German Graduates Reluctant to Work in Asia Eastern Europe

Despite the recent expansion of the EU, German university graduates are relatively uninterested in developing their careers in one of the accession countries, a new report has found.

The survey, commissioned by Continental, recorded the views of 1015 students on a range of subjects including working hours, careers and qualifications. Continental will be very interested in the study’s findings as it currently employs 44,000 staff outside Germany, and has a number of facilities in Eastern Europe. This year the international automotive supplier will employ over 900 college graduates worldwide, including 600 young engineers and scientists.

Researchers discovered that 53.9 per cent cannot imagine working in the Czech Republic, Poland or Hungary for as long as two or three years. A significant proportion, 19.6 per cent, said they would be willing to move east and 49.2 per cent said they would accept the “ideal job at the preferred company” in Eastern Europe. The majority of those questioned, 70.9 per cent, said that they would take a job there to keep from being unemployed.

“For a long time, students have also expected foreign assignments in future jobs. We now wanted to find out whether this was also the case for less well-known regions,” according to Thomas Sattelberger, member of the Continental’s executive board, responsible for human resources.

He pointed out that at 52.9 per cent, the portion of university graduates who could envision their “ideal job” in Southeast Asia is just slightly higher than those who could currently imagine working in the Eastern European countries which have joined the EU. In contrast, the survey showed that students clearly prefer the idea of working in the US or Canada, with 69.2 and 55.4 per cent of those surveyed saying that they would accept such a position even if it was not the “ideal job with the preferred employer.” Although students were reluctant move to Eastern Europe, it seems that they are not afraid of a bit of hard work. Nearly half of those surveyed expect to work more than 40 hours a week on a freely agreed basis.

“The findings do indicate that half of those surveyed are pragmatic when faced with a rather unexpected perspective,” said Mr Sattelberger. But the Continental board member had stern words for the other half of students. “In the years to come, the other half is going to have difficulties with their attitude, characterised by a lack of knowledge and apprehension when it comes to everything that is foreign to them, especially as Asia and an expanded Europe become growth markets, and as such, career markets. In times when the world economy is becoming ever more closely knit, practically no one can afford a homebody mentality.”