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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.

ralfd 4y ago
To a German such boasting would sound like you are an embellishing loudmouth who at best likes to sniff his own farts and at worst makes stories up. Would you want a Zapp Brannigan as a colleague? Such stories can be better told in the personal interview, where the recruiter can judge the validity better.
spoonjim 4y ago
Cultural norms around tooting one's own horn vary widely, but the United States is a far end of the "toot away" spectrum (with Israel and some parts of Central America)
newswasboring 4y ago
I am not sure about German companies but I'm almost always sceptical of these claims. It might be that I have always worked in high tech manufacturing industry and any person making a "single handedly" claim is lying. You may have come up with the algorithm, but someone made the system to deploy it, someone made available all the data, someone else made the dashboard library which you built upon. Making these kind of claims are at best selfish and at worst stealing credit.
camillomiller 4y ago
It's a cultural difference. You would be seen as someone who sells themselves too strongly. There's also a general disbelief around extreme individualism. You can't possibly have done all that alone, you still had a network of people around you. And even if you were indeed instrumental to reaching that goal, boasting like that shows that you are not a good sport that acknowledges colleagues and carry them along and up. 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.
- sneak 4y ago
  What you said is true about the way people there emotionally process things. 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.
  - toxik 4y ago
    You can boast with true statements. "I lifted 100 kg, and it was no big deal." Contrast that with "By maintaining a workout program I managed to work up to lifting 100 kg without issue." It is about the tone and the "spin" if you will.
    - kuboble 4y ago
      And which one is better in your opinion?
  - DoughnutHole 4y ago
    When every CV is embellished to the extreme there's no way of distinguishing the superstars from the braggarts. 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.
  - camillomiller 4y ago
    Oh yeah, I agree. I'm not claiming that it can't be true that one person alone might be instrumental to a big change or a breakthrough in companies. It's the way you present it that wouldn't fly. 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.
krageon 4y ago
It's braggy and reeks of narcissism. It's also probably not true.
onion2k 4y ago
From a UK perspective rather than German, but it's basically impossible to verify and almost certainly a team effort if it's real. We tend to frown on people claiming credit for things that they didn't actually do themselves. We can be quite cynical.

ralfd 4y ago

To a German such boasting would sound like you are an embellishing loudmouth who at best likes to sniff his own farts and at worst makes stories up. Would you want a Zapp Brannigan as a colleague? Such stories can be better told in the personal interview, where the recruiter can judge the validity better.

spoonjim 4y ago

Cultural norms around tooting one's own horn vary widely, but the United States is a far end of the "toot away" spectrum (with Israel and some parts of Central America)

newswasboring 4y ago

I am not sure about German companies but I'm almost always sceptical of these claims. It might be that I have always worked in high tech manufacturing industry and any person making a "single handedly" claim is lying. You may have come up with the algorithm, but someone made the system to deploy it, someone made available all the data, someone else made the dashboard library which you built upon. Making these kind of claims are at best selfish and at worst stealing credit.

camillomiller 4y ago

It's a cultural difference. You would be seen as someone who sells themselves too strongly. There's also a general disbelief around extreme individualism. You can't possibly have done all that alone, you still had a network of people around you. And even if you were indeed instrumental to reaching that goal, boasting like that shows that you are not a good sport that acknowledges colleagues and carry them along and up. 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.

sneak 4y ago
What you said is true about the way people there emotionally process things. 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.
- toxik 4y ago
  You can boast with true statements. "I lifted 100 kg, and it was no big deal." Contrast that with "By maintaining a workout program I managed to work up to lifting 100 kg without issue." It is about the tone and the "spin" if you will.
  - kuboble 4y ago
    And which one is better in your opinion?
- DoughnutHole 4y ago
  When every CV is embellished to the extreme there's no way of distinguishing the superstars from the braggarts. 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.
- camillomiller 4y ago
  Oh yeah, I agree. I'm not claiming that it can't be true that one person alone might be instrumental to a big change or a breakthrough in companies. It's the way you present it that wouldn't fly. 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.

krageon 4y ago

It's braggy and reeks of narcissism. It's also probably not true.

onion2k 4y ago

From a UK perspective rather than German, but it's basically impossible to verify and almost certainly a team effort if it's real. We tend to frown on people claiming credit for things that they didn't actually do themselves. We can be quite cynical.