Student Success

IUBH alumna Katja Haack loves challenges and changes. She has found her dream job as Head of TalentHero, a job app for teenagers.

How would I describe my personality? I get excited about the new, quick decisions and changes. It's something that is also reflected in my professional development: After graduation I started my career at GO! Express & Logistics and gained initial experience in marketing there. The next stage of my professional life took me to meinestadt.de where I slid into the content team with a focus on tourism. I quickly realised that I would like to do more in product management. Management gave me the opportunity to switch to the product management portal, where I managed larger projects. I was commissioned with my first major project, which I carried out in direct consultation with management, and realised quickly that the short decision-making processes were just the thing for me. After managing the first successful project, I got the task to expand the project TalentHero as a project leader. In the meantime, I am acting as head of the entire project team.

No day is like the other: From travelling, to team coordination, to lectures

No day is like the other with this project. I travel a lot – mainly between Cologne, the headquarters of meinestadt.de, and Munich, where the six-person TalentHero team that supports me operationally is located. In addition, I regularly visit our sales units in Berlin and Hamburg with more than 40 sales employees and accompany the sales department to major customer meetings. There are also presentations at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, schools and trade fairs. Sales teams with more than 40 employees are located at three other locations. Another big area of responsibility is coordination with the meinestadt.de management.

An affair of the heart: Putting young people on the right track

The special thing about my job for me is the product – I’m 100% behind the idea of TalentHero: I want to help put young people on the right track. It seems like we’re really reaching young people because they are very enthusiastic about the app. I’ve really found my dream job: My job challenges me every day, and I don't know what tomorrow will bring. That’s what I’ve always wanted. I meet many different people and lead a team that I was able to build. And I learn something every day.

Using experience from your studies in your professional life

In my daily work, I profit in all kinds of situations from my tourism management studies at the IUBH – especially the presentation training, which helps me with team meetings, meetings with the management or the steering committee, and presentations for up to 200 people that I do at trade fairs and events as part of my work at TalentHero. Both the theoretical and the practical parts of my studies are helpful. And the stays abroad also expanded my horizons in important ways.

A range of things attracted me to study at the IUBH: Personally, I find smaller learning groups much more effective and motivating than big ones. As for the tourism programme, I was interested in the subject but also in the programme’s design. I’ve always been a person who has learned better through practice than through pure theory. At the IUBH, the practical applicability of knowledge, e.g. in the context of case studies, excursions and practical semesters, plays a major role. I always enjoyed the exchanges with my fellow students and also with the professors. And of course the stays abroad were important. That option is what really motivated me to start my studies immediately after graduation instead of going abroad first.

From Baden-Baden via Jordan to Indonesia: IUBH alumnus Caspar Wesener started his international career in the hospitality industry. Today he works as a hotel manager at Kempinski Hotels in Bali.

I have turned my passion for good food and enjoyment into a career. After various positions in South and North America, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East, I now work for Kempinski Hotels in Bali.

Great responsibility as a hotel manager

As a hotel manager, I have overall responsibility for hotel operations as well as leadership of the department heads. The satisfaction of the guests and the staff is a top priority for me. I am responsible for the profitability of the business, the budget, and I represent the general manager as needed. I am involved in all significant strategic decisions of the company and manage and further develop the product on behalf of the owners and the management company. I have been lucky that I have always worked for committed and experienced supervisors or mentors who gradually introduced me to my current role as hotel manager. So I was able to educate myself and develop in related fields to meet the current owners’ expectations of a management company.

The IUBH degree: my business card

The programme was an ideal complement to my vocational training as a hotel specialist. Especially in the areas of finance, marketing, project management and tourism, I was able to develop the right foundations at IUBH to work in the complicated and constantly changing travel industry. My studies have also helped me gain the right insights, build solid foundational knowledge and make important contacts. My employer chose me because, among other things, I had graduated from IUBH – a seal of quality for good education. Bad Honnef was the right setting for me and provided great support so I could start my work with a great deal of knowledge. International, digital and very close to the student – that’s something only a modern, small university in a small town can offer.

An international career in the aviation industry – IUBH alumnus Andreas Bieniek moved to Vienna for his first job at Qatar Airways. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Qatar and now he is in Finland as business manager at Finnair.

