My journey as an ex-pat student from nowhere to somewhere

I came to Germany from India as a student to pursue my master studies, I was nearly nowhere in terms of knowledge to live independently or even know how to find something which I need. I want to share my experience from being an ex-pat student to a software engineer working in Germany.

Choosing the courses which I love

All German universities have good infrastructure and most of them have very little fees up to 350 euros per semester as semester fees. Unlike my previous University where I studied for my bachelors, all the courses were mandatory which means that I have no freedom to choose the courses I want since those were only the courses provided, whereas during my masters in Germany I have the freedom to choose the courses which I really love studying that mainly focuses me to land on a job I wanted. It took me up to 2 weeks to decide which courses I have to choose with the only requirement that helps me in finding an internship that I plan to do in my 3 or 4 the semester. Choosing a course I love was just the beginning of my future.

Getting to know the Professors and their Research Studies

In Germany, University Professors have the highest powers that revolve around the students future: whether it can be admitting a student to the university or passing a student or even permitting a student to retake an exam even after he has failed it twice.

Based on the courses I have chosen, I got to know the professors who instructed the courses. I personally visited their university websites looked at their contributions to the scientific world and their current research projects, this gave me an overview to become closer to the professors whose work is similar to the field that I wanted to work in. I even asked them questions during and after the class to just signal the professor that I liked his subject and interested in working with him in future. Working with a professor? what do I mean here: it means professors in universities are always looking for students who could help/extend their research, over a master course, a student has to do a couple of mini/micro-projects and a major master thesis project under a professor, based on your work a professor benefits from supervising and co-authoring more research papers and in fact more contributions to the scientific world and in turn it brings more research projects to the university funded by many major companies or even by the government itself. So looking forward to knowing a professor and speaking with him about your future interests opens up mutual benefits to you and as well as the Professor.

Asking for a Student job under a professor

I always looked forward to working as a student research assistant where most of my peers looked for a part-time job in restaurants. Working as a student research assistant I could build my profile with the projects I have worked on and also get paid for the time. Well, now I know the professors and I studied well and passed the exams with good grades after that I slowly approached the professors for a student job. Most professors rejected my application due to no open positions and for some, I don't have the required qualifications. Then I started approaching professors with an offer that I can serve as a student research assistant free for the first 3 months, if they are satisfied with my work then they can recruit me after. Quickly I got an offer to work as a student assistant for free up to 3 months, in this period I proved myself by working on the tasks and the research papers I received to study and implement proof of concepts, even before finishing the 3-month trial I was asked to sign a work contract because in Germany one cannot ask you to work longer without a valid mutually singed working contract, from there on I worked on for around a year under the same professor.

Applying for internships

After working for a year as a student research assistant on several projects, and before going to start my Master Thesis, I wanted to work in a German company so I can make myself ready for the German market before Ex-Matriculating. I started applying for more and more internships which were rejected even after mentioning the projects in my CV which I worked on as a student, companies looked for more technical skills, so I created a different resume for different positions instead of the same resume for all applications and I even added a cover letter that mapped the internship requirements to the work experiences I have. Within a few weeks, I got an offer from a big german company which is specialized in hardware and software products. The internship has created good impressions of german engineering quality and work discipline. Later I was offered to do a Master thesis from the same company but I opted in for a Thesis from University, considering that a Thesis from university is research-oriented, well structured and also that the same professor with whom I worked for a year agreed to supervise my Thesis.

Writing your Master Thesis

Master thesis duration can last for 20 weeks and the countdown begins right after registering on the examination board. I maintained sufficient funds for over a period of six months to abstain from working on other side jobs. As a student you can still gain some prior knowledge on the master thesis before registering yourself to a specific thesis, once registered you cannot withdraw unless in case of medical emergencies. Passing a Master thesis with a good grade was important to me since this impact your total master's grade average. In Germany, it is good to achieve an overall masters score below 1.8 to open up opportunities for a P.hD and companies also look for students with above-average grades (less than 2.4).

Applying for a job while you have not yet Ex-matriculated

One of the most valuable pieces of advice I received when I was doing my internship was to start applying for the companies just two months before I Ex-Matriculate this helps you to start working on a job right after completing your studies without any time being wasted. I planned my Master Thesis in a way that I finished implementing it within 8 weeks then applied for jobs and finally started writing my Thesis book. With this plan, I could start working right after the 4th day of defending my Master Thesis.

Final Thoughts

This is the path I have chosen from being nowhere to somewhere, and I could land a job without any prior experience, when I look back on the journey, I feel proud that I could accomplish it.