From Career Day to Landing a Permanent Role

Successful Career Day Premiere

RWTH Business School held its first Career Day in the summer of 2023. A decisive advantage was that the school’s relatively small number of students made it possible to go about things on a very individual level and to enhance the day with additional elements. The eleven participating companies not only received the opportunity to present themselves in the usual way, they were also able to contribute to Career Day in form and content with workshops. Susanne Aghassi, Group Manager Exploration Projects and Incubator at Saint-Gobain Research Germany, was pleased to comment on this opportunity: "The combination of career fair and workshops is very successful. This opportunity of getting to know students even better appealed to me immediately. That is why we gladly accepted the offer of the workshop slot. RWTH Business School then took care of communication to students and applications."

A three-day programme in two hours

Aside from day-to-day business, Susanne is working on future-oriented topics and innovative technologies with her team at Saint-Gobain. The workshop fitted in perfectly. "At the core was the question as to how innovation management in companies will change in the future. We set up the workshop according to the principles of design thinking, albeit in a very compacted form. We compressed what is normally a three-day programme into two hours in order to run through the entire design thinking process up to the final pitch," Susanne explained. A decisive advantage from her point of view is that the nature of the workshop offered her the opportunity to get to know the participating students much better and, for example, to assess their communicative strengths and their ability to work in a team.

From the workshop straight to a permanent position

Susanne Aghassi explains further: "Saint-Gobain likes to use Career Days such as the one at RWTH Business School in order to maintain and improve awareness and presence among students. I never expected us to make the perfect match straight away." She already noticed Pranav Jain, a graduate of the Full-Time MBA Digitalization & Industrial Change, during the workshop and had a positive impression of him. The two stayed in touch and since early October 2023, Pranav has been part of the innovation team at Saint-Gobain. "I am very happy about this. Following my MBA graduation in the spring, Career Day came at the perfect time for me to get to know companies. The job definition at Saint-Gobain inspired me. It precisely meets my expectations and suits my previous professional and academic career. I was also convinced by the fact that the company was explicitly looking for international team members," recounts Pranav, who was born in India.

"I learned a lot – not just in the courses"

Pranav had previously completed an engineering degree in India and worked at Mercedes for several years. Both a university degree and at least two years’ work experience are the prerequisites for enrolling in the full-time MBA. For Pranav, the study course constituted the perfect next career step. "The diverse composition with students from eight countries, some of them with many years’ work experience, was very rewarding for me. I learned a lot – not just in the courses, but also with regard to cooperation," said Pranav. He goes on to describe another advantage of RWTH Business School: "The professors not only boast comprehensive and up-to-date know-how, but are real industry experts at the same time."

Perfect match found

Pranav has been occupied with innovation topics for a long time, which is why he consciously chose the MBA course on digital transformation. "I am very pleased that I can now deal with technology trends and topics such as circular economy and sustainability at Saint-Gobain. This is simply the perfect job for me." The employer is just as satisfied: "Pranav Jain has quickly become integrated in our team. He is open, has excellent communication skills and fits in perfectly in our international context," emphasises Susanne Aghassi. She sees it as "an absolute stroke of luck" that Career Day led to the perfect match. Therefore, she knows for certain: "We will definitely return for Career Day 2024. And perhaps Pranav can lead the workshop there himself in the future."

Picture: Saint-Gobain, Susanne Aghassi