Questions & hints for applications
We are pleased that you are interested in a career at Fraunhofer IOF! Our collected frequently asked questions with hints around may help you find an answer to your application related question.
If you still have questions, you can contact us by e-mail: send e-mail.
Each of our job postings in the Fraunhofer application portal contains the button “Apply now”, which can be used to start the application process.
To begin the application process, it is necessary to register and create a profile via a short and simple process. You then have the option of uploading your application documents for the desired position. Afterwards, you can submit your application via the "Apply" button.
If you would like to apply for more than one vacancy, for technical reasons we would like to ask you to apply for each position separately and to upload an individual cover letter for each vacancy.
To submit your application, you will be asked to attach (at a minimum) your resume as a document. However, we would like to point out that we will get a better impression of you and your qualifications if you provide us with your complete application documents. These should include the following:
We would like to learn from you what your motivation is for applying and what you expect from us and your future job. Describe what knowledge and skills you can demonstrate in line with your desired career. We would be pleased to receive further information about your qualifications.
In your resume, you describe your career to date. A clear presentation helps us to get an idea of your personality and qualifications. For this reason, your resume should include the most important information about your education and professional experience as well as your skills. If necessary, add any other information you would like to share with us so that we can get to know you better.
Your diplomas and certificates provide evidence of all the relevant stages of your resume. These usually include training and study certificates and, if applicable, work references from previous employers.
If you are applying for a scientific position and have already published, a list of your previous publications is of interest to us.
Yes, you are definitely allowed to submit English applications for German job postings.
Since the German page of the application portal usually shows more job offers than the English page, we would be pleased if you would also take a look at the German page and apply to suitable positions there.
The Fraunhofer application portal is managed centrally by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is committed to the provisions of the German Federal Data Protection Act. For more details, please refer to their data protection policy. It will be displayed when you apply online.
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft stores your data for a maximum of six months after the end of the recruitment process. After that, your data will be anonymized and only used for statistical evaluations. Of course, you can also withdraw your application and delete your profile in the Fraunhofer job market at any time. Please note the data protection policy of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. With your application, you declare your agreement with their conditions.
If you have not found a suitable position among the current offers at Fraunhofer IOF, we would also look forward to receiving your speculative application.
A separate initiative position is advertised for each of our scientific departments. If you would assign your qualifications and research focus to more than one department, we ask you to apply for each department individually for technical reasons. For this purpose, please upload a cover letter for each department.
Unsolicited applications for student assistants, internships and theses can be submitted to us via this link.
Information about current job offers can be found on the career page of Fraunhofer IOF.
Furthermore, you have the possibility to subscribe to our job feed. This way, you will receive customized job notifications automatically via e-mail.
Set up your personal job feed and don't miss any job offers at Fraunhofer IOF that might interest you.
And this is how it works: Create an account in our application portal for this purpose. Under “Options” you will find the settings for “Job notifications”. Create a new job notification. Then you can enter the location “Jena” (or “Erfurt” for the Fraunhofer Center MEOS) in the input field “Search by location”.
Additionally, you can choose in the upper left corner in which time intervals you want to be informed about new jobs. With a click on “Create job newsletter” your automatic job notification is set up. The e-mails will be sent to the e-mail address registered in your profile.
To do this, log into our application portal with your account credentials. Click on “Job notifications” under “Options” to display an overview of your notifications. In the “Actions” column, you can delete individual job notifications by clicking on the trash can.
TVöD (in german: Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst) is the collective wage agreement for the public sector. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, and thus also Fraunhofer IOF, follow the regulations of this collective agreement with regard to appointment, remuneration, and social security benefits.
For technical reasons, we can only process online applications. Therefore, we would like to ask you to apply exclusively via our application portal.
We will be happy to answer your questions about the advertised position. Please contact our recruiting team send e-mail.
As soon as your online application has been received, you will automatically receive a confirmation of receipt.
Unfortunately, we cannot give a generally valid time frame here, as the processing of applications depends on several factors.
Please contact the person named in the confirmation of receipt.
Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF