Career Coach in Germany, in English: How I Work

If you live in Germany, or plan to work there, and want a career coach who speaks English, I coach one to one by video in English or German. Since September 2022 I have coached more than 2,000 adults in Germany's career and integration programmes, in groups and one to one, so the German CV, the application folder, the interview style and the Arbeitsagentur are familiar ground. This guide covers who I work with, how a German recruiter reads your CV, how our sessions run, and when the state pays for coaching.

My own working life in Germany started in 2013 in an automotive R&D lab in Wuppertal, testing coatings for car makers. Later I managed projects in Berlin with more than 1,700 workers. I know the German side of the desk as an employee and as a manager, and since 2022 as a coach.

Who I coach in English

I work with people in four situations. You may recognise yourself in more than one.

You already work in Germany and want something better: a higher position, a different field, or a company that uses your skills. You know the job. What you lack is a plan and an application that German employers read the way you mean it.

You plan to move to Germany for work. Then the first question is your right to work. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens need no work permit. Everyone else needs a permit, often the EU Blue Card or the Opportunity Card. We sort out the route before we polish the CV.

You lost your job in Germany and now deal with the Agentur für Arbeit or the Jobcenter. The forms, the deadlines and the duties around unemployment benefit come on top of the search itself. We plan both.

You moved with a partner and your career stalled. New country, new language, and a CV that nobody there reads the way you meant it. Most of the adults I have coached since 2022 were starting over in a new country, so I know where this gets hard.

How a German recruiter reads your CV

A German CV, the Lebenslauf, follows rules that surprise people from the UK, the US or Eastern Europe. The Federal Employment Agency's guides describe the shape:

A few points matter more for people from abroad. Gaps of two or three months usually need no explanation; longer ones get one short, honest line. Your certificates should come translated into German or English, so start the translations early. German references, the Arbeitszeugnisse, travel with the application as copies. Some employers ask for an anonymised CV with no photo and nothing that points to gender or origin, so read the job ad first.

The step most people skip is the last one in the agency's own advice: write the CV for each job. One CV sent to fifty employers reads like it. My full walk-through is in the German CV format guide, and the letter that goes with it in the guide to the German cover letter.

Where English works and where German decides

Some employers in Germany hire in English, and the Opportunity Card accepts English at B2 instead of basic German. The Federal Employment Agency's international placement service still says good German at B1 or B2 helps applications from abroad, and it suggests a native speaker proofreads your CV. In coaching we decide which jobs you target in English, which in German, and what to do about the language while you search. The longer answer is in jobs in Germany for English speakers.

Interviews in Germany

German interviewers ask differently: structured, formal, and with a close read of your CV. Expect questions about the dates on it. We rehearse the questions you fear, in the language of the interview, until the answers sound like you: a gap, a career change, a dismissal, salary. The typical questions are in my guide to the job interview in Germany.

How sessions run

Everything runs by video, so you can book from anywhere in Germany.

1. Strategy call. Thirty minutes, booked in my calendar. The Google Meet link comes by email. You tell me where you are and where you want to be. I tell you whether I can help.
2. Agreement. If I can, we agree in writing on the goal, the number of sessions and the price.
3. Sessions. One to one, at a fixed time that works for both of us. I work from Vilnius, one hour ahead of Germany. Between sessions you do the work: research, applications, conversations. I check in when nothing moves.

Direction comes before the CV. A polished CV for the wrong job costs you months, so the first session settles what you aim for. Then we build the CV, the cover letter and the interview answers for that aim.

We can work in English, German, Lithuanian or Russian.

When the Jobcenter pays: the AVGS route

Germany pays for some job coaching through a voucher, the Aktivierungs- und Vermittlungsgutschein, or AVGS. Under § 45 SGB III (opens in a new tab) the agency covers the reasonable cost of measures that bring people closer to the job market, remove barriers to placement or help them into work. A caseworker at the Jobcenter or the Agentur für Arbeit issues the voucher and sets its goal. It can be limited in time and region.

Three points decide whether this route fits you:

• The caseworker decides. The law lets the agency weigh your suitability, your situation and what is available locally. Most job seekers have no legal right to the voucher. One exception: people with a claim to unemployment benefit who have been unemployed for six weeks within three months and are still not placed have a right to a voucher, but only for a placement service that is paid on success.
• The provider must be approved. You take the voucher to a provider whose measure is approved under German law, and the provider hands it to the agency before the measure starts.
• Ask about the language. The voucher rules quoted here set no language. Ask your caseworker and the provider which language a measure runs in.

Since September 2022 I have worked as a career coach for an approved provider in programmes funded this way. The one-to-one coaching on this site is separate: you book it with me directly, outside the voucher system. My explainer on AVGS coaching goes through the law in detail, and if what you need is a paid course or retraining, the voucher for that is the Bildungsgutschein, explained in English.

What people take from coaching

When groups in the programmes finish, the feedback I hear most is about individual attention, a clearer plan for the next step, and not feeling alone in it. One to one, you get that attention for your own goal. If you are an expat who feels stuck in Germany, culture shock at work is worth a read before our first call.

Ready to talk? Book a 30-minute call on my career change coaching page and tell me the job you have and the one you want.

Work with me: Career and business coaching