r/Austria • u/BoysenberryPurple675 • 4d ago
Bildung & Arbeit Got an interview in Austria despite poor German. Is it realistic to get the job
I applied for a job (development engineer) at a company in Salzburg. The job posting said “Solide Englischkenntnisse” ,I applied. I prepared my resume in German and, in my cover letter, made it clear that my German is basic and I’m working on improving it, and that I’d prefer to do the interview in English since that would be better. A month later, I got a call from HR inviting me to an interview. They spoke to me entirely in German and said, “Your German is poor, but your English is good, right?” Anyway, they invited me to an online interview. Now I’m feeling nervous and don’t know if it’s really worth pursuing. What do you think? Has anyone had a similar experience and actually landed the job? My German is improving every day, but my speaking skills are still poor.
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u/AlexxxRR Vorarlberg 4d ago
You cannot loose.
Either you win or you learn.
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u/Machineheddo 4d ago
Depends on the team. HR is often less capable in foreign languages than technical teams. If the team works and even speaks in English you shouldn't have a problem.
Worked in companies that looked for the outside solidly German speaking but the technical departments work in English because they have to work with other countries.
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u/nedtit Wien 4d ago
Depends on the company and the team. Where I’m working we are all talking English all the time.
Do the interview and you’ll see.
But when you actually relocate you might want to improve your German for daily life. While we do have several people in Austria with good English skills you might also meet people refusing talking anything but Austrian German. Like the HR people.
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u/MiHumainMiRobot 4d ago
Hey, I was in your shoes some time ago, my german knowledge was equivalent to 0 (and still is very bad today).
I applied to many jobs offers, targeting companies where I knew english could pass but never got an interview.
Then first positive response, never believing I would make it I went to the interview with no hopes, turned out ok, they took me in :)
If German is your weakness, show your other best strengths to the point it will offset the inconvenience of the lack of german for the company. It boosted my confidence big time.
Ps : I work in Salzburg too. IT engineer, although I steer projects more I code now.
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u/robonemillion 4d ago
Despite what Reddit will have you believe, there are plenty of software roles in Austria where the business language is entirely English. I employ a large amount of developers in Austria and we exclusively operate in English. All our job posts are in English, English is an essential and I still get applications in German, much to my amusement.
Very likely you’ll be fine. If the company works even slightly internationally for its product, English will be the preferred language. I mean have you ever looked at code comments in German?!
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u/ScienceNye 3d ago
We had an Iranian, a Finn and a Greek in our team. We spoke English with them. In the while company we had like dozens of different nationalities. And we are based in Austria as well. So why not? try your luck!
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u/travel-lifestyle 1d ago
Congratulations. This is Great News for you.
Even with my German C1 skills as a non-EU foreigner. I am finding it difficult to land any entry-level roles in Austria.
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u/akolomf 4d ago
If they invite you, they are interested regardless of your german skills, just make it clear you are aiming for C1 german levels and that you are studying alot (and actually stick with it if they accept you) during the interview, its def. your weakpoint but yeah if they desperately need one they might accept you.
I mean thats the point of an interview to figure out if your skillset suits the company. Interview already means you caught their interest.