Glossary
Glossary of Job Search, AI in Hiring & the Labour Market
Terms covering applications, labour law, the labour market, AI in recruiting, careers and sector know-how – concise definitions with a focus on the German and EU context.
A
Adult Education
Educational offers for adults beyond traditional school and university – professional, general or civic education.
Agency Staffing
Synonym for temp agency work in Germany – the temporary assignment of employees to another company.
AI Agent
An AI system that autonomously plans and executes tasks in steps, often built on an LLM with access to tools.
AI Bias
Systematic distortions in AI systems, often from skewed training data, with consequences for fairness in hiring.
AI Model
A trained mathematical system that processes inputs into predictions, classifications or generated content.
AI Safety of Jobs
Assessment of how strongly a profession is likely to be affected by AI-driven automation in the coming years.
AI Tools for Applications
Software that uses AI to support candidates with CVs, cover letters, interview preparation and job research.
AI Video Interview
Asynchronous video interviews where AI systems automatically analyse speech, facial expressions or content.
Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
Software that lets employers manage job postings, applications, interviews and decisions across the hiring funnel.
Application Photo
A professional portrait photo traditionally included in German-language CVs but uncommon in many other countries.
Application Portfolio
The bundled set of documents in a written job application – today most often a single PDF.
Aptitude Test
A test that assesses suitability for a specific role through cognitive ability, personality traits or job-specific tasks.
Assessment Centre
A multi-stage selection process with tests, role plays and group exercises that evaluates several candidates in parallel.
ATS Resume
A resume designed so that applicant tracking systems can parse its content correctly and detect the right keywords.
C
Candidate-Driven Market
A labour-market situation with more open roles than suitable candidates, giving job seekers strong negotiating power.
Career Change
Switching into a new profession without holding the traditional qualification, leveraging transferable skills, retraining or life experience.
Career Coaching
Support from an experienced coach for career decisions, transitions, application processes or leadership questions.
Career Planning
Deliberate, long-term management of professional development – goals, stations, competencies, switches.
Caritas
Welfare association of the Catholic Church in Germany, one of the largest employers in the social sector.
Chatbot Recruiting
Use of dialog-based AI systems in hiring, for example to answer candidate questions or run first-stage screenings.
Church Providers
Social, care or educational institutions under church ownership, governed by a distinct labour-law regime.
Collective Bargaining Agreement
A written contract between a union and an employer association that sets pay scales and working conditions for an entire industry or company.
Collectively Agreed Wage
A wage set by a binding collective agreement, often structured through pay grades and experience steps.
Competencies
Umbrella term for the ability to apply knowledge, skills and attitude successfully in concrete situations.
Cooperative
Legal form in which members pursue economic or social goals together and decide democratically.
Cover Letter
A short letter accompanying an application that explains a candidate's motivation and fit for a specific role.
D
Deep Learning
A subfield of machine learning that uses deep neural networks to detect complex patterns in large datasets.
Demographic Change
Structural shift in population through ageing, declining birth rates and migration, with far-reaching effects on the labour market.
Diakonie
Welfare association of the Protestant Church in Germany, with hundreds of thousands of employees in social services.
Dismissal Protection
Statutory rules that subject unilateral termination of employment to specific conditions.
Dual Study Programme
Study format combining higher education with structured in-company practice phases, typically with paid employment.
E
Education Officer (Bildungsreferent:in)
Person responsible for designing, organising and delivering educational programmes in adult education and welfare bodies.
Embedding
Mathematical representation of text, images or other data as a vector where similar content lies close together.
Employer Reference Letter
A written assessment of an employment relationship issued by the employer; in Germany a legal entitlement for departing employees.
Employer-Driven Market
A labour-market situation with an oversupply of candidates, allowing employers to be more selective on terms.
Employment Contract
Written agreement between employer and employee setting out the key rights and obligations of the employment relationship.
Employment Rate
Share of employed people in the working-age population, often used for international comparisons.
EU AI Act
EU regulation governing AI systems through a risk-based approach, particularly relevant for recruiting and HR.
EU Blue Card
EU residence title for highly qualified non-EU nationals with a university degree and a minimum salary level.
F
Fairness in AI
A design principle for AI systems aimed at avoiding the systematic disadvantage of individuals or groups.
False Self-Employment
An activity formally declared as self-employed but in fact carrying all features of dependent employment.
Female Labour-Force Participation
Participation of women in the labour market, in Germany above-average overall but often in part-time roles.
Fine-Tuning
Adapting a pre-trained AI model to specific tasks or domains with additional, targeted data.
