Graduates from the Department of German Studies enter a wide range of jobs: management training, marketing, advertising, public relations, legal services, accountancy, sales, finance, translation, media and arts management and education. Some are employed in pan-European organisations, both in the UK and Germany, where their language and intercultural skills are valued. Each year, a proportion of graduates go onto further academic study or work towards professional qualifications, for example, in law, teaching, translation, speech and hearing therapy or public policy.

To link through to the German Studies page of Student Careers and Skills, click here.

Amy MacDonald

BA in English and German Litearture, graduated in 2012.

I think it's safe to say my 4 years at Warwick were some of the best of my life. As someone who had never lived away from home, spending a year living in Germany in my third year was an entirely new experience, made so much smoother by the support of the German department staff. The mid-year check-in at Schloss Dhaun was such a highlight and emphasized how much impact the year had had not only on our language skills but on our personal and social development!

When I graduated from Warwick, I started on the Merchandising and Buying Graduate Scheme at TK Maxx based in their Duesseldorf office. I started as an Allocation Analyst and within a year and a half worked my way up to Assistant Merchandiser, with the hope of transitioning into buying within the next year. The language skills learnt both in our small language classes and during the year abroad as well as the cultural aspect of the course definitely played a huge role in my decision to move to Germany after graduation and made that transition much easier and without the year abroad and support of my teachers, I would have never had the confidence to apply for a graduate job in Germany and spend my post-student years living and working as a professional there.

Lucy Giuliano

BA French and German, graduated 2011

Shortly after graduating from Warwick with a degree in French and German, I moved to China to work as a teaching assistant at The British School of Beijing. It was my degree at Warwick which prepared me both academically and mentally to be able to not only initially contemplate moving abroad, but also to cope with living and working in a new and different culture and begin learning Mandarin Chinese. During my time at Warwick I enjoyed many opportunities to learn a lot about the cultures in both France and Germany and my existing knowledge was expanded further during my year abroad. As I studied two languages I was lucky enough to spend time living in two countries and it was this experience which made me really want to live, and also teach, abroad after having worked as a language assistant in both France and Germany. My experience as a teaching assistant thus far in Beijing has been simply incredible and I believe that the skills and experience I gained from my degree have been invaluable in my ability to adapt to a very different, and extremely fast-paced lifestyle here in China. Next year I hope to return to Europe, in particular Switzerland, to once again work in the field of teaching.

Charlotte Galpin

BA French and German Studies, graduated 2008

After graduating, I spent 6 months in Hamburg doing an internship at KERN AG, Global Languages Services where I worked as a translator/proof-reader and received training in project management. This gave me a great opportunity to experience business and working life in Germany after my Erasmus year abroad and learn a lot about the translation industry. After this, I returned to the UK and continued to work full-time as a freelance translator for Kern and a number of other translation companies.

Following this, I completed an MA in European Integration at the University of Birmingham while continuing to translate part-time. I have just started my PhD funded by the DAAD at the Institute for German Studies at Birmingham. My project is entitled "European Identities? Signs of EU Citizenship in the UK, Germany and Poland" and looks at the importance of identity for the development of active citizenship and participation in EU democracy. I am also project assistant on the IGS's three-year interdisciplinary project "Zeitgeist: What does it mean to be German in the 21st century?" I am thoroughly enjoying being back in academia and am excited to have contact with the German Studies world once again.

Peggitty Pollard-Davey

BA English and German Literature, graduated 2008

Among other things, since graduation I've been back to work in Germany, done an internship with a national health and social care organisation and worked on the 2009 European Elections. Since 2008 I've also worked at Richmond Theatre in London. In September '09, I started at SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies) in London, studying for a Diploma in Arabic."

James Taylor

BA English and German Literature, graduated 2008

Since graduating I have been working for the Vintage Sports-Car Club, based in Chipping Norton, Oxon, organising competitive and social motoring events around the UK. These range from smaller club events like trials and rallies through to big scale race meetings at venues such as Silverstone and Donington, where we hosted the last meeting before the circuit closed. The Club has a worldwide membership of close to 10,000 vintage car owners and enthusiasts, for whom we produce monthly newsletters, quarterly magazines in addition to our events calendar; in 2009 (the Club's 75th Anniversary of the Club) we put on close to 50 individual events, including a weeklong celebration based around the Three Counties Region.

