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Study Abroad - Blog

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Filtering by Category: Success Story

Mayada Khaled Fahmy Ghoneim - Bachelor Student From Egypt

Yana Immis

How did Mayada feel moving to Germany? She was only 18 years old and she had to take care of everything herself. “Do mistakes! And learn from them”, - she says. Agree? Learn her story here!
   
Place of Birth Cairo, Egypt
Nationality Egyptian
Where did you live? Cairo (Egypt)
Education Level Prior to Relocation Secondary School
Reason of moving to Germany Bachelor Program
When did you move? 2015
How old were you? 18
Are you still in Germany? Yes
What is your future goal? Master Degree or full-time job
Would you like to stay in Germany? Not sure, time will show

Chapter 1: The Good Old Mayada In The Past

Here is how it all started: one lovely sunny day (typical in Egypt), my parents by luck found information about a German university fair in an Egyptian newspaper.

I was in my IGCSE exams and I decided to visit this event.

I started considering education abroad, especially in Europe because private education in Egypt is not much less expensive, sometimes even more expensive if we talk about education in British Pounds terms.

I was accepted in Croatia and Hungary already and I considered Latvia. I love the United Kingdom, I adore travelling there, but I followed my sister to Germany to be next to her.

I was born in Cairo, I had no responsibilities all my life and I loved it. The change came with the location change when I moved to Germany.

Why did I do that? Still trying to figure out and it has been 4 years now?!

My life in Egypt consisted of me waking up and going to the sports club and hanging out with friends. I played handball sometimes, I started tennis & swimming. What did I do in Egypt? I would go out with my friends because I knew I can get home at any time and my family and my sister were always there for me. You go out with friends most of the time without caring how you get home because HELLO your transportation is always taken care of. In Egypt, I did not use public transportation.

Here is what changed:

  1. Before I moved abroad I was more emotional in my decision making

  2. Parents were taking care of everything in Egypt for us, that changed upside down

  3. I started having routines and my best friends were no longer around

  4. Oh miss the good old times having no responsibilities

  5. I miss and I need people around me of the same background and history

Chapter 2: The Changes & My Future

Mayada Khaled Fahmy Ghoneim Bachelor Student From Egypt 3.jpg

Moving to Germany I was just a child. Living alone here I became an adult – it was a big change.

Sometimes you need to leave your comfort zone to figure out

  • who you are

  • who your friends are

  • how important your siblings and your parents are

You start appreciating it when you leave your comfort zone.

So this is how my story developed:

1. Now I approach my decisions strategically

If I would be still in Egypt I would have been a different person and I probably would have grown up much later.

2. Here we are on our own. Living alone is hard

Housekeeping? Washing dishes? Never heard about that before. To go to KVR (Kreisverwaltungsreferat) and to deal with bureaucracy on my own? To go WHERE? To do WHAT? Where AM I? Take me HOME! That’s when I realized what is a bureauCRAZY.

To wake up on time, to clean, to clean up after myself (to DO WHAT?), I learnt cooking (can you BELIEVE THIS?) - at home in Egypt, my mother or servants do that.

3. I can understand German now

I know I am slow, but it is a good start.

4. I still have to get used to the fact that nobody will take care of you or tell you if this is right or wrong

No parents - no supervision. When you are living abroad no people come to your life unless you want them to.

If we talk about Arab culture, we are totally different from Europeans by the way in case you didn’t know. The way your parents raised you up is 100% different from the European mentality.

You will experience culture shock and you will want to go back home to the safety blanket. The best thing your parents can do is to tell you: “No”.

In my country, people know you. I couldn’t do things like staying out late (until midnight) as my father would never accept that. Because it is not safe and the Arab mentality says females cannot stay late out of the home.

Here I am fully aware of my own schedule and when I need to be back home for my next day responsibilities.

5. I found out what it feels like to work every day. A bit about my internship:

 · I searched for an internship in Germany but I was not successful

I think I didn’t find an internship in Germany because of the German language. I am working on it. The plan is to attend the grammar course.

· In the beginning, my responsibilities were marketing & communication and I worked with the Corporate Social Responsibility of Nokia

We started to do activities for the employees of the company. My first task was to organize a Women Day – to make it special for them.

· Yes I did mistakes, but that is what life is about! Do mistakes just don’t repeat them

It was hard in the beginning to do my first internship, and you know why? Because some people were fired in front of me! Managers fired in front of me, that was harsh.

