My First German Job Interview – A Student’s Perspective

Learning German & Landing a Role in Berlin

Okay, this is crazy. I’m actually having a job interview in German! I moved to Berlin six months ago for my studies – Computer Science at Humboldt University – and I’m desperately trying to improve my German. It’s so much harder than I thought, but this opportunity feels huge. It’s not just about the job; it’s about building a life here, and being able to actually talk to people. I’m hoping this interview goes well.

The Conversation Begins

I was sitting opposite Herr Müller, a senior Java developer, in a small office at what seemed like a pretty serious e-commerce company. He’d been incredibly polite and patient with my stumbling attempts at German. We started with the usual: “Guten Tag, Herr Müller! Schön, dass Sie da sind. Könnten Sie mir kurz erzählen, was Sie bisher in Ihrer Karriere so gemacht haben?” – “Good day, Mr. Müller! Nice to have you here. Could you briefly tell me what you’ve done in your career so far?”

He explained he’d been a Java developer for two years, mainly working with Spring Boot and building microservices. It sounded really interesting, especially the bit about the microservice architecture. “Das klingt gut,” I said, feeling a little more confident. “Sie haben erwähnt, dass Sie Microservices mit REST APIs entwickelt haben. Können Sie mir ein Beispiel nennen, wie Sie das in der Praxis umgesetzt haben?” – “That sounds good. You mentioned that you’ve developed microservices with REST APIs. Can you give me an example of how you’ve done that in practice?”

He explained they’d built a system to aggregate product data from different suppliers – each supplier had its own microservice providing data via a REST API, using Spring Boot and Spring Cloud for service discovery and routing. I took notes furiously, trying to absorb everything. It felt a bit overwhelming, but I managed to keep up.

Databases – SQL vs. NoSQL

Then he jumped in to talk about databases. “Sie haben auch Erfahrung mit NoSQL Datenbanken. Welche Erfahrungen haben Sie damit gemacht und in welchen Fällen haben Sie diese gegenüber SQL Datenbanken bevorzugt?” – “You also have experience with NoSQL databases. What experience do you have with them, and in what cases have you preferred them over SQL databases?”

I told him I’d mostly worked with MongoDB. “In unseren Fällen war das vor allem dann der Fall, wenn es um flexible Datenstrukturen ging, wie beispielsweise die Speicherung von Benutzerprofilen oder Produktbewertungen.” – “In our cases, that was mainly the case when it came to flexible data structures, such as storing user profiles or product reviews.” I admitted my SQL experience was mostly with transactional data and complex joins, like with insurance claims – “z.B. bei der Abwicklung von Versicherungsabschlüssen.” – “for processing insurance claims.” I realized I was using a lot of jargon, and he kindly corrected me, saying, “Das ist eine gute Unterscheidung.” – “That’s a good distinction.”

CI/CD and ‘Sauberer Code’

Next, he asked about CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) and “sauberer Code” – “clean code.” “Haben Sie da bereits praktische Erfahrungen?” – “Do you have any practical experience with that?”

I explained we’d set up a Jenkins pipeline for automated testing and deployment, before pushing to production. And he was right – we really stressed “gut lesbaren, wartbaren und testbaren Code” – “readable, maintainable, and testable code”. We used SonarQube to analyze the code quality. It sounded really thorough.

Further Development – My Ambitions

The conversation then moved to further education. “Die Stellenbeschreibung erwähnt eine Bereitschaft zur Weiterbildung. Welche Weiterbildungsschwerpunkte interessieren Sie besonders?” – “The job description mentions a willingness for further training. Which training areas are you particularly interested in?”

I said I was open to new technologies and trends. “Besonders interessiere ich mich für Kubernetes und Serverless-Architekturen.” – “I’m particularly interested in Kubernetes and serverless architectures.” I added that experience with new database technologies or Event-Driven Architectures would be “sehr wertvoll für mich” – “very valuable for me”. I told him I was prepared to self-study, maybe through conferences or online courses.

Teamwork and Agile

Then came the question about teamwork: “Können Sie uns sagen, wie Sie die Zusammenarbeit in einem agilen Team wahrnehmen?” – “Can you tell us how you perceive working in an agile team?”

I explained I was a big fan of Scrum – “Ich arbeite gerne in kurzen Sprints, mit täglichen Stand-up Meetings und regelmäßigen Sprint Reviews.” – “I like to work in short sprints, with daily stand-up meetings and regular sprint reviews.” I emphasized the importance of communication and collaboration, “um sicherzustellen, dass wir gemeinsam die richtigen Entscheidungen treffen” – “to ensure we make the right decisions together.”

The Check24 Connection

Finally, he asked me how I saw the job advertisement for Check24 (which I’d looked at – “Wie gut passen Sie zu den Anforderungen dort?” – “How well do you fit the requirements there?”). I explained how the role’s focus on financial products and modern technologies like Java, Spring, MongoDB, and Kubernetes aligned perfectly with my interests and skills. “Ausgezeichnet.” – “Excellent.”

Questions and Closing

He asked if I had any questions. I asked about the coupling between the microservices – “Wie stark ist die Kopplung zwischen den einzelnen Microservices und wie sieht die Kommunikation zwischen ihnen aus?” – “How strong is the coupling between the individual microservices and how does the communication between them look?” and the scalability of the applications – “Und wie sieht es mit der Skalierbarkeit der Anwendungen aus?” – “And what about the scalability of the applications?” He answered thoroughly, explaining that we used cross-functional teams.

He thanked me for the conversation and said they’d get back to me in a few days. “Vielen Dank für das Gespräch, Herr Müller. Wir melden uns in den nächsten Tagen bei Ihnen.” – “Thank you for the conversation, Mr. Müller. We’ll get back to you in a few days.”

I felt a mix of relief and anxiety. I’d stumbled through some of the questions, and my German wasn’t perfect, but I’d answered honestly and shown enthusiasm. “Ich freue mich auf Ihre Rückmeldung.” – “I look forward to your feedback.”

I left the office feeling a bit drained, but also strangely excited. This was a massive step, and I knew I had a lot more to learn, both about the job and about German! Ich bin gespannt! – “I’m curious!”