Does networking in Germany really get you a job?

Networking in Germany can make a real difference to your job search, but only if you go in with realistic expectations. So let’s start by looking at where the popular advice goes wrong, and what actually happens when you apply online.

What the “just network” advice gets wrong

While job applications submitted online are met with more rejections and ghosting than ever before, the bottom line is that companies are still hiring, applications get read by a human at some point, interviews are held, and people continue to be hired this way.

I see people getting hired all of the time. The company I work for is hiring. I feature companies hiring in my newsletter each week. My coaching clients are landing jobs.

What’s different now, if I may use an analogy, is that while the path to get there is much more difficult, it’s still a well-worn, much-trodden path. There are just many more boulders and twists and turns along the way, to the point where getting a job interview in Germany feels like a prize in itself. You may feel defeated at times, but you’ll arrive tired and grateful to reach the end of the job search journey. There’s a good reason the trend of quiet quitting shifted to job hugging. 

A couple of other points that the “just network” advice misses. Immigrants who have just arrived in Germany will often have no network to work from at all, so the “just network” tip is rendered useless. Not everyone lives in Berlin or Munich, where there are career-related events happening almost daily. They need to start from scratch and build from the ground up, which leads to my other point, that doing things like attending tech events, joining online groups or forums, and reaching out to people over LinkedIn are networking tactics which take months to pay off. Meanwhile, applications can lead to interviews within days or weeks.

This is why I recommend employing both strategies at the same time. Applying for jobs online and networking simultaneously guarantees the highest payoff.

Applying to an advertised job isn’t a cold application

Another common misconception I see is people saying that every online application is a cold application. In my humble opinion, when a company publicly posts a job, they are encouraging people to apply. Responding to that is a normal, fairly established way to get hired, not some long shot (even though it does feel that way right now).

A cold application is one the company didn’t ask for. In Germany, cold or unsolicited applications are pretty commonplace. Called an Initiativbewerbung, it’s when you write to a company that hasn’t advertised a role. It’s a separate job search strategy with different odds, and even in this market I can say, rather anecdotally, that I know people who’ve landed a gig this way.

For more on cold applications in Germany, I have a detailed career guide on the topic, as well as a podcast episode.

So when someone says that cold applications don’t work, it’s worth asking which kind they mean or taking their advice with a serious grain of salt.

What networking actually adds

All this said, networking is absolutely a required strategy when searching for work in Germany. It’s up to you to decide how hard to go for it, because if you’re an introvert like me, networking can feel unnatural and cringeworthy.

However you land a human connection to a German company, referrals are gold here. A referral is when an employee submits a job application on your behalf, personally vouching for you. Most companies put added weight on referrals and some even have an official policy to interview all referrals, a move that gives you an advantage over anyone who applied online.

Many German companies even pay out referral bonuses to employees ranging anywhere from €500 – €5,000. This not only incentivizes employees to refer good people, but it also means that those people will usually be all too happy to refer you.

Personally, I’ve been referred to jobs this way in Berlin on more than one occasion (usually leading to a job offer!), and I’ve also benefitted from generous referral bonuses.

Something else rather interesting? It sounds backwards, but the person most likely to tell you about your next job probably isn’t someone close to you.

In the 1970s, sociologist Mark Granovetter closely studied how people found work when he noticed something rather surprising. People more often heard about their new role through acquaintances than through close friends. He called this the strength of weak ties, and the logic is simple. Your close friends tend to move in the same circles as you, so they mostly know about the same opportunities you already know about. Acquaintances move in different circles, so they hear about roles that would never reach you otherwise.

In 2022, researchers tested the idea on a much bigger scale, using data from about 20 million LinkedIn users over five years. Their LinkedIn study found that the connections most useful for changing jobs were moderately weak ones, i.e. people you share a few mutual connections with but don’t know very well. Close friends helped less, and so did complete strangers.

So when you’re job hunting in Germany, don’t only ask your inner circle. The former colleague you had coffee with once, the person you met at a meetup two years ago, or a friend of a friend working in your field may be the one who hears about the right role first. Reconnecting with them doesn’t have to be awkward either. A short message asking how they’ve been and what they’re working on these days is often enough to get the conversation going.

How to run both job search strategies at the same time 

To optimize your time spent searching for jobs in Germany, there are some things that you can do to make your life easier.

Ensure you customize every job application for the company and the role to help you stand out from others. Sending out the same CV for every job is a thing of the past, and while that only proves how broken the job market really is, it’s sadly essential to make the effort. Employ AI selectively, more like an assistant versus having it do all the work for you. You still want to sound like your authentic self when you apply.

I recommend listening to my podcast episode about how I’ve been employing AI in my job search. It’s been a balancing act to say the least! And in any case, most people are using AI in their job search these days as it cuts down on the time you need to spend on job applications.

Another thing you can do to ease your networking in Germany pains? Be intentional about how you network. Attend events you feel will have the biggest payoff and will also be informative and maybe even fun. Reach out to people with messages only when you think it will count. Post and comment in forums and in groups when you think it will be productive.

In my current job search, I’ve been messaging people I know after submitting job applications, as well as finding talent acquisition contacts and messaging them as well. I’ve yet to personally see any fruitful results (most messages don’t get a reply), but I’m all for trying anything and everything to secure myself a new job. And several people in The Berlin Life community have told me that this form of networking has paid off for them.

