This blog will inform you about the differences I have learned about cover letters, resumes and interviews in America versus Germany. There are many differences so it is hard to focus on just a few.

I have been told that a resume in U.S. is usually more important when applying for a job than it is in Germany. If Germans were to apply for a job, the employer takes their first look over the cover letter. If the cover letter sounds interesting to the potential employer than the second step is to read the resume. The creation of the cover letter is almost the same in Germany as it is in America with only one difference.  In Germany the first lines of the cover letter indicates the title of the application in bold underlined letters.  For instance, the first sentence of a German cover letter might be “My application is for your job offer as a career counselor at Career Services posted on 07/20/2009”.  We make it stand out so the employer knows what the application is for.

Students in Germany study at school how to write a cover letter and resume. It depends on your school at which grade you learn how to do this, but when you graduate you are familiar with writing a cover letter and resume. Maybe this is a reason why for German students find it is easier to write these documents because they learn it in an earlier age usually around 15 years old.

But what is really impressive is the information which you place on an American versus a German resume about the personality description.  German resumes are more similar to a biography. Usually you write down your gender and marital status in a German resume. You also give information about your parents’ occupations, name and age of your brothers and sisters. You also indicate your age to the employer as well as your religion, your disability and the place of birth. The greatest difference on a resume appears to be a picture of yourself. You place your photo on the first page of your application.

Interviews are conducted very similarly between the two countries. But what you can not find in Germany are phone interviews.  After an interview in Germany, we do not write a thank you note to the employer.  Many questions which are considered illegal for employers to ask in America are expected to be asked in Germany. In fact the employer already has this information since it appears on the resume.

My 10-week internship will end this week! I am very sad about this! It was one of the greatest experiences that I ever had. This has been a memorable one and I will always carry it with me. I learned much the last two and a half months, not only for my study in Germany but I also gained valuable experience for myself. The interactions with UCSB students and co-workers were very interesting for me and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to learn about all these new programs at Career Services.  Since I established new friends here and met such wonderful people, it is more difficult to leave – but I have to. The next two weeks I have to spend time writing papers and reports for my university in Germany. During the last two weeks in the U.S., I am excited to travel along the west coast to Mexico and then to the east coast to Miami before going back to my studies in Germany which starts on September 1. Thank you for reading my last blog here at Career Services!

Tschuess – macht’s gut!! (“Good bye – take care and have fun!”)

You have no idea about your career? You are not alone. Every person has thought about this issue. Choosing a career is, in my opinion, one of the hardest decisions in your life to make. And for just that reason you should take the time needed to reflect on it and not just choose a career direction so you can say you have one. Here the comparison between United States and Germany seems similar. The “right” career for you needs to meet more than one requirement. Thinking about your interests is key because you need to be able to spend a lot of time in your career. Another important part of your career decision is your personality. What I have observed is that many of us aren’t able to fully describe our personalities or understand how it might relate to a career. The third and fourth factors to consider are your values and your skills. To figure out who you are and which careers match with your interests and your personality, come to Career Services! Students can use the Career Assessment Program. I did the Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers Briggs Type Inventory assessments – I’ll tell you more about both today.

Let us start with the Strong Interest Inventory. The point of the test is to help you think about your interests and identify a career focus. The test is a powerful tool that can assist you in making satisfying decisions about your career and education. The Strong Interest Inventory is completed on-line, takes about 45 minutes of your time, and may be filled out either at Career Services or your own home. It is divided into six themes: Social, Artistic, Enterprising, Realistic, Conventional and Investigative. Each area represents different interests, work activities, potential skills and values. After you finish the assessment, you can attend a test interpretation session with a career counselor to learn the results. Please allow two workdays for processing before coming to one of the scheduled test interpretations.

What type of results will you get? You will be assigned one to three themes depending on how you answered. Additionally you receive nine pages of results that include, amongst others, your top ten occupations of interest and occupations of dissimilar interest. For my self the results were pretty interesting, because I have already decided on a course of study and my career at home in Germany. I wondered whether the outcome would show interests and occupations related to my career. But it seems that I chose the right study to prepare for a job that is ideally suited to my career interests.

My three letter code was SAE. My highest theme was “Social”. This means that I am concerned with the welfare of others, enjoy communication, and get along well with others. “Social” people often work in social service, government or educational environments. Another high theme of my Strong Interest Inventory was A meaning “Artistic”. It describes people that like it to deal with problems through self-expression in an artistic medium. “Artistic” people often prefer unstructured situations, are sensitive and have a great need for individual expression. The third theme was an E, which stands for “Enterprising”.  Folks  with high Enterprising interests have a great facility with words which can be put to effective use in selling and leading. They prefer business environments, particularly the people side of business.  Of course, these descriptions are only the main general ones. Your results will be explored in more depth and detail when reviewing the report in the test interpretation session.

