My career week

The "Business and Corporate Taxation in Europe" was one of the modules that I decided not take here at Mannheim Business School. We have 10 courses to choose at least 6 from. I know it is important to understand taxation mechanisms and strategies, but I figured that, if this becomes important to me one day, I'll know how to learn it on my own.
That meant that the week was class free for me. But not free. I focused on my starting job search, which needs a lot of time and effort to start well. The good thing is that, so far, so good. I have had some really positive responses to applications and conversations I had in the past months and believe that getting a job won't be a problem. Getting THE job though, is another story.

The week and the picture series started in Frankfurt, where I was invited for an initial interview with a PE (Private Equity) firm. The interview went well and it was good to have a feel of the kind of environment that will await me, if, as I intend to, get into Venture Capital or PE. In June we will have the second round, with other partners, so I guess that they liked what they saw.


On Tuesday I went to the excellent Konaktiva career fair in Darmstadt. It is organized by students, but extremely professional and organized.

I especially enjoyed the pannels where they brought 5 companies together, gave each company 5 minutes presentation time and then opened the floor for questions from the audience. A very good way of getting the feel of the companies, especially the smaller ones one doesn't get much info about from the media.
I was lucky and the Tuesday was the consulting day, so I was able to talk to several companies and get relevant recruitment contact information.

And during the fair I met a former colleague of mine from Brazil. He got into the Escola Politécnica during my last year there and came later to Darmstadt to do his double degree in Germany and Brazil. At the time he was here, we did not meet and I thought that he had long ago gone back to Brazil. So it was a surprise to meet him again in Germany. As cliché as it sounds, the world is really a small place.

I was back on Tuesday evening for the recruitment presentation of BASF at MBS. It was a good and interesting presentation and I enjoyed to talk with the global VP of procurement, a very open minded guy.
The rest of the week I invested in getting things done and applying for different companies, after doing the necessary research of the firms. This takes much more time and energy than I expected, and I wasn't really satisfied with my progress. But yesterday morning I had a very productive day, so it compensated some.

On Friday afternoon the whole class was invited to a company visit and fancy dinner in the evening.
The tour started with the very interesting Visitors' Center, a kind of an interactive museum about chemistry and BASF. I had loads of fun and, if time permits, I might go back to see it with more time.
Very nice was their multimedia table pictured below. I noticed that they used multiple media projectors in several installations and who designed these system really had some very nice ideas. Not to mention that the implementation was excellent.

But the dinner afterwards was the important event for those, like me, who are interested in working for the company (BASF has VC and New Business divisions). It was held in the fancy Casino, the company owned restaurant just outside the complex, in Ludwigshafen.

It was a good opportunity to talk to some of the employees at BASF and to some really senior recruiters, with the knowledge that you were pitching to somebody who really new what kind of people they wanted and what positions were available.

And it was not only a fancy dinner, but a really enjoyable one, where I had the opportunity to talk a lot to some of my MBA colleagues, including an American exchange student, in a different setting.
The only pity was that I wasn't able to go to Heidelberg meet a good Brazilian friend and catch the great hildesheimer blues band "B. B. & the Bluesshacks".

But, all in all, it was a good week, with even an offer to work part time as an MBA coach and GMAT trainer for aspiring MBA candidates. I don't know yet if I will be able to make time for it, but, if the pay is good, it will be an interesting way to put some of the knowledge I have gathered in the last year to good use. Let's see how it goes.