Fixed-Term Contract
Employment contract with a defined end date, allowed in Germany with or without an objective reason within set limits.
Foundation
Legally autonomous endowment serving a defined purpose permanently – often social, scientific or cultural.
Freelance Work
Self-employed work on a fee basis, without being bound by instructions or embedded in the client's organisation.
Freelancing
Self-employed work as an independent specialist for multiple clients, often in knowledge and creative fields.
Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)
Standardised unit that converts part-time, full-time and marginal jobs into the equivalent of full-time positions.
Fundraising
Securing resources for non-profit organisations through donations, foundation grants, public funding and sponsorship.
Further Education
Learning after the initial qualification – professional, technical or personal – securing long-term employability.
G
GDPR and AI
Application of the EU General Data Protection Regulation to AI systems, with particular relevance for recruiting and HR.
General Equal Treatment Act (AGG)
German anti-discrimination law covering employment and civil-law areas, addressing gender, age, origin, religion and more.
Generative AI
AI models that create new content – text, images, audio, video, code – rather than only classifying existing data.
H
Hard Skills
Technical and professional skills that can be demonstrated through training, certificates or work experience.
Headhunter
Specialised executive search consultants who actively recruit professionals and leaders on behalf of companies.
Hidden Labour Reserve
People who would like to work but are not actively searching or immediately available, and therefore not counted as unemployed.
Hiring Process
Structured sequence from job posting through application and interviews to a signed employment contract.
Hiring Test
Standardised test that assesses knowledge, logic and personality, often used in selection processes for large employers.
Holiday Entitlement
Statutory and collectively agreed right to paid annual leave – at least 20 working days for a five-day week in Germany.
HR Analytics
Operational data analytics on core HR metrics such as turnover, recruiting funnel, sickness rates and personnel costs.
Hybrid Work
Work model that combines office and remote work, often with a fixed share of office days per week.
I
Immigration
Migration of people to Germany for training, work, family or protection, with major significance for the labour market.
Inclusion
Equal participation of all people in society, especially of people with disabilities.
Integration Work
Work that supports people with migration backgrounds in language, education, work and society.
Interim Reference Letter
A reference letter issued during an ongoing employment relationship, for instance when a manager changes or before applying internally.
Internship
Time-limited practical engagement for orientation or deepening, often part of training or studies.
J
Job Interview
A direct conversation between candidate and employer to assess professional and personal fit for a role.
Job Matching
The automated process of pairing candidate profiles with job postings, often using semantic similarity or machine learning rather than keyword filters.
Job Switch
An active move from one role to another, typically driven by pay, tasks, culture or location.
Job-to-Job Switch
Moving directly from one employment to the next without an intermediate phase of unemployment.
L
M
Machine Learning
Subfield of AI in which algorithms learn from data instead of being explicitly programmed for every rule.
Maternity Protection
Statutory protection for pregnant and recently delivered employees, including dismissal protection and protected pay.
Mentoring
Relationship between an experienced mentor and a less experienced mentee, supporting professional and personal development.
Midijob
Employment in the transition zone between Minijob and full social insurance, with reduced employee contributions.
Minijob
A marginal-employment role in Germany with a low monthly earnings ceiling, often used as a side income.
Minimum Wage
A statutory floor on hourly pay that applies to almost all employees in Germany and is reviewed regularly.
N
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Subfield of AI concerned with machine processing of natural language.
Neural Network
A mathematical model of interconnected nodes that transforms inputs into outputs and learns patterns through training.
NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation)
Private non-profit organisation pursuing social, environmental or humanitarian goals without government control.
Non-Profit
Organisation that is not primarily profit-oriented and reinvests surpluses into its mission.
Non-Wage Labour Costs
Costs beyond the gross wage – mainly employer social-security contributions, levies and additional benefits.
Notice Period
Time between notice of termination and the end of the employment, set by statute, collective agreement or contract.
O
Occupational Safety
Measures and rules to protect the safety, health and well-being of employees at work.
Onboarding
Structured introduction process for new employees that supports their integration into tasks, team and culture.
Overtime
Hours worked beyond the contractually agreed working time, with specific rules on pay and compensation.
P
Parental Leave
Statutory time off to care for a child, with the right to return to the previous job afterwards.
Part-Time Work
Employment with weekly hours below the company's standard full-time level, statutorily protected in Germany.
People Analytics
Application of data analytics in HR to base personnel decisions on empirical evidence.
Portfolio
A curated collection of work samples that demonstrate professional skills through concrete projects.