· My manager was Egyptian, who graduated from a German school.

She talked to me in German and she approached me like the Germans: very strict. I knew somewhere deep inside she was a nice person.

I was very shocked about the recommendation letter after my internship was over though. She rated me very high.

· My hobby is taking photos. I proposed to use it in the internship and suddenly I became in charge of video recording as well as the correspondence with the journalists from 15 countries in Africa & Middle East.

I worked with Moroccans, Tunisians, Egyptian journalists to keep them up-to-date with company events. Every country has data reports and magazines and I had to notify them on the launches and inquire if they are still in the industry. Frankly, it was so difficult in the beginning, as I couldn’t understand some accents.

Dear foreigners, this is important for you to understand: we do not have one Arabic accent! Now that I know Hajar (my friend from Morocco), thanks to her I can understand Moroccan Arabic.

People from Egypt understand Syrian, Jordanian, and Lebanese accents very well. Oman isn’t that bad if they talk slowly. Hey, I can understand Tunisian now, which is a real advantage as well! Very proud of myself.

Bottom line: speak out, show your talents, work hard – this is what internship is for!

· When I went back home to Egypt for my internship in Nokia, I was waking up at 6.00 to go to work, then went to sports club to meet my friends. But the difference was that they did nothing all day and I worked all day. So the conversations sometimes were not balanced.

When I come back home to Cairo, the majority of my friends talk about boys. But hey, there are other things to do: studying, working, hobbies, cleaning up dishes after yourself (*giggle*).

But I get it: they are living with their parents. You don’t need to worry about food, because people do groceries for you, they cook for you.

You have no idea about the laundry!!! This is what I am doing in Munich: Sunday laundry in Munich. And you have to pay for it yourself!!! In Egypt, your parents pay for you.

6. I started eating healthy. I became much healthier overall

I also learnt to walk a lot in Germany. Why should I take UBER?

I can walk?!

Yes, it will take more time but it is so much healthier.

I lost a lot of weight during my internship semester, because of healthy eating and joining a  CrossFit group called HiT in Egypt.

I highly recommend it.

Now I love travelling jogging and hiking and live a very active lifestyle.

I want to improve every day and to be come a better person inside and outside!

7. I learnt not to talk about politics

First of all, because I do not really want to talk about Egyptian politics. My country is not what you see in the media! But to prove that, you need to have a very strong political opinion, so I am avoiding this topic.

8. I became punctual

Ok, I try. Ok, not really. Sometimes my friends feel really mad at me because I schedule appointments: “Let’s meet from 17:00 to 19:00 because I have something else to do after”. I realized I’m scheduling appointments like to meet the doctor. Can we do it on Saturday 16:00?

Egyptians are really bad with time. Not all of them, but most of them. Not only because of the traffic. They are just like that. In Egypt you can hang out anywhere any time, everything is open 24/7. Either you take a ride with your friends or you go to a club.

But here in Germany you have to check the transportation, you have to check if the Ubahn (Underground) goes at 2.00 am, you have responsibilities the next day, even if you have no university. For example, on Saturday you have to go to the supermarket, because on Sunday it is closed. Well, I can go to the gas station, but it is expensive.

9. I appreciate having peace and quiet

Sometimes I need it. I love travelling home but not more than for 2 weeks. I like my routine! In Egypt, you will be under the supervision of your parents because you are living in their place with their rules: “Dad can I go out?” - it is respect, you ask them for permission.

10. In my first year, I was depressed as I had no friends

I only talked with an old friend on the phone or over the WhatsApp calls, until I met new friends here from new places.

My friends here are from everywhere!!! Classmates from India & Germany & Dubai as an example. 

The people I appreciate having in my life

Ilham & Maha from Libya

Omar from Syria

Awos from Jordan

Hajar from Morocco

Svetlana from Serbia

So far I didn’t succeed at making many German friends, but I am working on it. I really want to improve my Deutsch and to have more German mates! Stay tuned!

11. I love Summer more than Winter and this will never change

I can’t stand cold and snow. Below 8 C degrees is a NO GO FOR ME. Every moment I can, I flee Munich for the sun and the beach. Actually, I have lied. Everything below 20 C degrees I already find rather cold.

I brought a lot of things to Germany from Egypt. But I brought much more back.

Chapter 3: My sister, Manar

Living alone is really hard. If I didn’t have my sister, it would have been much harder.

