CEU Career Services and your professional future The primary focus of CEU's Career Services Office is on supporting students as they prepare to transform their CEU experience into meaningful professional engagement. The Career Services Office engages with students throughout their time at CEU, helping them understand the landscape as they prepare for their professional futures and supporting them on all aspects of their career development.
Read more about the Career Services Office and how it works with CEU students and graduates here. Learn more about the career outcomes of CEU graduates here.
Financing your studies We frequently hear from prospective students with questions about finding paid work during their studies. Although CEU has no formal work-study program, every year a small number of students finds work within CEU. Others find work externally.
Please note, however: finding a job during your studies is not guaranteed. Our advice? Do not enroll at CEU if you would be unable to finance your studies in Vienna without working during your time as a student.
* CEU’s Financial Aid Office curates a list of external funding opportunities, which is updated continuously. You can access it here.
Working while studying in Austria—things to know
Paid work There are important things to keep in mind if you are considering looking for paid work alongside your studies:
- CEU’s academic programs are rigorous, and expectations are high. Students typically spend many hours in the classroom and working on assignments. Don't underestimate the time and energy this will take.
- Paid work is subject to taxes, as is income from sources including scholarships. A person who resides in Austria for six months or more in a given year is considered a tax resident and expected to pay income tax. An annual income of up to 11,000 euros is not subject to tax. Anything above this amount is taxed. Remote work for an employer based outside of Austria is also potentially subject to this rule. Read more about this here.
- Depending on your nationality, you may be subject to legal requirements in connection with work. In particular, students from Non-EU/EEA countries are subject to the Act Governing the Employment of Foreign Nationals, which prescribes a work permit on top of the study permit. The work permit application is filed by the employer. Depending on the number of hours you work, further requirements may apply. Read more about student employment within and outside CEU here.
- The main working language in the majority of employer organizations in Austria is German, which means that a lack of German language proficiency can significantly impact your ability to find work and the type of work you might access.
Voluntary Work Vienna is home to a large number of international organizations and NGO’s where the working language is English. They offer internships that can be an excellent way to gain professional experience. As is often the case with international organizations and NGOs, the majority of the internships these organizations offer are unpaid and the selection process is competitive. Even when paid, the numerous professional opportunities with international organizations in Vienna are usually subject to competitive and often lengthy selection processes.
Working while studying in Austria—resources and support
CEU-exclusive job and internship platform Enrolled students on CEU’s degree programs and CEU alumni have access to CareerNext, the university’s exclusive online careers platform. The focus in CareerNext is vacancies all over the world of relevance to the long-term career development of CEU students and graduates, including internships and jobs. Relevant opportunities in Vienna are also included. Incoming students are usually granted access to CareerNext in mid-September.
Career Knowledge Hub You can find useful resources to help you prepare and interview for jobs and internships on our Career Knowledge Hub.
ABA - Work In Austria The ABA - Work in Austria has information on working in Austria, including an immigration guide detailing what the visa requirements are as a student or graduate looking to work in the country. They also have an Essential Guide to Living and Working in Austria, which can be downloaded for free. Their website is available in both German and English.
Additional resources With help from Austrian natives and former students of Viennese universities, the Career Services Office has compiled a list of useful resources for Vienna-based job searches, including student jobs. Tip: Some include the possibility of filtering for English and other languages, which can be useful, as many vacancies promoted via these sites are in German and require German. (Please note, the inclusion of a specific website here is not an indication of an endorsement of that site by CEU.)
Widely-used platforms for various types of job search
http://derstandard.at/karriere/jobsuche
Platforms commonly used to find student jobs:
https://schwarzesbrett.oeh.ac.at/jobs/
Facebook-groups with a focus on student jobs:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/studentenjobs.wien/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/studentenjob.wien/ (managed by the platform "hockify", listed above)