Personal support and community

The end of my vocational training as a travel agent was also a key starting point for me – because I quickly realised that I still wanted to study. So I successfully completed my business administration certificate alongside my job in a DER travel agency in Schweinfurt and thus qualified for university studies. Online learning was ideal for me, as I really wanted to stay in the job. The programme at IU gave me the flexibility I needed to do this. During my studies, this became even more important because I was promoted to office manager of my travel agency and had to balance a responsible job – often a 6-day week – plus studies, partner, family and friends.

A great motivation in stressful phases was my own passion for travel, in addition to my regular jogging sessions. When I was planning my next holiday trip, I always had this in mind and I would say to myself, Now you have to step on the gas – the next holiday is coming soon! But I also owe my success in my studies to the network I established at the IU. I was lucky enough to meet seven great fellow students at an IU weekend in Bad Honnef soon after starting my studies. We motivated and supported each other – former "study colleagues" have become really good friends today.

At the end of my studies in November 2017, I felt ready for a new challenge – and found it at MSC Cruises, where I worked as a sales manager looking after the company's sales partners in southwest Germany. I came across my current job at Microsoft on a visit to a careers fair in 2018. I found the company exciting immediately and decided to apply. And was successful! After three selection rounds, I had the job.

At Microsoft, I am now mainly responsible for the onboarding of new employees in Germany – which means I have the honour of inspiring the new "Microsofties" with our great corporate values and culture from day one. I have also my business administration degree to thank for the fact that I was able to move from the tourism industry to HR: Using comprehensive theoretical knowledge, I can easily deal with activities in a range of different areas and can think outside of the box of my subject. This way, I can stay true to my personal goal: To pass on my knowledge to others and never stand still.

After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration in 2014, I went straight into the professional world as an HR consultant. But it was clear to me that I wanted to do a Master's degree alongside my job. So I needed a study programme that was completely independent of time and place, and so I chose IU – I didn't find so much flexibility with any other provider. I decided to take the Master's programme in General Management. I had already built up a lot of prior knowledge through my business studies at the University of Economics and Business Administration in Vienna, but I learned a lot of new and interesting things in my Master's, especially through the specialisations on offer.

I specialised in Project Management and grappled with the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) Guide, among other things. This gave me a good insight into the topic of project management.

For half a year now, I have been working as a project manager and management consultant for a medium-sized industrial client near Cologne/Düsseldorf. My tasks include creating project documents such as a milestone plan or a resource plan, as well as other activities such as risk management or creating the weekly status report to the Group Finance Director. The special thing about my job is the freedom in the structure of one's own work – as a project manager, you are responsible for the success of the projects and always monitor all project activities and take corrective action if necessary. Every day, there are new challenges, be it resource bottlenecks or software problems.

My specialisation in project management during my studies prepared me very well for my daily work as a project manager. Thanks mainly to the specialisation, I have also successfully become certified as a project manager (IPMA Level C) and additionally trained as a Professional Scrum Master.

For the future, I plan to stay in the field of project management, but I would like to broaden my horizons. My big goal was always a PhD and so now, after successfully completing my Master's degree at Middlesex University London, I am currently writing my dissertation on project controlling.

Already during my studies, I had the idea of founding a special tour operator for tours to Africa. While working for various travel agents and tour operators, I found myself alone on my first trip through South Africa and it was love at first sight: The amazing countryside and hospitality of its people simply captivated me and I really caught the Africa bug. Lots more trips followed to southern and eastern Africa, which were all fascinating. Even then, authentic trips with level cultural encounters away from show villages and personal, straightforward contact with my clients were things that were important to me. To be able to implement this, I decided to take my luck into my own hands and found Go'n joy africa.

At that time, I was already studying for a Master's degree in General Management at IU. A big advantage for me was that I could work on the marketing and tourism management module while I was setting it up, so was able to directly use my knowledge in these areas. I also really benefited from the monthly examinations because there was less time pressure. With the online study material, I learned a lot whilst out on the road and didn’t have to go to any in-person classes. The IU online study programme was, therefore, perfectly integrated into my daily work routine.

My daily tasks are very diverse. Roughly summarised, there are two seasons for selling trips to Africa. I spend most of my time in the high season, which runs from around September to May, putting together individual, customised Africa trips for customers. Together with the respective local partner agency, we then put together everything from self-drive tours through South Africa, Namibia and Botswana to privately guided individual tours in Morocco and selected small group tours in Tanzania, whatever the clientele desires. To guarantee sustainable travel, we are always careful to support small family-run accommodation and transport companies and are on the road in small groups comprising a maximum of 12 people. As part of the vegan adventure tours, we often visit animal rescue stations or a penguin rescue station in Cape Town and regularly provide information about sustainable projects – most recently about Zanrec, a waste initiative in Zanzibar that teaches the local population about recycling.

In the low season, my daily routine revolves largely around putting together new interesting travel products far off the beaten tourist track for the website gonjoy-africa.com.

Milestones for me so far have included the development of vegan small group tours through South Africa, which are expected to start in February 2019. Or the TourCert Check, a certification of sustainability and corporate responsibility in tourism, which paves the way for more sustainability in our travel products. But the biggest highlight for me personally is every time I get positive feedback from my clientele and I stay in touch with them. This shows that my work is bearing fruit.

In the meantime, I no longer live my passion for authentic travel alone. Together with my university friend, we are now trying to implement the same concept for trips to Latin America under the label "Go'n joy Erlebnisreisen". Together we want to integrate the topic of sustainability even more strongly and develop a more personal form of mobile travel advice outside of rigid opening hours.