The Perfect Match:
Driving your Career with a Job Buddy
Susanne Nguyen
Publish on : 07 -06-2022
When Gabriele M. went from Milan to Munich in summer of 2021, he came for love: he followed his wife who settled here for professional reasons. At this time, Corona still had a big impact on personal life, that’s why looking for a job was not quite easy for Gabriele. With support of his amiga Job Buddy Steffen K., he managed to find a job in a short time though. And even more: a friend in the new homeland.
Gabriele: “In Italy, it is normal if the application documents are very long, in Germany it is completely different.”
Whether in London, South Korea or Italy: Gabriele has been working in some exciting places around the world, however, it was a challenge for the Italian to find a job in Munich that also suits him. “In contradiction to previous jobs abroad, in Munich I was looking for a senior-level job with English as working language. The competition is very tough here”, explains Gabriele, who most recently worked as a Business Development Manager.
Then, the IT engineer discovered amiga’s offers for International Professionals in social media. After an initial consultation, amiga suggested him to take part in a Job Buddy Programme: with Steffen K. who is committed to amiga and supports Internationals as a voluntary business expert since a few years already. The Munich native works as a Corporate & Business Development Manager for a large media company and is regularly involved in recruiting processes. He enjoys passing on this practical knowledge of application documents and job interviews to Internationals at amiga.
“What I like about the Job Buddy Programme at amiga: I can do it my way,” says Steffen. He and Gabriele meet regularly via telephone calls and video chats in order to analyze cover letters and CVs together and adapt them to the “German culture”, according to Gabriele, who explains: “In Italy, it is normal if the application documents are very long, in Germany it is completely different.” Steffen confirms: “I stop reading when the cover letter is longer than one page.” In addition to the tips on application documents and his online presentation on LinkedIn, Steffen sometimes also provides a bit of mental support for the IT engineer, to stay on the ball when looking for a job. “We always laughed a lot and had fun in our conversations,” emphasize Steffen and Gabriele. The two meet regularly for dinner.
Then it happened very quickly: One evening, Gabriele called Steffen excitedly: An international software company invited him to an interview the next day. Thus, he needed a few important tips to be prepared for the questions about salary expectations. Finally, he got the job as Customer Success Manager.
All's well that ends well?
Gabriele and Steffen see each other for dinner and exchange ideas professionally. “I’m interested in whether Gabriele likes his new job and how things are developing there”, says Steffen. Gabriele likes his new employer, who emphasises diversity. In his new role, he deals with people from different countries. What he will do next: He would like to pass on his newly acquired knowledge about job hunting in Munich and also volunteer at amiga. In addition, Gabriele now wants to catch up on what was difficult last year: Discover more of the city of Munich and learn more about the German language. “My wife can help me here, she speaks better German than I do,” he says with a smile.
Gabriele and Steffen took part in an amiga Job Buddy Programme. If you are also interested in a Job Buddy, please contact Cetty Perdichizzi from amiga. She is also looking forward to your questions 😉
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