Whilst the effects of the pandemic continue to be felt throughout all areas of academic and professional life, the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management Career Center has successfully tackled the challenges it has faced since March 2020. With events such as the "Master Your Career" days on January 28 and 29, and the "Consulting Evening" on February 9, the WHU Career Center continues to offer students the opportunity to broaden their professional horizons and to network with alumni and other experts from the business world in a digital format.
Make the best of it!
“Make the best of it” has been the motto of the WHU Career Center Team and its Director, Heike Hülpüsch, since the start of the pandemic, and was wholeheartedly adopted by the eight partner companies and over 400 WHU students taking part in the Master Your Career event. In his warm welcome, WHU Dean Prof. Dr. Markus Rudolf emphasized how much WHU appreciates the fact that its long-standing partners are open to exploring new possibilities together with the university. Accenture, adidas, BASF, Beiersdorf, Deichmann, Deutsche Bahn, Henkel and Kearney then met students from the Bachelor of Science and Master of Science programs at the first online version of the event.
Enriching contact to alumni
The successful "Master Your Career" days were quickly followed by a virtual edition of the well-established "Consulting Evening", where a colorful mix of specialized consultancies and inhouse consultancies from various industries presented themselves. In his welcome address, Prof. Dr. Christian Andres, Chair of Empirical Corporate Finance and Academic Director of the Master of Science Program, highlighted one of the WHU's major long-term goals: to ensure the inspiring and enriching diversity that is essential for success in a global economy. Heike Hülpüsch was particularly pleased to see the many alumni who had digitally returned to their alma mater to represent Allianz Inhouse Consulting, Horváth & Partners, Lohfert & Lohfert, Monitor Deloitte, Simon-Kucher & Partners, SMP AG, thyssenkrupp Management Consulting and Volkswagen Consulting. The alumni know from experience what current WHU students are interested in and how to get them excited about their own employers.
Using a wide range of possibilities for interaction
The WHU Career Center holds its digital career fairs on the TalentSpace career event platform, where students and companies can interact in a variety of ways to get to know each other better and explore the potential for future collaboration. Job offers and information about the companies and student profiles were available to be viewed before the event and mutual interest signaled. During the event, the participants were in good spirits as they attended short company presentations and then took part in hundreds of short 1-1 conversations and numerous interviews, and thus gathered many personal impressions and ideas.
Despite the success of the virtual formats, the participants believe that they will never fully replace the in-person events and face-to-face conversations on the Vallendar campus. Heike Hülpüsch and her team are already looking forward to the next events, and also to combining the advantages of both worlds with innovative hybrid formats.