Manar and I got accepted to Germany simultaneously. Germany would be definitely better than Croatia and Hungary in terms of language difficulty. We thought more people would understand English here as well and we were right. Germany is like an IT Hub in the middle of Europe everyone speaks English so you should not worry. Croatian and Hungarian languages are very hard.

Manar, moved here when she was 24 - 25 I moved here when I was 18. Whatever she learnt at her age I learnt it earlier in terms of travelling alone and responsibilities on your shoulders. Yes I’m living with my sister here in Germany, but she would not let me slack and she gave me responsibilities.

In Egypt, we have separate rooms and lives.

Thanks to Germany we bonded and supported each other because we had to share the flat.

We have 6 years difference in age with my sister. It is not a small amount. Not only age but also in the way we think.

When we started living together, it helped us to narrow that gap and it was better for me and for her. We understand each other better now. We have our own ideas, our mind and our decisions we share with each other but we are also living our own lives.

In Germany I have to take care of everything myself 100%. My sister is not going to do it for me. I tried to persuade her but she wouldn’t give in.

 I learn a lot from Manar and I am very thankful.

Mayada Khaled Fahmy Ghoneim Bachelor Student From Egypt 6.png

Chapter 4: Decisions, decisions

If I find the job I will stay in Germany now. My sister is satisfied with her studies in Germany and probably ready to go back to Egypt.

I am not done yet. I want to work, I want to do a Master degree, but I haven’t taken any step or a decision yet.

I would like to study Human Resources. Based on what I am hearing, HR professor in the school I want to study at is very strict, so I am not sure.

I took Marketing & Sales in my Bachelor and through some Human Resources lessons I realized that in reality, HR control the company. Forget about Finance. They are the only ones in charge to hire you or fire you.

My mother is an HR manager in a Petroleum industry. So now I finally know what she does. Hell of the responsibilities!

Ideally, in the future, I plan to work with my parents and take care of them. At the end, I have to come back home.

Because my private life is in Egypt. I don’t want my children to be confused about religion, beliefs, and culture. If my sister decides to go back, then it is fine. But if not, then I have to be back home.

P.S. Something you will not read in books but you have to know (for both Egyptians and foreigners)

- I would advise Egyptians to come to Germany for sure!

- We are the only country that has belly dancers from the Arab world

- We are not African, we are not Muslim, we are not Arabs, we are all of that and also different

- We have pyramids

- We have Muslims, but we also have Christians and we are sharing the culture with each other

- Do not believe stereotypes you hear on TV about the foreigners’ employment in Germany!

I have friends who found internships or jobs, who are from very different backgrounds, countries, nationalities, religions.

It is not about that. Bottom line. If your CV is good – they will take you. Business is business – it is not about the way you look from the outside! It is about how much value you can bring to the company.

Any company would like to hire someone who will bring advantage to them. Yes, it is harder than for EU citizens in terms of the visa but it is not impossible.

It is possible for everybody. Fix your CV and fix your LinkedIn – go ahead, practice and go through these interviews.

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categories Success Story
tags 2019

Georgy Volkov - MBA Student From Russia

Yana Immis

Georgy from Moscow wanted to study and work in Sports Management. Life prepared for him hospitality & event management instead and the current job of a store manager, how high were the odds? Read his story here to know more!
   
Place of Birth Moscow, Russia
Nationality Russian
Where did you live? Moscow (Russia)
Education Level Prior to Relocation Bachelor Degree
Reason of moving to Germany MBA Program
When did you move? 2014
How old were you? 26
Are you still in Germany? Yes
What is your current occupation? Working full-time
What is your future goal? Executive job or gathering knowledge for the own company
Would you like to stay in Germany? Yes

Chapter 1: Russia

I have been living in Moscow all my life. My mother is Russian and my father is from Georgia.

I started skiing from 5 years old. I was reluctant first but then I started liking it. I was in a Moscow national team for professional skiing and I visited half of Europe 2 times a year due to championships: Austria Italy France Switzerland. I guess, my love for Europe developed back then.

Languages were always easy for me to learn: I studied in an English specialized school in Moscow so I learned languages from an early age. In the 8th grade I chose German as my 3rd language. I don’t even know why. Now I definitely do not regret it. I always studied languages at ease. I did my home assignments with the left leg and still was successful. I am choosing the next language now: Chinese or Arabic? I am not sure. Any advice?