The other assessment I did is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), one of the most popular assessments on the market. This one enables you to gain a quick understanding of your personality and the variables to consider as you research your career options. This also takes only 45 minutes and your results will be ready in two business days. The MBTI reports your personality type in letters. Your type description will be in four letters from 16 possible types. The personality types help you to answer how you handle following questions:

• Where you do you get energy from?
• How do you take in information?
• What factors are most important to you when make decisions?
• Do you tend to make decisions fast so you can plan or do you gather lots of information and make the decision at the last possible minute?

 The “Clarity of Reported Preferences” chart shows you how strong your preferences are in a given direction. And what I really appreciate about the MBTI is that you are able to learn more about your strengths and your weaknesses. You get written text that is directly regarding your personality. Furthermore you learn what you need in a career to be satisfied and the counselor shows you a list of some popular careers that are matched with your personality type. Finally you get an “additional career choices” which also matched with your 4-letter type description according to career industry. At the end of this chapter I would like to point out that while the results from the assessments should help you to consider what your career could be, it isn’t the decision maker. You are. So if you are interested in figuring out what your career could be or even if you just want to learn more about yourself, come to the Career Center and take advantage of the Career Assessment Program!

Before I finish my third blog I would like to tell you something about the handling of assessments in Germany like the Strong Interest Inventory and the MBTI. There are tests like these, but normally in Germany a teenager makes their career decisions in high school. It depends on which school you are enrolled if you do assessments like SII or MBTI to help you decide. 

Another way that teenagers take career assessments in Germany is for a class to come to the agency where I currently work on a field trip. The students receive a lot of information about different careers and take the assessments together at the same time in a classroom at the agency. The teenagers then get their results in written form. If they have any questions about the results, the students can make an appointment with a counselor who is specializes in young people and their decisions about careers. Additionally some counselors do outreach to different schools and speak to the students about career issues in their classes. But what happens most often is that the teenagers come in with their parents to the agency for a one-on-one-interview. These appointments take one hour, are free and the students can take advantage of this service whenever they feel the need.

Today I want to tell you something about the great computer program GauchoLink. I have learned much about this “service”. It’s a service for all UCSB students and also for the staff members. GauchoLink is an online-program where you are able to search jobs, internships and campus interviews. The company which I work for in Germany had a similar program, which called “VerBIS”. Directly translated it means “search machine”. In VerBIS you are able to look for jobs, internships, workshops, and other educational opportunities.  You can also find in-service-education, technical schools and academic programs at colleges and universities. The most significant difference between the German VerBIS and the American GauchoLink is the target group of people. VerBIS is available for all interested people who are searching for a new career or need help for their first job. It was specially designed for people receiving unemployment who are looking for a new job after losing their old position. In comparison GauchoLink is exclusive made for students of UCSB. The reason of this difference is easy to understand: In Germany there aren’t career services directly at a university. There is one department for everyone in a residential area. Regardless of age, past work experience, or education, everybody finds help at the same agency, which is called “Bundesagentur fuer Arbeit”. What I did learn the last days ago is that there is another option for the career questions in America. Most universities have their own office for career guidance and professional education. This enables GauchoLink to cater to the needs of UCSB students.

Why I’m sold on GauchoLink? It’s because of the many different options which the program gives you. Whether you are looking for an internship or a job, you will find it there. You can search for job types such as on-campus, full-time, part-time, temporary or seasonal.   Additionally there is the option that you can search jobs in a specific company. Type in which employer you prefer and GauchoLink will do the search for you. Another good option that you can do with the service is that you can specify which area you are looking in and if you prefer national vs. international job or internship. How does the program work? It’s easy; you get a username and a password and at once you are a member of the program. You can use it wherever you want, not only at the career center. So when you prefer to work on career stuff on your own, ask about logging in with the peer advisor at the career resource room and use GauchoLink from your home.

What else can you do with GauchoLink? You can upload your cover letter and resume. If you decide yourself to send an application to one of the listed positions you have to click on the button and your documents will be sent to the company directly. Isn’t it great? As I heard about this option, I could barely believe it. There isn’t an easier way to apply than this. The program in Germany doesn’t operate like this, but for sure I will suggest this detail my company in Germany. I see three benefits for a candidate to use this way for a successful application. The first one is that you save time and energy using this function. Your cover letter and resume are stored in the program so you don’t have to print it out and write the address from the company. Second: You save money through the email-sending. And the third is that the employer sees that you are really interested in finding a job because you are a member of GauchoLink.

