The story of engineer Thomas

Thomas is 31 years old. He studied electrical engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and obtained his degree with distinction. During his studies, he was able to gain international experience as part of a 6-month internship in Shanghai. After graduating, Thomas joined an automotive supplier as a trainee, soon becoming a sought-after expert, particularly in the field of electronic control systems. He quickly learned how to work closely with customers on international projects, and spent a lot of time in the USA. After three years, at the age of 28, he moved to Detroit, USA to work as a project manager in the research and development department of an American car manufacturer. Thomas’ career was going very well, and it was clear he had a bright future. Three years later, he returned to Germany with his two children and his American wife.

Apart from his outstanding references, and extensive experience and knowledge, Thomas is the sort of person others love to work with. Collaborating with him is always constructive, demanding, but also humorous. Over his young career, Thomas has been able to build a very strong international network. Outside of work, he is a passionate rock climber, and plays saxophone in his recently founded band, “Soulengine”.

Thomas has his own website, where he engages with colleagues and friends, runs his own blog, and promotes his band, among other things. It also contains his CV, with the annotation “I’m looking for a new challenge in Germany”, and “Companies apply here”. Clicking “here” takes you to an application form for employers. Thomas doesn’t want applications by email; he responds to these by asking people to instead make things easier by applying online.

Having set up this form, together with the application request, Thomas went on holiday for two weeks. It was important for him to launch this application procedure before going away, since he would be out of reach during his break.

The application form itself is very extensive. And that’s how it should be, to ensure Thomas gets a good idea of an employer. It contains questions about the company and its business success. There is also the option of uploading management reports from the last five years. Mandatory fields ask employers to name company contacts whom Thomas can get in touch with to obtain references. Other essential elements include fields explicitly asking about the company’s particular strengths and weaknesses as an employer. The interested employers can of course submit information on job offers, and insert relevant job descriptions in designated text boxes, together with detailed salary information, contact names etc. If a company applies to Thomas, this process will take around two or three hours. While this may seem very time-consuming at first glance, this is how Thomas wants it, because it acts as the first step towards assessing whether or not a company is serious about its application.

After two weeks’ holiday, Thomas comes back and checks how many applications have come in. It looks good; 52 companies have applied. An automatic confirmation of receipt has already been sent to these companies. It is now time to examine their attractiveness as employers. In doing so, he quickly notices that he doesn’t actually need most of the information, and that he usually ends up deciding relatively spontaneously as to whether they are suitable or not. It takes many weeks to send a letter of refusal to each rejected company. So as not to be left vulnerable, he doesn’t provide reasons. He doesn’t have time to go into the details of each application. He endeavours to be friendly, while maintaining a distance. And that’s the right thing to do, because he doesn’t want to burn any bridges for the future. For the sake of simplicity, he eventually decides to use a standard letter.

He wants to find out more about three companies, and composes a personalised letter for each of these: Daimler, Porsche and BMW. He sets aside two days which fit into his schedule: the 23rd and 24th of March. To BMW, for example, he would write: “Dear Sir/Madam, I am pleased to advise that you have made it to the shortlist. We will meet at Albert-Einstein-Straße 17 in Stuttgart at 9am on 23 March for a personal interview” etc. He encloses a map with directions.

Mr Kanter from BMW accepts the appointment and arrives at Albert-Einstein-Straße 17 (Thomas’ house) on the dot of 9am on the 23rd of March. Thomas is not alone. His wife is there, as is a good friend and his mother. And that makes sense, because, ultimately, Thomas doesn’t want to make the decision on his own; he also values the opinions of those closest to him.  His mother, in particular, had always provided him with good advice on important life matters. Thomas has made several copies of BMW’s application documents, and each of the participants has a complete set on the table in front of them.

“Did you find your way here ok?”. As he shakes hands, Mr Kanter tries to memorise the names of those present. He learned this from a book he had read by the authors Schröder and Hase, who wrote that this is an advantage. But he still finds it hard.

They get straight to the point, and Mr Kanter is given a grilling. “Tell me a bit about BMW and what it’s like to work there”; “Why is BMW convinced it would be a good employer for me (Thomas)?”; “What are BMW’s greatest weaknesses as an employer?”. Mr Kanter has come well prepared, and knows he must not give honest answers to any questions about BMW’s preference for Catholic employees. But the test he is being put through is unsettling him somewhat. For example, he is asked: “Which colour best reflects your company’s management culture? Yellow, blue, green or purple?”. But Mr Kanter does his best. He chooses blue – it fits the best with Bavaria.

After two hours, the interview is over, and Thomas bids a friendly goodbye to Mr Kanter, who still has a niggling feeling of uncertainty. At no point did Thomas indicate whether the interview was going well or badly. The only thing Mr Kanter did notice was that Thomas’ wife would occasionally place her pencil diagonally on the table, while the others would suddenly appear less interested. But everyone was very friendly the whole way through. Thomas tells Mr Kanter he will get in touch soon. Mr Kanter knows Thomas can’t give an exact date; he has to assume that other companies have also applied. And that all takes time. Mr Kanter doesn’t dare ask about the reimbursement of travel expenses, but that’s not a problem – it can be discussed later on.

Three weeks later, he still hasn’t heard back. This doesn’t initially appear to be a problem. But after six weeks, the long awaited email arrives.

In the end, Thomas chooses Porsche. Mr Kanter from BMW and the friendly lady from Daimler  receive a letter of refusal. In many ways, Thomas also feels bad about the rejections, and writes in his email that he found BMW and Daimler to be highly attractive, but that he had to make a decision. He offers to keep in contact, and shows he is serious by sending a contact requests on LinkedIn to Mr Kanter and the Daimler lady. After all, both companies visibly fought hard for him.

On the 30th of April, Thomas sends Porsche a friendly email as follows: “I am pleased to advise that we will be working together. Please find attached a draft working contract, which I would ask you to sign by the 14th of May”.