This year I moved to Munich to study for my master’s degree. After finishing my first semester, I’ve decided to find a job as a working student. So, I sent several applications on LinkedIn, and today I received this response from one German startup.
https://preview.redd.it/v5i84y4370l81.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e9459e44d270075183b25a0a44a65b0085bb3226
I was applying for an AI Engineer – Working Student position. I have two years of experience working as a .NET developer on an OCR related project, several internships, participated in some hackathons and wrote my bachelor’s thesis on a computer vision topic.
This was my first experience applying for a job in Germany, and probably the most humiliating response I’ve ever got from a recruiter in my life 😔
Upd. The recruiter from the company contacted me and apologized for the incorrect and unpolite response. I hope this was a valuable lesson for everyone and that this situation will not happen to anyone else.
LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dmitry-lugovoy_friendliness-of-german-startup-activity-6904877642559160321-5NKe
41 comments
Forward it to the CEO and link to this thread.
Seriously.
There is no reason they would want their recruiters to treat people in this way.
Even if the sentiment is correct, it’s bound to damage their reputation to be associated with such sneering responses to candidates who apply to work there. It can only be counterproductive.
FWIW you sound very qualified for this position to me. So it’s not just rude, it’s also wrong.
I suspect that recruiter may be looking for a new job soon, and I hope they get this answer shoved back down their sneering throat.
sorry, op, that is absolutly rude and unneccesary.
And i know quite right what MY CEO would do if i send such an e-mail to anyone, no matter who it is.
So, i think you dodged a bullet. But you should get the CEO involved.
There is a lot of sensitive info in this post – im not sure id keep it up like this.
I think you really should follow the good advice already. I’m so sorry this happened OP.
Could you give us an update? This is definitely not okay and I’m interested what happens here.
If you cross posted this in the r/de sub I think it would get quite a lot of traction too.
I’d post it on their socials tbh. Let other potential employees know beforehand what they’re dealing with
This belongs on twitter, LinkedIn and any other social media Recogni has.
I agree, this is just a no go. The only way I can imagine this happened is that it’s a stationary email and they forgot to replace the “funny” sentence before pushing send. I am quite sure that it was not meant personal. Still, this is unforgivable.
Forward it to the CEO.
It is somewhat rude, but on the other hand, if something like this bothers you, Germany just might not be the country for you. I grew up in Germany as an outsider. More of an outsider than a foreigner, in a way, so maybe your experience won’t be as bad as mine, but trust me, Germans can get *way* ruder than this for very little reason. Like, insanely rude and hurtful.
In spite of the silly reddit narrative, Germany is no paradise, that’s for sure.
Good luck finding a job!
Edit: geez, the downvotes. Look, I’m obviously not saying that Germany is a horrible place to be, because it does have its good things going for it. But it also has some rather negative aspects to it as well, and the way Germans sometimes tend to behave towards people happens to be one of them. Come to think of it, also their inability to take criticism gracefully. 😉
For me that’s a sign that the the person on the other side of the message is either a very recent hire who is still not fully trained, or an outsourced agent doing very initial screening and who by design receives minimal training. They weren’t capable of a) meaningfully assessing your application and b) communicating.
This absolutely shouldn’t happen but it’s an unfortunate reality especially with outsourcing – the company should apologise to you once you forward this to the next immediate supervisor. They messed up.
This is absolutely unacceptable
What kind of sick person has this much time to answer a response in such a way. Instead of just sending a formal template email saying “we will not be able to proceed with your application “ or related statement.
This shows the environment of that company OP.
Dont be upset at all, you really dodged a bullet. Imagine getting a job in this company and you have to deal with pain in the ass HR all the time for one reason or another.
World is full of A holes so dont worry and Keep applying and good luck on your job hunting!
Hey boss, don’t let this paint a wrong picture.
I had applied to several (roughly 10) start-ups in Berlin straight out of university and my (anecdotal) experience has been very pleasant because companies here are dying for talent. For positions where I didn’t perfectly fit the role requirements, I atleast had a call or a standard rejection.
In your case, can’t say if his/her comment is warranted but that certainly is no way to reply. I understand that people are direct in Germany but I have never seen anything like that and nor have my friends who I graduated with.
Thing is, such people exist in all countries. Don’t worry, this is not unique. All the best and keep at it.
Company has probably outsourced it’s HR operations. Alot of startups don’t have funding for full fledged HR teams. I used to intern at a small boutique firm and they had also outsourced their initial HR screening.
Firstly, don’t take this to the heart. This is so rude and unnecessary, fuck the guy. Secondly, don’t be demotivated, keep applying. Lastly, if you have time, escalate this to CEO and let them know about the mistreatment. Good luck with your job hunt 🙂
Holy hell, sorry this happened to you… you dodged a bullet here & given your background (esp. OCR) you should rather have a look at Celonis – they are hiring for your profile and are 1000x nicer than this. Feel free to PM me for details.
they dont even respond most of the time ime
While the response is a bit cold, I don’t find it unacceptable. Maybe the OP could respond by highlighting their experience in AI/ML and get an interview. I would personally prefer that message than a generic rejection message.
