My first year as a working student – A personal retrospective

A year can pass incredibly quickly – that's exactly how it feels when I look back on my time as a working student at IBIS Prof. Thome AG. At the time, I had just handed in my bachelor's thesis and was looking for an opportunity to deepen my existing knowledge and meaningfully pass the time until my master's. So, a little over twelve months ago, I started this new professional experience full of curiosity and optimism. I was excited to see what tasks awaited me and how I would find my way in a company that specializes in analyzing and optimizing SAP systems. When I started, I had little idea of the in-depth technical work my colleagues do, but over time I was able to learn a lot and get a little more into the subject matter of IBIS.

From day one, I was warmly welcomed into the team. A structured onboarding process enabled me to get started quickly, so I was able to take on my first tasks quickly. The open corporate culture, in which personal initiative is valued and encouraged, made it easy for me to get actively involved. From the very first weeks, I was not just a listener, but was able to participate in projects. I was particularly impressed by the opportunity to participate in the Strategy Days in Strasbourg, where I held a poster session on artificial intelligence and led a workshop on Generation Z. I was very pleased to be trusted with so much responsibility from the beginning, and I was incredibly enriched by the opportunity to participate in such important events.

My responsibilities are wide-ranging and include conceptualizing specialist articles and workshops, planning and writing LinkedIn posts, and supporting campaigns. I am particularly proud of having already written two specialist articles – one on the topic of artificial intelligence and one on ESG. Both gave me the opportunity to engage in-depth with complex issues and develop my knowledge in a targeted way. I am very interested in ESG, especially since it has gained in importance. I was involved in planning and implementing our ESG campaign and helping to design marketing materials. Not only did we succeed in presenting complex content in an easy-to-understand way, but we also found creative ways to make sustainability and data management understandable – because “Your Data already knows”.

To ensure that this content is also communicated to the outside world, we are increasingly using LinkedIn, not only to expand our network, but also to keep existing contacts up to date on the latest developments. But just as the outside world needs to be updated, we also manage to keep our colleagues informed of our activities through an internal newsletter. Because of the everyday tasks, it is often difficult to fully understand the work of colleagues, so we try to change that every two months. Regular poster sessions or monthly info sessions also help to get a taste of each other's projects, which strengthens the sense of community.

This year has not only helped me professionally, but has also allowed me to grow personally. I have learned to familiarize myself with challenging topics, to communicate in a targeted manner and to develop creative solutions to challenges. It was particularly exciting to be responsible for my first “projects” and to experience the dynamics of marketing up close. I was also able to gain experience in the UX area, including designing an internal workshop in which I conveyed the importance of the user perspective when developing complex tools.

Besides the substantive work, there were many personal highlights, whether it was working closely with my team, inspiring conversations or shared successes on projects. Particularly exciting was attending the KI Days in Munich and our innovation conference at the Maschinenhaus in Würzburg. There, we had the opportunity to welcome many of our long-standing partners and exchange ideas about current developments. It was incredibly exciting to meet people from the IBIS network and gain valuable insights into their work and perspectives. All these experiences have shown me how much I have already learned and how exciting the challenges ahead will be.

My first year as a working student was an incredibly enriching time, and I look forward to continuing to learn. In the future, I would like to deepen my knowledge of strategic communication and become even more involved in the company's external image. Writing also remains one of my great passions – be it for blog posts, social media or professional articles. A year full of exciting experiences, valuable learning and great people – that's how I would summarize my time at IBIS. I am grateful for the opportunities I have been given here and for the team that has supported me during this time.