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Comment by shasts | Hacker News Reader

Can confirm this.

My wife has a master's degree in engineering from a TU9(top 9 universities in Germany).And a B2 language certificate. She has not found a job so far. Been more than a year and half since she started actively applying. At times she ticks all the requirements in the job description, and still no luck.

She is planning to go to a bakery starting next week. The guy at the bakery was so surprised to see someone with master's degree in engineering ready to work at a bakery. So the perception and reality is different.

Unless you are in IT/software development, it is hard to get a job. Traditional engineering disciplines are hard to break into.

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So she's got a degree in engineering from here in Germany, knows the language pretty well, but can't land a job here? I don't know where you are in Germany, but that sounds pretty much unbelievable. I live in Bavaria in a mid-sized town with 140.000 residents. I know companies here where almost half the staff is Indian/other nationality and it does not matter at all how good your German is (I know multiple Indians working there). I personally have a friend who is from Iran, she is going to be a chemistry professor soon here in Germany, so there ARE definitely opportunities for people who are not born here.

Well I have acquaintances employed here too. And my wife's case is not a single one.

I have a friend who migrated from India and his wife used to work for a pharma/biotech firm back in India and had some temporary work here in Germany, when peak COVID happened, when pharma companies were hiring a lot.

She already has a master's degree from India and she has been undergoing further trainings supported by Job center, and still no luck.

Amazing. Would you mind disclosing where in Germany you are and what here degree is in?

Bayern. 4 years bachelor's degree in civil engineering, hydro science and engineering Master's.

Ok, that's a field I'm not familiar with. I guess this is more of a government field of work and they are more conservative in their hiring process. I found the following jobs and the amount is pretty limited (and in Eastern Germany/Saxonia): https://www.xing.com/jobs/hydrowissenschaften?keywords=Hydro... or https://www.melioplan.de/stellenangebote

Edit: https://www.stepstone.de/jobs/wasserbau-ingenieur Here are far more jobs, so there seem to be at least some available.

Did she contact some professors at her university here in Germany? They often can provide contacts to industry or the government.

Other than that good look at finding a job for her, she should not give up!

Thank you for taking the effort, and for the wishes. Hopefully she find something soon.

TU means Institute of Technology. Says nothing about being a good university. Your wife is likely bound to your location what limits her options and like has a degree that is not very in demand, at least not where she lives.

Engineering could be everything. And if she has a degree in, let's say food technology and is willing to work somewhere deep in east Germany for a very low amount of money then she would find a job.

"TU9 German Universities of Technology e. V. is the alliance of nine leading Technical Universities in Germany"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TU9

And I have a remote job and we almost have no location restrictions.

If there is no demand, how could she see the job advertisements and apply for them?

Well,ho many technical universities are the in Germany, not taking into account polytechnical universities?

What is her degree? And would you be willing to disclose her origin?

Not all advertised jobs exists. And in a blue chip company there are only three ways to get hired.

1. You have family contacts

2. Your professor has contacts

3. You work for a start up that gets bought by such a company

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