Job, please!

How difficult is it for international students to find a job in Leipzig? Between expectations and reality, the job search often turns out to be more challenging than expected.

„There are students who have been trying to find a minijob for three months“, reports Monica Moravcikova, a member of the Foreign Students Unit. The department is elected directly by international students only and offers counselling and represents them at events like international meetups.

Besides this, Moravcikova is a member of the association Hilfe für internationale Studierende, an independent association that helps students in financial emergencies. She is the contact person for applications. „I see very often that international students have difficulties finding jobs,“ Monica says. Many, she adds, apply for numerous positions without success. In her experience, language skills and uncertainties surrounding residence and work regulations can make the search more difficult.

Moravcikova, who is an international student herself, feels that German applicants are often given preference because a language certificate cannot tell the whole story about someone’s communication skills. „I once had a trial work session at a tour operator myself. Afterwards, my employer told me that he was surprised that I managed so well linguistically, and that he had previously been unsure whether he should even take the time. I can imagine that it is the same with others, but of course we never know the other side.“

She recommends looking for a student assistant or an advisor position at the Student Council. Also very helpful are the job portals for students. These include the Studentenwerk’s portal and a similar service offered by HTWK Leipzig. Additionally, the Career Service at Leipzig University has a job portal. The Career Service is a counselling service for early career start. International students can take advantage of dedicated consultation hours and language courses. Claudia Flach and Susanne Benko from the Career Service for international students explain that many Career Service events are held in English to reach international students.

Particular challenges

They cannot confirm that job hunting is generally more difficult for international students. „We have seen many counterexamples“, states Benko.

Nevertheless, international students can face particular challenges. Language skills play a major role, since there are very few jobs in Leipzig that require only English proficiency, Benko explains.

„Learning German is often neglected in English-language degree programmes“, Benko notes. „Mostly German courses are just an option. And language schools are expensive.“

The unwritten rules that apply specifically to the German job market are another concern for international students. Questions about job interviews and how to write an application are answered during Career Service counselling sessions. „In many countries, it is common to simply submit a resumé“, says Flach. „That does not work for the German job market. And in Germany, volunteer work and other activities are also interesting to employers maybe, more so than in other countries.“

Overall, international students have a longer adjustment period when they start studying: „A German citizen who moves to Leipzig to study, has a better understanding of how things work, does not have to worry about applying for a residence permit, and might be quicker to think of asking the professor about a student assistant job.“

Flach experienced that Employers who have never hired an international student before sometimes imagine the work permit regulations as more complicated than they actually are.

„With a student residence permit, however, the conditions are quite easy“, Benko adds. According to Leipzig’s immigration office, it allows 140 days of work in a year for students. „Even though things normally go well, employers may feel uncertain when the residence permit needs to be renewed. Many do not know that they can get advice on this.“

Flach also mentions the financial pressure that students from outside the EU face who require a visa. To get a residence permit for studying, proof of sufficient financial means has to be presented to the immigration office. This includes an amount of at least 992 euros per month.

„International students with a visa must prove that they earn enough money. As a consequence, they start with a job unrelated to their subject, but degree-related jobs are better paid and more helpful for the job entry after graduation“, Flach comments.

For the job search, Benko and Flach also recommend using the job portals of the Career Services or the HTWK and the Studentenwerk. It is not necessary to be enrolled at the university, and the listings are specifically for applicants without professional experience.

Social climate

The social climate can present an obstacle too. Referring to Flach, there were also cases where students asked about discrimination in the recruiting process, about prejudices from employers, or told her about instances when they have been discriminated against. If this happens, international students are often insecure about how to defend themselves. The association Antidiskriminierungsverband Deutschland focused on the workplace in its 2025 situation report. It found that racist discrimination accounts for more than half of the documented cases of discrimination in 2025 and that 25,1 percent of these cases happened in the fields of working and education. The report also states that scientific correspondence tests show that Black and Muslim applicants receive less positive feedback on applications than people with identical qualifications who differ only in the discrimination characteristic being examined. One of the main challenges is to find proof of discrimination because it is often masked by disadvantages that are difficult to recognize, implicit assumptions, or feigned objective justifications. The association recommends documenting the case and seeking consultation at an early stage.

Helpful offers

Myat Thet Zune is a final-year Accounting and Finance student at Lancaster University Leipzig. She is currently looking for a working-student position, mainly in areas related to her studies and her previous professional experience. „One of the main difficulties is that my current German level limits the number of opportunities available to me, especially for positions related to accounting and finance“, she says. Another challenge is adapting her previous professional experience to working-student positions in Germany. Positions accessible with limited German are also unevenly distributed across regions, she remarks, making suitable vacancies more competitive.

In her view, the career support offered at Lancaster University and Leipzig University is helpful for „understanding the job market, the real situation international students face, and how I can improve my approach to the job search.“

Turan Bulut (name was changed by the editor), who studies Philosophy, also cautions against attributing every difficulty to international status. „I would say that the difficulty of job searching as an international student mainly depends on the field in which one is studying. In my case, with a degree in philosophy, I find job searching comparatively more difficult than in some other fields of study. However, this is not necessarily related to the status as an international student, but rather to the career opportunities of the subject itself.“

For international students in any field, building a professional network through social and cultural events plays an important role. At the same time, it can be difficult to reconcile this with the demands of the studies. Furthermore, language challenges are crucial, as well as research, preparation, and engagement with the requirements of the respective job market, all of which are important in order to write a good application.

Bulut appreciates the offerings of the Career Service, especially the mentor-mentee program. „For international students, it provides the opportunity to meet new people, exchange ideas with other students, and at the same time connect with individuals who already have professional or subject-specific experience. This not only improves orientation in the job search but supports the building of a personal and professional network.“

Titelgrafik: vk

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