How to ask for a referral without feeling awkward (aka giving all the ick)

As mentioned above, many people in Germany won’t mind if you ask them for a referral.

What makes it uncomfortable is a vague request like “Let me know if you hear of anything.” Such a request puts all the work on the other person, so it’s easy for them to think about referring you, even want to refer you, and then forget to take action. A specific ask is much easier to say yes to, whether that’s a referral for a role you’ve found or taking 15 minutes of their time to hear what life at their company is really like. It shows you’ve done your homework, and it tells them exactly what you need.

The other thing that helps is making it easy for them. If someone has to dig through your LinkedIn profile, find the job ad themselves and work out how to describe you to HR, it becomes a chore. Send your CV, the link to the job, and a few sentences about why you’re a good fit, written so they can forward the information “as is”. That way, recommending you takes them a minute instead of half an hour.

Here’s a message you can adapt for a specific role:

Hi Anna, I hope you’re doing well and that things are good at Zalando. I saw that your team is hiring a product manager for the checkout experience, and I’m really interested in applying. Would you be open to referring me? I’ve attached my CV and the job link, and here’s a short summary you’re welcome to forward: “Cheryl has eight years of product experience in e-commerce and payments, most recently leading checkout improvements that cut drop-off by 15%.” No pressure at all if it’s not a good time, and either way I’d love to catch up soon.

And one for when there’s no specific role yet:

Hi Marco, it’s been a while since we worked together at Delivery Hero, and I hope you’re doing well. I’m looking at my next step in data engineering, and I noticed your team at SumUp has been growing. Would you have 15 minutes in the next couple of weeks to tell me a bit about how the team works? I’d really appreciate your perspective.

Keep it short, friendly and specific, and always give the other person an easy way to say no. People are far more willing to help when they don’t feel cornered.

How internationals can build a network in Germany

The good news is that you don’t have to wait to be invited somewhere. Germany, and Berlin in particular, has more places to meet people in your field than most newcomers realise. The trick is picking a few that fit you and going back regularly, because one-off visits rarely turn into relationships.

⭐ Industry meetups and community events are the most obvious place to start, especially if you’re in tech or startups. I keep a list of startup meetups in Berlin, and you can find plenty more on Luma, Eventbrite, and Meetup. The events that work best are the ones where you can actually talk to people, so look for smaller formats over big conferences, and follow up with anyone you clicked with within a day or two.

⭐ Alumni networks are one of the most underused resources. Former employers often have alumni groups, and so do universities, including ones back home with graduates living in Germany. Bootcamps like Spiced Academy and Ironhack also have active alumni communities. Many networks live in informal Slack and Discord communities or WhatsApp and Telegram groups, so it’s worth asking whether one exists.

⭐ LinkUsUp is a platform I built for exactly this. LinkUsUp is free and connects internationals in Germany who want to grow their professional network, whether you’re new here or have been around for years.

⭐ Professional groups on LinkedIn, and even on Facebook, can be surprisingly active. Groups like Berlin Boss Babes are full of people sharing job leads, asking for recommendations and offering help. Joining is easy, but you’ll get far more out of them by commenting and answering questions than by only posting when you need something.

⭐ Coaches with their own networks can open doors faster. Some coaches run programs where they introduce you to people they know in your industry, which can save you months of building connections from scratch. I’ve put together a list of career coaches in Germany if you want help finding the right one.

Choose the options most relevant and comfortable for you and take it from there. You may even make new friends, not just new professional aquaitances.

Mistakes I see people make 

After years of coaching people through job searches in Germany, and being on the hiring side myself, I see the same few mistakes again and again. None of them are dramatic, but each one can make networking harder than it needs to be.

⭐ Only reaching out when you need a job. If the first message someone gets from you in two years is a request for a referral, it can feel transactional, even if they’re happy to help. The people who network well stay in touch when they don’t need anything, by congratulating someone on a new role, sharing an article they’d find useful or just checking in. Then when you do need help, you’re picking up a conversation rather than starting one from scratch.

⭐ Asking strangers for a job instead of for advice. Messaging someone you’ve never met and asking them to get you hired puts them in an uncomfortable spot, because they don’t know you or your work. Asking how they got into their role, what their team looks for or what it’s like to work at their company is much easier to say yes to. Many referrals start from a conversation like that, once the other person has a reason to want to help.

⭐ Staying only in international circles. It’s completely natural to gravitate towards other people who are new in Germany and speak your language, and those connections matter. But if your whole network is other internationals, you’re missing a big part of the job market, including German companies, smaller firms and teams that rarely post in English. Even a few German-speaking contacts, whether through work, a sports club or a language exchange, can open doors you didn’t know existed.

⭐ Not following up. A great conversation at a meetup goes nowhere if neither of you writes afterwards. Send a short message within a day or two that mentions something you talked about, and if someone helped you, let them know how it turned out. People remember the ones who come back to say thank you, and they’re much more likely to help again.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about networking in Germany. 

Networking won’t replace a strong CV and a well-prepared interview, but it puts you in front of the right people more often. When those doors open, you want to be ready to walk through them.

If you’d like help getting your CV and job applications ready for the German market, I offer career coaching based on my experience reviewing real applications as a hiring manager. And once the interview invitations start coming in, take a look at my guide to the most common German interview mistakes, so a great referral doesn’t go to waste.

Networking in Germany works best when it’s one part of your job search, so keep applying, keep reaching out, and keep showing up.