Subject: Info: How Not To Compete For Work In Germany.  CV/Resume Order etc. 
From: CV@
Sender: CV@

I append http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/std/resume_order.txt
See Also newer http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/cv/reverse.html
			(the 2 should be merged)

For decades I've heard Bad Advice in Germany:
  "List your resume chronologically - Comply with German expectations!"

  Ignore that Bad advice !  It's irrelevant to a computer freelance !
  It tells one the adviser is clueless, probably not in the computer industry
  & other advice is likely worthless.
  
  German employees used to list their resume chronologically, & many still do. 
    (Germany is old fashioned compared with Britain & USA, it took
    them decades to realise it's now acceptable to list in Reverse
    order.  It also took decades for their standard format of returnable
    plastic bound 'Mappe' to start dieing out. That ossified 'Mappe'
    increased cost & work of sending & returning applications, &
    limited parallel applications.  Decades after cheap photocopies
    printers were available, there were still numerous complaints of
    dog eared &/or non-returned 'Mappe').
  
  Personnel departments hiring lifer employees may want the first school 
    listed first, & most non young employees & used to that order,
    & most will not be in computer industry & so won't understand
    it's ridiculously inappropriate.
  
  Technical managers skim CVs for skills to solve problems,
  particularly for shorter term freelancers, that's latest skills
  for immediate problems! The rest is just history.

    Where or even if you went to school is irrelevant. With more work
    experience, even a university degree becomes progressively less
    interesting, (except eg in Germany where academic titles are
    popular, & of benefit eg with the tax office).
  
  Top freelancers are in a mobile international market, logic
  requires a CV format tailored to usage by that international
  industry sector, not damaged by national habits of non industry
  locals.

Other Bad advice: "Learn good German as a High priority"

  Foolish. With 80 million fluent native Germans, plenty unemployed,
  most already fluent German, no one most needs yet another fluent
  German speaker with random skills.  Better instead prioritise
  learning new computer skills, not more German.

  For many years it was no longer sensible business to come to or
  stay in Germany (after the fall of the wall, & globalisation
  hollowed the IT sector).  `Investing' time to learn good German
  was a myopic local labelling IMO, not a sensible priority business
  investment of time, to acquire a not very internationally portable
  language of a then fairly slow economy (OK, much of the world
  slowed too, since then ;-).

  Learning better German was just a lower priority social investment
  if here & if not moving on to a faster moving business environment
  elsewhere.  A true international _business investment_ is to 
  invest time in keeping latest skills updated, & where necessary
  moving to or focusing on most dynamic target economies.

More Bad Advice: "Learn German first, apply German style, integrate more!"  

  Germany's got millions of people fluent in German, they're
  unemployed; Why make your life & theirs harder by competing in
  their standard market ? Acquire different rarer skills than just
  being fluent in German !

  Don't try to maximally integrate & compete in local German sectors
  where English is not financially rewarded as a bonus skill.

    Why waste an advantage ? + Integrating to the max. just draws
    fire from others that one has "gone native", that perception
    while gaining some traction with some natives that "he's
    integrated very well"  could also reduce one's appeal to potential
    international business partners. It's a question of balance.
    When locals think "He/she could integrate more!" & outsiders
    think "He/she's gone rather native!", maybe there's a balance ?

  A few sectors are not worth competing too hard uphill for:
    Most of high tech. & international business is done in English,
    but a few market sectors also operate in German, inc. eg some
    East European & some Japanese business, so if there's an axis/
    affinity of language formality & usage, eg perhaps stemming
    from 1945, it may not always be worth trying hard for.
     
    One engineering company in Munich had a policy of wanting
    Bavarian software houses (not even German was acceptable, it
    needed to be Bavarian! ), - not worth loosing time against that !

Would a European go to Thailand to open yet another Thai restaurant ?
  Not likely!  So why lean German language & methodologies just to
  compete at a disadvantage with Germans in German ?  when the
  international language of business is mostly English, & the
  computer industry's developments are in English.

Summary:
  How much one should adopt & Not adopt local preferences including
  language is a question of balance, & where one sees one's business
  sector.  Those that want to provide 1st level support to individual
  German end users, need to be most fluent in language & compliant
  with local national customs.  Those that prefer to offer 2nd or
  3rd level development & support need to retain a more international
  balance. There'll always be some locals criticising one needs to
  integrate & comply more, & others from outside criticising you're
  going native. Keeping a balance is the trick ;-)

Consult (oevr a beer) also those at:
	http://www.berklix.org/mecc/	Contractors Forum

http://www.berklix.com   		Computer Consultancy
http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/cv/ 	My Resume - English & German
http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/contact/	Contact - German for business also OK.
http://www.berklix.com/free/    	Free Software
http://www.berklix.org    		Free Organisations & Clubs