Working Part-Time in Germany

Hello everyone!

Before writing about the theme, I'd like to thank you all for reading my blog! I received a lot of emails every month, especially during RWTH registration time. As a person who wrote a blog for fun and only to share experience, I am very touched and happy to know that some people are feeling motivated by reading my posts :) Thank you!!!!

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After posting a poll on Instagram, most people voted that I should write about my study/work experience in Germany, so here it is! This time it'll be in English so everyone can understand it. I apologise in advance for any typo/grammar mistakes.

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I'd say Germany is a pretty affordable country to study since most of the Bundesland don't charge their students for an educational fee, which to be honest, could be pretty expensive in other countries. Instead, at least here in RWTH Aachen, we paid around 260€/semester for our transportation, social fee, and so on. The only financial needed before coming to Germany (for those without any scholarship) is the 8640€ blocked account by one of the banks -- which is a lot compared on Indonesians average income, but any other way would be a little difficult. I knew some people who postponed their study here in Aachen to save up some money, but hey, they are here now!

I came to Germany with #ModalNekat (I don't know how to say in English, but it's kinda I flew here with guts and not put very much details of my financial future), but I already set my mind to try to find work as soon as possible. When I still lived in Königswinter during my first semester, I did apply for a few labour work such as working in a hotel or bakery and got some calls for the interview, little did I know back then that I had to have my residence permit in hand before starting to work (I thought my visa would do) so I had to cancel the interview. Better to have some patient rather than working illegally and being deported back!

And since I only lived for a semester in Königswinter, I thought it would be wise to wait for a little bit to find a job when I already moved to Aachen. So when I moved into the new (well now not so new anymore :p) city and settled it, and by seeing my friends getting jobs as well, I was on fire to find something! With the help of google and linkedIn, the first job I applied for was to help the Admin team of one company (let's named it company A). Although I have my Bachelor in Informatics, honestly I didn't have the confidence to code (haha), that was why I was trying to find other jobs but programmer :) I also applied to be a student worker at company B, and those two were the only job I applied so far!

A rejection letter came from company B about a few weeks after I submitted my application. I was upset and sad, of course, since I thought that job was really for me - but in the other hand, I could also understand since most of the jobs need a very good level of German, and my German level was somewhere in intermediate :)

But then, good news from company A, they invited me to an interview, and they even asked me whether I was interested in another student worker position which was more related to computer science. After setting up a schedule for the interview, I couldn't lie but feel that I was pretty nervous. The only interview I had was shortly before I graduated Bachelor, and I didn't get accepted as well -- what if the same thing happened this time? But then my friends told me that they even applied for 30-40 jobs before they got accepted, and honestly, that gave me a boost of confidence. If this one was a fail, then at least it would be an experience for the next one!

Short story, the interview went pretty well (and the office was really cool ;) at least with the free coffee!!!!) and they said they would give be news in two weeks. I didn't apply for other part-time jobs and patiently (well, sent two follow-up emails) waiting before I got the reply back that I got accepted! I was sooo happy since this would be my first paid part-time job here in Germany! In Indonesia, I worked as a teaching assistant and English-tutor for students in middle/high school, but this time it would be something different because the regulation was also different (and tbh, it's Germany, if you know what I meant ;))

As students in Germany, during Uni-time, we are, by law, allowed to work max 20 hours per week (Germans or non-Germans). But when it's holiday time, working is allowed up to 40 hours a week. And especially for those who hold Student Visa, we are not allowed to work more than 120 full-days or 240 half-days a year, so you really have to count your days not to cross it! Important enough to know, mandatory internship from Internship will not be counted in this limited working days, but not mandatory internship will do! So if your course of study didn't oblige you to take one but you want to do an internship (it's very good for experience), just make sure you plan ahead (financially and timely). My suggestion if you want to take 6 months internship is to do it in the Winter Semester since you'll only use 3 months of one year, and 3 months in the year after :)

I got lucky because the working time for me is flexible. In some company, they have set the weekly working hours, but in the company I am working part-time, I can work up to 19.5 hours per week, and I can set my own schedule. Some people found this as a disadvantage since they want to have a fixed income, but for me who was pretty busy that time after moving to Aachen, this was a good opportunity to measure myself about how I can handle work, especially since this was my first time. And since it was a flexible time, I could take as much holiday as I want, but in the other hand, I wouldn't get paid for not working. In some other companies, e.g. the company my flatmate was working, student workers also got an equal amount of 6 weeks of holidays (e.g, if they work only 2 days/week, then they will get 12 days of holidays!) At the beginning I worked normally 10 hours a week, but starting May last year (after coming back for 6 weeks holiday in Indonesia haha), I decided to work more since I need extra money and I have lots of time (I didn't take any class that time hahaha).