In a Russian school until 8th grade, we studied British English. From 8th grade we got a new teacher with American English. Why though? I had a conflict with the English teacher and that was the reason I switched school. I am a rebel! I refused to study American English.

I travelled 3 Summers in a row to the UK to learn English. I liked it a lot, but London is way too expensive and really for no reason. I started studying at a university in Moscow and finished a 5-year degree. That’s where I got my best friends’ group. And that’s when I developed my passion towards sports management. I got into football.

I graduated in 2010 and then helped my mother with our family business (managing restaurant). I am thankful for this experience because I realized: never again family business. My mother and I had absolutely different ways of managing business.

Afterward I worked with a daughter company of Lukoil for 3 years. I loved it and I got to know the racing teams. I love cars and races since then, let’s call it my weakness. I like Rally, Formula 1, I visited Sochi Formula 1, WTCC in Europe thanks to my connections from Lukoil, travelled to Austria and Belgium to watch. I do not race myself, but I am good at carting 😊

Afterwards I wanted to do a step ahead and to study abroad (2014) but I would never dare. The reason I started to think about it was when the universe gave me a sign (literally) -  half of the company was fired including me to cut costs.

So I decided, I wanted to study Sports Management in the USA, but my parents said it was too far. The UK I disregarded right away, due to costs and we came up with Germany. I spoke German, relatives lived around Tegernsee, I did winter sports and it was not far away from Moscow.

I was choosing between Munich and Berlin and the program was predefined: MBA in Sport Management. Hockey, Football, Tennis, Skiing, Racing sport – I wanted to study that. But the universe (again) had different plans for me.

I chose Munich over Berlin because I visited both cities and there was no room left for hesitation. Berlin is very international and has less of a traditional German charm, which Bavaria has.

Chapter 2: Germany VS Russia

Georgy Volkov - MBA Student From Russia 3.jpeg

When I arrived, it was really hard. Bureaucracy drove me nuts: extending the visa or searching for a new flat. I was lucky with the flat though at first. I also couldn’t get used to the fact, that life stops at 8 PM. Everything is always closed, especially on Sundays. No people around; and it seems that Munich had Zombie Apocalypse or something.

In Germany, when things are promised, they are fulfilled. The people are neat, they are not in a hurry. Moscow is very chaotic and disorganized sometimes with walk-throughs. I got used to the order in things and life, to plan in advance and to schedule appointments.

In Moscow you can go to 24/7 shops and buy everything and you never plan.

With planning, you get so much free time because you prioritize your activities well. Cinema, museums (so many in Munich, love it), football, tennis, going to the lakes – so much more free time appears due to a well-planned day.

I missed friends and family but then I got to know new friends as well and it was easier afterwards. My friends from Moscow and my parents visit me 1-2 times a year.

I found a group of people, who travel to Austria and Italy. You pay participation fee 50 Euro per event, which includes transport back and forth as well as the ski pass and we travel to ski with them. This is incredibly cheap and this is a great group of people! You can find new friends everywhere.

Difficulty was finding a new flat – you take 3-4 months to find it. You write to 100 people, only 5 will reply. So take care of this in advance.

But okay, new country – new rules. I must follow them. I had to accept this fact.

Mostly I was using the English language everywhere, but my German drastically improved with no particular effort. If you come to study here and you want to stay, you definitely need to learn German if you want your salary to be higher.

I once went to Hugo Boss with my mother to buy a jacket and I spoke to the personnel in English. Then I switched to German and the service improved by far! They even gave me a present at the end. You see the difference how people treat you when you learn the language. They like it.

There is Hoch Deutsch – official German language – the one they speak in Hamburg, as an example. For me, Bavarian would sound cute and soft.

I graduated from my MBA and received 18 months job seeking a visa. How to find a job in Germany? The first step: proper CV with professional photo – employers right away see if you are serious about applications. Condensed efficient information, recommended 1 page with key points. Do not write much or a soap opera in your CV, you need to be as precise as possible on 1 page.

I recommend for the whole week long to apply to 20-30 jobs if you aim for quantity initially. If you are denied in the job applications – you either get no reply or a general reply. You will never know why you have gotten denied.

I found a job right away in event management and hospitality. I worked in Bayerischer Hof and Hilton hotels. We helped room service and managed banquets with VIP guests for Breakfast Management (for luxurious hotel rooms).

