I said I would update this thread once I had found a job here and I'm pleased to say that I now finally have.
It's been a very, very interesting 2 and a half months since I arrived in Berlin. Firstly, I would like to make it clear that I have at no point regretted my decision to come here - it's been so much fun and I've learnt so much already! Every day I have to pinch myself and remind myself just how lucky I am to be here.
The road to finding a job based in Berlin wasn't as easy as I was hoping, however. As I mentioned in the very first post of this thread, my dream job was to become a tour guide here. I spent my first month or so here sightseeing, visiting museums, going on tours, learning more about Berlin's history and doing lots of reading. I did this for two reasons - firstly, to train myself to be a tour guide here, and secondly, for my own interest. The tour guiding never worked out, but I did learn a lot of interesting things and now know Berlin very well, so all is not lost!
Many of the tour companies here require applicants to have a university degree, and/or many require that you have already lived in the city for a certain amount of time - often a year. With that in mind, I was restricted to applying for work in a small selection of companies. None of them even invited me to a job interview.
I did take a few people on tours around the city during the first couple of months and enjoyed it very much. This included friends and even people I met on websites like Couchsurfing. The only trouble was, I got no permanent source of income doing this and although most people would at least shout me a beer at the end of the tour, beer won't pay my rent (which is almost €500 per month).
Around mid-August I gave up completely on the tour guiding thing and started applying for jobs at cafés and restaurants. This time I had a little more success. On the first day that I sent out CVs, I got two job interview offers. The first one went really well and I was offered a trial shift, which also went really well. It went so well, in fact, that I cancelled the other job interview - a decision I came to regret. After the trial shift at this particular café the store manager told me that she was happy with me and I would hear back from them in the next few days. It took nearly a week before I heard anything. When I finally got an email from them, it basically just said "sorry, we can't hire you for such a short period of time." (I'm here until January 2015.) Strangely, the email was in English too. This caught me by surprise as I had been upfront in the job interview about this. Whether that was the real reason, I'll never know.
That was quite a disappointment and meant I had to start looking for jobs all over again. The job market in Berlin isn't that red hot and the fact that I'm not German and am only staying for a short time certainly haven't worked in my favour. It took a week of applying for jobs every day before I even got another response, this time from a well-known fast food chain.
Two weeks ago I had an interview there, which went well. The first question in both job interviews was identical: "So, du kommst aus Australien, oder?!" I was given a list of documents to get, and told to come back once I had them. I've had the privilege of experiencing my fair share of German bureaucracy over the past few months, but in my opinion the list was quite ridiculous. Among the documents required:
- Anmeldebestätigung (registration confirmation - a document received when registering your address with the Bürgeramt)
- Lohnsteueridentifikationsnummer (tax number)
- Sozialversicherungsausweis (social security number)
- Ausweißkopie (passport copy)
- Belehrungsbescheinigung ("red card" permitting you to work with food - to get it you have to go to the Gesundheitsamt, pay €20 and watch a video)
- Mitgliedsbescheinigung Krankenkasse (health insurance membership certificate)
- Bankverbindung (bank account)
- Aufenthaltserlaubnis (permit to stay in Germany)
- Arbeitsgenehmigung (work visa)
Dont even get me started with the ridiculousness of German bureaucracy. I needed all of that just to work in fast food. But that's not even the worst of it - I recently received a letter from the German government asking me to pay the equivalent of a TV & radio service tax, even though I have neither a TV, nor a radio here! (The official response of the government when I asked about this was that I still have to pay because I can access the content online - not that I ever have or will.)
So anyway, I finally had everything I needed last week and was able to sign the employment contract. I started working there about a week ago now. I have asked to work part-time, so will work an average of 3-4 shifts per week, leaving plenty of time for other commitments, and of course, more travel!!
I'm enjoying my new job a lot. The work is not exactly what I had in mind when I came to Berlin, however I will be forced to speak German all day and will be able to pay for my rent & groceries etc. I don't think I'll be able to save much money over the course of the rest of this year, but that doesn't really matter for the moment. I came here to take myself out of my comfort zone, improve my German, learn a lot and enjoy life! And I'm doing all of those things every day!
In this job I have direct contact with customers all day. As much as I enjoy speaking German, I will admit that my favourite type of customers are the English-speakers. And there are quite a few, considering that the store is located in a semi-major railway station. I always feel so clever when I am able to astound English speakers with my perfect English. Nobody expects to be served by a native English speaker, let alone an Aussie here! It is obvious to just about everyone - German customers because of my accent and foreigners because of my perfect English - that I'm not German, but so far not a single person has guessed my nationality correctly! Most Germans and Brits think I'm American, and all the Americans think I'm British. It's quite funny actually. So many customers have asked where I'm from and most seem genuinely surprised by the answer. It's the second most common question I get after "where are the toilets?".
Many of my new colleagues know me as the "Australier".
To my pleasant surprise, I haven't heard any major problems in my work with the German language yet. In fact, many customers have actually complimented my German. I'd say I'm 95-98% fluent now and in time I will only get better! Before I arrived in Berlin, I would have said ~80-90%.
So, that's my work situation here for the moment but I'll fill you in on a few other details while I'm at it.
I'm living in a WG (a German acronym which translates to shared flat) with 3 other people. I'm good friends with 2 of my flatmates, however unfortunately I can't say the same about the third one. His severe case of OCD only scratches the surface of the problems we are having with him. He was unemployed for even longer than I was and I think this caused him to go crazy. He talks to himself, constantly leaves ridiculous angry notes and hasn't spoken to me in over a month, other than to tell me off for the way I cleaned something.
Of course, I've been taking advantage of my close proximity to the rest of Europe and done plenty of travelling over the past months - and I will continue to do so for the rest of my time here. So far I've been to Hamburg, Dresden, Prague, Cologne, Luxembourg, Vienna, Bratislava and back to Munich. In the coming months I have trips to Munich (for Oktoberfest), Venice, Istanbul, Athens, Marrakech (Morocco) & Bracelona planned. No doubt more trips will come up at short notice!
So, there you have it: the (kind of) short version of my situation and what I've been up to for the past couple of months here in the amazing city of Berlin!
