Career Connect 2024
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No long-winded, multi-slide talks; no recruiters stuck behind booths, aimlessly handing out freebies. Instead, KLU’s Career Connect 2024 featured a dozen inspiring firms, including Lufthansa Technik, Gebrüder Heinemann, and HPC Hamburg Port Consulting, invited onto campus to give mini presentations, network with students over pizza, and listen to 1:1 speed pitches in the hope of recruiting university talent.
KLU’s Career Connect has rapidly become an unmissable occasion. Only in its second year, the February event attracted over 200 students onto campus to meet and network with 11 big hitters in the fields of business, supply chain management and logistics offering internships, traineeships, working student positions, and full-time jobs.
“Career Connect is successful because its fast-paced and dynamic and the interaction between the people looking for opportunities and the people providing opportunities is at the center of the event,” explains Anne Rehmet, KLU’s Head of Career Development and Employer Relations, on the afternoon of the event. “We start with companies presenting three-minutes pitches to students, which sets the platform for follow-up conversations in our two-hour meet and greet session and the one-to-one speed pitches afterwards.”
An added highlight is the delicious food on offer, and the university’s airy lobby, with its superb views of Hamburg’s harbor, buzzes with students and company reps chatting and snacking on freshly baked slices of pizza and chocolate crepes.
Opportunity to make contacts
Victoria Kotlyarenko, a Tricon Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management master’s student in her last semester at KLU, says she’s already had productive talks with the online supermarket company Picnic; packaging and logistics firm Axxum; and Sysmex Europe, a major player in the healthcare sector.
“I left my contact details with some of the companies,” the 22-year-old from Moscow explains. “Sysmex have a lot of positions open and they’re also in English, which is important for me as a non German-speaking student. It’s always about connections and this event is a really good opportunity to make them.”
Insider information through personal meetings
Prabhanjan Kamte from Mumbai, who’s doing a Masters in Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management and is waiting to do his pitch to duty-free giant Gebrüder Heinemann, says he’s also talked to quite a few different firms.
“It’s a great experience because you get a lot of insight about different fields - for example, different jobs and what skills they require,” remarks the 23-year-old. “After speaking to Picnic, I learned that in the field of procurement in Germany you are required to have a solid level of German because that’s one of the skills required to communicate with suppliers. I learned a lot of info about the various positions and the company that wouldn’t be found on their website or in the job descriptions.”
Kamte adds he’s looking forward to his one-to-one with Gebrüder Heinemann later in the afternoon. “I like their supply chain a lot, the travel detail of it. I like to have an understanding of how products work and how products travel.”
Fellow master’s student Charlien Wendling, meanwhile, says she’s had a similarly busy meet and greet session.
“I’ve talked to nearly all companies to get to know the opportunities I have,” explains the 24-year-old native of Bonn, in Germany. “The event’s perfect for us not just to get jobs but internships, traineeships and training positions.”
Wendling remarks she also got a lot out of the Company Slam.
“It was interesting to get to know the companies and what's behind their name. For me one of the best pitches was from [NYSE-listed, global professional services firm] Genpact, saying that they're looking for motivated students working in supply chain management. That as a consultant you would work in so many different fields, with a whole end-to-end view, so you could find a supply change management position in the company which fits you. As I'm studying global logistics and supply chain management, I'm really interested in companies like this.”
In the background, the meet and greet is coming to an end and many of the students are heading off to their one-to-one pitches in the hope of furthering their careers at major players like Kuehne & Nagel, Inverto, and Grant Thornton.
Their chances of doing so, it appears, are more than favorable.
“Job market conditions are very good at the moment,” notes Anne Rehmet. “Companies are actively looking for experts, and with us having educated the experts, there’s a good match.”
