Director, Controlling Consulting & Systems Integration, Germany
Testimonial
In the last five years I've progressed in my career from being the Executive Assistant to the former Managing Director in Germany to becoming the Manager Controlling five sectors in Systems Integration, leading a team of five with responsibilities for the usual financials - monthly closing, forecasting, budgeting, cash management, project controlling, analyzing of figures - and am the financial lead on three large corporate deals.
I know some people think finance can be a bit dry and dull but it's anything but. My team is great, totally committed, professional and serious about getting things done, but we also have fun. The culture is open, reliable, humorous, mostly non-hierarchical - that's important for me because it means I can work more efficiently with people and there's always room for people to think and make decisions on your own.
What's also important is the fact that this is a young spirited company, an open-door company, an ideas company. People listen to you, discuss things, and welcome your thoughts on doing things differently. I've been supported and I've also learned so much about the business - gaining a holistic view of functions and roles and how everything works together. I also had the chance to participate on the GOLD (Global Organizational Leadership Development) program, which was great to strengthen my personality and my workstyle - which then fed into my professional skills and competences. It's a fantastic program which I found really valuable.
My personal target was to become a financial consultant to support the results of our business people. Today I have the feeling that I have realized that ambition. But there are lots more things I'd like to achieve such as to improve processes, become more efficient, develop and implement early warning systems. And of course to coach my team and to strengthen their abilities. Having realized all that I’ll feel prepared for a further career step.
Being a manager can be stressful at times but what I've found is that you need to achieve balance in your life. My day now starts mostly at six o’clock with a 5 km run which is the time for my best ideas and thoughts, time for myself. For me, this is the perfect start to a new and interesting day!