From intern to Business Development Manager
5 questions for Alex: From student to career starter with us
How would you describe RAQUEST and the Halvotec Group as an employer?
At Halvotec and in my case at RAQUEST, we work closely together to achieve our goals. I have found that superiors are always there to help with questions and difficulties. At the same time, there is enough room for independent work, which enables me personally to take on responsibility and learn continuously. I also really like the open and direct exchange with colleagues in the office. Even if we have the opportunity to work from home, I'm happy when there are lots of people in the office and we can exchange ideas in person.
Can you still remember your first few weeks at work? How did they go and what were your typical tasks as an intern or working student?
I started at RAQUEST as an intern and was quite surprised by my first few weeks at the company. From previous internships, I was used to working on repetitive tasks and supporting my supervisor. It was completely different at Halvotec: I spent the first three days at a financial fair in Frankfurt to network and delve deeper into the subject matter. It was an experience that I had never had before, but it enabled me to immediately learn how trade fairs, which are not uncommon in sales, are organized and managed. Of course, this is not always the case, but in addition to daily/weekly recurring to-do's, there were always projects during my internship that I was allowed to organize and supervise myself!
How was the collaboration with your colleagues? Were you able to benefit from their know-how?
Working with my colleagues has always been very open and everyone is super helpful, as we all pull together and are all pursuing the same goal. I don't think this can be taken for granted, as I often experienced a lack of motivation or lone wolves gaining the upper hand, especially during my internships in larger companies.
Work-life balance is an important topic, especially for students. What was it like for you? Were you able to reconcile your studies and your job? How was working during the exam period?
At the beginning, it was definitely a challenge and a change to get everything under one roof. I wasn't used to doing a compulsory internship of 40 hours a week alongside my studies. Perhaps my university had planned it a little clumsily. But the positive thing was that it was recognized and I was allowed to work on my Master's thesis during working hours. I think that with a normal working student position with a maximum of 20 hours per week, a good work-life balance is definitely possible and that everyone understands when university requires more work and has priority.
As a working student, you have the opportunity to gain practical experience and develop both personally and professionally. What skill do you have now that you didn't know you had?
One of the most important skills I have learned is people management. It's one thing to get on well with friends and acquaintances at university, but it's quite another to cultivate business relationships and use them in a targeted way to get closer to the final goal step by step: closing a deal. Presenting slide decks is also a change compared to university. Of course, you should be able to present in front of strangers, but you no longer memorize a standardized pitch, but instead respond to the other person's questions during the meeting or presentation and adapt the pitch dynamically. An exciting and important thing that I learned during my time.
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