My Working Experience in Germany
My name is Yuko Yamamoto, a Japanese working at a logistics company in Düsseldorf, Germany. Hereby I would like to write about what I always think about differences of working culture between Japan and Germany, and prospect of my career briefly.
I majored in German linguistics at an university in Japan. After my bachelor study in 2016, I came to Berlin to work as an attachée at Embassy of Japan. In 2018, I have moved to Düsseldorf and worked in logistics field since then. As I changed my job once in Düsseldorf , the current office is my 3rd workplace.
I feel that abilities and experiences as specialists in any fields are very important and companies do not actually need generalists in Germany whom Japanese companies tend to foster. I have already worked for over 3 years in logistics field, so I would be recognized as human resource for logistics definitely as long as I will not try to change my career path. In Japan there are personnel changes for example from sales to administration, from purchasing to finance department etc. within companies, but such job rotations are impossible in Germany because types of business are just different, additionally people are hired for specific positions in certain fields. There are systems of Ausbildung (vocational training after graduating from school) in various fields, and those who complete Ausbildung are already seen as experts/specialists.
Before coming to Germany, I expected that the German way of working would be great, but I’m now feeling that there are both good and bad points. In Germany where you have lower possibility than in Japan to make career within companies just because you work there for a long time, it is important to keep learning and change jobs. I am now learning supply chain management after work and on weekends. Sometimes I think that it just finally depends on fortune whether you can make career, but on the other hand, those who are always making effort can have good luck after all, so I never want to quit learning