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🇩🇪 How I Got 600 Job Rejections in 1.5 Months in Germany — Including McDonald’s

My real story. No filters. No sugar-coating.

When people say “Germany desperately needs workers,” I want to laugh.
Or cry.
Or scream into a pillow.
Because in early 2025, I sent more than 600 job applications in just 1.5 months.

Yes. Six. Hundred.
In forty-five days.
That’s 13 applications per day — including weekends, holidays, and mornings when I could barely open my eyes.

I applied to everything:

• student jobs

• office jobs

• customer service

• retail

• kitchen help

• barista

• junior tech roles

• startups

• supermarkets

• and yes… even McDonald’s.

And McDonald’s said:

“Wir haben uns für andere Bewerber entschieden.”

Imagine being too “unqualified” to flip a burger.
That email broke something in me for 24 hours straight.

Here is my story.

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🌧️ 1. I Came to Germany With Hope

People told me:
“You’ll find a job in a week.”
“There’s a labor shortage.”
“You speak multiple languages, you’ll be fine.”

But Germany in real life is not the Germany in headlines.

My job search started optimistically:
new CV, new profile picture, fresh energy, coffee cup in hand.

By day 7, I already knew something was wrong.
By day 30, I understood that this system was not built for people like me.
By day 45, I had 600 “no’s”.

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📬 2. What 600 Rejections Feel Like

At first:
Frustration.

Then:
Confusion.

Then:
Self-doubt.

Then:
Dark comedy.
(Sometimes I opened emails like: “Okay, who rejected me next? Let me guess… the job where I only needed to scan barcodes?”)

Then:
Numbness.

And finally:
A weird kind of emotional strength — the type you get only after being rejected more times than Tinder dates in Berlin.

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🧩 3. Why I Got Rejected (The Real Reasons Nobody Tells You)

Germany doesn’t reject you.
It rejects patterns.
Here’s what I learned the hard way:

❌ 1. My German wasn’t “German enough.”

Even when they say “English-speaking job,” HR still wants German.
Even B1 is sometimes not enough.

❌ 2. My foreign experience didn’t “count.”

German companies don’t understand other systems.
If it’s not German, it might as well not exist.

❌ 3. My CV wasn’t in “German format.”

Here, CVs are:

• conservative

• structured

• photo included

• no storytelling

• no “passion,” just data

One wrong formatting choice and you’re auto-rejected.

❌ 4. Competition is insane.

One simple job gets 300–600 applicants.
Most of them skilled, multilingual, desperate.

❌ 5. HR prefers stability.

Anyone foreign looks “unstable” to German HR.
They want people who stay 5–10 years.

❌ 6. Bureaucracy is slow and cautious.

Companies move at the speed of a sleepy turtle.

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🍟 4. The McDonald’s Rejection

This was my personal rock bottom.
I thought:
“Okay, maybe highly-skilled jobs are too much for now.
Let me try something super simple.”

So I applied to McDonald’s.

Not manager.
Not trainer.
Not shift leader.

JUST BASIC CREW.

I imagined myself holding fries with pride.
I imagined finally getting one “yes.”

Then the email arrived:

“Wir bedanken uns für Ihr Interesse.”

“INTERESSE??”
Bro, I just wanted to work.

The rejection hit me harder than all the others because it meant something deeper:

The problem wasn’t my skills — it was the system.

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🧠 5. The Moment I Realized It’s Not My Fault

After crying, overthinking, Googling “Am I unemployable?”, I finally understood:

Germany is rejecting thousands of talented people every week.
Not because they’re bad.
But because the system is rigid, slow, traditional, and extremely competitive.

My 600 rejections were not personal.
They were structural.

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🚀 6. What I Changed — And Why Things Started Improving

I didn’t give up.
I upgraded myself in a way Germany understands.

✔ I fixed my CV German-style

Straight, factual, bullet points, perfect dates, no emotion.

✔ I improved my German

Just learning B1 work vocabulary already changed everything.

✔ I rewrote my cover letters

Short. Dry. Efficient.
German HR loves that.

✔ I applied smarter

Not randomly.
Not everywhere.
Just places where I actually matched 60–70%.

✔ I learned how German interviews work

Direct. Honest. No over-selling.
No American-style hype.

Suddenly, the rejections slowed down.
Then interviews came.
Then trial days.
Then real opportunities.

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❤️ 7. Final Thoughts

If you are getting rejected right now — even from McDonald’s —
PLEASE know this:

You are not the problem.
Germany is complicated.
The HR system is old.
The competition is huge.
The language barrier is real.
And the process is brutally slow.

But you can still win.
You just need to understand the rules of the German hiring game.

And once you learn the system, Germany opens up.

I’m living proof.

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🌐 Want to improve your German for job applications?

Learn grammar, connectors, interview vocabulary & everyday German here:
👉 https://konnektoren.help/

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