In this episode, we talk with Kirsten Schmiester from the Welcome Service here at the Freie Universität Berlin. We learn about how the Welcome Service team can help international researchers coming to the Freie Universität and the highlights of what you need to know when you arrive in Berlin as an international student. Note: This episode focuses on doctoral students who have employment contracts with the FU Berlin. In an upcoming episode, we’ll hear more about resources and support for international doctoral students who aren’t employed through the university.

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Highlights

„… because like we obviously coming from my own experience, I’ve lived abroad, I know what it’s like to start over in a new country, and not really know what’s going on. So we know how valuable it is to have someone who can, a translate things, but then also explain them, and just be able to be like, man, maybe you should do this or that, or just sort of help you along the way“

„… So I think that also just, it’s a big step that you’ve taken moving to a new country. And so be gentle with yourself and take the time. And yeah, acknowledge the magnitude of the step that you’ve taken to move to a different country. Like obviously have fun, but also maybe take a step back at some point and be gentle with yourself.“

from our interview with Kirsten Schmeister

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Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome! My name is Amanda Wichert and I’ll be your host for this episode of the Dahlem Research School Podcast. In this episode we are going to be talking to Kirsten Schmeister. She is from the welcome service of the Freie Universität Berlin and she’s going to be telling us some tips and important information for international doctoral researchers who are coming to the Freie Universität Berlin from abroad. So I’m really excited to hear what Kirsten has to say – let’s get started!

If you could introduce yourself and tell us your name and a little bit about what you do at the Freie Universität…

Hi, my name is Kirsten Schmeister. I work at the Welcome Service at Freie Universität and we support new staff members while they settle in Germany in Berlin and at our university. And that obviously also includes anyone who’s doing a PhD at who’s also employed.

So I would like to start by asking you a little bit about what you guys offer. So could you tell us a little bit about what services you offer and what you do for incoming new employees?

Yeah. Absolutely. So our service actually starts before you even get to Freie Universität. So what we do is we pull the data of anyone joining Freie Universität from our SAP system and then we send everyone a postcard introducing ourselves, or an email if we don’t have your address. And basically, yeah, introducing ourselves and saying that we’re here to help if you have any issues, even before you arrive in Germany, before you sign your contract, cause that’s obviously when you also already start to compile all of the documents that you need for, visa issues, employment documents, et cetera, et cetera. You might also already wanna start looking for an apartment from abroad.

So those are the services that we already offer before you even get to Berlin. And then once you’re here, we’re happy to answer any questions you might have about the employment documents, because those are usually in German, and sometimes a little bit hard to understand. It’s – it’s a very bureaucratic German, so even for someone who’s native in German, they’re difficult, let alone someone who doesn’t speak German very well. So we do that.

We’re happy to accompany to your, just signing, to when you go and sign your contract. We also offer a lot of information for new staff members on our website. Basically everything you need to know is on there, so that’s always a good place to start as well.

We also have – carrying on from our website – an onboarding platform which is only accessible for staff members. So you would need your FU account to access that, but that has a whole lot more information, a couple of videos where other departments introduce themselves. A campus tour that we filmed, things like that.

And then we also offer our events throughout the year. So we do a big welcoming event, usually every November for new staff members. And then we have several information sessions on any sort of topic. Everything from taxes to welcome in for a PhD student specifically. Everything where we notice that there is a demand and that there’s a lot of questions we try and offer information sessions for. Yeah, so that’s pretty much what we do in a nutshell.

Thank you. My next question is, maybe you could imagine I’m starting at the university. I just got a job. I’m a foreign, or an international, employee, and I’ve just started with a PhD. What steps do I need to take to make sure that my start is smooth?

Okay. That’s a big question because there’s a lot of things that you have to do. So usually what will happen when you join Freie Universität, as a staff member is, at some point, HR will get in touch with you. That’s the first thing that’s going to happen.

They’re going to send you a whole lot of, employment documents that I mentioned earlier, that you need to fill in. Those are usually in German. We’re happy to help you fill them in and to translate. You will, depending on where you’re from, you will need to look into, whether or not you need a visa, and a residence permit.

The best place to start is usually on your country’s German Embassy website, or the DAAD or any kind of service like that offers information on entry requirements into the country. Then once you have your visa issue sorted out, you’ll probably get an appointment at the HR department to sign your contract.

