New here? Or already in the middle of the application process.
You see plenty of diversity statements. In large companies, processes and forms are often structured along diversity dimensions. And yet, one thing remains unspoken.
Maybe you were hired because of your difference.
The real question is not whether you are different – but how you bring this perspective into the team, the product, and the market.
A typical line we hear in our trainings:
“I think they wanted someone like me. But nobody said what for.”
What’s behind this
In Germany, diversity often works quietly. More as an attitude and a process, less as a big show. You are measured by your contribution to team success and to competitiveness. That fits a country shaped by export logic: difference is valuable when it makes products and collaboration stronger.
What this means in practice
• Define which problem your perspective helps solve – market, customer, product, teamwork.
• Make invisible routines visible: what do you notice that others overlook?
• Translate: language, context, customer expectations. Not just words, also logics.
• Bring data and examples: not only “In my country it’s like this,” but “Our target group reacts like this – here’s a pattern.”
• Build allies in the team. Difference works when others carry it with you.
Three questions for your start
• What exactly was my difference needed for?
• Where is it safe to challenge routines?
• Which metrics make my contribution visible?
For companies
It helps to be clear about why difference is needed. If it stays unspoken, it risks remaining invisible. Success becomes visible when contribution to the team, the customer or the product is made explicit. Supporting not only the new hire, but also the team, turns diversity from statement into performance.
You are not a symbol. You are a colleague.
Your difference is not a show – it is competence.
And if you name it, frame it, and make it work, others will see it too.
You Are Different
