After studying chemical engineering at the Technical University of Munich, I joined Evonik Industries AG in 2014 as a process engineer in Process Technology & Engineering. The extensive application process, which gave me the opportunity to talk to future colleagues as well as potential superiors, quickly convinced me. This laid the foundation for the establishment of a network that is indispensable for successful work in a company the size of Evonik.

The project work within the particle processing division allows me to get to know different business units, another advantage that gives me an idea of development opportunities. As a young process engineer - the Group's internal service provider - customer care that includes clear communication so that both sides speak the same language is extremely important. Here I quickly discovered that production environment was right for me. There, the team spirit that can be felt in daily work motivated me during my projects at various locations, that I started as assistant plant manager at the Rheinfelden site in 2016.

The flexibility that I had previously shown in the form of various business trips quickly turned into a high level of situational readiness for change and changing priorities as well as the ability to improvise during on-call duty.

Within the first year, I was able to acquire the helpful theoretical basics, such as operator responsibility, leadership skills and basic business knowledge, as part of the internal plant manager curriculum. Apart from that, the motto is "training on the job" - which, incidentally, applies to both men and women despite the fact that the environment is currently dominated by men. In my opinion, clear communication and the ability to criticize are the key to success at this place. Speaking of goals: Where should the journey take us? The job as an assistant plant manager motivates me every day anew: here I can fully live out my organisational talent and communication both vertically and horizontally as well as my scientific and technical background. The professional responsibility of the employees and the activities at the interface to technology, quality management and supply chain management are varied. These experiences have encouraged me to take on an additional challenge since February 2019: managing the company I already know. A first review of the past 1.5 years shows that, in addition to technical issues, personnel and operator law issues have become increasingly important. The changed perspective was initially unusual. With my previous strategy consisting of an analytical approach, the right dose of empathy at some points and last but not least sporting ambition, the new task can be handled very well so far, there is no trace of boredom.

As the small insight into the activities of the production shows, the network maintenance mentioned at the beginning is also an advantage at this point. At a rather smaller location this is not quite trivial. Here, one's own initiative and the view beyond the location must be taken to heart. And by the way: the visit of the colleagues to another location is definitely worthwhile because it can be very helpful to get out of one's own challenging daily production routine for a short time.