What our alumni say

I studied at Viadrina University and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań at the same time and spent a year as an Erasmus student at Istanbul Bilgi University. I specialised in European business law. During my studies, I worked as an assistant at a chair and completed internships at the Federal Foreign Office, large law firms and the Ministry of Economics.

I always enjoyed working with languages, I was interested in politics and found international relations exciting. I also wanted to study in both Germany and Poland - as I had just returned from voluntary service in Poland. With the German-Polish law degree programme, I saw the opportunity to combine all of this. I always knew what would characterise my future position: I like to take responsibility, I like to shape things and I want to change my environment for the better. Becoming an HR manager was not a stringent plan. Rather, I recognised and seized opportunities where I could contribute my strengths. If you are ambitious about your studies, there are many doors open to you at the faculty (jobs, support with internships, mentoring, opportunities to enter academia). Above all, it is the legal tools and methodological expertise to quickly open up new specialist areas that I still use today. Studying in three different countries has also honed my adaptability - a quality that is a great advantage when changing industries or making big career moves. I got involved in student initiatives to do good. Along the way, I gained my first experience in project and event management as well as leadership. All of this is an advantage in the varied day-to-day work in HR.

I currently work as HR manager for a group with 3,500 employees. The municipal Carl-Thiem-Klinikum Cottbus is in the midst of a rapid transformation from a municipal hospital to the first medical university in the state of Brandenburg. Within a few years, we will fill 80 Professorships and 1,600 scientific positions. At the same time, we are being reorganised as a digital flagship hospital to become the beacon of tomorrow's healthcare. This means a lot of work, but also a huge amount of room for manoeuvre. I am in the middle of a strategy process with my department: we are modernising processes, introducing digital tools, preparing for new tasks, expanding the team - and all of this in the course of day-to-day business.

Looking back, I can hardly imagine that any other state university in the Berlin area could have given me a better education with an international focus than Viadrina. The strongly international profile and the following aspects quickly made Viadrina my personal first choice: English-language Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes (for example: International Business Administration), small groups of around 50 students, lecturers from all over the world and more than 250 partner universities worldwide.

Surprisingly, these special features quickly proved to be important and worth mentioning again and again when starting my career. In my first job interviews and informal conversations today, I always encounter astonished faces when I mention these details from my university life. In addition, international and cultural understanding as well as the ability to work together in appropriate teams across borders were and are core requirements for globally operating companies, especially in the software sector, where I work today.

I currently work at Google in Silicon Valley as a product manager and have worked on various products, such as Google Analytics and the Google Assistant. My core tasks include product development, market launch and integration of third-party providers, are cross-functional and require constant dialogue and coordination with Google's software developers, business development, the legal department and many more in order to be successful. At Google, there are now additional dimensions across borders, time zones and cultures, for which I could hardly have been better prepared. I still draw on the experiences from my four semesters abroad in Spain, Finland, Colombia and China today. And of course, these were not just academic in nature, but also taught me small but important details about how to build better connections with people, such as ice bathing, salsa or eating steak with sticks.

I studied European Studies at Viadrina from 2010 to 2012 and took the opportunity to improve my French and learn a little Polish. In terms of content, I dealt with questions of European democracy and various forms of integration and was also able to participate in a research project by Prof Dr Timm Beichelt. I worked at a Franco-German institute in Berlin, where I organised European political study trips. During my voluntary work for the Young European Federalists and my master's degree at Viadrina, I realised more and more that I found a policy-related activity very exciting.

In the State Representation, I am currently responsible for preparing the content of the EU Committee in the Bundesrat. In other words, how the State Chancellery positions itself on EU projects, or writing motions on behalf of the state in the committee. I also prepare appointments for the Secretary of State for Europe in Berlin, accompany them and organise European policy events and background discussions at the State Representation.

I gained an understanding of how EU institutions work and where European policy is made everywhere at Viadrina. I also gained a deeper understanding of individual policy areas. Researching EU dossiers in practice, or the role of the federal states in European policy, for example, is something I learnt in my job. In my experience, you should always do what you enjoy thematically. In the field of political science/European Studies, it helps to focus on a political field, topic or region and build up specific expertise in this area. Discussions with practitioners always help - not only with final theses, but also when starting a career.

I studied International Betriebswirtschaftslehre with a focus on corporate management, organisation and human resources. During my studies, I had the opportunity to complete two semesters abroad - in Argentina and Malaysia. I financed my studies as a working student at KPMG in Berlin.

I am a talented linguist and have always wanted to do something with languages. After my dual study programme in business administration/banking, I was therefore initially drawn abroad. I spent a year expanding my knowledge of Spanish, English and Russian and was able to go straight into the main degree programme in International Betriebswirtschaftslehre (Business Administration) at the Viadrina in 1999. I had deliberately chosen this degree programme – not least because of Viadrina's many partner universities. I have particularly fond memories of my time in the Frankfurt (Oder) student ministry and of rehearsals and concerts with the university choir. Some contacts from this time still exist today. Incidentally, I still wanted to work abroad after my studies, which is why I initially joined an international trainee programme.

I have been a professor of general business administration at the Business and Law School in Berlin (BSP) since 2016 and I particularly love my varied working days. Accompanying students in their development - from the first semester to their final thesis and beyond - gives me great pleasure. In addition to teaching in the German and English-language degree programmes, I am also involved in the further development of degree programmes. If there is still time, I also do research, for example on the design and challenges of new (digital) working environments.

In my job, I can of course benefit from my professional qualifications from my studies and international work experience (and later my PhD). The ability to work independently and as part of a team helps me to deal with the demands of my various roles - as a manager, learning facilitator and lecture expert. I have grown into my current role as Dean of the Faculty of Business and Management at the interface between my colleagues from teaching and science and the many institutions of university management. Working on committees and in academic self-administration also requires dealing with conflict situations and taking into account and prioritising the various interests of all those involved.