Frequently Asked Questions

  • Application deadlines vary. As long as the opening is listed, you can apply for it at any time. We suggest an unsolicited application be submitted three to four months before your availability date.

  • You can apply online from the job announcement page, which contains the “Apply" button. We prefer to receive online applications, unless otherwise specified in the announcement.

  • We are happy to answer your questions regarding the position. Feel free to use the contact data provided in the job announcement.

  • We request that you provide us with your full application documents. These should include the following as a minimum:

    Cover Letter

    We want to know from you what your motivation is in applying for this job and what expectations you have of us and also your future plans. Describe what knowledge and abilities you possess that may be relevant for your career aspirations and tell us something about yourself. We would appreciate it if you would also provide us an application photo (electronic).

     

    CV/Resume

    Your resume should reflect your previous job experience. A clear presentation helps us to form a picture of your qualifications and who you are. For this reason, your resume should contain the most important information about your education and professional experience, in addition to your talents and skills. If some cases, you may want to share additional information with us so that we can get to know you better. Tabular CVs seem quite appropriate to us.

     

    Achievements and Professional Certificates

    Transcripts and testimonials for all relevant stages of your CV should be enclosed. These usually include school transcripts and certificates of training and perhaps performance evaluations from your previous employers.

     

    Samples of Your Work/Publications

    If you are applying for a scientific position and have already been published, we are interested in a list of your previous publications.

  • Confirmation of Receipt

    You will be sent an automated confirmation via e-Mail after we receive your application package. Your application documents will then be reviewed by the personnel department and the respective technical department. We make every effort to reach a prompt decision. In individual cases, however, this may take several weeks.

     

    Interview

    If your application seems promising to us, we will invite you to a personal interview. As a rule, the interview lasts one hour and is conducted directly with the respective technical department. Possibly, a representative from the personnel department will also attend. We inform you in advance about all other interview participants and their functions.

    In the interview, we want to get to know you better and learn more about you and your qualifications. Of course, we also want you to learn more about us. Please allow us to answer all your questions.

     

    Contract Agreement

    After the interview, we will inform you as soon as possible of our decision. If you receive an offer from us and choose to accept it, a contract agreement will be drafted on this basis.

  • The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft observes the regulations laid out in the German Federal Data Protection Act. For more details, please see our data protection declaration, which you will be shown if you send us your application online.

  • After six months at the latest we will anonymise your information. Anonymised data records are then kept purely for statistical evaluation purposes. You are free to withdraw your application and also to delete your profile from the job market at any time. By applying you agree with our Privacy Policy Statement.

  • Processing an application depends on many factors. Unfortunately, there is no generally valid time frame for this process.

  • Information about our travel policies is included with your invitation for a job interview.

  • Please contact the person listed on the job announcement.

  • If you do not find a suitable job among the current announcements, we also look forward to receiving your unsolicited application online at: jobs.fraunhofer.de[only available in German]. If you are interested in several institutes, please apply separately to each Fraunhofer-Institute.

  • There may not be any job openings at present that interest you. In such cases, we suggest you establish a so called Job Alert on our website. Just enter your e-Mail address and a password.