What I like the most in working this particular job was that I could use my ability in speaking different languages ;) I have never thought that being able to speak 4 languages, understand (basic level) 6 and can read/write 8 can be used to do something useful and not only for fun! I still remember some of their reaction, e.g. "Wait, you can speak Korean?" "What, you can read and write Arabic???"

Last day of work as student worker T.T

When exchanging stories with other Indonesian students, I was really amazed that they were working in a factory during the holiday! (Most of them were freshly graduated from high school or bachelor students). I admired their guts and spirit to try to stand on by their own feet at a young age :) (If I remember my self, I was pretty spoiled when I was 18 years old hahaha). I had an Indonesian flatmate who was 5 years younger than me, and she woke up early in the morning to get work at a factory (like, around 3am in the morning), and came back looking pretty tired. So if you were reading this and you did that job, four thumbs up for you!!!!!

I believe everyone has different experiences working part-time here in Germany (or in Aachen), but I still couldn't be grateful of how this job has helped me to start earning money by my own and in the end, stopped asking my parents for emergency money. The wage from each company differs, but after talking with some other students, I could say the average was about 10-11€/hour (brutto), and if you can code, it should start at 12€/hour. The highest wage I have heard for HiWi was 17€/hour and that is not in NRW (seriously, I was surprised). But I'd suggest working something that you like (if you can get one) because I do believe you can do a good job if you like the job and not because how much you earn (but on the other hand, don't get underpaid as well:)). And don't forget to balance your study and working time well!

I probably have something more to write, but I will do it when I remember them.

So far, I hope this "short" story can somewhat be useful to you! I hope more story to come in the future ;)

Best regards and have a nice weekend!

p.s: some pics ;)

Dinner at my place with coworkers who turns to be my best friends! :D

Trip to Paris June 2018

my favourite intern :p 

A girls-evening-out after work :D

First business trip to Stuttgart (plus introductory week of
what I should do, that's why he was also on the trip!)

Jacobs Startup Competition 2017: road to the Final Stage

Hello!

This time I'd like to tell you about road Jacobs Startup Competition 2017 from the first application until the end of the finale. Since it'll be a long story, I decided to split it into two parts, and this part is more about the preparation and the application (and more of personal stories if you are interested).

In November 2016, someone posted about Jacobs Startup Competition on facebook group so I clicked it and read through the website. Jacobs Startup Competition is an annual business plan competition held by Jacobs University Bremen, Germany. I heard about the uni before since a friend of mine studied there back then in 2012. I found it interesting because eventhough it's a "startup" competition, you didn't have to have a "startup" to apply, you could submit your idea. So yeah, I tried to team up with some friends from Media Informatics and submit our idea.

Then a few days later (or let say 1 hour before the deadline), I also submitted application for Cakra, since it was an idea that already executed an running. So why not? I started "working" in Cakra back then in the beginning of September 2015 as public relation. If you haven't heard of it, Cakra is an affordable therapy application for children with autism. That's enough info about Cakra for now, for more info you can find on cakra-app.com (a little advertisement :D)

The application wasn't complicated to begin with. As far as I remember, you just need to write the name of the team, the idea, and the team. After that I just continued my life.

Then I got an email that Cakra made it to the second round. I first thought that the other idea didn't made it to second round, but later on I also received an email that it also passed the first round. So much excitement in one day.

For the second round, each team has to submit an executive summary. This one was more complicated and need more time to work on. There were questions that each time had to fill, starting from the background, value proposition, marketing, customer segment until finance. Since it was a busy month and the time to fly back to Indonesia was coming nearer, I almost decided to give up. I mean, not submitting both of the executive summary. I talked with my friends from Media Informatics and they were also busy and said maybe we'll try next year.

But for Cakra, it was something different. Eventhough the rest of the team were in Indonesia, they helped me to fill the summary. To be honest I had a lot of stress back then because there were so much things to do in Indonesia (with the wedding preparation). But the Indonesian summary was finished one week before the deadline and you know when the deadline was? ON MY WEDDING DAY. So it was an adrenaline rush for me and I finished translating and submitting it, 6 hours before the wedding ceremony began. Actually, I almost forgot about this fact but a friend of mine who was on my small "bachelorette party" reminded me when I posted a few updates on Instastory. So yeah, some girls came into my room before my wedding day and what did I do? Sitting in front of the laptop and translating (well talking to them as well).

So life went on, I got married, I went back to Germany for exam prep, and on February I received an email that Cakra made it to the finale! I was sooooooooooo excited back then. I immediately contacted the team in Indonesia and they were excited as well and will support me. But due to the cost of the flight from Indonesia to Germany, they couldn't accompany me.

