# Finally



## BiotechAbroad (Jan 11, 2012)

All right so I finally booked a trip to Köln (my dream city) and will be going there next May for 10 days. It's not much but it's what I could afford as a student. Although it's for vacation reasons, I'd like to take advantage of my time there and try and get in touch will possible employers. Think anyone would consider hiring me a year from my visit, when I graduate from my Master's program? My degree is in Molecular Biochemistry, do you guys know of any employers, corporations, companies, or businesses that are in that field? Also, should I translate my resume/cv to German? I've never done science in Europe so I'm not sure if it's standardized in English or if every country publishes in it's own language. And last, how should I approach employers? Should I just show up and drop off my resume? Or email/call? Mail? Any and all constructive advice would help.


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## vronchen (Jan 26, 2012)

BiotechAbroad said:


> All right so I finally booked a trip to Köln (my dream city) and will be going there next May for 10 days. It's not much but it's what I could afford as a student. Although it's for vacation reasons, I'd like to take advantage of my time there and try and get in touch will possible employers. Think anyone would consider hiring me a year from my visit, when I graduate from my Master's program? My degree is in Molecular Biochemistry, do you guys know of any employers, corporations, companies, or businesses that are in that field? Also, should I translate my resume/cv to German? I've never done science in Europe so I'm not sure if it's standardized in English or if every country publishes in it's own language. And last, how should I approach employers? Should I just show up and drop off my resume? Or email/call? Mail? Any and all constructive advice would help.


i remember your other posts from a while ago. you started a master's program? good for you.

i honestly don't think that someone would hire you a year in advance, especially in industry. but it might be good to network. not sure what your other plans for the summer are, but have considered doing an internship in germany? that's probably easier to get than full time employment, and often these internships lead to full time employments later on. another concern: not sure anyone would hire a foreigner fresh out off school. and particularly in the biochem area a phd seemed to be preferred. what about doing your phd in germany? check out the biochem Max-Planckt institute (Graduate Program). phd programs in germany are shorter than in the US, since most require that you have a masters before you apply. they even pay for your trip to the interviews! it's not in Köln (it's near München), but your chances of getting a job would be so much higher, you would be able to learn more german, and the institute is very prestigious. 

for companies in that area: not sure what kind of chemie there are doing, but the obvious one is of course Bayer. it's not in Köln, but Leverkusen is a very short commute from Köln.

usually, you would send a CV in german. my strategy is: if the job descriptions is in german I send a german CV, if it is in english I send an english CV. (if your german is good enough, translate the CV so that potential employer's see you can speak the language at least a little bit.) But for both I make sure that it is a german style (or at least european style) CV. So you should include more information such as date of birth and gender. I think europass has cv templates. but I would never send a cv as .doc. i personally hate anything that is generated by an office product and for science careers would only use CVs that are generated by latex. but I guess that is just my personal taste.

I would not go and drop off a hard copy of your CV. for most companies you can do a general application (not for a specific job), and send in a soft copy. also, in germany it seems much more important to include a cover letter.


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## vronchen (Jan 26, 2012)

oh, and make sure you have (certified) copies of your transcripts (including high school) available.


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