Finding a job in Germany has never been a problem. Finding the right one for me was.

I applied through LinkedIn & XING – these two websites I would highly recommend to everyone searching for a job. I have been working for 18 months to find my dream job, but I haven’t found it and my visa expired.

I was working for a company and my salary wasn’t good enough to extend my visa. I got job offers from different hotels, but I denied them because I did not want to go into hospitality. Not only that I didn’t want to do that, KVR (Immigration office in Munich) would not allow me to do so.

  • The first job of a foreigner must be related to your previous studies and it is always connected to your employer. It will be written on your visa and you cannot simply quit so be careful!

  • 2nd visa for work is independent and you can work for any employer in Germany.

Georgy Volkov - MBA Student From Russia.jpeg

Chapter 3: Germany

I came back to Russia for the time being and returned quickly after, as my classmate from Munich offered me a job. Of course, I came back! After I lived in Munich for 4 years and then I came back to Moscow, I was incredibly depressed.

While I was surviving in Moscow for 8 months… Simon – my Munich classmate and a good friend from the Czech Republic started a franchise for British & American sweets in Munich and we decided to work together. I am currently a store manager. We are located at the central station in Munich and our shop is called The Candy Store.

I couldn’t work in the family business. But working with a friend is great. No conflicts, no problems – clear division of work and friendship. I like how Simon is a genuine businessman. He grabs every opportunity to develop business.

I would not think of opening my own business now. Maybe someday in the future. I love to be an executive, it is not for everyone to open a company. Let me first get my permanent residence in Germany and then we will see what the future brings.

We are launching an online shop soon for British & American candies. If everything goes well with the online shop, we are thinking of opening a second store in Munich. Once we are stable there, we will aim for the other big cities and expand. Pay us a visit! I love how much I learned about suppliers, renting prices in Munich, work with customers and I highly appreciate that opportunity.

It was very difficult to get a license to sell drinks, one of the beauties of Bavaria (sarcasm). Because of USA & UK not having the same “Pfand” (recycling) system. So we had to get the specific stickers and translations for that. It took quite a while but we finally got it running.

Who would think, from Sports Management to Hospitality to Store Management? When Life Gives you Lemons, make a lemonade!

I aim to stay in Europe, I did not consider other countries, because Germany is for me!

Will Germany be for you? Perhaps. If you follow this advice from me (below) you will be successful here!

  1. Learn German!

  2. Choose a good university! Not all universities are accredited or recognized. Many universities say they grant German degrees, but in reality, they issue British or Italian degrees or degrees with no accreditation. Always ask a consultant on territory for help!

  3. Germanize yourself! To the traditions, way of life, rules

  4. Be patient! Not like me – learn from my mistakes

  5. Be initiative! This is something Germans appreciate

  6. Don’t give up! You will have culture shock and you would want to come back home. Do not do that! You will only regret. I wanted to come back home, I was stressed and unhappy here first. But overnight everything changed and I never regretted staying in Germany after

Not everything will be perfect here, there will be ups and downs. But this is life. Accept it and move on!

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categories Success Story
tags 2019

Yury T. - Bachelor Student From Ukraine

Yana Immis

Meet Yury, a talented young man, who knows you can learn everything yourself. Coding? From the book. German language? From Netflix. You can read his study in Germany success story here.
   
Nationality Ukrainian
Where did you live? Donetsk, Kharkov (Ukraine), Bucharest (Romania)
Education Level Prior to Relocation 1st Year Bachelor
Reason of moving to Germany Bachelor Program
When did you move? 2016
How old were you? 17
Are you still in Germany? Yes
What is your current occupation? 3rd Year Bachelor Student
What is your future goal? Blue Card, Work Projects in Fin Tech
Would you like to stay in Germany? For now yes

Chapter 1: I have no idea what I am doing, let’s try to change it

There is not much to tell before my relocation to Germany. I started my studies in computer science in Ukraine, but I only studied there for around 3 months. Afterward, I decided to move to Romania to be closer to my brother.

When I started paying more attention to studies though, I quickly realized that my skills in Physics (which surprisingly enough is quite intense in CS program) are very poor. Even though the course was held in English, it was tough for me to catch up with scientific disciplines. After having spent approximately a year and a half in Bucharest, I caught myself thinking that maybe for me it would be better to move someplace else for studies.