Another positive thing about JSC is if you got to the final stage, they will assign you mentors. For Cakra we got Nikolas and Max - founders of Tripcombi - to mentor us. They contacted me first and we had one skype session. It was great to hear another feedback.

To sum it up for now:

1. The first round is to submit the idea and it's very simple.
2. The second round is more complicated because now you have to do lots of research, but on the positive side you get to know more about your soon-to-be-startup (or your startup if you already have one)
3. If you make it to the final round, they'll assign you mentor(s).

I encourage you to participate in this competition because basically you have nothing to lose.

So that was the story from the first phase to almost the final part. The next post will be about the final and why I was so impressed.

Thank you very much for reading my story!

Kuliah di Jerman (RWTH Aachen)

SEMESTER 1 AKHIRNYA SELESAI! (*well, almost...)

Setelah sekian lama tidak menulis akhirnya saya bisa menyempatkan diri saya untuk menulis lagi. Dari dulu sebenarnya mau tulis pengalaman kuliah di Jerman (selama ini cuma tau sistem sekolahnya saja) dan akhirnya bisa kesampaian menulis setelah 1 semester hampir berakhir.

Bagi yang baru pertama kali membaca blog saya, izinkan saya memperkenalkan diri: Dala, 22 tahun, baru menikah, dan sementara lagi menempuh pendidikan S2 di RWTH Aachen University bersama suami :D Jurusan yang saya ambil adalah Media Informatics.

depan kampus :D

Semua yang saya tulis berdasarkan pengalaman saya kuliah di ITS dan di RWTH Aachen, mungkin ada beberapa persamaan dengan univ-univ lainnya di Jerman maupun di Indonesia. Oh iya sebagai tambahan, bahasa pengantar yang saya ambil adalah bahasa Inggris, jadi mungkin saja pengalaman saya berbeda dengan yang mengambil kuliah dengan mata pengantar bahasa Jerman.

Di Jerman....

SPP = Rp 0.

Salah satu alasan saya untuk menempuh pendidikan di Jerman (maklum beasiswa Ayah Bunda) adalah biaya SPPnya yang 0 rupiah atau 0 euro. Tetapi meskipun tidak membayar uang kuliah, setiap mahasiswa harus membayar uang transpor+uang sosial sebesar kurang lebih 4 juta per semester. Dengan membayar uang semester tersebut (bukan SPP loh ya), setiap mahasiswa akan mendapatkan tiket kereta/bus/tram/metro yang bisa dipakai selama satu semester. Lokasinya tergantung provinsi mana universitasnya, untuk Aachen yang berada di provinsi North-Rhine Westfalia, kami bisa berpergian sesuka hati kami di satu provinsi. Itu berarti bisa ke Düsseldorf, Köln, Essen, Padderborn tanpa membayar apapun! Jadi, 4 juta bisa dibilang cukup murah (biaya 1 kali naik bus jarak pendek di Aachen sekitar 20rb, dan naik kereta Aachen-Köln sekitar 100-150rb).

HAH? ABSEN? ITU APA?

Bagi kalian yang mungkin sering telat bangun, mager ke kampus, atau lebih senang belajar sendiri, mungkin Jerman merupakan negara yang tepat. Sebenarnya tergantung dosennya apakah mewajibkan untuk masuk kelas apa tidak, tetapi kebanyakan dosen tidak mewajibkan mahasiswanya untuk berada di kelas. Tetapi tetap saja berada di kelas dan memperhatikan dosen menjelaskan merupakan nilai plus karena belum tentu semua pertanyaan yang keluar di ujian ada di slide yang telah dishare (pengalaman pribadi ._.v).

TIDAK ADA REBUTAN AMBIL KELAS.. (yang ada dikick dari kelas)

Salah satu yang saya rindukan tetapi tidak ingin mengalami lagi adalah berebutan ambil mata kuliah pada awal semester. Menurut saya sudah cukup kekecewaan yang dirasakan ketika kelas yang diinginkan telah habis, atau rasa betrayal yang dirasakan ketika sedang bertransaksi tukar kelas tetapi ada yang tiba-tiba mengambil slot (ehe). Sudah cukup juga sindiran-sindiran yang ada di wall facebook karena kelas penuh oleh angkatan lebih muda (ehe, saya juga termasuk angkatan muda yang sering mengambil mata kuliah angkatan atas ._.v)...

Di universitas saya sekarang, well setidaknya di jurusan saya, tidak ada rebutan kelas. Tinggal daftar dan datang saja ke kelasnya. Adanya nanti setelah minggu pertama akan dilihat siapa yang dikeluarkan dari kelas jika kuotanya tidak mencukupi. Biasanya diprioritaskan mahasiswa yang wajib mengambil mata kuliah tersebut. 