Victoria McNaney

BA in German with French, graduated 2007.

I finished my undergrad at Warwick in 2007 and joined the Warwick PGCE. It was fantastic and I gained some great experience. In December 2007 I went for my first interview at King Henry VIII School in Coventry and landed the job. I've been there since, teaching German and French to 11-18 year olds and am really enjoying it. I have been on some amazing trips with the school already and in October this year will be taking part in an environmental challenge trip to South Africa. I know teaching isn't the most interesting path to have taken with a language degree but it has certainly already been fun filled and diverse.  

David Flemming

BA in German Studies, graduated 2007

After completing my degree at Warwick I went on to study for an MA in Transnational Studies at Southampton University where I developed my interests in language, historical memory and transnational cinema outside of the German context and focused my research on the effects of globalisation on migration, multi-lingualism and identity, particularly in Africa. My ambition was to pursue a career in international development and I was very fortunate to get offered a position with a consultancy firm in Brighton called ITAD, which specialises in monitoring and evaluation of development programmes in Sub-Saharan African and South-East Asia. I began in an administrative post working in business development but very quickly got involved in project work, which brought the opportunity to work in South Sudan on a conflict prevention and peace-building evaluation shortly before the referendum for independence.

I have been with ITAD now for nearly 3 years, have recently married and am currently manager of the business development team where I lead on the proposal writing process and developing our strategy for portfolio development, meeting clients and partners, attending conferences and seminars and generally trying to keep on top of current development debates. I also remain involved in consultancy assignments and will be off to Nepal soon to conduct an evaluation of the British government's new overseas volunteering programme.

I feel that the skills and knowledge that I learnt back in the German Studies days were absolutely invaluable for getting me to where I am today. Although today languages other than German are important for working in international development (unless you are working for example on an integration project of Namibia's small German-speaking population!), the holistic education given to me by my BA – which involved understanding Germany and its relationship to the rest of the world through the lenses of history, politics, culture and identity - was a perfect stepping stone to a career that inherently requires an inter-disciplinary understanding of and outlook on the world.

Melanie Fillmore

BA German Studies, graduated 2007

 My first job after leaving Warwick was as PA for the Board of Directors at Lidl UK, whose Head Office is in Wimbledon. I had a two hour interview, much of which was in German to check my credentials for the bilingual job, and worked there for three years. Written and especially spoken German came in very useful as you never knew who would be at the other end of the telephone or who you would have to write to that day! The Directors - two German and one British - constantly flitted between German and English, so it was important to be on the ball whatever language they decided to speak to you in. The job was very varied and interesting but not busy enough for me and had no room for progression as I was already working for the “top dogs”, so I decided to pursue another opportunity.

My current job is working for the Tax and Finance Directors and their teams (a total of sixteen people – the most of all the PAs in the company!) at Apax Partners, a Private Equity house based in Mayfair. The high calibre of my education certainly helped secure me the job, and my boss commented that my passion when talking about what I had enjoyed during my degree was one of the reasons I was chosen. Although I don’t have to use my German every day, I am the only PA in the company who can speak both languages and I am regularly called on to translate presentations and recently even legal documents and share purchase agreements on behalf of other departments. The new Finance Director is German and works between Munich and London, so I am in regular communication with her PA and speaking German definitely helps! The job is hectic and the hours sometimes long, but I absolutely love it and see that things will only get better in the future – my next ambition will be to work for the more senior Directors here.

