How to become more culturally fluent

You succeed in a culture fit interview, or *any* interview for that matter, if you manage to emotionally connect with your discussion partner. The more you know about the local and work culture, the easier it is to find things you like about it and use them to establish a connection.

Like it or not, of course, it often helps to find points of common interest.

Similarities. Things you have in common. Here are 10 things you can do to bridge the 'culture gap' and appear more similar to your future colleagues by... actually immersing yourself in their world. 

You will see, it's a fascinating world full of exciting ideas & practical tips and tricks that will inspire you, wherever you currently work & live.

• Learn very basic A1 level (easy!) German using apps like Duolingo or YouTube channels specific for this purpose. For example, this channel here.

• Listen to podcasts about life & culture in Germany. You may like this one.

• Meet some Germans and practice your language skills through tandems.

• Watch Netflix series in English that are very popular in Germany. You may like Charité, Over Christmas, and Turkish for Beginners among many others.

• Read what the global hacker community reads.

• Listen to some good podcasts about technology, startups & the near future. You may want to check this out: a16z podcast, exponent, alphalist.CTO.

• Read about what makes good communication (real eye/ear opener!).

• Check out Zalando tech radar to understand how a big well-run unicorn berlin company looks at tech and what they find relevant.

• Read about the principles of good product teams.

That’s it. We hope you enjoyed the read. Now it’s time for action. As always, we are rooting for you. Keep us posted.

— Your friends at Imagine

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