For the last year, Mr. Scribble has been living in Berlin, and I’ve been living in NY. The strain on us has been pretty hard, and I’d like to find a job in Berlin. I’d be very, very grateful for any suggestions any of you may have in getting hired in this beautiful city.
I’m from the USA. Mr. Scribble’s Indian, with a visiting academic fellowship in Germany, so being married to him gives me diddly squat by way of a work authorization. I speak no German. I’m sure I could learn quickly, but I’d be starting from pretty close to nothing.
My background is in forest ecology. I finished an MS in Entomology in June of last year (2007.) I have a paper coming out in Environmental Entomology, a professional journal. After I graduated, I ended up working as a full-time tutor for standardized exams (I tutored for the SAT 1, ACT, and SAT 2 exams in biology and chemistry.)
Right now, I’m off for the summer. (There’s not much demand for tutors between June and late August.) My job is waiting for me back in NY. I’m supposed to start in late August. Tutoring’s a great gig, and I feel lucky to have it. I’d feel luckier, though, to be able to live with my husband.
I’d be happy to work in almost any field at this point, as long as it pays me a semi-living wage and lets me live with Mr. Scribble while he searches for work back in the US. If any of you has any good ideas on how I can get hired, I’d really, really appreciate it. Thanks!
Maybe put up your situation and qualifications on this free jobsite and see if you get any bites? ( “Stellengesuche” is "looking for a position/placement/job, btw) I’m sure you can post something in English just as well, or maybe some of the staff that your husband works with or maybe DMark can translate something for you. I’d help but I’m much too rusty.
If you’re married can’t you get a visa to live with your husband there indefinitely?Maybe try to find a job while you’re there? Much easier to beat the streets and see if there are any museums or anything that would be willing to take you on?
Happy to help with any translations…however, you don’t speak German and have no permit to work there? Hmm…might be a tad difficult.
I have a friend who lived here in the US for many years and returned home to Berlin. He is German, speaks fluent English, worked in the best restaurants in California and has been unsuccessfully looking for work in Berlin for a few years now! The job market is a bit lean at the moment.
Sorry I can’t be more optimistic, but when American and German friends of mine in Berlin are all bitching and moaning about how hard it is to find work, I have to be blunt and tell you it might not be easy.
Still, being in the right place at the right time has always worked for me. You might be able to pick up some tutoring in English, or perhaps go to one of the universities there and see what they might have to offer. Good luck - and I can’t think of a better place to hang out in Europe than Berlin! Wild and fun - but a major bummer if you are unemployed and broke.
Man, Berlin of all places? It can be a neat town, but it can also be very depressing. A lot of people out of work and looking for jobs. I have to say, there’s not going to be much for someone who doesn’t speak German, and don’t underestimate how long it will take to learn. Still, you’re good in that the grammar and much of the vocabulary is similar.
I’ve been e-mailing faculty members at Humboldt and the Freie Universitat zu Berlin, asking what positions they may have available. There may be a way to work out my staying in Berlin as a student or on an honorarium funded by someone’s research grant.
BTW the English-language expat site Toytown Germany has a subforum on Berlin - the people with local knowledge there might be able to give a few hints.
My interview went well yesterday. As it turns out, I found a pretty interesting and ambitious working group that’s looking for someone with my academic background and interests. We’ll have to write a grant and apply for funding to pay me, so there are no guarantees, but it looks like I probably have a job starting in January.
I could go back to NY in late August, work for a few months there, go to India in December for my wedding ceremony (I should probably start a thread on my big, fat, Hin-Jew wedding), and then start my job in Berlin in January.
Yay!
There’s one other researcher who asked me to get in touch with her after July 22, because she’s out of town until then. We’ll see how that goes, too.
Thanks to all you guys, once again, for your help!
If it doesn’t end up working out for you, with that january gig, Ì’d recommend thinking about other cities in Germany as well. A friend of mine has a two-three solution, in which he works two weeks straight (11 hour days) and has three weeks off. He works in Stavanger, Norway and goes to Stockholm to be with his wife and children in the time off. It’s worked out very well for them so far, but, of course, it depends on how much money you’d need to make to support yourself (or at least pull your weight) and what professions you could get such work in.
(My friend is a pneumatic mechanic with a very specialized - and as it turned out, very valuable - education. He makes filthy amounts of money, but it’s hard work and I don’t begrudge him his living conditions at all.)