You’ll need to bring along all of the forms that they sent you by that time. It would also be good if you had opened a bank account. Which again, we’re happy to advise you on how to do that. That’s also not super simple when you first arrive because most banks will require you to be registered in Berlin, which is another thing that you need to do when you arrive here, is to register at a district office.

You need to look into getting health insurance, that’s really important as well. But HR will also tell you a little bit more about that and whether you should get a private insurance company or a statutory insurance company. That depends on your salary. And then obviously you need somewhere to live, which unfortunately is a bit difficult in Berlin. But Freie Universität has an accommodation service that can support you depending on your status at the university. And we also have a long list of different websites and portals that you can use when looking for an apartment. So those are the main sort of basic things. You need a visa, you need a contract, you need a roof over your head.

Those are a lot of steps and yeah, from personal experience, Germany can be a bit challenging, but it’s great to have you guys as a service cause that means a lot. You mentioned at the beginning that students are, that new employees with PhD contracts have to get a visa. Do you guys offer service or support if they’re not sure how to do that or with navigating that process?

We do to an extent. So we can basically give you some general information about what, type of different visas and, residence permits are out there. But obviously the visa and residence permit, situation can get quite tricky, quite fast depending on, where you’re from, what you’re going to be doing in Germany.

And then we actually have experts in, Freie Universität’s international division, and the welcome center over there for international guest researchers. And sometimes we would refer you, to our colleagues over there because they just have a lot more in-depth knowledge, about visa issues and residents permits, et cetera.

So when you think about working in Germany, I know you mentioned you had experience, living abroad as well. Yeah. About Germany. What is special about working in Germany when you think about paperwork or what are the things that you think someone really needs to know when they come here and work here?

Maybe two things, maybe one that’s a bit more, negative and one that’s more positive. Obviously the, the negative aspect or I guess, yeah, I guess it’s ah it’s just a bit exhausting really. And maybe unexpected for someone who comes from a country where it’s different. But we do love bureaucracy in Germany and there is a lot of paperwork.

And like actual physical paper, like it’s. We’re not very digitalized, unfortunately. So you will probably have to deal with mountains and mountains of actual physical paper, that you need to fill in. And it does sometimes feel like it’s just a lot, that you need to get through before you can even start your position here.

Like you need the residence permit, you need to be registered. All of those things require you to, make an appointment at the immigration office and at the district office. Both of which. Are difficult to get an appointment right now. So that’s a bit of a challenge. But I think once you’ve navigated that, great job.

So that’s something to be prepared for that there’s going to be a lot of bureaucracy, and a lot of paperwork. But maybe one of the positive things of working in Germany is that, We have a very, solid social security system. I think that’s what a lot of people coming from other countries might not be, aware of and are positively surprised.

Actually like we get 30 days of vacation at Freie Universität which I know for anyone coming from America is insane. You get basically unlimited sick days. You have all these like health insurance obviously, but also pension insurance, accident insurance, unemployment insurance. So Germany really does take care of its workforce very well. And you would also obviously benefit from that when working in Germany.

So I had a question. I was just at the PhD retreat last week, and a couple students asked me, I know you said all this, my professor, can’t he just fire me if he doesn’t like me? They kept telling me, oh, I don’t know. Are you sure? And so maybe you can tell us, if you could tell us a little bit about, how much of a risk do I have to get fired as a PhD student? What if my professor, my supervisor, my PI doesn’t like my work and they just let me go?

This is again, from the perspective of you being an employee and having, a full-time contract with Freie Universität.

It’s very hard to get fired. So the first six months of your, contract are a probationary period where it is easier for your employer to, fire you, but it’s it’s a two-way street. It’s also easier for you to leave the employer. So it’s the first six months where you both get to know each other a little bit better.

But basically after you’ve made it through the first six months, it’s very hard to get fired in Germany. So that’s great news as well.

I wanted to ask you a little bit about, a few more things. When you think about working in Germany. What if I, I don’t have a contract. I don’t have a job contract. Is there a benefit to looking for a paid position, as a PhD student? Versus, not having one, especially as an international student?

Sure. Obviously the financial aspect. Yeah. If you’re just doing a PhD and not, having a job, you might. Depending on your financial situation, it might be a little bit difficult.

Obviously getting a job, working somewhere, would help with that. And like I said, you would benefit from all of the Social security, things that we already talked about. So that would be health insurance and all the other insurances, that you would get when working, at Freie Universität, for instance.

