would you interview with AI?
Issue #129 (16 Dec) – 20+ jobs, tech & dev focus; CV improvement; joining a startup? 11 things to check; BVG news drop; spa & wellness; automotive arrogance; Buena went viral.
Programming note: I had a creative week and finished two articles to help you with your CV and decide which startup to join. Check the snippets for the links. This is also one of the most intense issues of the year and the final “full” issue before January. I’ll be sending one or two shorter emails before NYE.
🌟 Handpicked community
is a place where we meet, share projects and ideas and look for help.
📨 Submit your input here.
🎪 Meet — tech & other events:
AI-Powered Product Club | Thu, 19.12 / 18.00 | Location Unknown
Chess Thursdays: Game Night | Thu, 19.12 / 18.00 | World Chess Club Berlin
Healthcare Businesswomen's Association at Gendarmenmarkt Christmas Market | Tue, 17.4 / 19.00 | Gendarmenmarkt Christmas Market
😎 Show — Cool stuff / Shoutouts / Projects & similar:
🪭 Are you a founder working to improve the fashion industry? Applications are now open for the Fashion Forward: Climate Action Accelerator. Scale your business and impact. Apply by Jan 19th!
🔍 Ask — for a Service / Co-founder / Project help & similar:
“Hi, we’re Chan and Filippo. We’re on a mission to reinvent the outdated beverage market by transforming a classic, traditional drink into something modern and readily available. Share your thoughts in our quick survey and help us shape the future of beverages!”
Looking for the submission link? It’s below the title ⤴️
This section is also featured on LinkedIn in the weekly post.
👀 Handpicked jobs
is a rotating selection of around 20+ jobs from companies I’d check out.
🚨 You can help humanity read the Herculaneum Scrolls by becoming an annotation specialist for the Vesuvius challenge.
5️⃣ from the rotation this week: Tech & Dev
The remaining jobs (also outside rotation) are in the Handpicked online database.
You can also submit a job.
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
☕️ Coffee with Andreas Laux
is where my guest contributes three links and an explanation while I write a short bio.
Andreas supported Substack on their growth ambition in the DACH region until very recently (and also helped our Berlin newsletter community a lot!) and is now working as an independent consultant. You are not gonna believe this, but he also has his own Substack (🇩🇪). To complete the Substack offensive, here are three he recommends:
Ochuko is such a phenomenon. Six months ago, her Substack had practically no Subscribers. Today she has tens of thousands! What I admire about her success is that it is the exact opposite of the 'marketing bro' BS the internet is full of. She had no great following elsewhere, she wasn't famous or anything. She's just great. And writes a brilliant newsletter.
There are already so many food blogs and recipe newsletters out there. But can there be enough? I don't think so. What I love about Jesko's (written in German) Substack is the writing and the attitude that glues the useful information (recipes, restaurant recommendations) together. He's my go-to place whenever I feel overwhelmed by... everything.
It's an underrated aspect of Substack that it's a great place to discover photography (especially after the other platform that once started as a photo community turned into a theme park). There are countless great photo Substacks. But I would always recommend subscribing to Xavi. Not only are his images great but his essays are inspirational as well.
🇩🇪 Berlin & other good stuff
is a selection of links focused on Berlin/Germany, career, timeless content and business.
Here are the promised articles: an actionable summary of 6 interviews with tech recruiters that will help you improve your CV and 11 things to know or check before you join a startup. If I missed anything, approach me anytime.
Pitch for politicians: in your next campaign, add a strict ban on fireworks to your program (with one official 5-minute firework per Bezirk if you wanna be less radical). In last week’s poll, 79% favoured banning them. 12% like to watch, and 5% also light them. (n=400+) Ok, a lot of expats, but thank us later, Mrs/Mr future Mayor.
🤦🏻♂️ Berlin’s Court of Auditors (Rechnungshof von Berlin) report for 2024 (🇩🇪) is a testament to the missed potentials and governance issues:
Severe budget crisis: €3.9B deficit for 2024/25, with debt projected to reach €68.5B by 2028 due to consistent overspending!
Failed digitalization: Berlin's mandatory online administrative services implementation (OZG) remains largely unrealized since 2017.
Tax revenue losses: Neukölln tax office lost up to €218 million in 6 months from inadequate monitoring of online retailers.
Public enterprise waste: Audit revealed €2.1 million in potential annual savings in five state companies, with board members receiving excessive compensation.
Housing regulation failure: Despite a 100,000-unit shortage, district offices didn't use available digital tools because the Senate Administration neither developed nor procured the required investigation software.
BVG news drop: they finally recorded a warning against blasting music, TikToks and conversations out loud on the buses (roll out to U-Bahn stations coming by the end of the year). Fashion designer Kilian Kerner will design their new uniforms, and new trains/cars will start operating from September 2025, beginning with U3. 140 trains for U1-U4 and 236 for U5-U9 will be delivered, with the first test vehicles arriving in spring 2025. (RBB)
How about some spa and wellness on these cold days? A list of 11 from our friends at Mit Vergnügen (🇩🇪). Liquidrom, where I love to float in the pool, is missing on the list.
