Graduating from EMTM as part of the cohort 2018-2020 definitely posed some challenges once we graduated in the summer of 2020. The plans we all had were eventually interrupted by a major event: the COVID-19 pandemic.

In my case, when the pandemic begun in January 2020, I had already started my internship at an event management company in Mallorca while writing my thesis. I had planned to finish my thesis in the summer and then move to Ibiza for the company. I thought I had it all figured out.

However, in mid-March 2020 lockdowns arrived in Europe and led me back to my family’s place in Münster, Germany. While writing the thesis back home, I felt the strong urge to plan the next steps already before finishing the thesis. Unfortunately, the tourism industry came to an abrupt stop which made me consider other industries and options. As a matter of fact, I had always wanted to do a so-called “trainee program”, which offers graduates the opportunity to experience different departments within a company with the overall goal being to get a holistic view and understand internal processes.

As my plan was to live outside of Germany again (the EMTM mentality never stops), I simply spent hours upon hours looking up trainee programs within Europe on LinkedIn. While my mom was slowly going insane due to my procrastination/job searching commitment (which might have taken away some focus from the thesis at times), I did achieve a major success: shortly after handing in the thesis, I landed myself a trainee position at an edu-tech start-up from Vienna called “GoStudent”, which offers one-on-one private tutoring with tailor-made classes for any subject and age group. With only 2 weeks’ notice, I managed to arrange my move to Vienna, pack everything up and start a new chapter, without knowing a single soul in the city (classic EMTM mentality), yet I thought: “it’s all going to turn out fine”.

Soon I will celebrate my one-year anniversary at my first ever full time job, where I have gained experience in working in B2C sales. My tasks included talking to parents to get to know their needs and thus finding the perfect tutor and best learning package for their kids. In addition, I have gained experience in managing tutor teams, including providing support to  tutors, giving trainings, handling complaints and brainstorming to improve internal processes (start-up atmosphere at its best).

I could not be happier about the chance I got and would encourage anybody to just give it a try, “jump in the cold water” and trust your gut instinct when looking for a job after graduating. The experiences I have gained from EMTM allowed me to be confident and just trust the process. Also, do not forget how valuable the experience of living in three or four different countries within two years is for employers. You can do it! Just go with your passion, be flexible and be bold!

Written by Helen Krüger, Alumna of EMTM Generation 2018-2020