved and I don't know what to do. Would I be marketable in a hotel or something better? I need something to go with the German and don't know what to do.

tatli_lokma

entry level customer service won't require a lot of 'skills' it's more about how you sell yourself. They basically want to know you are someone who can communicate well, deal with high volume/high pressure environments and have a good work ethic. If you can market your CV so that it sells these points you might get an interview.

Have you never ever done any sort of work in your life? not even shop work or odd jobs as a teenager/student? no college placements or projects? nothing at all??? really??

Zeek12

Sounds like an entry level customer service position with German is your best bet. Plenty of companies out there bemoaning the lack of German speakers in Ireland right now so you should find quite a few positions like this advertised on the job websites.
Pretty much everyone has some level of cus. service skills. Mostly they just want you to be polite, helpful and help solve fairly routine problems.
Don't sell yourself short on technical skills either. If you're competent using basic computer applications like Outlook, Word, Excel, etc. that's a decent start.
Good luck with it!

Freiheit

Thanks . I've no recent work experience no and in the past it's only been retail and pubs. But I suppose I could try to brush up on Excel, I wouldn't be good at using it now. I have an idea but I wouldn't be proficient. Maybe there might be some useful tutorials on youtube. As I said I had an eye problem for a number of years which held back my development of IT skills but I'm better now. There's a lot of ad's promoting the study of German, I'd like to utilise mine,but getting a start can be very hard and demoralising when it doesn't happen. I'm a waste of government money at the moment, fluent in a foreign language and unable to use it.

tatli_lokma

If you have worked in retail then you have customer service experience. Use of excel while it would be an advantage, would not be a requirement of most entry level customer service jobs.

TBH you seem to be giving up before you have even started.

I would recomment you speak with a recruitment agency, get yourself a good CV and then apply. It's only if you apply and get knocked back that you can be this negative - seems like you haven't even given it a chance yet!

I am pie

You need to be more specific what a 'good level' is? Are you bilingual or advanced or intermediate. Suggest you put together a german and english cv, same for cover letters xplaining why you would be good for the job you want. Then you need to be sending out hundreds of cvs via agencies, adverts and speculative enquiries. You need to tailor your cover letter (at very lesst) for each one.

Getting a job is a job to be taken seriously, forgive me for saying it but you sound a bit half hearted. you sort of want a job to do with german, because you think thats an advantage you might have. You need to turn that into something more structured, committed and enthusiastic in your cv, interview and cover letter. You will need more than language skills, you need to think what you actually want to do, rather than what might you be able to do.

Zeek12

Freiheit wrote: »

Thanks . I've no recent work experience no and in the past it's only been retail and pubs. But I suppose I could try to brush up on Excel, I wouldn't be good at using it now. I have an idea but I wouldn't be proficient. Maybe there might be some useful tutorials on youtube. As I said I had an eye problem for a number of years which held back my development of IT skills but I'm better now. There's a lot of ad's promoting the study of German, I'd like to utilise mine,but getting a start can be very hard and demoralising when it doesn't happen. I'm a waste of government money at the moment, fluent in a foreign language and unable to use it.

OP, it sounds like you can already tick all of the main boxes for a bilingual customer service role, at the very least for an entry level position:

Third level qualification - check.
Fluent in German - check
Customer service - check +1.
Retail experience is particularly relevant here. Retail/Pub jobs are often the most demanding customer service positions of all. Don't be afraid to use this to your advantage.
And I would'nt worry too much about something like Excel. You can always learn this as you go along (and it's only needed for some positions anyway).

You might need to spend sometime putting the right C.V. together which highlights your skills and experience, but don't be defeatist about that. It will be well worth your while in the long run.

MetzgerMeister

If you have good computer skills, companies like Google are often looking for people with a language to work with that market.

mikemac1

If you're in Dublin one of the IFSC funds companies would take you on for Investor Services.
They are elsewhere too, Dundalk, Kilkenny, Cork and Limerick

You need to prepare for the interview and learn the basics but they'd train you on everthing else.
They're eager for German speakers

Lehrer

If you genuinely speak German to a high standard, then regardless of your past work experience you won't have a problem getting a job, trust me. I know this from my own experience as I got an entry level job in the finance department of a multinational company with no accounting experience/qualifications whatsoever, simply because I spoke fluent German. Loads of people whom I was in college with (Arts degree in German, so exact same as you) got jobs more or less straight out of college as well no problem with various multinationals in different roles (finance/customer service/sales/admin etc) just because they spoke German.

What I'd say to do would be to register with toplanguagejobs.ie, put up your CV, make sure you stress the fact that you're actually fluent in the language (so emphasize any time spent in Germany on Erasmus etc, lots of people with German degrees wouldn't be able to work through German and recruiters can be a bit wary sometimes, so make sure it's clear from your CV that you can actually speak fluently as opposed to just having passed college exams). Also go to any of the jobs sites (irishjobs.ie/jobs.ie etc), and apply for any job in your area that's looking for German speakers.

Don't be too pushed about adds which stress minimum experience needed (unless it's for senior roles obviously), generally if they ask for anything up to 2-3 years experience and if it's not too specialized a role, they'll be willing to consider someone with less/no experience if they do have German and if they do a good interview. There's a huge demand for fluent German speakers with multinationals and there aren't that many candidates so the odds are in your favour!

Mr. Loverman

I think this is a confidence issue.

Remember we all have to start somewhere, and although you may not have many hard skills, I am sure you have plenty of soft skills which would make you an attractive employee.

Play up your retail and pub experience, for example, you provided excellent customer service which increased repeat business, you improved sales by X%, etc. In a nutshell, sell yourself!

All those senior managers you see everywhere, the difference between them and the rest of the world is they are great at selling themselves.