Stacey Ives

BA French & German, graduated in 2007

In September 2007 I started a PGCE at Southampton Uni. I enjoyed many aspects of teaching but in January 2008 I decided it wasn't the right career for me, so I quite the course, moved back to my parents and started the job hunt. I got the first job I applied for: Training Administrator at Red Hat. Red Hat is the world Open Source leader more info:http://www.redhat.com/about/) My role as Training Administrator involved coordinating the logistics of running technical training courses and exams- enrolling people, taking payment, emailing confirmation, liaising with room providers, caterers etc etc. I was responsible for UK market but first back up for France and Germany if my colleagues were unavailable (yes, I had to answer the phone in French and German and it's not as scary as you might think!) Red Hat also paid for me to do a GCSE in Italian so I could cover for my Italian colleague. After I'd found my feet I started to think 'where am I going'? Admin is a great place to start because you experience many areas of business but I didn't see a career for myself in Admin. I got involved in lots of projects, spoke to lots of people and found I really enjoyed Marketing. And don't think it was easy (I had to really push for it) but in October 2009 my job title changed to Marketing Specialist EMEA Training and now instead of coordinating the logistics of the training courses I promote them- via our websites (in 5 languages), newsletters, catalogues, brochures, exhibitions/ events and promotions. Marketing is such an interesting place to be- you meet such creative, individual people and you get given quite a lot of freedom to be innovative and creative. Red Hat is also paying for me to do a Chartered Institute of Marketing Virtual Training Professional Certificate in Marketing, starting 1st Feb. And the big plus is I'm being relocated to Munich on 1st March, so I'll get to speak much more German.

My main advice is:

1) Don't go into teaching just because you don't know what else to do! You have to *really* love what you're doing; otherwise it will make you very unhappy.

2) If you don't know what you want to do but think you might like business in some form, get an admin job, just check it's with a company that will support you to progress once you're ready to.

3) Don't disregard jobs just because you think you won't use your languages enough. Think about the other skills you've gained from your degree, and how you can use those, your German skills probably aren't your only, or biggest, asset. You can always find ways to speak German if you want to (German colleagues, maybe a chance for relocation, local Stammtische etc etc).

Katie Morris

German with French, graduated 2007

I spent my year abroad working for Siemens in Munich and studying at Konstanz University. When I graduated I spent six months travelling on a round the world ticket, on my return I worked in a pub, did some sales work for Nike and made frequent trips down to London to interview for a range of jobs (Headhunting, recruitment consultancy, management consultancy) before deciding that what I really wanted to do was manage people, and where possible do this in a German environment or, at least, for a German company. I applied for a range of management schemes and eventually interviewed for Aldi in July 2008 and within two weeks had the job, which I started in February 2009.

Richard Bostock

BA, graduated 2006

I'm working for BMW in Munich now doing HR Planning, Steering and Reporting. I started with the company doing a 3 month placement at our Engine Plant in Coleshill following my degree (I started two weeks before graduation, I think) which came about after Erica Carter asked if anyone was interested in doing a project for someone she knew at BMW. That placement was extended to six months and after that had finished I was lucky enough to get a job at the MINI Plant (part of BMW Group) in Oxford where I spent three very happy years. Now I'm settling back into life in Germany and loving every minute so far!

Natalie Watson

German Studies graduated 1999 

I was completely unsure what to do when I graduated. All I did know was that London and the world of finance wasn't for me and so the Milk Round events didn't help much!

I found a job working as a Project Manager for a small translation agency and worked there for 2 years. I basically managed translation jobs that companies such as UPS and Honda needed translating into several different languages (their publicity material, brochures etc). This meant that I came into contact (via e-mail and phone) with lots of people all over Europe who did the translations for us. I then edited and proof-read work.

I then decided to leave to go travelling for a year - something I'd always wanted to do but when I had a bit of money behind me. I then spent a few years feeling very unsure about the direction I wanted to head in.

After a few years of mind-numbing jobs to get by, I decided to bite the bullet and go back to uni to do my PGCE for secondary language teaching. A year's course with study and practical experience within the classroom. It was strange going back to uni and writing essays again, but I thoroughly enjoyed being in school. (Although teaching is something I never really considered doing as a career when I first left uni). When I did my year abroad as an assistant, a lot of the teachers suggested I try teaching as a career - but my response was "no way!"

I am now in my fourth year of teaching. I teach German and French to GCSE (because most Hampshire schools don't offer Sixth Form). Every day is different!... like being on a rollercoaster. Although people say that the holidays are great, I would say it's not a job to go into half-heartedly!

