Living and Working in Germany

Starting work and life in Germany comes with new expectations and norms. This training helps international employees understand German work culture, communication styles, and everyday practices.

Starting a professional and personal life in Germany involves many new expectations and cultural norms. Workplace culture, communication styles, hierarchies, and everyday rules often differ from previous experiences. In this training, participants gain insight into key aspects of German work and everyday culture, learn how to avoid common misunderstandings, and build confidence in professional interactions. The goal is smoother onboarding, effective collaboration, and successful long-term integration into the German workplace.

Engineering, health care, IT, ... Professionals and academics from all sectors and all around the world move to Germany every year. Although they all come from different cultural, occupational, and linguistic backgrounds, all face similar challenges in adapting to living and working in Germany.

BAMIK’s course "Living and Working in Germany" enables you to develop the skills to get used to daily life and business culture in your new environment. This includes finding new ways to interact with colleagues, give and receive feedback, and understand leadership styles. These skills will help you to do all this while adapting to life outside of work without feeling overwhelmed.

Through this course, you can develop the tools and strategies to make sense of your new environment and develop strategies for a successful start. The course provides you with the background knowledge and understanding of German culture to better adapt to work in Germany and understand your colleagues and company.

Topics discussed:

• Understanding German Culture
• What is culture? A short intro to intercultural communication.
• Central values of the German society.
• Multicultural Germany: The role of immigrants in the society and Germans' way of meeting foreigners.
• Germans and their special relationship to their history
• German Business Culture
• Dos and don'ts in German work life
• Task vs. relationship orientation: A comparison of expectations
• The obsession about punctuality and other rules
• Hierarchy and direct communication
• The German public administration - how to deal with the authorities

This course is ideal for:

• Anyone new in Germany
• Those who want to understand German business culture
• Professionals who frequently work with German business partners, even if they themselves don't live in Germany

Your benefits:

• Learn the essentials of German (business) culture
• Gain more confidence when dealing with Germans colleagues or administration
• Understand the essential rules of communication in Germany