I didn’t know at that moment what I wanted to study instead. I realized that even though I was interested in programming and computers, I didn’t want to study computer science at university just because it changes too quickly. I didn’t make as many friends in Bucharest, because I didn’t speak the language and also because of that, at the time I couldn’t find any work, so I decided to explore other opportunities.

I came across an Educational Fair in Bucharest – an exhibition of private universities from abroad talked to a few representatives and signed myself up for newsletters. I didn’t really think there would be any result out of that. 

Germany has never been on my radar, but, one day, I saw a full scholarship competition at a private university there. The scholarship paid for the entire course (approximately €39000 in tuition fees). The task was to write a marketing strategy for the company that sold smart thermostats across Europe. 

It hit me that I wouldn’t be able to get the money to pay for the tuition fees myself and I needed to find a scholarship, that would pay for the entire thing. So I decided to try and to win it.

It was pretty fun to write it because my strategy was to invest much more effort and time than anybody else could possibly invest in writing a case. So I locked myself in a room for 2 weeks writing the case full-time. I only took occasional breaks for getting muffins from the nearest gas station.

It was fun when people actually started checking on me whether I was ok because I completely went ‘full monk’ and didn’t go online. 

After waiting 2 weeks for the results, it turned out that I won and it took me a while afterward to realize it actually happened. 

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Chapter 2: I still have no idea what I’m doing, but something started to change

My first three semesters in Germany were a stressful mess with all kinds of possible immigration issues and hardcore studying. I’m probably the only person who read all the textbooks mentioned in the course syllabus. At the end of the 3rd semester, I saw that focusing on studies only is not doing it. I had to do something real, I wanted to practice. I wanted to understand how real companies work.

Luckily enough, 4th semester was a mandatory internship, where you have to go out and find an internship position pretty much anywhere you like.

How did I find my internship? I applied. I applied a lot. I sent around 1500 applications in 2-3 months time range and I tried all kinds of approaches and it was quite hard emotionally to stay positive about doing something for so long without any apparent results.

After going to a bunch of interviews, I ended up with 2 most appealing offers. 2 companies that offered me a position were: Allianz Technology Headquarters (Project Management Internship) and Finiata - Fin. Tech Start-Up in Berlin.

I was faced with a choice. 

Should I go to a big corporation or choose a startup company?

Most people who I asked for advice told me that I should go with Allianz. However, I wanted to learn some hands-on skills, so that I could use them in my own companies later on.

And for some reason, I was strongly biased against working in big companies because I assumed that my backlog would mostly consist of bringing coffee to a specified table and scanning some random papers all the time.

As a result, I was on my way to Berlin. 

My first day was a real deal. First of all, my paranoia hit me and I thought that when I was ironing a shirt in the Airbnb in the morning I forgot to turn off the iron.

So halfway to the office, I’m returning back and come to find the iron turned off. Cool, next step is sprint running back to the subway station. When I arrived at the subway station I realized that now I’m all sweaty and I really need to go back and change. 3 hours after the specified time…

…I show up at the office thinking that I’m about to get fired on my first day. 

This was the day when I realized that I liked startups because even though I thought I had made a mistake that would cost me a career, my colleagues were really nice and said that it was all cool. And even more, messed up was the fact that I was literally the only person dressed up formally and I was getting friendly mocked for the rest of the day. 

After this, I started paying attention to work and turns out that the relaxed atmosphere in startups doesn’t mean you don’t need to work. You’ll have to work and you’ll have to work a lot.

Deadlines are mostly tight and almost all startups by definition fight for survival. I quickly realized that my theoretical knowledge wasn’t nearly enough and I needed to learn practical skills fast. For this, I asked my boss to give me a reading list of all he wanted me to learn and I tried to put in as many hours as I could. 

In order to sum up my experience, I think it’s important to cover different sides of it:

Berlin - I really loved the place

The city is very versatile. The nightlife is really impressive, especially for someone who has never lived in a big city before.

Prices may either make you happy or sad, but for me, prices in Berlin were really low compared to Munich. If you are looking for culture, Berlin has a lot to offer and I’m not even talking about galleries and museums so much.

It’s just interesting to talk to people. Most have opinions on almost everything and it doesn’t matter so much what you are interested in, you can find someone to discuss it with. I am a big fan of this city, however, if you are looking for a quiet place, I think you would be disappointed. City is full of life and almost never sleeps. 