The automotive industry helped make Germany rich. Now, things are changing fast (VW just needed to deal with 103k employees striking this week, and Porsche SE expects losses in billions in 2024 due to massive writedowns on VW and Porsche AG holdings.) This is a great 5-minute explanation of the reasons why China is so dominant by Sky. Was China even on the radar of Matthias Müller, former CEO of Porsche, when he was making fun of Tesla in 2017? (🇩🇪) What a lesson on where arrogance and making fun of your competitors eventually gets you. And there is still plenty of arrogance left in Lower Saxony, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. This deep dive into China and EVs is worth a read: it’s hard to imagine there is a great future in working for the automotive industry in Germany.
Career: Some companies have started to use AI interviewers. The community in the comments isn’t loving it. How about you?
Career: A short article on how to deal with Senior executives: “Answer the question!” Top advice.
Career: Buena (Berlin, real estate mgmt) went viral on r/germany because of their interviewing style. I randomly ran into one of their job descriptions recently, and …hmm, it was so unique I kinda liked it (for a German speaker, but written in English)? I guess it’s wiser not to break the law in writing.
Timeless: “15 Times to use AI, and 5 Not to” by Ethan Mollick for everyone looking for inspiration and guidance.
Timeless: Always excellent, 52 things Tom Whitwell learned in 2024. “Medellin in Colombia has cut urban temperatures by 2°C in three years by planting trees.” or “In 1800, 1 in 3 people on earth were Chinese. Today, it’s less than 1 in 5.” and a great one: “You shouldn’t say ‘hello’ in chat.”
📱 Weekly Social.
Twitter: A nasty coworker prank.
World Bank: When nobody reads your work.
💬 Briefly.
😔 Bad news: One of your New Year resolutions should maybe be to drink less coffee: “Arabica futures, the variety favoured in specialty brews, have surged 80% this year because of crop setbacks in key growers.”
Mika (health tech, Berlin) filed for bankruptcy. (Deutsche startups)
Evonik (specialty chemicals, Essen) up to -7000.
SAP (software) -3500.Stats: BVG lost & found office processed over 46.6k items by November 2023, with 35% returned to owners. The most common items were bags and backpacks with an odd fetish costume in between. (RBB)
Up to 3 of 5 NFL games in Germany will be played in Berlin until 2029, the first one in 2025. Who and when is still unclear; you can drop your mail to be informed.
Yay. Berlin's 29-euro-ticket holders will be automatically switched to Deutschlandticket, with the Senate covering the price difference for their remaining contract year. Also, the government backpedalled (🇩🇪) on some of the budget cuts: Nextbike’s financing remains.
The defence industry is growing: Anduril partnered with OpenAI, and Helsing (based in Munich & Berlin) announced a strike drone.
Scalable will become a market maker with Börse Hannover and also the custodian of the shares of the customers. So far, custody has been managed by Baader Bank.
Engel & Völkers’ (real estate) HQ in Hamburg and other properties around Germany were searched by Zoll on suspicion of bogus self-employment (Scheinselbstständigkeit).
Gröner group (ibid.) needed to deal with the police. Prosecutors suspect Gröner of delaying insolvency and embezzlement of wages.
Adidas also had a razzia that was tax-related.Zalando is offering to take over About you for €1.2B (€6.5 per share). Exciting Commerce speculates that one of the main reasons is also the shop-tech solution Scayle.
Staffbase (Chemnitz, but also Berlin, employee comms) plans an IPO in 2026 (Gründerszene).
TeamViewer (Göppingen, remote access) will acquire 1E.
Smava (Berlin, credit business) is close to being sold.
Adspert (Berlin, actech) was acquired by Mirakl.If you can, drop a short review (or a star rating) to Google reviews of Handpicked Berlin.
💸 Recently funded in Berlin & Germany
is a list of companies that received funding over €1M.
Upvest | Berlin | Investment platform API provider | €100M Series C | Careers.
Gigs | Berlin/SF | Mobile network integration platform | €69M | Careers.
NAO | Berlin | Co-investment platform for alternatives | €3.4M Seed | Careers.
ARC Intelligence | Berlin | AI data platforms for SMEs | €1M Pre-seed | Careers.
goodcarbon | Berlin | CO2 capture solutions platform | €1M | Careers.
Dealfront | Karlsruhe | B2B sales intelligence platform | €30M | Careers.
SpotmyEnergy | Cologne | Smart energy metering platform | €10.5M Seed | Careers.
Parto | Hamburg | Healthcare payment solutions provider | €2.5M Pre-seed | Careers.
Proxima Fusion | Munich | Fusion reactor technology development | €6.5M | Careers.
Niftee | Trier | Secure ticket authentication platform | €1.75M | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
honey, come look
✌️ Handpicked essentials and a treat:
- all the Handpicked Articles worth reading
- How to find a great company to work for?
- How to learn German and get over “Genau” and “mit Karte, bitte”?
- Football in Berlin: where to play, watch and how to get involved?
- Berlin Salary Trends Reports: How do you compare?
- ❓Surprise treat for the curious
- The best questions to ask at a job interview
- What do hiring managers look for in CVs?
- Handpicked in media (podcasts and articles)
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Like or comment below ⤵️
Let’s flip the question. Would companies (or their AI tools) interview with AI version of mine?
Cheers!!! Very sweet words in your recommendation. Best Jesko