An exciting introduction to Deloitte and football nights under the Mannheim sky

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(by Pascal)

It has been almost a month now since I joined Deloitte in the Garage and everything is going great. Even though I do not want to think about the end of the internship yet, I have to realize, that about a third is already over. Time is running with the same pace, as we work on our solutions and formalize our business. I could not tell on how many things I have worked yet, however, the number of folders on my desktop tells me, it has been a lot of different topics! The Garage is definitely a welcoming place to work at – enjoyable workplaces, a fun and smart team, tangible innovative projects.

“I have been treated as a full member of the team from day one.”

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I appreciate a lot, that I have been treated as a full member of the team from day one. When I opened my laptop for the first time, I was happy to see that I already got introduced to the entire team. My time at Deloitte got kicked-off with four starter days at the headquarters in Düsseldorf, where I had the chance to meet a lot of new and interesting people – surprisingly numerous from the same department, some from my home university, and also one person I now have the chance to work with. 

So how is Mannheim doing? So far, no barbecue at the Rhine and I have not been to the city center yet. But still, it is the football European championships, which are always worth to watch somewhere in Mannheim and a colleague recently took me to an event of our university’s alumni association where I got to know the start-up culture of the city – also a great opportunity.

I am excited to tell you a lot more about my time at the Deloitte Garage. Until next time!

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Meet Eric, the Blind Applying champion of Johnson & Johnson

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Eric has been finishing his Master’s in Statistics at Columbia University. Models and statistical analysis will prove useful at his Data Science internship at Johnson & Johnson. He will be sharing his stories and insights through his blog.

Were you surprised to find a professional match with Johnson & Johnson?
Yes, I was completely taken by surprise. It hadn't occurred to me that Johnson and Johnson was looking to hire people with knowledge in statistics, machine learning, or data science. Lucky for me, they started their data science internship program only a few years ago, so I get to be one of the lucky ones to help shape the influence and future direction of data science at the company.

What has been an interesting learning for you while working with data? 
In my deep learning course, I've enjoyed seeing firsthand how effective deep neural networks can be at accurately learning features from data. For the course final project, I worked on a team that achieved a classification accuracy of > 99% on the well known MNIST dataset. This is a remarkable result because this level of accuracy rivals human levels of performance. It's really quite fascinating that such a result is achievable despite the fact that the scientific community still doesn't really have a good explanation for how neural networks do what they do.

3 songs that will be on your playlist this summer?
Believe it or not, I listen to a lot of pop country. First 3 songs that played when I hit shuffle: Days Go By (Keith Urban), We Are Tonight (Billy Currington), and American Honey (Lady Antebellum).

Meet Oana, The Blind Applying Champion Of ENGIE!

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Oana, studying Business Informatics at the Vienna University of Technology, will be researching the cybersecurity market for ENGIE in Paris. Interested to know more? Oana will be sharing her stories on her blog. 

Have you wished to work for ENGIE before?
Working in the energy field was always something I seriously considered since it is running in the family (my father is an engineer in a local thermal power station). Getting an internship in cybersecurity at ENGIE exceeds my expectations. It's clearly an amazing opportunity and the best career move I could do at the moment. Until now I have only worked in institutes, start-ups or medium-sized companies, so you can imagine that I am very excited to learn and work in a company of such magnitude.

What is your favourite programming language and why?
I know that in such matters I should take into consideration a long list of pros and cons, but when it comes to the personal favourite, I will turn on the subjective side. Java was the first programming language I learned in a continuous and consistent way and it was the key in getting my first real job as a mobile developer. It helped me understand and learn major programming concepts and later on, allowed me to create a small personal portfolio by developing and publishing several Android apps.

Which social media channel will you be using most to communicate your adventures in Paris to your friends?
As expected I will probably do a lot of posting on Facebook. I create a photo album for every country I visit, so I predict a very large one for France. Also, I hope I will have some time to dust off my old travelling blog where I am gathering my lessons learned and highlights.

Meet Kevin, The Blind Applying Champion Of TÜV NORD GROUP!

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Kevin is studying Intercultural Human Resource Development at the University of Jena. He is joining Cualicontrol in Madrid to help with the cultural training and development of the Group’s international employees. He will be sharing his stories on his blog.

Were you expecting to be matched with the TÜV NORD GROUP when applying for Blind Applying?
Nope, I actually didn’t. And that’s one of the reasons I applied: to get matched with a company that I would not have expected, to a place I would not have expected.

