Hotel jobs

[Jesaleks]

Hey everyone,

I am moving to Germany in July. I'm strongly leaning toward Berlin, but am open-minded.

I'm struggling a bit in one specific area of my research, and was hoping some of you may have a bit of advice!

1. There is no minimum wage in Germany. What is a common wage for entry level jobs such as working in a coffee shop or hotel?

2. I'm trying to improve my language skills before I go to Germany. I'm fluent in English, have an intermediate level of French and am learning German as we speak. Do I need to pick up another language in order to be competitive in the workplace? I know a bit of Russian and was thinking that if necessary I would try to improve that. But considering that I'm working on becoming fluent in German, it would add a time commitment that I don't want to make unless necessary.

3. What do hotels look for in prospective entry level or non-management employees? Are there many hotel jobs available in Berlin, or other German cities?

4. I was planning on having enough money to support myself for two months while I find employment. Is this enough? Is it likely that one can find employment in two months or less, if proactive in their search?

Thanks, everyone

[Seb*]

The most important part would be, do you have an EU passport (or are you planning on coming on a student visa etc.)?


A lot of entry level jobs in Germany are on a 400 EUR per month part time basis unless you can provide decent qualifications. The hourly rate depends a lot on the job and employer but can often be as low as 4 EUR or less (for the less challenging jobs).

[ALKB]

Originally Posted by Jesaleks

Hey everyone,

I am moving to Germany in July. I'm strongly leaning toward Berlin, but am open-minded.

I'm struggling a bit in one specific area of my research, and was hoping some of you may have a bit of advice!

1. There is no minimum wage in Germany. What is a common wage for entry level jobs such as working in a coffee shop or hotel?

2. I'm trying to improve my language skills before I go to Germany. I'm fluent in English, have an intermediate level of French and am learning German as we speak. Do I need to pick up another language in order to be competitive in the workplace? I know a bit of Russian and was thinking that if necessary I would try to improve that. But considering that I'm working on becoming fluent in German, it would add a time commitment that I don't want to make unless necessary.

3. What do hotels look for in prospective entry level or non-management employees? Are there many hotel jobs available in Berlin, or other German cities?

4. I was planning on having enough money to support myself for two months while I find employment. Is this enough? Is it likely that one can find employment in two months or less, if proactive in their search?

Thanks, everyone

Aside form the visa issue, the hospitality industry should be a good way for you to find work.

Do you have any experience or qualification in this sector?

Most entry level positions are filled with people who have done a 2-3 year hotel apprenticeship. Getting a qualified job without this or an equivalent is possible but might be a bit difficult. Especially if your German is not yet fluent, you might have to start with something like working in house keeping (aka cleaning rooms - always a lot of vacancies but the work is hard and the pay is horrible), or being a kitchen aid.

The B&C department might also be a possibility, as it has less direct guest contact that would need a lot of German.

I have recently seen an advert for a job in a big hotel that was strictly working at night, setting up breakfast for the next day, wasn´t too badly paid, either...

[James3214]

If you have permission to work, you could always try some of the Irish pubs for jobs. They sometimes have non German speaking jobs like meal runners and washing up. Trouble is you will be exploited and have to work hard for a low wage which would be difficult to live on, especially in the big cities. You could always try and get a TEFL certificate and try and contact the language schools to see if they have any vacancies, but again you are going to start on a very low rate and will have to work hard for a decent living.
It will be hard without German and experience but can be done if you have permission to work, a bit of common sense and don't mind starting at the bottom and working hard.