English Speaking Jobs in Hamburg

Hi Chara,

I've been living in Germany for nearly 10 years and I would say that lack of German is not really a problem in major cities, especially so in Hamburg.

Mind you, it depends on the work. "Traditional" industries are less likely to welcome non-German speakers with open arms.

What kind of work would you be interested in? Maybe I can help. I specialize in languages/software myself.

Interestingly: I'm also thinking of moving to Greece soon with my wife. Perhaps you can help me out there!!!

Hi Chara,

Let me say first off that with your skills and obvious command of English I highly doubt you'd have any problems getting work in Hamburg. You could always add the German later on - and it's much, much easier learning the language once you're here, anyway. In fact, it's what I did, nearly 10 years ago. I was in a similar position: came from the UK with software development/applications experience, language skills but practically no German. Didn't take me long to catch up.

As to jobs, I can ask some of my contacts if they have anything suitable. What would be a typical "job title" for your kind of work? Other than that, monster.com is obviously a good (but very large) site, while StepStone (stepstone.de) often has good IT jobs advertised. You'd maybe have to access it using Google Translate though, since it's only in German (but it often has better jobs than Monster). Similar is http://www.jobscout24.de/, also German only although it might work with Google Translate. Lastly, I also had good experiences with Euro London (http://www.eurolondon.com). You can pick Hamburg specifically if you want to. Euro London are also the kind of agency that will take your CV and actually reply with jobs (in fact, they are still sending me job offers 3 years later *G). I'll see if I can think of any more.

As to our plans to move to Greece, we're in the very early stages at the moment. We're looking at Athens, Thessaloniki or maybe even Crete. I would be working self-employed (freelancer) and my wife would be looking for a job – in pharmaceuticals if possible or similar lab/research work. We both intend to have decent ("conversational") Greek by the time we move.

Any information about job sites related to Greece (or Athens specifically) would be great for my wife, and any information about self-employment would be very useful. I have already learned a lot about the situation in Greece (OAEE, tax, etc.), but am keen to avoid any serious problems by not knowing things in advance.

Our move is planned for about 2011, so in about a year and a half.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Last edited by Phlebas (2009-08-18 13:20:14)

Hi Chara,

I'm in the exact same position as you, I have just started to learn German and myself and my girlfriend are moving to either Hamburg or Hannover next year (my girlfriend is orginally from Hannover)

Good luck with your search, I wish you all the best, keep in touch if you have any hints, I have just started my search.

Dave.