For many Indian students and professionals, campus placements often serve as a direct pathway to a job. But an Indian woman living in Germany has highlighted how different the hiring process is abroad.
In a series of X posts, Shruti shared what she called "Germany Job Reality #1", describing the stark contrast between the recruitment culture in India and Germany.
"There is no campus placement culture like India. There's no 'final year = job secured pipeline'," she wrote.
Instead, she explained that graduates enter an open job market where everyone competes for roles and hearing nothing from employers is common. "Instead, you enter an open market where everyone applies, everyone competes, and silence is normal. And then comes the part nobody really warns you about," she wrote.
(Also Read: After 10 years in Germany, man explains why he moved back to India: 'Not driven by fear, pressure')
'In Germany, rejection isn't rare'
{{/usCountry}}(Also Read: After 10 years in Germany, man explains why he moved back to India: 'Not driven by fear, pressure')
'In Germany, rejection isn't rare'
{{/usCountry}}According to Shruti, one of the biggest challenges is dealing with repeated rejections. "You open your inbox hoping for something promising and you see it again: 'Leider...' [meaning] Unfortunately. That one word becomes familiar. Almost routine. It stings. Make you want to cry. Then it frustrates you."
She said repeated rejection can be emotionally draining. "Then it starts to test your confidence in ways you didn't expect," she said. However, she stressed that rejection is a normal part of Germany's hiring process and does not necessarily reflect a candidate's abilities. "In Germany, rejection isn't rare. It's part of the process. Even strong candidates go through it," she wrote.
Shruti further listed several reasons why applicants may not get selected, including intense competition, highly specific job requirements, timing, language barriers, fake job openings and budget cuts.
But she said that over time job seekers learn to stop taking rejection personally. "You apply → get rejected → refine → apply again. You build a rhythm: Apply. Wait. learn. Repeat," she wrote.
Calling the process "not glamorous, but effective", she said resilience eventually becomes second nature. "Because in this system, the ones who win aren't always the ones who never hear 'no.' They're the ones who don't stop after hearing it," Shruti concluded.