Some startups don’t have a dedicated HR and one of the co-founders manages the recruiting process without any prior experience. Maybe that is the case here.
Am I becoming a German if I feel that way?
As always in life, some people are assholes, but most are perfectly fine people. Don’t allow this to pull you down.
​
Keep applying and you will get a job and this will be a silly story you can tell your kids sometime in the future…. or maybe the CEO will apply to your new company because his shitty business failed 😀 who knows.
Hey there! This response is so rude… i think you dodged a bullet there tbh. I know that a well known startup (owed by my step brother) in Central Munich is always on the lookout for new employees and would be more than happy if you would send me a DM so I can share more information! Best of luck
Besides what everybody has already written, I was snooping around on their website a little bit.
Everything sounds relatively vague and there is no address or Impressum (or at least I couldn’t find it). Not having an Impressum is actually illegal….I don’t know….this company smells like there is a lot of bullshit going on.
As others already have pointed out it’s quite unprofessional and degrading to you. I work at a medium sized startup in the field of AI/autonomous driving in Germany as well and we treat every applicant with respect … and at the same time give honest feedback if asked for.
With your experience in computer vision why not apply for a student working job in our company? You can have a look at a similar position here: https://understandai.jobs.personio.de/job/177629?language=de
Just post this on Glassdoor tagging the company. No one wants to work at a place like this.
I’m very sorry you experienced this!
Only maybe in the future make sure not to expose your private information like this on the internet.
Your qualifications sound good, don’t give up!
Please post this to LinkedIn and tag them
Put this on Twitter and tag them in it to return the favor.
It sounds like the person in the recruiting is not aware of the tech stack and couldn’t correlate your CV with what they need to fill positions, they don’t have any plans to hire entry-level candidates or someone that shouldn’t be in recruiting is replying to the applications. Either way, I think you dodged a bullet. My first startup job here started with less aggressive red flags that in my head were just “lost in translation” but once inside I realized it wasn’t, it was hard to find the motivation to apply and get another job while in probationary period…
This is totally unacceptable. It is beyond believe. Who do they think they are to talk to people like that. I would forward CEO. If they they have an online presence you might want to address it there. I am really angry reading it
Hi guys and also @OP,
I was the guy that wrote this response.
It is very clear I picked the wrong tone and there is no excuse for that. So I can only offer my sincere apology for that.
This is not at all according to the standard I or we as a company strive to adhere to. I can give you a some explanations as to how this came about, but it eventually doesn’t matter and would only distract from the plain and simple fact that this is not ok.
Besides that, my response was factually wrong as well. I only read the part of the CV which lists, like the op said above, .NET stuff and not computer vision related topics. That’s the moment I made my conclusion. However on second glance I saw relevant knowledge later down… 😕 🤦♂️.
So long story short: I am sorry, no one has the right to be treated like this. I also hope you don’t take that first impression away as being standard.
I for sure learned a lesson and shall be better in the future (I am no recruiter btw).
I assume that whoever is looking at resumes is being swamped by resumes that don’t nearly match what they need and has become exasperated. It’s a terse note but I don’t think it’s rude. The person on the other side of a desk is a human too.
Please bear in the mind that this may have been translated by google or so..These might have been genuine questions as well!
Please first talk to the person before involving CxOs.
Post this on LinkedIn and Twitter and tag the company. It does not matter whether you have the necessary skills or not, basic etiquette demands they treat you better. `Also if you know someone who is looking for a job as a recruiter, tag them on your post as well. There should be a vacancy for them.
germans…
That is particularly rude.
Definitely not acceptable, but to play devils advocate, are your previous studies recognized officially in Germany (from Kultusministerium)? I was rejected for a few positions despite being over qualified for them and forwarding copies of all of my degrees and then once that certificate came from the Kultusministerium it was like the magic note. Just a thought! Still an awful response, keep your head up- you will get it!
Haha yeah my company did this to me too and then I got the job
It’s also easier to be an asshole when your name is not on the line. I hope this person gets fired and sent to do an HR 101 course.
Their website is so ass… dont know what you actually do but they def. need a web developer.
Man, and I’m sitting here thinking getting ignored by 95%+ of the companies you applied to is shitty. I’m sorry for you 😐
The audacity of that absolutely useless HR personell that failed to match your skills with their requirements
My cat and I once performed so poorly in an interview for an internship that I didn’t even receive a rejection reply. Still better than this rude answer OP got
Sorry this happened to you. PLEASE keep applying, Germany needs smart people like you!
This is really unprofessional…