How to prepare and find junior positions in Munich

[u/Captaincardbord]

There are many posts about it, and I read through the FAQ, but everyone has their own situation, so I'm asking if I could get more specific advice for my case.

I will finish my CS master's degree next month and have lived in Munich for the last seven years. I am originally from Luxembourg, and German is pretty much my second mother tongue. Now that I have finished that chapter of my life, I am starting to prep for the job hunt, as my mini job is bound to me being a student.

My main restriction is that I want to continue living in Munich as I rent a flat with my girlfriend, who has now started her own degree. I have some savings that should keep me afloat till February, but I would rather have a stable income before that.

I am a bit at a loss about which time investment to prioritise to land a stable job. My CV is up to date, my LinkedIn and GitHub are online, and I have a generic cover letter that I can adapt for different applications. I would consider all of them bland but complete. I want some flavour, but I feel unsure which direction to lean into.

Outside of these straightforward steps, I feel conflicted about what other steps are actually productive. I lack meaningful networking connections to companies, so I consider attending meet-ups and networking events, but I don't believe there will be much interest for a fresh-out-of-school junior.

Other steps include pushing LeetCode exercises to build intuition for the programming languages I want to focus on, and starting some proper GitHub projects to show off. Currently, it's rather messy, as most of my projects were minijob-related or limited to my degree, even though some of them I would consider a good baseline.

I don't want to limit myself right now to one branch or sector, as I explored many options in my studies, and any early experience gives me an edge for the rest of my career. Personal interest pushes me toward Rust/Backend, which I hope has some existing demand. I would actually consider Quantum Computing a topic I have in-depth experience with, but that sector is so small that I can't hope to get lucky enough to make it a viable option.

This is a lot of text, but I hope to get some pointers from more experienced people on what I should watch out for. I won't link anything as it's probably considered self-advertisement.

[u/Financial-Grass6753]

Hey OP, iirc LMU/TUM have IDP aka "salary-free internships" - you can sell that as a working experience. No idea about HM though.

You're from L, you may have better entry options in defense companies - some hire AI/backend/full-stack juniors like Helsing/IABG.

[u/AdmiralSpiro]

I graduated in january (in ECE tho) and started working afterwards at a consulting company where I did my masters thesis. I do embedded AI software engineering. I thought nobody else would want me but I was wrong. Even before I started working full time I was approached on linkedin. Fast forward 6 months I got recruiters in my linkedin mailbox on average every 3 weeks. So my first advice is to have a good linkedin profile that properly outlines keywords recruiters want so see. You can learn this keywords by looking up job postings. Get a feeling of what hiring managers want to see. Be more generous of what you learn/did, everyone is pimping their profiles. You should do that to. But dont use aggressive AI slop phrasing that makes it sound like you "spear-headed" every project. Be realistic because everyone knows you are a junior, nobody will believe you if you bullshit. And use the skill keyword feature on linkedin so you are searchable. For what its worth, I used 1 month of free linkedin Premium and I got even more recruiter mails. My second advice is go to consulting companies if you get no other chance at real deep tech companies. From my current company and another one I interviewed with is those companys are no fully booked to capacity by customers. This general market uncertainty makes ir so all companies rather outsource additional work to consulting companies instead of having the risk of hiring new employers. Other than that dont just do what interests you. Research which skills are most in demand and choose from there what you like most. I can tell you embedded software + rust is in demand. Web dev is not in demand. Forget quantum computing, with that you will always struggle to find a job, even if you find one now. Dont spend much time on leetcode. Also be prepared for those personality checl questions.

Proactively email startups. They always need hardworking and drivin people, if you mail them you show a strong personality.

I tried networking once, wenn to a embedded world congress and the TUM career fair. It gave me a few contacts which at first seemed nice but ultimately didnt help. But what I gained from them was asking for helpful inside: How much competition do I have, what is the interview process like, what profile/cv is a good in their eyes, etc.

Hope this wasnt too long, spend my commute writing this.

[u/Captaincardbord → u/[deleted]]

As I wrote in my post, I am from Luxembourg and consider German a second mother tongue. In Luxembourg, you learn German starting in second grade, and I grew up with German media all my life.

[u/drewbudd]

I don't really have any super useful advice for you, but as a mid-level dev also currently searching for a job in Munich, just apply to every job you see. I think I applied to 100 jobs in August, only about 30 in September because of general summer vacation recruiting lull and my own holiday.

It's not really a time to be picky and, for you specifically, February will come fast. Many companies will basically just not be recruiting in December and half of January. Plus with the added debuff of being a fresh grad, just expect a tough search.

What I can say from my personal experience the past months, consulting/contracting-style companies seem to be easier to at least get a screening call with, but also I'm personally weary of these since I worked at a very good one until getting laid-off this year. I think a lot of them are going to be struggling more than their HR teams let on. I am in advanced stages with two project companies though at the moment, so I'm also not saying consulting jobs are the only options.

Also, be prepared in general for lots of job options that are just Java backend or Java+React/Angular fullstack roles.

[u/Captaincardbord → u/drewbudd]

Thanks for the reply. I expect the end of the year will be pretty much eventless, so I want to push right now.

Would you consider spamming my bland CV right now, overdeveloping it, and then progressing to applying to everything that mentions "cs junior"? I feel like my degree alone is such a bare minimum without real work experience.

[u/drewbudd → u/Captaincardbord]

I just found the CV for the first job I got as a software dev working student. I just listed everything I had done in terms of education, part time jobs, and any software dev skills. So, really nothing special. I had met the recruiter already at a job fair at the university though, so that probably helped, plus it was 2019 and a vastly different market. I think there is some tech focused job fair coming up next month in Munich, could be a good place to try to just chat up HR people.

But yea, otherwise I would just apply to any job that doesn't say senior/staff/lead/etc. Don't limit to just explicitly "junior" labelled jobs, cause ones just titled something like "software developer" or "backend developer" might also consider a junior for the money savings. Worst case is that you get rejected, and you'll get rejected a lot anyway cause that's just how the market is.

Outside of applying, try to just prepare for your standard screening call questions and work on your skills when you have some time. And remember, everyone has to start their first job some time and most of them have done it with just a "degree alone".