2020 – Corona Crisis and the Posts of the Year

An extraordinary year is coming to an end. Some of you will be thinking to yourself: “At last!”. These were and are challenging times. But I have also experienced many beautiful things. Because seeing how my colleagues around the world have mastered this crisis let me look to the future with confidence. But before we look ahead, let’s take a look back at the year 2020 at TÜV Rheinland

The calm before the storm

In the spring, it was still business as usual. Jury Choi and Jinyoung Koo told us about their internship in marketing and communications in Korea. Tanja Gerum from HR Development presented the internal Management Development Program for leadership development, which participants report on every month on the career blog. And Business Manager Maren Jurczyk told us about Winterfest – the big TÜV Rheinland carnival party in cologne. In February, Senior Communications Manager Kerstin Ferber was still pleading for a shift in thinking and allowing more working from home. She had no idea that this would happen sooner than expected…

But what about the jobs that, at first glance, don’t lend themselves so easily to the home office? Recruiter Franziska Scharpel told us what the alternative digital recruiting process looks like. Area Manager Christian Rudnick was still working full time at the test stations, because motor vehicle tests are system-relevant for road safety. Training is actually a hands-on activity that thrives on practical exercises and interaction with the trainees. So training workshop and training manager for mechatronics Thomas Külsen and trainer Marco Weber had to get digital training up and running in a very short time.

New areas of responsibility

For some colleagues, completely new areas of responsibility arose. Auditor Alina Roeder, for example, was involved in two major projects at once – the development of the new “Back to Business” audit and the new “Hygiene and Infection Prevention Management (HIM)” certification. In Corona times, all the project work was done remotely.

The situation was not easy for our trainees either. Having just started their careers, they had to adjust to a completely new work environment in a very short period of time. Nataly Theile, an office management trainee, told us exactly how the new work organization and on-site support went during the pandemic. Mechatronics apprentice Kutaiba Brghol had studied so diligently for the intermediate exam, which was then postponed because of Corona. It’s not easy to keep motivation up, especially when one disaster follows another. And for chemical lab technician trainee Katharina Bayer, it was not so much the work in the lab as the vocational school that was the biggest challenge.

My personal highlights as a team leader in HR marketing

Personally, my biggest challenge was to reconcile home office and childcare. Because at home, not only work was waiting for me, but also my kids, who weren’t really interested in quiet coworking…The blog post by expat and reviewer Michele Barbagli therefore struck a chord with me. He talks about the expectations you have of yourself as a modern father and compares in a very humorous way the skills as a project manager and a father. I was also particularly pleased to welcome an intern in September. Teresa Kania, a bachelor’s graduate in communications and media management, reported on the career blog about an internship under extraordinary circumstances.

My personal top three highlights this year which have given me a very special joy are:

One word: THANK YOU!

And now we have to say a big “thank you”: To all the hard-working employees who give you a look behind the scenes at TÜV Rheinland here every week. To the recruiting experts who provide you with valuable tips on careers every month in the Recruiter Talk. From “Formulating salary expectations correctly in job applications” to hints, what belongs in your application and discussions on employer evaluation portals.

And, of course, especially to you, dear readers. Thank you for reading, commenting, sharing and liking. We are very pleased to receive your feedback, in whatever form. And it encourages us to continue developing our career blog not only technically, but also in terms of content.