Why I made the best possible decision in terms of studying and gathering work experience in Tech
By Hendrik Hund, App. B.A. Digital Business at Marc O’Polo
Always start with why
It is no secret that the mixture of getting into work life, studying and following your interests at the same time is tough and seems impossible. So here is how I got it going for me with Marc O’Polo and how this case might fit your expectations just right.
In general, when you are trying to combine gathering work experience and studying, you’ll most likely end up doing a regular dual studying program. The most common way to do that, is to choose a company that has those programs vacant. Every three months you switch hence and forth between studying and working. Very often this takes part in two different cities. You get welcomed back to a new department whenever you finish a theoretical phase.
I expected that something like that awaits me as well when I entered the job market after finishing my apprenticeship in wholesale and import. But after an unsatisfying search for weeks, I saw the vacancy Marc O’Polo set up on LinkedIn. The course of study was Digital Business and the industry Marc O’Polo works in is fashion — two things that made the offer very appealing to me. Even though it seemed quite comparable at first glance I was hooked. Applied, got hired.
Now I’m here one year later and I want to tell you what I’m doing there and why I made the best possible decision.
Right before the Alps is the Headquarter of Marc O’Polo, with a Scandinavian architecture and a quiet appealing mountain view. It’s located in Stephanskirchen, right next to the small city Rosenheim.
First off, I chose this offer because it was the most interesting and tempting one, not because of the location. I thought of it as challenging, and I still do. Right now, I am in my second semester and working in my second team.
I started off in the Digital Business Conception, now I take part in the Project Management Team. Both are within the Digital Intelligence, which is the main department and the center of my program. The idea behind this order is, to go through the whole process of implementing a digital innovation. Conceptualized with business departments, driven and technical lead by project management, implemented by Dev, reporting and tracking by Data Intelligence — those are the core processes and units of the Digital Intelligence. I will visit those teams over these three years and in addition to that a few related divisions, that will support my studying in terms of experience, such as Logistics and E-Commerce.
What distinguishes my type of dual program mostly is the temporal separation of working and studying. I work about 30h a week and get the Fridays off. Therefore, I got to study on the evenings or on the weekends from Friday on. It sounds a bit more stressful than what others do. I thought that at first as well. But eight months into doing it, I got used to it a lot. And I wouldn’t go back by any chance.
The kind of studying is different as well. I study on distance. That means everything happens in self-organization. You just grab on the media that is offered to you by the given platforms and do with that whatever you need to do to understand the content and to pass the exams. Personally, I am a visual learner and that’s why I visualize every course with a software. But also podcasts and different kind of scripts and videos are offered. I get the option to learn in the office or at home, and the same goes for working. Each day individually I can choose if I want to come in or work remotely.
Due to the circumstance that I’m not switching to university two times a year for three months each, I get the chance to make up a presence and fully support and work on whole projects like creating a new company page, which will go live with the end of my stay in the project management.
A perfect timing for me to switch into logistics, a whole different topic. In Logistics I will for example be able to watch the process of combining SAP and our logistic processes. On the studying side, I will be able to finish the module process management and logistics. Perfectly matched as well. With this little insight you can see, the units & topics connect seamlessly for me into a model of combining work-experience & studying.
To make all that work for yourself, you must know that self-organization is key. Yes, the Fridays are off. But are you willing to “waste” a technically free Friday and miss a long weekend? Are you capable of studying AND resting even after work? Are you taking the Sundays in exchange for the Fridays?
When are you the most productive and how are you managing your hobbies and free time? Those questions will conquer your path if you should go for this kind of career. But the fact of getting them is showing the freedom you will gain and the possibility to do everything your way.
A few last insights of working at Marc O’Polo: The brand is reaching out to younger people, employees, and customers. Therefore, you can make sure to be welcomed by a surrounding that fits the needs of young people and a fashion brand you can relate to even more. Especially in the DI-Team, we try to keep everything state of the art. That goes for the technology as well as for the way of working, which we are constantly adjusting.
Empower yourself to choose a different way with a different perspective and start creating with us!
You want to shape the digital future of the fashion industry? Start creating with us. The Digital Intelligence & Tech Teams at Marc O’Polo are always looking for talented and driven software engineers, data engineers, data scientists, data analysts, ML Engineers or project managers to join our team. Learn about life at Marc O’Polo and visit our career site.
