A career guide you fill in
Read your German Arbeitszeugnis and grade it yourself
A fillable 25-page guide: you run your reference letter through a review track section by section, score every passage, and read off your total whether to leave it as it is or ask for a correction.
Price incl. German VATIn your inbox right after paymentRight of withdrawal
15+ five-star reviews
Where you are
What's holding you up
You hold a German reference letter and it reads warmly. Whether it actually is warm, you have no way of judging.
For you if you have worked in Germany and hold a reference letter you want to attach to your next application.
The build
How you work through it.
Not a loose pile of pages to skim. The order is built on purpose, each part sits on the one before it, and you end up with a finished result instead of a list of good advice.
The grading scale behind the phrases
You get the full scale of satisfaction formulas covering performance, conduct and leadership. Alongside it sit 13 common German phrases with what they actually mean.
Reading the sections and the order
You check which sections your reference contains and in which order tasks and groups of people are named. Anything left out is read in Germany as a judgement.
A review track for your own reference
Section by section you work through your Arbeitszeugnis, from the header and duties down to the closing paragraph. Every passage gets a score.
Your score and the model letter
Your total lands in one of three zones: leave it, ask for a correction, or have a lawyer look at it. For the correction request there is a model letter plus ready-made replacement wording.
What is inside
Decoding Your German Work Reference
12 €- The grading scale for performance, conduct and leadership
- 13 German phrases and what they really mean
- A review track for your own reference letter
- A model letter for the correction request
One-off, no subscriptionInstant downloadInvoice incl. 19% VAT
A look inside
Real pages, not mockups.
Three pages from the guide, exactly as they reach you after the purchase.
The download
One purchase, two languages, two ways to work.
Both versions
The download holds two folders, one English, one German. You pay once and decide yourself which language you work in.
Real form fields
You type straight into the PDF on your computer and save as you go. Printing works too, it just is not necessary.
Worksheets included
If you would rather write in Word, use the worksheets that come with it.
What the price is measured against
A reference you misread follows you into every further application in Germany. The review takes about 90 minutes.
Who is behind it
Written from the hiring manager's side.
I am Nick, over 7 years in HR teams from start-up to corporate, most recently as Head of People. Everything in this guide is something I have used, asked or decided myself.
View LinkedIn profileBefore you buy
What buyers want to know first.
Is this legal advice?
No, and the workbook says so. You get the grading scale hidden in German reference letters, a review track for your own document and a model letter for the correction request. At the end you can see whether you can live with it or whether a lawyer is worth the money.
Is this in English or in German?
Both. The download holds two folders, one with the English and one with the German version. You pay once and decide yourself which language you work in, which helps when a German employer asks for documents in German.
Do I have to print this out?
No. The PDF has real form fields, you type straight into it on your computer and save as you go. If you prefer Word, use the worksheets that come with it. Printing works too, it is just not necessary.
How does buying work, and is it safe?
Payment runs through Stripe, the same payment provider Amazon and Zalando use. I never see your card details. Right after payment you get the download link on the confirmation page and by email, plus an invoice showing German VAT. Checkout, download and confirmation email are all in English.
Ready
Decoding Your German Work Reference
The German Arbeitszeugnis carries a grade in code. You decode yours sentence by sentence and know whether to ask for a correction.
One-off, incl. 19% German VAT.English and German version in the same downloadRight of withdrawal