Why would a German company not want to hear about the impact that a potential employee created? What's the difference in culture here? Genuine question.
I think one of the biggest cultural clashes that Americans experience abroad, especially in Europe, is discovering that life isn't a constant sales pitch to sell yourself.
However, it also flies in the face of reality sometimes. There are indeed decisions and choices that can be made by single individual people in a single moment that can cost or save an organization huge amounts of time, money, or both. Telling the truth about those things is not boasting.
Of course, many people overstate the issue, but this general allergy to claims of greatness is a good way to also reject the actually-great.
Assuming that the most bragging CVs are all written by superstars who single handedly saved every company they've worked at is the less realistic of the two options.
Traditional German bosses also have a very bad trait that is the complete inability of motivating through positive reinforcement, or through verbal appreciation. It's so well known that there is a flourishing coaching industry based around teaching exactly that.
That said, if I had to point out a deeply detrimental trait of the German recruitment culture is the over-reliance on degrees, masters, institutional certifications, and such, which are mostly useless in determining the cultural fit of a potential employee.
German companies love official certificates, as if they really prove something (most time it doesn’t imo)
As most people here, I am working in IT. Since there is a demand for us, I don’t feel like I really have to stick to those rules. For example, I gave up on having a German CV, even for non international companies. I was tired of curating two CVs. Companies expect us to be proficient in English anyway, so I expect the same.
However, I suspect that resume cultural differences aren't that big of a deal. I've seen my share of resumes, and they tend to be bad in a universal way.
It turns out that most people aren't great writers, so they just emulate what they think business letters sound like. It reads equally weird in every country, like any DIY promotional material.
This is a myth (Fachkräftemangellüge) and utter nonsense. If it were true, IT professional salaries in Europe/Germany would explode to the insane heights we read about from the bay area and FAGMAN companies. I can provide you infinite sources that explain that the average salary for software engineers in Germany is somewhere around 65.000 euro a year, before taxes. Even the vast majority of IT employees with "architect" in their name won't even make 100.000.
My international company based in Austria, Vienna has no trouble at all to fill vacancies and we usually get several fitting candidates we can pick from.
The main argument I hear is that phrasing achievements in a team centric way makes it sound more like you're claiming the achievements of others. Eg:
- I developed project X increasing revenue by Y
- Part of team A which developed X increasing revenue by Y
Depending on how you phrase it the individual statement could sound like you're unrealistically claiming what must be group achievements, or the humble answer could sound like you had nothing to do with the achievements at all and are trying to claim some bare meaningless connection to success.
I worry about my kids growing up somewhere success is viewed as something to be mocked, and hard work is for chumps.
Until very recently the Irish historical experience has been that you work very hard your whole life and at best your children's conditions are the same as yours, at worst they deteriorate.
In this context it makes sense that bragging or boasting are looked upon very unfavourably. If everyone is working themselves to the bone to just barely survive, then "success" isn't so much a result of your moral superiority and work ethic as it is a result of dumb luck. In that context boasting is distasteful.
I don't necessarily agree with the attitude, but there is something to be said for optimizing your choices around a slightly pessimistic assumption of luck.
Well, I always use anon-personal construct that shifts the interpretation to the mind of the reader:
- Development of project X increasing revenue by Y
If it strikes them as an important piece of information, I'll explain my role in it.
Coming from an American environment in which "boasting" was discouraged, the seemingly necessary self-promotion around some universities was unfamiliar.
I still naturally prefer to say "we" when speaking of business successes, though all the coaching for resumes and interviews advises the opposite.
Possible tip for people programmed against boastfulness: Consider the scenario of being interviewed, when you keep naturally saying "we", praising colleagues, etc. Imagine that the interviewer is not understanding, due to culture gap, and is underestimating you in a way that threatens your survival. You might find yourself naturally making arguments for your value, which is closer to what that interviewer expects. Remember those arguments, and reuse them in similar contexts, with less of an insecure tone. :)