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Can students in Germany work freelance?

How can I find internships in international companies in Germany without being a current student?

  • I graduated in international business but my working and internship experience is mostly marketing communications and creative (which is not really my passion). I actually enjoy more statistical analysis, consumer behavior research and strategy planning and I wish to work on that side of things. Therefore, I would like to try out a more research-focus or analytical internship, but it seems that most of these specify that they are for currently students enrolled in university. Is there any way to get around this in Germany? (In my case, work permit is not a really a problem, but my weak German level limits me to international companies.)

  • Answer:

    Check out for Internships on the companies that you are interested in and apply there. You can also visit regularly to websites like, http://www.praktikum.de/ , http://de.indeed.com/?r=used, etc.If you are already in EU, then it won't be difficult to get the work permit.

Manak Shah at Quora Visit the source

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I do not know of an official restriction that would require being a student to get an internship in Germany. On the contrary, many graduates who cannot find a job try to bridge the gap with a "Praktikum" at a company for little or no pay. This means that finding an internship is almost as hard as finding a job.

Lorenzo Peroni

How to do it is simple: you start applying. The steps should be: find the company you are interested in, send your application to the contact person mentioned on their website. Now, for international companies, you won't need perfect German because especially in Marketing, English would be good enough. Your perfect German should be for the people who your application will hit first: the HR. As everywhere HR people are mostly local so their level of English is very poor, especially the ones who screen applications. So make sure that your letter of intent is in very good German (you can hire a translator for that) and ask to be forwarded to the Marketing department. As always, you have first to pass the gatekeeper. I wish you success with your endevour!

Laura Vonka

The student-at-university limitation cannot be gotten around easily — it has tax and liability components that you simply cannot substitute for. Companies need to pay you and pay taxes for you if you’re not a student and if your internship exceeds a certain narrow range of time. That range is substantially expanded for university internships — which is why companies have to take students for internships of a certain duration — and you won’t be competitive in those as a non-student. You cost too much — that is to say you cost something and they cost nothing. Free work is better than not-free work.What you could always do are Initiativbewerbungen for Internships at companies that interest you. That is send them a cover letter and your resumé and hope something opens up for you.Another possibility is contacting the Arbeitsamt in your area and see whether they can help you find an internship.

Heinrich Müller

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