I was an accountant with seven years of experience in Berlin. I was looking for a senior role in industry, finance lead at a scale-up, after most of my career in mid-size accounting firms.
I knew what I wanted, I knew the salary range, and I had a clear idea of which companies would have the right balance between structure and chaos. I sent eighty-seven applications in nine weeks. I recorded every one in a spreadsheet: date, company, role title, source, answer. The response rate was 38%. Most of the answers were polite rejections. Twenty-one went to a recruiter call. Six went to an interview with a hiring manager. Three went to a final round. A Berlin scale-up was one of the three. I applied through their careers page. The role description was clear and specific, which most job descriptions are not. They listed the team, the systems, the current problems, and the salary range. I applied because of the salary range. Most German job descriptions do not show one, and the fact that they did made me think the company was probably better to work for than the average. The recruiter call was forty minutes. She had read my CV carefully. She asked specific questions about a system change I had managed at my last firm and what I learned ↓