So yeah, really there’s a lot of benefits for getting a job.

Yeah. So when we, think about, working at the university, and I know one of the benefits would probably also be that you get to, benefit from these amazing services that you, you mentioned that there’s a lot of, a lot of different things that you can do.

I wanna go back to this finding an apartment. Let’s talk about that a little bit more because yeah. Big thing, what would you say to somebody who came to you and said, I’m stuck. I don’t have an apartment.

Yeah. The first thing I would do is ask them about their status at the university.

So if you’re, an invited guest researcher who already has a PhD, so that might not be applicable for the group that we’re talking to now, but, you could, contact the accommodation service because that is their target group. And they will actively support you in finding an apartment.

If that’s not, or if you don’t fall into that category, they also have a very long list of websites, and portals and, things that you can use when looking, for an apartment yourself. And the other thing that we always tell people is just word of mouth. Just tell everyone you know, that you’re looking for an apartment.

It’s unfortunately gotten very difficult to find an apartment in Berlin or an affordable apartment in Berlin. You would probably get something that’s, like 1,500 euros a month for one tiny room. Yeah. But, yeah, spread the word. Tell everyone, you know at your department, Even if you’re new, obviously like everyone in Berlin or all the berliners know, that’s very difficult to find an apartment here.

So usually if you have some sort of connection, if someone, someone knows someone who knows someone, so just spread the word and tell everyone you know, that you’re looking for an apartment and just stay persistent. I know it’s hard, but you’ll find something eventually.

Yes, that is the, it’s hard. I know we looked for two, two years and Yeah. And, so one question I get a lot is, what is those WBS or WBS next to the, the apartment listings? Wohnberechtigungsschein. Can you tell us a little bit about what that is?

Yeah, exactly. So the WBS is, stands for Wohnberechtigungsschein which basically means if you have, a fairly low income or there’s certain, like income levels, that you need to prove that you’re below that.

And if you are below that and there’s the calculation’s quite. Tricky and quite complicated. But, on the city of Berlin’s website, there’s a calculator where you can put in all of your different sort of source of income and et cetera, and it will calculate for you whether or not you’re eligible.

And if you are, that would actually be really helpful because there is, there’s a lot of sort of social housing apartments. That you can only get with the WBS Schein. So if you do qualify, that will all of a sudden open up a whole lot more apartments that you can view and then potentially get.

So that’s always worth looking into. And just, even if you’re not sure if you qualify, just do the calculator on the City of Berlin’s website. Have a look at it, and if you do, definitely apply for it.

Thanks. So if you are here at the Freie Universität and you have, kids, and you’re an employee, what kind of services or benefits do you know about? Could you share with our listeners about what they can do, or what they can take advantage of?

Yeah. One thing that’s really popular is the Freie Universität has its own kindergarten.

So you could try and apply for a spot there. Usually, kids of employees are, get preferred access, to spots, so that’s, always a good thing and I guess very convenient to have your kid on campus. If you’re working here. And then there’s also, our colleagues over in the dual career and family service, and they support anyone working Freie Universität with any sort of family issues, with being able to combine your job with your family.

They offer different information sessions as well. So I would definitely recommend checking out their website, seeing what they offer, going to some of their events or taking advantage of their services and their offers.

Thank you. You, we mentioned at the beginning you also have international experience, and I would like to ask you just about your experience, you were abroad.

What should someone do if they’re studying abroad or they’re doing a PhD abroad? What kind of skill, strategies or tools do you have? Tips do you have for them to really have a successful experience?

Yeah, that’s such a great question. So I, I’m German, but I grew up in America and in England, and then I studied in England, and came back to Germany, for when I started working.

I just really benefited from getting to know the local people. I think that was really helpful. So obviously this is a slightly different situation, but when I started college in England, I made sure to sign up for all these. Societies, just try and just get to know a lot of people. Be open for new experiences.

That was really helpful. And also to explore the city. Just, go walk around Berlin, take a look at your new city, at your new home. I think that’s really helpful just to get a bit of your, get your bearings, see where you are, within the city, and get to know people and get to know locals if you can.

I know it’s not very easy sometimes. But try and go to some events. Even Freie Universität events, there’s a lot of, open lectures or talks or readings, that anyone who works here or anyone really, I think they’re open for the general public as well, can go to. So that’s a great place to start, to get to know people and to make your first connections.

