Junior Consultant: My second first career entry
The end of my studies, what now?
In December 2022, after four years, I successfully completed my Bachelor’s degree in Business Informatics at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg. I had already sent off all my applications and passed the first interviews. At the beginning of the year, I went on the obligatory backpacking trip to find myself and travelled across South America before starting my first permanent position, at that time with a different employer. Everything seemed to be going well.
Starting your career – all that glitters is not gold
As a newly qualified Junior Consultant for SAP BW (Business Warehouse), I travelled to a three-day welcome seminar at the beginning of March, where I was able to get to know many colleagues and also meet my boss in person for the first time. Confident and highly motivated, I returned home to my 100% remote office, ready to start my first tasks. However, confidence gradually turned into resentment and motivation into frustration. An agreed graduate programme was postponed and cancelled at short notice. After five sluggish months on the substitution bench with no prospect of a job, I was finally given a choice: Either I move to a new department with completely different tasks or I am made redundant at the end of my probationary period. Neither of these were promising options for me!
Back to zero
And so, after just six months, I was back where I was after my studies. A little perplexed, I started writing applications again. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long for results. Through a few corners, I learnt that there was a position at Rödl & Partner in Nuremberg that might suit me. I quickly had an interview and after a trial day including a team event in the evening, I was accepted straight away. And the job really suited me:
– Junior Consultant specialising in SAP BW is exactly the subject area that I find interesting.
– a hybrid working model, so that I always have a contact person on site and still have the opportunity to work remotely.
– as a native of Middle Franconia, I was of course already familiar with Rödl & Partner, especially as I already completed an internship in an internal service unit in 2021.
For me, these were all points in favour of this exciting position!
...and finally I found exactly the job at Rödl & Partner that suited me perfectly.
Tax consultant
Off to new adventures
So in October 2023, I took up my first, hopefully long-term, full-time position for the second time. But I still had a few questions in the back of my mind: What if things are just as slow here? What if I don’t get a project here either? But everything turned out differently. I spent the first day onboarding, getting to know my line manager and colleagues from the Data Platforms & Technology team and setting up my new workplace. On day 2, I completed the first familiarisation tasks straight away, as the first client meeting was already scheduled for the afternoon. I sat curiously in the team call and listened as the first project I would be involved in was discussed. We were given the task of creating a standardised data interface for a medium-sized, internationally active firm from Germany and, based on this, to present various key figures in a dashboard for corporate management. My colleague showed me the data model required for this, which he had already designed, and explained to me how I could implement it in the system. He took me ‘by the hand’ and I was directly familiarised with the project according to the principle of ‘learning by doing’.
That’s how the first few weeks went: We worked closely together as a team of two – my colleague focussed on the concept and consultation with the client and I was responsible for development. Incidentally, it was also an advantage for our client, as we naturally didn’t charge for the time spent familiarising ourselves with the project. Without realising it, I was right in the middle of my day-to-day work. In our weekly jour fixe meetings, we discussed as a team who would work on which topics and on which days we would meet together in the office or work from home. To commute between Erlangen and Nuremberg, I soon took advantage of benefits such as the job ticket and, more recently, the bike leasing offer.
All good things come in twos, don’t they?
The first few months were over in no time and it was the end of February 2024. The annual appraisal and the evaluation of the probationary period were due. I’d never got any further than this before. But the tension was eased right at the beginning. ‘You can consider your probationary period to be over,’ said my line manager. A stone fell from my heart. We openly reviewed the time since I started, reflected on our joint project and my start. The conversation flew by; the scheduled hour turned into two. Together, we set professional and personal development goals for the coming year, discussed upcoming projects and mapped out where the journey would take us. Full of anticipation for the challenges ahead, I got back to work, because now it’s time to master these tasks!
Thank you for the interview!
Our podcast: IT im Gespräch
Enjoy listening!
In this episode, Hannes Beckmann talks about how he started as a junior consultant at Rödl & Partner, why practical experience was more important to him than theory, and what business intelligence has to do with pathfinders and project management.
Together with host Jens Hinkelmann, he talks about interdisciplinary collaboration at Rödl & Partner – with the Tax Data Hub as a showcase project – and how he jumped in at the deep end right from the start, quickly progressing from junior to consultant.