How Lea trusted her intuition on her way to becoming a project manager
In spring 2023, Lea Maurer handed in her bachelor's thesis and completed her degree in International Business Studies (IBS). Her heart was already beating for foreign languages at school, so she was able to focus on languages and economics in this subject. Through an internship and a subsequent position as a working student, Lea immersed herself deeper and deeper into the professional world and found her own personal place at the MBG Group.
Spain, volunteering and ‘Tauschis’
After graduating from high school, Lea went to Spain for a year as an au pair in 2018. In addition to the culture, she fell in love with the language in particular, so she wanted to continue expanding her foreign language skills after returning home. On the IBS degree programme, she found the perfect combination of business knowledge with English and Spanish. ‘I particularly liked the fact that although the focus is on languages, I can still attend the same courses as the other business students (in German),’ says Lea, explaining her decision at the time. Thanks to her time in Spain, Lea knows how difficult it can be to find your feet in a foreign environment. This is why she volunteered with Eurobiz from the start of her studies. The student initiative organises a comprehensive programme of events for exchange students and is the first port of call for the ‘Tauschis’ - as the association refers to exchange students. In addition to organising events such as themed evenings, excursions and sporting events, Lea's role also involved being there for the exchange students. ‘I always made sure that the exchange students had a great time with us,’ she enthuses about the many friendships that developed as a result.
Trying out different careers
After completing her studies, Lea is no longer very active at Eurobiz, but still enjoys coming to the events. In the almost four years that she has been a volunteer, she has learnt soft skills and intercultural competencies above all. The reason for this? Lea always had to incorporate several cultures. As an organiser and team leader, she also often had to work under pressure. She was therefore able to acquire skills that she still benefits from today. In addition to her voluntary work, Lea also tried out different professional fields during her bachelor's degree: As an SHK at the Centre for Language Teaching (ZfS), the Paderborn native was responsible for administrative tasks in particular; her SHK position in marketing at the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics also allowed Lea to immerse herself in creative and planning tasks - for example, she was jointly responsible for planning the graduation ceremony. A subsequent internship at the MBG Group then provided her with points of contact in the private sector.
Go with the flow
In her fifth semester, Lea decided to do an internship in Brand Management at MBG. Here, she took care of areas such as content creation for Meta and TikTok, influencer marketing, budgeting and operational tasks. ‘I had a lot of personal responsibility right from the start,’ she says, looking back on independently managing two brand campaigns with DOS MAS and MAHIKI Rum, for example. Right from the start, Lea had the feeling that she was making a difference in the company's marketing. The decision to continue getting to know the company as a working student was therefore not difficult for the 22-year-old. In May 2022, she switched to export and was mainly responsible for international marketing for the catering industry. The focus was on product development, customer relations and international sales. Here, Lea followed her intuition to try her hand at international project management - or in Lea's words: ‘go with the flow.’
Out of the ‘working student world’
One year later, she left the ‘working student world’. With her Bachelor's degree in the bag, Lea took on her first full-time position - again at MBG. However, Lea changed departments within the company again. Why? Because it felt right for her to familiarise herself with yet another area. Lea is now a project manager in Marketing and Sales and took on two completely new projects right from the start. Among other things, she is involved in restructuring the corporate design and is getting to know the company from a completely new perspective. She is also responsible for change management during the migration of the IT system to Microsoft 365, including creating training videos and communicating with employees. She primarily takes a lot of background knowledge from her studies into her new everyday life. She particularly remembers a seminar with Prof Dr Kundisch, which focused on innovative ideas. ‘I still like to transfer the procedures I learnt to the company today,’ she reveals with a glance at “Pivots”. In the lecture theatre, she learned how important these strategic changes of course can be. Even more important, however, are the numerous soft skills that go beyond the theoretical content: ‘I learnt to think my way into things and to learn them in the shortest possible time,’ and that helped her a lot when familiarising herself with completely new projects.
Reacting to trends and working with them
In her job, Lea sees the art of combining creativity, innovation and hard reality in such a way that the product ultimately inspires the target group - because that is what MBG wants to create as a brand and also project onto its employees. It was only in her job that Lea learnt how important interpersonal relationships are for this and how many processes are behind the theory. As a project manager, she recognises the importance of working with different people, negotiating with third parties and asserting herself. As a project manager, Lea primarily supports the implementation and organisation of projects within the company. Depending on the task, she works a lot with the purchasing, marketing and IT departments and gains insights into topics relating to catering, retail, marketing and brand management as well as new product developments. As a result, she gets to see first-hand how important it is to react to new trends and utilise them herself. For example, the focus in 2023 will be on short vertical videos, such as those found on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, which MBG is also following. Or the ‘new team member’ of the GOLDBERG and Sons brand: Jacob Goldberg. This is an artificial intelligence designed to give the brand a new face - in other words, effective marketing with the help of AI. Lea observes all these developments and processes every day. And although she has always listened to her gut feeling and gone with the flow, she has a few tips that she would have liked to have known before her studies:
- Grades aren't everything! You can often score more with the experience you have gained!
- Take everything that interests you with you, i.e. internships, temporary jobs, etc.!
- Don't forget to continue your personal development alongside university! In addition to the theory of marketing, it's also important to know how to deal with potential conflicts or stressful situations!
- I recommend reading non-fictional books. If you need a recommendation, you can get inspiration from @alexandbooks_ (not an advert)!
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