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Three official portals and the papers to sort first
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- Portals: start with the official ones, the Federal Employment Agency’s job board, EURES for listings across Europe, and the government’s Make it in Germany portal for skilled workers. Add LinkedIn and the big German boards afterwards.
- Recognition: in regulated professions you need an official decision that your qualification is equivalent before you can work. For other skilled jobs it strengthens the application. The recognition portal tells you which case is yours.
- From abroad: the job-seeker visa and the opportunity card (Chancenkarte) let you search in Germany. The card allows part-time work of up to 20 hours a week while you look.
Job hunting in Germany works in a fixed order: papers first, then portals, then applications in the German format. Offers quote gross salaries, so keep the salary calculator open to see what a figure means after tax and contributions. The steps below assume you have the right to work in Germany or are applying for it.
Where employers post
| Portal | Run by | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Jobsuche | Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) | The agency’s own job board, with vacancies from employers across all sectors. German interface, so search with German job titles too. |
| EURES | European Commission with the national employment services | Vacancies across the EU and EEA, including Germany, posted by employers who want to hire from other European countries. CV upload in English. |
| Make it in Germany | Federal government | The portal for skilled workers from abroad: a job listing plus English-language guides on visas and recognition. |
| LinkedIn, StepStone, Indeed, XING | Commercial | The widely used private boards. Filter or search for “English” to find roles that do not require German. |
| Sources: the portals’ own websites, retrieved 4 November 2026. | ||
Search in German as well as English, because job titles differ. A “Sachbearbeiter” is an administrator, a “Kaufmann” or “Kauffrau” has completed commercial vocational training, and “m/w/d” after a title means the ad is open to all genders, which the equal treatment law requires of every job advertisement.
Get your qualification recognized
Germany divides jobs into regulated professions, where you may not work without an official recognition decision, and all others, where recognition is voluntary but helps. The official recognition portal, run by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training and available in English, tells you which group your profession belongs to, which authority decides and which documents it needs. Start this before you apply. The procedure takes time, and employers in regulated fields will ask for the decision before they make an offer.
Searching from abroad
Citizens of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland can move to Germany and look for work without a permit. Everyone else needs a residence title that allows the search. Two routes exist: the job-seeker visa for qualified professionals, and the opportunity card (Chancenkarte), a points-based residence permit for looking for work or for going through a recognition procedure. The card allows a part-time job of up to 20 hours a week and trial employment of up to two weeks per employer while you search. Requirements, points and documents: job-seeker visa and opportunity card. Once you hold an offer: the skilled work visa.
Searching from inside Germany
If you are in Germany and your job is ending or has ended, register with the Federal Employment Agency. Register as a job seeker (arbeitsuchend) up to three months before the end date, or within three days of learning about it. Register as unemployed (arbeitslos) on your first day without a job at the latest. Both work online. Registration gives you a personal adviser and the agency’s placement service, and, if you have paid contributions for twelve of the last thirty months, unemployment benefit. Deadlines and the benefit in detail: resigning in Germany.
Apply the German way
- CV as a table, newest job first, at most two pages: the German CV.
- Cover letter on one page in business-letter layout, in the language of the ad: the German cover letter.
- Certificates and reference letters scanned and merged with CV and letter into one PDF.
- Salary in gross terms. German ads and offers quote gross annual figures. The floor is the minimum wage of €13.90 an hour, and the calculator shows the net result for your tax class.
- Read the contract before you sign, clause by clause: the employment contract.
Money while you search
A job-seeker visa needs proof that you can support yourself during the search, usually through a blocked account. Health insurance is mandatory from the day you arrive: health insurance in Germany. For your first salary you will need a German account: how to open a bank account.
Bottom line
In a regulated profession, start the recognition procedure before you apply. Coming from outside the EU, EEA or Switzerland, settle the job-seeker visa or opportunity card question first. Everyone else can go straight to the official portals with a CV in the German format.
Part of working in Germany. Next: the German CV · the cover letter · the contract.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on the field. Software, research, international companies and many start-ups hire in English, while customer-facing roles, public employers and regulated professions need German. Even for an English-speaking job, a German-language CV section and a basic level of German widen the field. The opportunity card and job-seeker pages explain which language levels the visa routes require.
Ausbildung is Germany’s vocational training, usually two to three years of combined work and school ending in a state-recognized qualification. Many ads require a completed Ausbildung in a named trade. Kaufmann or Kauffrau is the title for someone who finished commercial training, for example in office management or retail. Foreign qualifications can be assessed against these titles through the recognition portal.
Search the portals with English keywords and with the German title plus “Englisch”, filter LinkedIn and StepStone for English, and look at the career pages of international companies directly. Ads that say “fließend Deutsch” or “verhandlungssicher” need fluent German. Ads that list English first or say “German is a plus” do not.
Use the channel the ad names. Portals usually ask for separate uploads, which you label as CV, cover letter and certificates. By email, send one PDF with the cover letter first, then the CV, then the certificates, and keep the attachment small. Paper applications have become rare, and the ad will say if the employer wants one.
Sources and legal basis (as of 4 November 2026)
Sources and legal basis (as of 4 November 2026)
- Federal Employment Agency, Jobsuche (job board, in German).
- European Commission, EURES, the European job mobility portal.
- Federal Government, Make it in Germany, the portal for skilled workers from abroad.
- General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz), § 11 and § 7: job advertisements may not discriminate.
- Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Recognition in Germany, the official portal on the recognition of foreign professional qualifications.
- Residence Act (Aufenthaltsgesetz), § 20a: the opportunity card, part-time work of up to 20 hours a week and trial employment of up to two weeks.
- Social Code Book III (SGB III), § 38: registering as a job seeker three months before the end or within three days; § 141: registering as unemployed, online or in person, up to three months in advance; § 142 and § 143: twelve months of contributions within thirty; Federal Employment Agency, how to register as a job seeker (in German).
- Minimum Wage Act (Mindestlohngesetz), § 1, and the Fifth Minimum Wage Adjustment Ordinance, MiLoV5.
Further sources (retrieved on 4 November 2026). Our own product database for the minimum wage figure. Visa requirements: see our pages on the job-seeker visa and the skilled work visa.