Job interviews in Germany: what to expect and what employers may not ask

The five phases, and the one you can prepare

The Federal Employment Agency describes the German interview in five steps: greeting, small talk, the employer's questions, your own questions, farewell. None of that is law — it is convention, and knowing the running order is half the preparation.

The part most international candidates underestimate is the second one. German recruiters expect you to walk through the stations of your CV out loud and from memory, in order, without reading from the page. The employment agency puts this plainly: practise presenting your CV freely, because in most cases that is what will be asked of you. Prepare your own questions in writing too — arriving with none reads as indifference.

On appearance the agency's rule of thumb is that your clothing should be one class better than what is usual in the job you are applying for, and it names tracksuit bottoms, leggings and hoodies as out. Greet with your full name, make eye contact, and keep the handshake neither crushing nor limp. For the video round that most candidates abroad get first: test the technology beforehand, sort out background and lighting, dress the same as you would in person, and look into the camera rather than at your own image.

What they may ask you, and what they may not

§ 1 of the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) protects seven characteristics: race or ethnic origin, sex, religion or belief, disability, age, and sexual identity. Applicants count as employees for this purpose (§ 6 (1) AGG), so the protection applies before you have any contract. As a rule, employers may not ask questions that touch a protected characteristic directly or indirectly.

Questions about ethnic origin are never acceptable in an interview. The Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency lists the exact wordings it sees most often: Where are you from? Where do your parents come from? You have an interesting name, where are you originally from? Is German your mother tongue? The last one catches many well-meaning interviewers by surprise, because the lawful version sits right next to it: asking what your German is like in speech and writing is fine, as long as the language requirement genuinely relates to the work. Asking whether you hold a work permit is expressly lawful.

One nuance matters for internationals and almost nobody states it clearly: nationality is not itself a protected characteristic under § 1 AGG. The Anti-Discrimination Agency says so in a documented counselling case — a man was asked about his nationality and then rated unsuitable, and the agency's answer was that the question is not banned as such. It becomes unlawful indirect discrimination under § 3 (2) AGG when it is really aimed at your ethnic origin. In practice: an employer who asks about your residence status because a visa procedure is coming is on solid ground, while an employer who asks where you originally come from is not.

Anything about family planning is off the table. Pregnancy, children, the wish for children, marital status, your partner's job, who you live with, whether you care for relatives — all of it is out, and the pregnancy question stays unlawful even where the vacancy is maternity cover or where health and safety rules would bar a pregnant woman from the work anyway. What employers may ask instead is your willingness to work overtime, to travel, or to take evening appointments.

Health questions follow the same logic. A blanket how is your health? is not allowed; a question tied to what the job actually demands is. The Anti-Discrimination Agency's own examples of a legitimate interest are alcohol dependency in bus drivers or pilots, and it recommends that employers describe the required tasks and then ask whether you can perform them. Severe disability is a special case: for public employers, § 165 SGB IX requires that severely disabled applicants be invited to an interview at all, with the only exception being that professional aptitude is obviously lacking. Private employers have no such duty.

If a question crosses the line

You have two rights here, and they surprise people: you may decline to answer, and you may answer untruthfully. The Anti-Discrimination Agency states both, and adds that an unlawful question is on its own enough of an indication of discrimination that under § 22 AGG the burden of proof shifts to the employer.

Being asked is not rare. In the agency's 2018 survey of 976 people who had attended at least one interview in the preceding years, the shares who were asked about a given topic were: age 52 %, marital status 37 %, nationality 28 %, whether German is their mother tongue 18 %, religion 15 %, severe disability 14 %, the wish to have children 8 %, and — among the 534 women in the sample — pregnancy 6 %. Sexual orientation was at 1 %.

The honest answer on how to handle it: do not litigate the question in the room. Give the shortest answer that keeps you in the process, or steer back to the task — an interviewer asking where you are originally from is usually clumsy rather than hostile, and a lecture costs you the fifteen minutes you came for. Write down afterwards what was asked, by whom, and when. Then decide with a clear head, because the deadlines are short.

What the law offers if you decide the question cost you the job: § 15 (1) and (2) AGG give damages and compensation for non-material loss. The often-quoted ceiling of three months' salary is narrower than it sounds — it applies where you would not have been hired even in a discrimination-free selection. § 15 (6) is blunt: a breach never gives you a claim to the job itself. You must assert the claim in writing within two months, counted from the moment the rejection reaches you (§ 15 (4)), and then file within three months of that written assertion (§ 61b (1) ArbGG). We cannot advise on an individual case — that is legal advice, which German law reserves for lawyers — so take it to an employment lawyer or the Anti-Discrimination Agency's counselling service, and do it in the first of those two months, not the last.

Who pays for you to be there

There is no statute that says employers must reimburse applicants. The labour courts get there by analogy: an invitation creates a relationship similar to a mandate under §§ 662, 670 BGB, so the employer owes the expenses you were entitled to consider necessary. In practice that covers the journey and, where the distance makes an overnight stay unavoidable, the hotel. Flights are the exception — agree those in advance in writing, and expect nothing for the time you invested.

So ask before you book, not after. An employer who does not intend to pay will normally say so in the invitation, and that sentence is worth more to you than any assumption. For candidates still abroad the question rarely arises at the first stage, because the first round is almost always a video call; it becomes real for a second round or a trial day.

The paperwork that decides whether your visa moves

A verbal yes at the end of the conversation is worth nothing to a consulate. § 18 (2) Nr. 1 AufenthG requires a concrete job offer, and Nr. 4a requires that you and the employer both assure the authorities that the work will actually be performed. The instrument for both is a single form: the Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis of the Federal Employment Agency, version 02/2024, five pages, sections A to L. Your employer completes it, and it goes to the German mission abroad or the immigration office.

It asks for far more than a job title. Section D wants the start date, whether the contract is permanent or fixed-term, and a precise description of the work; sections E and F cover your qualification and, where the profession is regulated, the licence to practise; then come working time, overtime, holiday entitlement, and pay — including whether the employer is bound by a collective agreement under § 3 or § 5 TVG. Your employment contract itself only has to be produced if the mission or the immigration office separately asks for it. Going through that form with an employer line by line before it is filed is part of what we do for candidates at no cost, since employers pay our fee.

The detail worth carrying into the salary conversation: § 39 (2) Nr. 1 AufenthG lets the employment agency approve your job only if you are not employed on worse terms than comparable domestic employees. The figures you agree verbally are the ones that later get checked on paper. An employer can also apply for advance approval (Vorabzustimmung) with this same form and send you the result to take to your visa appointment.

Two duties fall on the employer, not on you, and knowing them tells you whether the company has done this before: under § 4a (5) AufenthG they must check your residence title, keep a copy for as long as you are employed, and notify the immigration office within four weeks if the job ends early. An employer who has never heard of the Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis is not necessarily a bad employer — but you will be the one explaining the procedure to them.

Talking about money

German employers think in annual gross salary, not monthly net. Name a monthly take-home figure and you will confuse the conversation.

You may have read that you can now demand the pay range before the interview. Article 5 of Directive (EU) 2023/970 does provide exactly that, together with a ban on asking applicants about their current pay — but member states had to transpose it by 7 June 2026, and Germany let that date pass. In July 2026 the federal government told parliament that preparations had been made and the legislative procedure would follow, without naming a date. Until a German law exists, you cannot rely on the directive in a German interview.

So anchor yourself instead: take the median for your occupation in your target federal state from the employment agency's Entgeltatlas and place yourself between the median and the upper quartile. If your route has a salary threshold — the EU Blue Card does — check that the offer clears it before you agree to anything, because the immigration office will.