What are you most excited about to do in Madrid?
Probably it won’t be easy to deal with the heat I’ll encounter in Madrid, so I am very looking forward to jumping into some cool swimming pool. Well I am excited to go out, enjoy the nightlife and live music. Aaaand of course to get a great work experience :)

You are speaking 8 languages, 4 of them fluently. What have you taken away from your language studying?
Learning a new language does not only provide you with the opportunity to communicate with more people but also opens up a whole new world. Even the way one behaves and interacts changes when using another language (e.g. the tone of your voice, gestures etc.).

Meet Jakob, the Blind Applying Champion of Enterprise Rent-a-Car!

Jakob is getting prepared for a rotational internship at Enterprise. With a variety of tasks comes a variety of learning experiences. He will be sharing his stories on his blog.

What are you looking forward to while working at Enterprise?
I am excited to get a thorough understanding of Enterprise's core business while rotating through the different departments in Frankfurt and to learn about the European strategy at the European Headquarter in London. I also look forward to pursuing my own independent project and presenting it to Enterprise administrators.

You have spent a year in Korea studying Business. Most interesting learning from your experience?
We had more group assignments than I was used to in Germany, and in the context of those projects it was interesting to learn about the differences in group dynamics and work culture between German and Korean students.

A book you will take with you during your internship?
It would be great if I find the time to read "In the World Interior of Capital: Towards a Philosophical Theory of Globalization” by Peter Sloterdijk

The ABC of HR marketing

(by Jennifer Mbunga)

I decided I wanted to major in International Management because I always saw myself working in (people) management: leading a team, motivating staff, training and the likes. Really I should have studied Human Resources Management (HRM) instead.

During my academic year in in the U.S. I finally took an HRM class. The intro class to the subject was rooted in labor law (Equal Employment Opportunity which is antidiscrimination laws, etc.). I soon realized that HR is more than just people management. It includes various functional areas such as planning, staffing, developing, compensating and appraising. Human Resources (HR) practitioners are becoming business partners in organizations and the role of personnel as source of competitive advantage is increasing.

My internship at Enterprise has shown me the strategic elements of HR in an organization that considers its people to be the most valuable resource. Implementing some elements of the HR strategy myself, I have learned the following HR ABC, amongst other things.

A for Analytics

HR is quantitative. Numbers seem to follow me everywhere. And though they seemed very complex at first when you export them into an Excel workbook, once I got the hang of them, it was clear why tracking candidate engagement online is so important. Analytics is crucial for e-recruiting as it helps take on a more targeted approach for recruiting online. Using free tools like Google Analytics helps identify which job boards, career networks, etc. bring in the most traffic and applications. In order to track how many people come to your website and where they came from, cookies are added to a URL link.

Analytics is also very useful for SEO (search engine optimization) as it allows you to identify the main keywords candidates search for and employers can then purposely place them on their websites to come up when you search for the keywords in Google. Other hieroglyphs that I have encountered related to analytics are CTR (click through rate), CPC (cost per click) and C/H (cost per hire).

B for Branding

HR is marketing. Just like companies market their products to appeal to consumers, companies market themselves to be considered an employer of choice (EOC). An employer brand is basically a company’s reputation and what candidates associate with a corporate name. Candidates commonly want to work for companies whose products and services they like and know of.

Blogging can be used as a tool of employer branding. Through storytelling candidates can get a better idea of what the company is all about and hear firsthand from people that already work there.

C for community management

One of my tasks during my internship at Enterprise is to blog for the new social hub on the German website. As a social media community manager, my task is to find relevant content and put it in a format that is engaging and fun to read.

Social media has become so important and many new jobs are emerging because of this trend. There are many new career opportunities in this field. You should look into it if you love using Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and Vine at work.

Corporate culture. People work with people and not organizations, so corporate culture is the most important thing within an organization. Some even say it’s a company’s DNA. One thing I love about Enterprise is how laid back everybody is. Upper management is very down to earth and approachable. To me those are the key qualities I look for in a leader. The company believes in employees being peers regardless of rank or time with the company. As an intern I have been treated as a regular team member. During my week at the German corporate office I even got a chance to have breakfast with the new VP of German Operations. We ran into each other at the breakfast buffet and he took some time to chat with me about Blind Applying.

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