Job-Shadowing Englisch

Project duration: 01.01.2020-31.12.2022 



Gaining professional orientation and networking


We, the staff members of the Career Service at the Goethe University Frankfurt, support international and refugee students in orienting themselves in the professional and working world


In classic job shadowing, students "shadow" a working person at work for a day and thus experience his or her daily work routine. In this way, they can gain personal insights into a specific profession or their desired profession, obtain specific information and make initial professional contacts. The focus is on getting to know each other. The students get a first impression of the fields of activity, the work processes and the corporate culture of the employer. 


The professionals also benefit from job shadowing: They have the opportunity to support students in their career orientation, get to know motivated students and can use job shadowing as a recruiting opportunity for internships, working students, final theses, job beginners.


Due to the Corona pandemic, people could no longer come together freely. Therefore, we offered online job shadowing (duration: approx. one to two hours) as an alternative to a face-to-face meeting.



Artikel im UniReport 4/202



Testimonials from selected students 

My personal feedback on our meeting is very positive. Ms. […] input was overall very constructive and encouraging, and it fully met my expectations regarding this exchange.


She first introduced herself and her job and provided details regarding the studies she pursued before entering the job market, and her sector specifically. I was later given a brief overview of how she landed the position she currently has, and, upon my request, she illustrated her typical day and the activities and tasks she's engaged with. She also talked a bit about her specific employer. I was really pleased with the fact that what she described really resonated with my idea of “ideal job" and with my aspirations and interests so far, so I'd say our match for the Job Shadowing program was really great and well thought.


We then talked about the best ways to enter the international sector. Ms. […] suggested three different job-seeking platforms that were yet unknown to me. She advised to look for opportunities for either internships positions or volunteering experience, which she warmly recommended to build. She also mentioned certain skills that are currently sought after in her sector but invited me to first think of the experience and the transferable skills I've gained from past activities.


Ms. […] ultimately expressed availability to answer any future question I might have. I'd like to thank you once again for involving me in this project.


Laura Folgheraiter (Italien), Modern East Asian Studies (Master of Arts),

Abschluss zum Juli 2021, bewirbt sich aktuell europaweit in internationalen Organisationen

I am Xinyue Zhu, an LL.M. student at Goethe University Frankfurt. After completing my bachelor's degree in UIBE in China and some internships at international law firms, banks, government and corporates, I am currently doing my internship at a German law firm.

I have communicated with my mentor many times via zoom and email. My mentor gives me experience from a wide variety of areas and to be able to help with questions regarding my studies as well as career entry, including but not limited to interview tips, practical information and differences about the jobs, insights into everyday working life from a personal perspective and the experiences of international graduates on the German job market. Without this event, I find it hard to believe that I would have been able to learn about the German legal job market in such detail. And with the encouragement and guidance of my mentor, I managed to get an internship at a law fim. I highly recommend this event, from which I benefited a lot!


Testimonials from selected professionals

After completing my bachelor's degree in economics at the Goethe University in Frankfurt and my master's degree in economics at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, i completed the trainee programm KfW IPEX Bank. Afterwards, I started my current position as a contract and credit manager in the sub-Saharan Africa division of KfW's development bank.

I think that, in addition to providing insight into my current job, I can also act as a mentor for students. During my studies, I worked as a student trainee for a management consultancy (A.T. Kearny), asset managers (Amundi, HSBC Asset Management) and in the corporate banking department of a bank (HSBC). In addition, I volunteered with AISEC throughout my student years. Most recently, I accompanied a board position there at the local level.

I see myself in a position to be able to provide young students with experience from a wide range of areas and to help concerning questions regarding studies and career entry. I am fluent in French and English and enjoy exchanging ideas with students in these languages.

I wished I had such a programme in my time, because practice and theory are very different. I would also like to show young students new paths that they may not have thought of. In particular, it is also important to me that people to whom the German language was/is foreign find a connection here in their everyday working lives.

I studied Business Administration (2002-2008) with the degree Diplom-Kauffrau at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. I majored in Marketing and minored in Management & Applied Microeconomics. I speak German, English, Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi. After my studies I worked as a product manager at Mayflower Capital AG from 2008 to 2010. Since 2010 I have been an employee of Helaba – Hessische Landesbank. Until August 2020, I worked in the areas of fund price evaluation, price control, projects and private equity and since September 2020, I am a member of the ESF audit authority in the audit department. The European Social Fund (ESF) is the EU's main instrument for promoting employment and social inclusion.
As a politically minded person, I think volunteering is very important and essential for social cohesion. However, it is difficult for people who work to get involved. After all, we all have busy schedules. The job shadowing program is ideal here: the effort is calculable, it is flexible in terms of time, it’s location-independent through the use of Zoom, and the effect is immediately evident - a smiling person. As a political scientist with a PhD, I am on the road in Berlin and around the world as a business coach, diversity consultant and trainer for political adult education. Previously, I worked for the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) for 13 years. Here I was mainly active in the international field and, among other things, managed the FES office in Palestine. I studied in Bonn, Birzeit (Palestine) and Hamburg.

I work as a Market Risk Business Expert at Commerzbank AG, Frankfurt for the last 2.5 years. I came to Europe in 2015 to do my masters from ESSEC Business School, France.


Having been an international student myself I understand the support required for someone to be successful in a foreign country. The job-shadowing program is a wonderful initiative by Goethe university which provides a platform to students and mentors to share life experiences. It helps students gain clarity and professional guidance in an unfamiliar environment.

I visited Goethe University for the first time in 2019 as a guest speaker with Commerzbank AG to talk about skills that make students more employable. Since then, I have conducted various online workshops with Goethe University. The job shadowing program gives me another avenue to be involved with this community.

Sibel Ulucan
PEG-Building
Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 6 
2. OG, Raum 2.180

Focus areas:
International Career Service

Our services are funded by