The aviation industry is very international – we learned that during our studies. After doing my compulsory internship in Germany, I was interested in moving abroad after graduation and experiencing differences to my home country. In 2011, the year of my graduation, Qatar Airways gave a presentation about their company at the IUBH campus in Bad Honnef. I thought the career opportunities sounded very attractive and sent an unsolicited application to Qatar Airways through IUBH Career Services.

Personal contacts acquired while studying were helpful

Coincidentally, an IUBH alumnus was one of the people who interviewed me and he offered me a position as a business analyst at the Vienna branch. Two years later, I switched to the head office in Qatar. In the interim, I completed my master’s degree and was ready to get to know another airline. Finnair came to my attention through two former colleagues who now work for this Finnish airline. During the application process, I sat across from the same IUBH alumnus who had interviewed me for my first job. This is how I learned how important it is to have a personal network with contacts from university and work.

Position with variety and a lot of self-initiative

As a business manager in Finnair’s commercial division based in Helsinki, I am now working together with our sales teams in China and Hong Kong. My position is part of the Revenue Management and Pricing Department and serves as an interface to branch offices. This requires a lot of analytical skills and knowledge about the Chinese aviation market. My responsibilities include monitoring the competition, analysing its impact on Finnair and initiating the next necessary steps. The job is diversified and requires a lot of self-initiative and lobbying, but in return, there is a lot of creative freedom.

I learned how airports work during my bachelor’s degree programme

The basic knowledge I acquired during my aviation management degree programme at IUBH still helps me, every day.  You gain a solid base of knowledge about the different areas of the aviation industry: how airlines and airports function and how they work together with international institutions. Even today, I still look at course materials from my degree programme if I need to prepare a topic or want to refresh my knowledge. Especially the courses about yield, network management and aviation intelligence were important in helping me meet the demands of my career.

After completing her bachelor’s degree in aviation management, IUBH alumna Julia Fuchs worked in various positions in the aviation industry. She has now returned to Lufthansa Cargo, her former employer from her internship semester.

I already worked for Lufthansa Cargo during my internship semester and after my bachelor’s degree programme in aviation management I was initially able to take on a temporary substitute job there. I then had various jobs at different companies – from product management and management consulting in the aviation industry to revenue management at Germanwings. Then a former colleague from Lufthansa Cargo alerted me about a job vacancy in the company, to which I applied – with success: since then I am back at Lufthansa and currently working in the area of handling for the Terminal Development Department in Frankfurt.

Variety in the workday: between process optimisation, moderation and IT training

In my area of work, I am responsible for subprojects of larger projects. This includes a diversity of tasks such as classic process analysis and it corresponding process re-structuring, the testing of IT as well as the introduction of new IT programmes from the technical side. After developing the concept I initiate process adjustments with the department, work out IT adjustments in collaboration with the responsible departments and prepare the tests and training programmes for the users, some of which I teach myself. The exciting part about the job is that finding solutions to complex problems is as much a part of my work as leading theoretical discussions, facilitating meetings and unifying many different parties around one topic. I am practically involved with the entire cycle of my subproject, identify areas for improvement and, in collaboration with all relevant departments, develop a future scenario.

Well prepared by the academic content and training of soft skills at IUBH

I learned many of the skills I need for my job during my studies at IUBH. This includes for example, how to understand new topics quickly, and how to work with different kinds of people yet still reach a well thought out result. Thanks to the degree programme, I also know where to find up-to-date information about the industry, industry standards, industry pioneers and long-term trends. Computer training and the project management courses also prepared me well for my professional work.  Overall, I think the practical relevance of the degree programme was impressive. The lecturers clearly explained which knowledge is relevant for which situations or tasks. This enables me to consistently apply what I learned to my professional work.

IUBH alumnus Bastian Mahmoodi went into business right after his studies. He established the company Innozation GmbH, which is devoted to the highly topical issue of the shortage of skilled workers in Germany. As a managing partner he heads the company and creates an alternative to classical personnel placement.

It was never an option for me to go through a trainee programme or something like that after my studies because I wanted to let my creativity run free. The challenge of finding orientation and not simply being handed tasks is extremely satisfying to me.

We use Big Data and specially developed software to provide IT specialists from the Middle East access to medium-sized companies.

