A job applicant with a master’s degree in German language and literature shared his frustration after being rejected by a major German company solely because he was not a native German speaker. Despite his qualifications and experience, the applicant was rejected during the HR interview.“Within a minute, she said my German was not good enough, so I didn’t stand a chance,” he wrote.
When asked for clarification, the recruiter hesitated before suggesting the applicant apply for roles in his home country or English-speaking teams. After further probing, they admitted only native speakers were deemed proficient enough.
The job mainly required writing technical reports in English and attending German-language meetings, making the strict language requirement especially surprising.
The post struck a chord with others, including one user who shared a similar experience with Russian. “I’m not native, but I lived in Russian-speaking countries for years and have a degree in it. I worked for the UN in Russian-speaking roles and had the certification of language proficiency,” the commenter explained. Despite proving their fluency and passing all language tests, they too were rejected due to a non-native status.
A user added, “Sounds like discrimination on the basis of nationality. She knew what she was doing. You caught her.”
One user noted, “Germans can be extremely discriminatory and they don’t see an issue with it. People who think US has discrimination problems, they haven’t seen Europe and it’s not just Germany.”