I enjoy the challenge of trying to inspire my students to get enthusiastic about languages but all the pressure on teachers to reach ridiculous targets is tough! If teaching is something that you have considered, it's worth having a go - but it's definitely not a stop gap - or something you should go into just because you're not sure what else to do! I know a few people that have done that and then they realised that your heart has to be in it!  

Jackie Novels

English and German Literature, graduated 1999 

After graduating, I trained as a journalist and worked for local newspapers and national magazines. My job also included radio and TV work, and one of the highlights of my career was being asked to judge the international ironing Olympics. I then moved over to the dark side of PR, and worked both in-house and at a PR agency. I currently work in PR and marketing for life insurer AXA.  

Dr. Amanda Barton

English and German Literature, graduated 1991 

I completed a PGCE course the year after in German, French and TESL and went on to teach in a secondary school in Staffordshire. After three years I came back to Warwick to take up a post as Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Language Centre. This involved teaching German to undergraduates on university-wide language programmes as well as members of the public registered on a Language Centre course. The Assistantship paid my fees for a PhD in Education which I completed in 1999. This investigated the effectiveness of single-sex groups in teaching languages to boys. Alongside the PhD and my teaching in the Language Centre I also taught in two secondary schools in Coventry and worked as the Editorial Administrator on an academic journal, 'Gender and Education'.

I am currently Lecturer in Education at the University of Manchester. I teach on the PGCE in languages and my research is focused on the teaching of languages in primary school. The second edition of my book for language teachers, 'Getting the Buggers into Languages' was published in 2006 and I lead workshops with teachers on raising achievement in language learning, including working with teachers in Australia in 2008. Having had my second child I opted to return to work on a 0.6 basis and do some work on a consultancy basis.

Esther Higdon

English and German literature, graduated 1986 

After graduating, I pottered around doing voluntary work for 6 months as in the old days you were able to enter certain employment if you had been unemployed for 6 months! After several years of community development work, I entered the NHS in order to promote physical activity. While working for the NHS I undertook 2 postgraduate courses and am now doing a Masters at Warwick Medical School - so study need never end. I am currently working as Healthy Weight Coordinator in Coventry.

Carmel Gardner  

German Studies with History and Business Studies Options, graduated 1985 

In 1984 I spent year in Trier on the German/Luxembourg border at the University as my year abroad. I loved Trier so much that during my final year I applied to all the German Wine Companies in that area I could find via the Tourist Board (no internet in those days!) to do an Apprenticeship in Vini-and Viticulture as I was interested in a career in the Wine Trade. I was accepted by “Die Verwaltung der Bischöflichen Weingüter” in Trier and started in September ’85 for a year. I did everything from tying up the vines in January (freezing cold, 8 hours a day hanging from a rope on the steeper slopes!), to assisting at tastings (the good bit!). I really enjoyed my apprenticeship, especially the part where I had to give talks to the English-speaking wine clubs which used to visit on tours (the Sunday Times Wine Club was a regular). I realised however, that I preferred talking and tasting to actually making the wine so after my year was finished, I came back to the UK to look for work where I could use my language skills but also make a career out of talking!

From 1986 I got administrative work with The Industrial Society who were extremely generous at allowing staff to sit in on all the programmes they ran so long as we could get our work done. I sat in on everything from Leadership to Project Management and was eventually allowed to start running some basic training programmes myself. I then worked for a number of organisations in London and the South Midlands in Training Officer and Training Manager roles. One of the organisations I worked for was a holiday company which meant I got to travel all over the world and, best of all, to run programmes in German and French! I also completed the ITD (as it was called then!), Diploma in Training Management in 1991 and qualified as an NLP Master Practitioner more recently.

In 1994 I set up my own Management Development and Business Training Company and have been very fortunate to be invited to run programmes for International Organisations such as Mars, Cable & Wireless, Standard Life, Levi’s Jeans and Sun Microsystems in German in Germany – speaking fluent German has definitely been an advantage in winning contracts with global organisations. Today I work with a great team of Training Professionals who have a whole range of training and language skills between them so that we can offer what we do in most parts of Europe and sometimes further afield.

