Experienced Electronics Engineer from Western Balkans targeting Germany - is the market realistic for someone with my profile?
Hey everyone, I’m an electronics engineer with a bachelor’s degree and 6+ years of experience, based in the Western Balkans, and seriously considering relocating to Germany for work.
Wanted to get some honest perspectives from people in the field. My background: PCB design (Cadence Allegro, KiCad), embedded firmware (STM32, bare-metal), testing and validation (oscilloscopes, SPICE simulation).
I’ve worked across the full hardware development cycle from schematic to production. My German is around B1-B2 and I’m actively improving. I’ve been applying through Xing but keep getting rejected without much feedback, which is frustrating and hard to know what to improve.
A few questions I’m hoping the community can help with: How is the German job market for mid-senior electronics/hardware engineers right now, still hiring or slowing down? Is B1-B2 German realistically enough to get through interviews, or do most companies expect C1? For anyone who relocated from outside the EU, how long did the whole visa and job offer process actually take?
Any difference in work culture between Mittelstand companies and larger corporations like Bosch or Siemens? Any red flags to watch out for when evaluating offers from abroad? Could the rejections be because I’m applying from abroad rather than already being in Germany? Not looking for sugar-coating, just want an honest picture of what to expect. Happy to share more about my background if it helps.
Thanks in advance.