Do you have any suggestions on how to get to know Germans? And it’s a really question. The international students always ask me this, how do I meet people who are really German? How can I practice my German, any ideas?

I know it’s difficult, but I think, for, to meet German Germans, I would maybe recommend going through the website meetup.

I think there’s a lot of different, events and groups on there as well. You can join different groups depending on what you’re interested in. Just like from personal experience. There’s different groups that you know, where you just Go to the theater together. That’s really fun. Like I’ve done that a couple of times.

And obviously if you would go to a German play, in that instance you would probably meet some local Germans there. Most Germans actually speak English really well, so you might have to force ‚em to speak German with you. That might be an issue. Yeah. But I think Meetup is a really great website to use, to get to know locals.

Thank you. That’s a great suggestion. I get this question a lot, like how do I connect to people who are here? And you also mentioned that the university has a lot of events. Are there any events that are coming up in the next, I’d say Couple of months. Anything that’ll, that you would say that is definitely don’t miss, event at the Freie Universität.

Obviously I’m gonna take this chance to promote our, So the welcome services, welcome day for international PhD candidates that we have coming up on the 25th of May. So that’s a day where, we’re like half a day, it’s like from nine to three o’clock in the afternoon, that we’ve designed specifically for international PhD candidates.

So we have different, doctoral degree offices coming in to talk about. Sort of the administrative process of doing a PhD, what you need to do, what forms you have to fill in, things like that. We have the international division coming in to talk, about potential or exchanges that you could do while you’re a PhD student.

Colleague of mine from who’s based in the HR department, is going to come and talk a little bit more in detail about working in Germany. Some of the things that we already spoke about earlier, a little bit. So social security, visa issues, things like that. And we also made sure to plan in a lot of networking, time during the day where you can get to know other.

International PhD candidates. So that’s a really fun event that I would definitely recommend. And then we also, run monthly campus tours actually at the welcome service, that are, alternating in English and German. And we really usually get a really nice group together there as well. And there’s also a lot of opportunities.

To chat to other colleagues and get to know them as well and make some connections. So yeah, I think we have the next campus tour coming up on 21st of April. So take a look at our website there as well and join us for a tour, which is also just really fun to get to know the Freie Universität Berlin’s history, if you’re not really familiar with that yet.

It’s a really fascinating and turbulent history. Yeah, so those are my two recommendations.

Would definitely, I feel like maybe I should, take one of those tours someday days.

Kirsten Schmiester: Absolutely. Join us.

Is there anything else that I didn’t ask you that I should have asked you, that you think, would be really, interesting to, to our listeners.

Let me have a think. What else is important? A question. This is very, again, very like bureaucratic, technical, working at Freie Universität information or question, but something that we get asked a lot about a lot, because maybe other countries don’t do this or it’s very confusing when you first start, is that is the V B L supplementary pension, scheme.

That, you automatically get enrolled into when you start a position at any sort of public sector, company or anything, in Germany in the public sector, which may hesitate obviously is. And that’s something that people are tend to be a little bit confused about. And that we, answer a lot of questions about.

So the V B L is a supplementary pension scheme, that you automatically get enrolled into when you start your position here. I think it’s about 1.81% of your gross monthly income that would get deducted and put into the pension scheme and higher annual visit would also pay, their share, or they actually pay more than the 1.81%.

However, and this is something that you should really look into if you’re a scientific employee doing a PhD, and you have a temporary contract that lasts less than five years, see this is very technical. You have the option to opt out of the scheme, and that’s sometimes where it gets a little bit confusing, because people aren’t aware of that.

And then maybe if you’re not planning on staying in Germany for very long, it’s not really worth it. And you’re paying into this pension scheme, that you might never use. So that’s something to keep an eye out. Or maybe you decide it can’t be, it’s not too bad to collect a little bit of extra pension.

But definitely take a look at that when you’re going through your employment documents, and see which option is better for you.

And that sounds like there’s just, that’s kind of Germany, right? There’s a lot of, a lot of rules and yeah. Questions. And I think if we take, one, maybe big takeaway is ask questions, about these Yes.

Things. Cause it sounds like you guys are really great at answering them. And if you don’t know, you know what you’re looking at, you can take it. To you guys, and it sounds like they, you guys will be able to really help them out.