One of the best things about German Studies with the Business Studies option is that I have drawn on my degree many many times in my professional life and still have my old business studies folders which I refer to from time to time!

 info@cgtcdevelopment.com

 www.cgtcdevelopment.com

Julie Johnson

German Studies 

I met my husband on my year abroad – that was more than 20 years ago now! He decided to study in the UK and got a place to study Film and Media at Stirling.

I wrote about 50 job applications having finished studying at Warwick to find that a single German Studies Degree was not at all what employers were looking for! I then went up to Stirling, registered unemployed and moved in to my German boyfriend’s student accommodation and started looking for jobs.

In the first week of semester I gate-crashed a reception for foreign students to which my boyfriend (now husband) was invited. There I met John Forty, the rector, who came to Stirling from Warwick and then Ian Gow, Professor of Japanese Studies and he persuaded me to take the one last place on the DTI-sponsored graduate Diploma in Japanese Studies. After this course employers were interested in me! I went on to do an MSc and then worked part time as a Research Assistant and part time on the Japan Business Services Unit at the University of Stirling for a few years.

We then moved to Germany. Here the Arbeitsamt told me that I was overqualified but not suitable for any job in Germany. I could expect to find work only as a cleaner. In fact, it wasn’t that hard. I worked for 4 years for a local printing company in account management. It was interesting, as I had customers and suppliers all over the world. Ten years ago I was then head-hunted to start work for my current company Baier & Schneider (www.brunnen.de ). I work in purchasing stationery and other consumer goods from the Far East. I get to travel to China and India regularly and am just involved in a new project of integrating and consolidating the buying activities of a Swiss company we have recently taken over.

 

Matthew Jarman 

I would like to say that I have found my German invaluable since leaving Warwick. I returned straight back to Munich after graduation, and worked for Siemens AG for close to 5 years. Since then, I have worked for a number of different companies back here in the UK, each time finding use for my German-speaking skills. I think the time spent learning about and understanding another country and culture – particularly in mainland Europe – has meant that I have a lot more insight and respect for issues that some of my non-foreign language-speaking colleagues have shown. I could list a load of projects where I have dealt with German businesses, but the thing that gives me the most pleasure is helping the odd German-speaking tourist when they are trying to find their way around London. Their reaction tends to be the most rewarding of all.

 

Amy Jessica Pirt

Since leaving Warwick, I've done the whole spectrum: care work, teaching, freelance journalism, translation, market research....I could go on. Whilst I'm certainly not representative of your average Warwick graduate in terms of career success, it might be useful to hear me speak to give a 'reality check'! We all know what sort of job market this year's graduates are facing and, as such, I might be able to offer some useful advice.

On a more positive note, for the past 18 months, I have worked at Waterstone's and I absolutely love it. I have progressed from probationary bookseller to senior bookseller and accounts manager. The pay is not amazing, but in terms of benefits and opportunities, it is a great company for which to work. In comparison to somewhere like Smith's, which has cornered the 'cheap books and chocolate' market, customers come into my store and expect a wealth of literary knowledge. Considering the range of specialisms amongst my colleagues, they are rarely disappointed. For example, my manager is an economics graduate, I studied English and German, and my other colleagues can count law, history of art, psychology and Spanish as their specialisms.

 

Jennifer Seward

I have been in Publishing since I left uni. I did not know what I wanted to do when I finished, so I applied for various different things. People presumed I would be a teacher because I had studied languages, but I wanted to do something different and am happy to say I ended up in Publishing. I am very lucky that the company I had my first proper job with is a really good, friendly place to work with great people and 4 years later I am still at the same place, but in a different role. I started out as an Editorial Assistant, which is one of the starter positions in publishing. One thing I learned whilst applying for jobs was that although I had a degree I still had to start at the bottom in the work place and relevant work experience counted for as much as having a good degree and A levels etc. I am currently a Development Editor and my job involves developing books from contract signature to manuscript delivery, to ensure that they are appropriate for the market and are produced within budget and on schedule.