Another benefit that GauchoLink offers is that you can learn about upcoming campus interviews and apply for consideration. Career Services offers a convenient location for students and employers to conduct interviews. I think it’s a good opportunity for interested students to contact a potential employer and get practice with business communication. This is another difference I see between Career Services at UCSB and my career agency in Germany. In Germany there is a greater focus on matching employers with employees and that department has grown much during the last few years. There is many staff who works directly with the companies. They go out to the employer and figure out which positions are available and recommend potential employees. This increases the speed with which jobs are filled and job seekers become employed.

Finally I want to say that I am very impressed with GauchoLink and I would appreciate if there were a similar program for university students in Germany. So I, a student who hasn’t had a chance like this, can see many advantages for students looking to find their first professional job to use this program.

Hi, my name is Tabea Buerkle.  I’m a 22-old German girl. In Mannheim, which is a city near to where I grew up, I study in a dual system. Dual systems are very popular in Germany since you gain practical experience from the beginning of your education. The structuring of the program into theoretical and practical units allows you to use academic knowledge in daily practice. During my three year program, my college education is paid for and I receive income and benefits like a staff member. My salary depends on the major and the company I chose. But for all the considerable advantages of the dual system, it also has disadvantages. I do not have any semester breaks. In comparison to other types of college study, dual system students are busy the whole year. As a dual student your free time is equivalent to being a staff member. This means that there are 26 days a year available to take vacation while in practical (work) terms.It isn’t easy to describe what my major is because there are significant differences to the America system. Students in the dual systems program choose one academic subject that has five different majors within it. Once you choose your academic degree, you can not change your mind and you must complete all five subjects. In Germany, my academic subject is called “Arbeitsmarktmanagement”. There isn’t an accurate translation of the field in English but it is comparable to career guidance and counseling. This is why I chose my internship here at Career Services. But I also study skills and knowledge related to sociology, psychology, law, economy and business management.

I have been in my program for one and a half years and now I’m in my third practical term. The terms regularly change every four months switching between attending the university and going to work. The third internship term gives us the possibility to know how other companies work. We have the option to choose to work in Human Resources departments in different German companies in the private sector or at career centers sponsored by the government. The other option that we have is the opportunity to complete the practical term at an international career office. In my study, this is the only way to experience an exchange internship.

I love to get to know different countries; particularly their cultures, people and economic systems. In addition, doing an internship in a foreign country widens my future career options, enhances my resume, and improves my knowledge of the American English language. The purpose of an internship abroad is also to enhance self development and increase self confidence. Because of all these reasons, there was no question in my mind which decision I preferred. So I started with the application for the internship in a foreign country. I decided that I wanted to visit a continent where I have not been before. Because I visited Australia a year ago and also vacationed in Asia, I resolved to do my internship in the United States of America. In Germany, America is known as the land of unlimited opportunities.

It was last October when I started my applications. It wasn’t easy for me to write the application in a foreign language. In addition to the language challenges, there are also many differences in the “rules” on how to write a good cover letter and a resume. For example, in Germany the cover letter is more important than the resume and you may include personal details like gender and a picture of yourself. I sent many cover letters to different cities in the United States including New York. But I really wanted to go to California because of the sun, the beach, and the many cities to see and visit. That is why I sent applications to San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Barbara. I sent my application to career centers at government agencies as well as colleges and universities, which was new me. In Germany, there aren’t any career services on university campuses; everyone goes to the government career center.

How did I know about UCSB? Actually it is the fault of my German roommate. Last summer he traveled along the west coast of the U.S. and when he told me about his trip, he always talked a lot about his stay in Santa Barbara. He was enthusiastic about the beautiful area, the friendly people and the great university of UCSB. He said to me, “If I could choose any place in California, I would prefer to be in Santa Barbara.” That is why I applied me to Career Services at UCSB. I was impressed by the instant response from the Director of Career Services, Micael Kemp.  She answered me within one day and said that Career Services has never had an international student placement before and would be thrilled if I would come for the summer.

Six months later and here I am! I have had a great welcome at the Career Center. The staff and the peer advisors are all friendly, kind and helpful. My supervisor Jo Ann Salvador takes care of me. She drew up my schedule for the next two and a half months while I’m here. During the next 10 weeks there will be a lot of information to learn. I will be learning about the different career resources and programs  like VAULT, My Road, GauchoLink, Career Assessments, etc. I will get to know how Career Services functions and learn the differences between career counseling in Germany vs. the U.S. I am excited; I did not realize that there were so many differences between the two countries.

I’ve been working here for six days and every day is a big learning experience for me. I will write each week to let you know what new things I am learning at Career Services.