Why a Deutsche Bahn job ad sparked laughs - and likely a few applicants

The job post, which was originally seen on career website Gulp.de, suggested that the applicant should have knowledge of Windows 3.11, which was originally released in 1993. 

In this case, it appears that Deutsche Bahn has taken the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ attitude to the extreme.

“Updating drivers and maintaining the legacy system,” was listed among the job duties.

The start date for the job was listed as February 1st, and the location was Erlangen – a small city near Nuremberg where Siemens is based.

Additionally, the job description explained, "The result of your work is high-quality display software whose interfaces to the vehicle control system or vehicle control system work smoothly." And that applicants should already have knowledge of Deutsche Bahn systems such as Sibas (Siemens Railway Automation System).

A spokeswoman for Siemens Mobility, which provides systems used on DB trains, confirmed to IT news outlet Heise Online that the job advertisement represented a real requirement for their company, adding that "Since trains and rail infrastructure have a lifespan of 30 years or more, our customers will continue to use proven legacy systems that are standard in the industry."

Railways are known to use systems for decades, well past their use in household product life cycles.

In fact, it was less than ten years ago that DB upgraded its seat reservation system from one that relied on data delivered on floppy discs, according to the Hamburger Abendblatt.

READ ALSO: DB to launch 'simplified' Navigator app with English option

But according to Siemens Mobility, state-of-the-art, partly AI-based software systems are used for newly developed products.

The job position itself was taken down shortly after it began attracting attention from a variety of German blogs and news outlets.

As the Frankfurter Rundschau wrote, it’s unclear if the job hunt has been paused or “whether a new administrator has already arrived at the Erlangen site.”

Snubbing DB, either seriously or in jest, is a bit of a national pastime in Germany, so the ad was comedic gold to many Germans.

The state-owned railway operator is notorious for its delays and malfunctions. 

READ ALSO: Why is Deutsche Bahn seeing a record high number of delays this year?

For example, in May of 2023 only 65.5 percent of DB trains arrived at their scheduled stops on time. According to data published by Statista DB ranks well below the EU27 average in the share of its long-distance passenger rail services that are classified as punctual.

DB's labour issues, highlighted by recent rail worker strikes, also contribute to its number of delays and cancellations.

Whereas trains that run strictly on time has become a cultural stereotype about Germany that exists to this day, those that live in the Bundesrepublik know that mild to severe DB delays are to be expected during train travel through the country.