The business idea for the realization of Innozation - enabling mutual access to specialists abroad and middle-class enterprises by means of a platform and purposeful services - developed when I observed the systemic deficits regarding the immigration of specialists from abroad in the example of an own family member. Skilled workers abroad cannot find a central place to turn to, when they start to toy with the idea of emigrating to Germany and authorities often refuse to respond in English. However, Germany is increasingly dependent on skilled workers from abroad, especially small and medium-sized enterprises need them to develop innovations. With our "VisaBee" service, we at Innozation are the interface between all stakeholders involved in immigration. We use intelligent databases and algorithms do to so. We thus enable access for German medium-sized businesses to matching specialists from abroad. What is special about the concept: We link and evaluate all relevant data from the past and present, entirely in the sense of “Big Data”, which in turn means lower-risk immigration for applicants and companies. We are familiar with the risk potential of such immigration and strive to exclude it from the start.

Studies at the IUBH prepares for the processes in globally active companies

What especially helps me in my work from my studies: All study aspects surrounding interculturalism built bridges for me in thinking globally in lots of ways. The pointed preparation at the IUBH for the processes of an internationally operating company conveyed the big picture to me. Especially the fundamentals lectures on the topics of research, science and marketing gave me great tools to be able to assess questions in daily business.

My personal milestone: Bayerische Beteiligungsgesellschaft funds applicant

At the company, we are currently facing the roll-out phase and are completing the final software development. My tasks include keeping within all plans such as the financial framework and reaching the strategic goals, as well as specific scheduling. What I am especially proud of: Since its foundation, we have received state funding from the Bayerische Beteiligungsgesellschaft (BayBG), where only three per cent of founders who apply with their concept receive funding. In addition, we have achieved further critical milestones: Furnished the offices and hired the first colleague.

Now my top priority is developing and evolving the company with the corresponding growth. This includes the increase of customers but also developing new markets through new service and products. Exciting times lie ahead!

IUBH alumnus Bastian Mahmoodi went into business right after his studies. He established the company Innozation GmbH, which is devoted to the highly topical issue of the shortage of skilled workers in Germany. As a managing partner he heads the company and creates an alternative to classical personnel placement.

It was never an option for me to go through a trainee programme or something like that after my studies because I wanted to let my creativity run free. The challenge of finding orientation and not simply being handed tasks is extremely satisfying to me.

We use Big Data and specially developed software to provide IT specialists from the Middle East access to medium-sized companies.

The business idea for the realization of Innozation - enabling mutual access to specialists abroad and middle-class enterprises by means of a platform and purposeful services - developed when I observed the systemic deficits regarding the immigration of specialists from abroad in the example of an own family member. Skilled workers abroad cannot find a central place to turn to, when they start to toy with the idea of emigrating to Germany and authorities often refuse to respond in English. However, Germany is increasingly dependent on skilled workers from abroad, especially small and medium-sized enterprises need them to develop innovations. With our "VisaBee" service, we at Innozation are the interface between all stakeholders involved in immigration. We use intelligent databases and algorithms do to so. We thus enable access for German medium-sized businesses to matching specialists from abroad. What is special about the concept: We link and evaluate all relevant data from the past and present, entirely in the sense of “Big Data”, which in turn means lower-risk immigration for applicants and companies. We are familiar with the risk potential of such immigration and strive to exclude it from the start.

Studies at the IUBH prepares for the processes in globally active companies

What especially helps me in my work from my studies: All study aspects surrounding interculturalism built bridges for me in thinking globally in lots of ways. The pointed preparation at the IUBH for the processes of an internationally operating company conveyed the big picture to me. Especially the fundamentals lectures on the topics of research, science and marketing gave me great tools to be able to assess questions in daily business.

My personal milestone: Bayerische Beteiligungsgesellschaft funds applicant

At the company, we are currently facing the roll-out phase and are completing the final software development. My tasks include keeping within all plans such as the financial framework and reaching the strategic goals, as well as specific scheduling. What I am especially proud of: Since its foundation, we have received state funding from the Bayerische Beteiligungsgesellschaft (BayBG), where only three per cent of founders who apply with their concept receive funding. In addition, we have achieved further critical milestones: Furnished the offices and hired the first colleague.

Now my top priority is developing and evolving the company with the corresponding growth. This includes the increase of customers but also developing new markets through new service and products. Exciting times lie ahead!