Predictive Hiring
Data-driven prediction of an application's success likelihood based on historic hiring data and performance metrics.
Probation Period
The initial phase of an employment relationship with shortened notice periods, usually six months in Germany.
Prompt Engineering
Discipline of crafting targeted inputs to LLMs so they consistently produce high-quality outputs.
Public Sector
All employees working for federal, state and local government bodies, including administration, education, security, justice and public services.
R
Recognition of Foreign Qualifications
Procedure that examines whether a qualification obtained abroad is equivalent to a corresponding German qualification.
Recruiter
Human-resources professionals who post jobs, screen applications and accompany candidates through the hiring process.
Refugee Aid
Support for refugees through counselling, accompaniment, aid projects and integration measures, closely tied to integration work.
Remote Work
Work performed independent of location, often fully from home or other places outside a traditional office.
Resume
A concise document summarising work history, education and skills, used to apply for jobs and screened by recruiters or applicant tracking systems.
Resume Parser
Software that automatically reads resumes and converts them into structured fields such as experience, education and skills.
Retraining
Structured qualification into a different profession, often funded, aimed at taking up a new occupational activity.
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
A method where a large language model generates answers grounded in previously retrieved relevant documents.
S
Sabbatical
Extended career break that preserves employment, typically three to twelve months for rest, travel or personal projects.
Salary Negotiation
Discussion of pay level and structure, usually at the end of a hiring process or during contract changes.
Sector Minimum Wage
A collectively negotiated minimum wage that applies only to a specific industry and lies above the statutory minimum.
Semantic Search
A search method that compares meanings, not only exact words, and surfaces conceptually similar content.
Severance Payment
A one-off payment as compensation for losing a job, typically agreed via settlement or social plan.
Sick Days
Paid days when an employee is unable to work due to illness; in Germany up to six weeks of continued pay per illness.
Skilled Immigration Act
German law that facilitates the immigration of qualified professionals from non-EU countries for employment.
Skills Shortage
A structural deficit of qualified workers in specific occupations or regions, leaving vacancies unfilled.
Social Economy
Economic sector providing non-profit social services – care, education, youth, disability and family support.
Social Pedagogy
Pedagogical discipline and field combining education outside traditional schools with social support.
Social Work
Professional help and support for people in difficult life situations, across diverse fields and sectors.
Soft Skills
Personal and social competencies such as communication, teamwork and empathy that are relevant in nearly every profession.
Statement of Motivation
A longer narrative text, complementary to a cover letter, explaining personal motivation for a programme or role.
T
Temp Agency Work
Employment with a staffing agency that hires out workers to client companies for limited periods.
Third-Party Funding
Funding of projects, research or social tasks from sources beyond core budgets, typically time-limited.
Trainee Programme
Structured entry programme for university graduates with rotation across several departments and a permanent offer.
Training-In
The phase of practical instruction for new employees in which tasks, tools and processes are concretely taught.
Transformer
Neural network architecture based on self-attention, the foundation of modern language models.
Turnover Rate
Rate of employees changing employers, a key indicator of labour-market dynamics and employer quality.
TV-L
Collective bargaining agreement for employees of German federal states, covering grades, pay and conditions.
TVöD
Collective bargaining agreement for German federal and municipal public-sector employees, defining pay grades, hours and benefits.
U
V
Vector Database
A specialised database for storing and rapidly searching high-dimensional vectors.
Video Interview
A job interview held via video conference, often the first stage of a hiring process or used for distributed teams.
Vocational Upgrading (Fortbildung)
Advanced training within the learnt profession, typically for specialisation, promotion or adaptation to new demands.
Volontariat
Structured post-graduate trainee phase, classically in media, publishing, foundations or NGOs.
Volunteering (Ehrenamt)
Voluntary, unpaid activity for charitable purposes in associations, federations, initiatives or churches.
W
Welfare Association
Umbrella body for free social providers, representing members and shaping social policy – six recognised nationally in Germany.
Work Contract
A contract to deliver a defined work product or result, where the contractor is not bound by instructions.
Work-Life Balance
A balanced relationship between work and private life with clear boundaries and resources for rest and relationships.
Workation
Combination of work and vacation: working from a holiday location, often abroad, while putting in full work hours.
Worker Assignment
The legal term for the temporary assignment of employees by a staffing firm to a client company.
Working Hours Act
German federal law governing maximum working time, breaks, rest periods and Sunday or holiday work.
Works Council
Elected employee representation in a German workplace, with co-determination, participation and information rights.
Written Warning
A formal letter from the employer describing specific misconduct, often a precursor to behaviour-based dismissal.