Absolutely. That’s, that’s what we’re here for and that’s what we’re really happy to do.

Because like we obviously like coming from my own experience, like I’ve lived abroad, I know what it’s like to start over in a new country, and not really know what’s going on. So we know how valuable it is to have someone who can, a translate things, but then also explain them, and just be able to be like, man, maybe you should do this or that, or just sort of help you along the way. So absolutely that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to help you translate anything you need translated, but also just any questions that you have. And literally, like any question, nothing is too small or too complicated to ask us, so absolutely feel free.

I’m thinking we probably also have some listeners who are not working at the Freie Universität, but also interested, do you have any resources that you could say, Hey, we maybe can’t help you, but if you have questions, you can go here for people who don’t have a job at the Freie Universität

So I guess that would be if you’re, if you have a scholarship, rather than, a contract, or if you’re just, doing a PhD without any sort of financial funding from the university or any other funding body, definitely contact the Dahlem Research School if you haven’t already.

Their sort of your go-to point for any junior researchers at Freie Universität. Or you could also contact the international division at Freie Universität and they can also help you if you have a scholarship and have questions about that.

Thanks. And, I’ll say, these are, there are lots of questions, a lot of things we didn’t get to.

I’ll say, keep in mind that you can probably also ask your questions about those as you just heard. So I know you studied abroad. If you could time travel back to the beginning of your studies, the very beginning, what would you say to your past self?

What tips do you have for a student that’s starting out?

Oh, wow. That’s a really good question. It’s been a while. What would I tell myself? What would I do? I think, like I talked earlier about, being open for new experiences, and getting to know people, that’s obviously a huge aspect, of, of moving somewhere new. And, obviously like it, we all need social connections and interactions and that’s really important.

But I think going back to when I first started, college in England, it was a lot. And like I didn’t really anticipate the whole culture shock aspect of it all. And I really, I think I was very like harsh on myself because I, it took me a while to actually settle in and not be like, oh my God, what’s going on?

And why is everything so different here from America, even though we speak the same language. So I think also just, it’s a big step that you’ve taken moving to a new country. And so be gentle with yourself and take the time. And yeah, acknowledge the magnitude, of the step that you’ve taken to move to a different country.

Like obviously have fun, but also maybe take a step back at some point and just be gentle with yourself. And if you need some alone time, that’s fine too.

Thank you very much. That’s great advice. So thank you very much.

So you might still have some questions. Maybe you’re an international researcher who isn’t working at the fight when he visited vetting and you thought, wow, that sounds really cool. I would love to be able to take my questions somewhere. What can I do? We’re going to be talking to other experts and upcoming expert.

We’re going to be talking to other experts in upcoming episodes that will focus on things. You can do resources that are available to you. If you are a scholarship holder, or if you’re just an individual student without a contract at the university, where can you go? And what can you do? What do you need to know?

In season two of the podcast, we’ll be talking to experts that have information for you from lots of different areas. And we’ll be talking to other experts on being an international student abroad. In season one of our podcast, which is running at the same time -so it’s a parallel season one season two, they’re just different topics. And in season one, we’ll be continuing our interview series where we talk to people who’ve already completed their doctorate here in Berlin or in Germany. And we’ll ask them some questions about their lessons learned and where they landed and their career experience. And maybe looking back at their doctorate. What would they do differently? And what did they, really love about the experience?

I’d also like to remind you about our workshops series. We have a series of really short workshops, just two hours, two and a half hours. And each of these little workshops are designed to give you some information or to give you a chance to learn some new skills to explore some topics that we’ve been talking about in this podcast series. So we’ll have workshops on navigating challenges in the workplace, on your career, case studies on good science. And lots of other topics that can be really helpful for you. You can join those workshops completely spontaneously. You can find them in Lounjee, which is our conference platform and workshop platform. And you will find a link if you’re not already familiar with that Lounjee platform. In the episode notes. On the Dahlem Research School podcast website or just by sending us an email. If you get stuck, you can ask us, Hey, I can’t find it and we’ll help you out. Thank you so much for being here today for listening to our podcast. If you liked it, we invite you to share it with your friends and your colleagues. And if you have an idea for us, for the future, something you’d like to hear about, send us a message We would love to hear from you. Until next time, have a wonderful rest of your day.

This interview was conducted by the co-host of our podcast Amanda Wichert