Find first-person accounts, posted 2024–2026, of non-EU (especially South Asian) computer science master's graduates from French or German universities seeking their first tech job in France or Germany — one row per person with country of study, search city, languages, months to first offer, applications sent, first-offer role and salary, country moves, and biggest obstacle, with sources; summarise median months to an offer by country and by language skill.
The rows cover 11 distinct first-person accounts posted 2024–2026 — 5 from studies in France, 6 from Germany, and 4 who explicitly identify as Indian — found on Reddit (10 accounts) and one personal interview blog; no qualifying Blind account was found. Only 4 successful accounts state a usable time to first offer, so the medians below rest on tiny samples; "first tech job" means the first full-time tech role after the French or German master's.
Grey dots are the individual durations behind each median (the 4–5 month account is plotted at 4.5). Medians are precomputed; samples of one to three accounts mean these are illustrations, not estimates. Hover a bar for the people behind it.
Blank cells mean the person did not state it; nothing is inferred. Aachen is the only explicitly stated search city. One row shows a stated 4–5 month range.
| Person | Studied in | Origin | Posted | City | Language | Months | Apps | First offer | Status | Moved country | Biggest obstacle | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anonymous non-EU student about to graduate in France (original poster) | France | non-EU unspecified | 2025-02-02 | — | Language not stated | — | — | around €60k-70k TC (offer in France) | offer received | Contemplating moving from France to the Netherlands after graduating for the significantly higher pay (around €120k-130k TC versus around €60k-70k TC in France), but weighing it against staying in France to get EU citizenship in about 2-3 years and greater job security after a layoff | High-paying tech jobs are much harder to find in France, where the tech scene is not as strong as in the Netherlands | reddit.com |
| u/Ok_Needleworker_3513 | France | non-EU unspecified | 2025-05-07 | — | Local language level unclear | — | — | — | still searching | Contemplating moving from France to Spain to apply for jobs there because the job situation in France is bad and there seem to be no openings for new employees | The extremely bad French job market with no demand for new employees, with the search dragging on for about 2/3 years | reddit.com |
| u/starryeyesmaia | France | non-EU unspecified | 2025-05-07 | — | Language not stated | 4 | — | — | offer received | — | Difficulty getting interviews in a worsening AI/data job market | reddit.com |
| Anonymous non-EU CS master apprentice in Paris | France | non-EU unspecified | 2025-07-01 | — | Language not stated | — | — | junior engineer; 43.5k + stock options and the usual French benefits, with legal binding commitment to raise that to 47k after the next fund raise | offer received | Has not moved after the master degree; as a non-EU person in France, staying in France/Europe depends on securing a permanent contract soon | As a non-EU graduate, securing a permanent contract soon is crucial to be able to stay in France/Europe | reddit.com |
| u/astridares | France | non-EU unspecified | 2025-12-24 | — | Language not stated | — | — | — | offer received | Has not moved and is not planning to move from France for a good long time, because job security is too important to risk trial periods and fruitless job searches in the current market | The junior market is really bad right now, even for locals, and getting interviews as a non-EU who requires extra paperwork is rough, with junior positions that did not pay enough to get easy work authorization | reddit.com |
| u/Frequent-Reveal-4464 | Germany | non-EU unspecified | 2025-01-05 | — | Some local language below B2 | — | — | — | still searching | No move after the master degree; the person has stayed in Germany since graduating and is committed to staying in the country to find a DevOps role | Breaking into a competitive full-time DevOps Engineering role while having only 5 months to secure a job before the employment-tied residence permit (Aufenthaltstitel) expires | reddit.com |
| u/Complete_Position5 | Germany | India | 2025-03-05 | — | Language not stated | — | — | — | still searching | Moved from Germany back to India after the master degree; stated reason: not even getting shortlisted for interviews | Too much competition from Indians in Germany; German companies prefer locals and Europeans and rarely hire Indians, and without 4-5 years of work experience in India and C1 German no German company will hire you | reddit.com |
| u/unclebogdan10 | Germany | non-EU unspecified | 2025-04-15 | Aachen | Some local language below B2 | 2 | 16 | Full Stack Web Developer; 55,536€ (Brutto) + Christmas Bonus(13th Month Salary) | offer received | — | Not speaking proper enough German (A1), which made his part-time employer refuse a full-time offer | reddit.com |
| Ok-Masterpiece-3342 | Germany | India | 2025-08-03 | — | Some local language below B2 | — | — | — | still searching | — | No offers after more than a year of job searching in Germany (AI/ML, data science) despite rewriting CV and cover letters and sending countless applications; limited German (B1) in a market where commenters say local language and a weak CV/market hurt his chances | reddit.com |
| dreiunddreissig33 | Germany | India | 2026-03-01 | — | Local language B2 or higher | 8 | 100 | High Performance Computing Engineer | offer received | — | The German job market is very competitive and brutal, especially for a non-EU candidate | reddit.com |
| Anonymous Indian master's graduate in Germany working at SAP | Germany | India | 2026-07-30 | — | Some local language below B2 | 4-5 | — | — | offer received | Moved from India to Germany for the master's degree and stayed in Germany after graduating, with no plans to move again now that he has a stable job there | The German language, which by 2024 and 2025 had become one of the first filters companies used to cut down the applicant pool in a dramatically tightened market | leapscholar.com |
Method: 11 first-person accounts posted 2024–2026 (posting dates, not graduation dates), one row per person, gathered from r/cscareerquestionsEU, r/germany, r/Expats_In_France, r/developersIndia and one personal interview blog; searches of Blind found no qualifying account. Months measure the stated time from starting the search to the first full-time offer; medians are precomputed from the 4 accounts stating a duration (a 4–5 month range counted as 4.5). Sources span 3 independent hosts; the largest single URL supplies about 18% of rows. City, salary and application counts are frequently unstated; long free-text obstacle and move quotes are condensed in the table.