IKUT UAS HARUS DAFTAR LAGI

Rajin datang di kelas bukan berarti harus mengikuti ujian semester itu juga. Salah satu sistem yang menurut saya pribadi rempong tapi life-saving adalah setiap mahasiswa wajib untuk mendaftar jika ingin ikut ujian. Pendaftaran biasanya dibukan 2 bulan sebelum ujian dan ada waktu batas pendaftaran. Kalau terlewat maka goodbye... ujiannya tahun/semester depan. Memang rempong, tetapi bagi yang merasa dirinya tidak sanggup untuk lulus semester ini, bisa skip ujian dulu dan mengambil ujian tahun depan.

UAS = YOUR FINAL GRADE

Ada banyak mata kuliah yang menjadikan nilai ujian akhir sebagai nilai akhir. Menurut saya hal ini menguntungkan bagi mahasiswa yang tidak suka mengerjakan tugas (karena rata-rata tugas di sini tidak wajib dikerjakan/tidak dinilai/pra-syarat ujian), tetapi tidak menguntungkan bagi mahasiswa yang terbiasa SKS aka sistem kebut semalam karena tidak mungkin bisa lulus ujian hanya dengan belajar sehari.

GAGAL UAS? BISA REMEDIAL

Setiap mahasiswa diberikan kesempatan untuk mengikuti 3 kali ujian tertulis dan 1 kali ujian lisan untuk setiap 1 mata kuliah. Kalau lulus pada ujian pertama, Alhamdulillah. Kalau tidak lulus, mahasiswa diberi kesempatan untuk ikut ujian kedua. Bobotnya sama dengan ujian pertama, jadi misalnya jika dapat A di ujian kedua, nilai akhirnya juga A. Bukan seperti di Indonesia yang memberikan nilai max 75 untuk remedial (ini dulu di SMA saya).

Saya memanfaatkan sistem ini untuk mengikuti ujian pertama di satu mata kuliah. Karena saya jarang masuk, saya yakin ujian saya tidak lulus, tetapi saya ingin tahu soalnya kira-kira seperti apa, jadi saya ikut mengikuti ujian pertama. Dan ketika mendapat hasil bahwa saya gagal, saya harus remedial dan sekarang saya memiliki 2 kesempatan untuk ikut ujian tertulis dan 1 kali ujian lisan (jika tidak lulus 3 kali ujian tulis).

Apakah akibatnya jika gagal 3 kali ujian tertulis dan 1 kali ujian lisan?

Menurut kabar yang saya dengar, mahasiswa yang telah gagal ujian sebanyak 4 kali akan di drop out dan akan sangat sulit sekali untuk pindah universitas (malah ada yang bilang sudah tidak bisa kuliah di Jerman lagi). Jadi tentunya kuliah di Jerman bukan buat mahasiswa yang berpikir "masih ada semester depan ngulangnya", karena ngulang mata kuliah di sini perlu dipikir-pikir terlebih dahulu...

DAFTAR LAB/SEMINAR SERASA DAFTAR KERJA

Untuk jurusan Informatika secara general, biasanya diwajibkan bagi setiap mahasiswa untuk mengikuti lab/seminar. Kalau jurusan saya, setiap mahasiswa wajib mengikuti 2 lab dan 1 seminar. Kalau di jurusan suami saya (Software Systems Engineering), wajib 1 lab dan 2 seminar. Lab/praktikum berbobot 7-10ECTS dan seminar biasanya 4ECTS. Output dari seminar adalah paper.

Nah, jika daftar kuliah lebih flexbile, daftar lab/seminar tidak seflexible itu. Di portalnya, setiap mahasiswa bisa memilih seminar/lab apa yang mereka inginkan berdasarkan prioritas (1, 2, 3). Jatah tiap mahasiswa maksimal 2 lab/seminar tiap semester. Jumlah tiap lab/seminar sekitar 10-16 orang (mungkin juga ada yang 20).  Pada saat pendaftaran waktu itu, kami disuruh menulis semacam CV (keahlian dan pengalaman dll) dikarenakan dosen sendiri yang akan memilih peserta seminar/lab. Alhasil saya melihat banyak kekecewaan pada teman-teman saya ketika mereka tidak dipilih untuk lab/seminar yang mereka inginkan. Saya sendiri Alhamdulillah dapat lab yang saya inginkan untuk semester ini (lab Blockchain, siapa tau ada yang kepo ._.v)

Untuk sementara itu yang bisa saya tulis, tulisan selanjutnya lebih membahas pengalaman pribadi kuliah di jurusan Media Informatics :D 

Terima kasih karena telah membaca blog saya. Jangan sungkan-sungkan untuk bertanya melalui komentar atau email ke dala.rifat27@gmail.com ketika memiliki pertanyaan.

Dala :)