Work - once again I loved working there

The only problem was that it was my first actual work and I took it too far and burned out. Turns out the sleep is important and if you don’t rest enough your work is pretty much worthless.

But everything else was really great. You want to chill for a minute and send a meme to a Slack channel, it’s cool. You want to go and distract yourself from work - go to the resting area. You want to go and have a fancy lunch - pick a cuisine.

Where I worked there was a really cool atmosphere of meritocracy. So get your stuff done and do whatever you want. 

In a retrospective, computer skills were really useful. Almost any business these days relies on digital to a certain extent. This means that if you know major web technologies, you won’t be lost. If you know them well - you will be useful. I was mostly working with marketing platforms and website management and had to learn a lot of things from scratch. If you learn quickly and adjust, you’ll most likely do well in startups. 

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Ok, now I understand what I like to do and where I want to move further, but my internship is over. After I finished my internship, I didn’t want to stop working. I started to look for a job right away and my former boss gave me a good reference and recommended a travel startup in Munich - Fineway. I started as a working student in Marketing, but later on, I transferred to data science. Short side note, I started learning Python in Berlin and this was a very good call because it opened up to me the opportunity to switch to data science and ditch Excel for good.

Meanwhile, I was helping out my brother and his wife with their projects and my experience from work really changed a lot in our family business. 

Chapter 3: I know what I’m doing and why and kind of understand how to get there

Currently, I am finishing up my business administration degree and plan to stay in Germany and work here for a couple more years.

After you’re done with your studies and have your diploma you can apply either for a work-seeking visa or directly for working visa, if you already have the contract signed.

You have to meet the minimum salary requirement, which is lower for tech and scientific workers, than for business people, but it’s pretty doable considering the German level of wages. 

In the end, I came back to technical specialty, but studying business and working in marketing was a huge game-changing experience. Unless you have a business point of view, it’s very hard to understand what technologies you need to learn and why. Also, nobody said you can’t mix the two. For example, my bachelor thesis topic is: “Application of Artificial Intelligence in Entrepreneurial innovation”. 

Piece of advice for people who would want to study in Germany:

  • Do not solely rely only on your degree

The degree is important, but it’s not everything. Unless you have good references, heavy hands-on skills, experience, and social skills, it would be very hard to find a good position based solely on your diploma. 

In short, start working as soon as possible and learn a lot. 

  • Choose a program with a mandatory internship

I believe that the internship was the most important part of my studies. It allowed me to understand how real business works, meet really cool people. My opinion is that you can learn this lesson either the hard way or just take what I say. I honestly can not picture how someone would be able to find work without internship experience. 

  • Programming skills are like language skills

Programming or other technical skills would be useful almost anywhere in the future. My approach was close to the one that Linus Torvalds had. Just code something that would be useful for you. Start with small simple stuff, like building a command in bash that would open links for news and tell you the weather, then make more complex stuff. 

The diploma is a must if you want to work in Germany, but additional skills like languages and tech expertise would make it easy for you to find a job. To be honest, you don’t even need instructors for this. I recently went to language school and placement test distinguished that my level is B2.2 even though I only learned German with a book that I bought and Netflix. The same goes for programming, I mostly read O’Reilly books and looked up programming tutorials on the web. Yep, that might be hard if you are not used to it, but nobody said that it’s supposed to be simple.

  • Read a lot!

The reading really changed everything for me. It was a real shift in the way I see everything after I realized that there is a ton of books on the issues, that I really need to know about. There are good books on almost any topic: psychology, management, marketing, finance, personal life, managing emotions, and programming. You’d be surprised. I don’t read fiction books as much at the moment(max. 2-3 per year), but non-fiction literature can get you very far.

  • You can do a lot. It takes luck and skill, but the initiative is very important. Just try stuff

Your personal experience, skills, and interests are significant, no matter how inapplicable they may seem to you. Just try yourself in anything that interests you. It may take a while to figure out what is genuinely interesting for you. For example, it took me 3 musical instruments and 8 years of studying in musical school to understand that I don’t like making music. However, it doesn’t mean that it was useless. The music industry is vastly ignored and overlooked and there is a lot of interesting stuff that you can do there - take Spotify. 

You can be into movies, sports, computer games, watches, parties or whatever. Business education would help you to understand how you may make money out of it. And if you don’t know what you’re interested in, business education may eventually help you find this out. 

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categories Success Story
tags 2019