Before our third-semester students left for their well-deserved semester break, they received the unique opportunity for a real-life application training during their last day of classes. Our HR expert, Professor Markus-Oliver Schwaab, acquired multiple HR professionals from various well-known companies from the region to create the opportunity for genuine application trainings. These experts, all being alumni from Hochschule Pforzheim themselves, were then paired up with MBA students as well as Human Resource Master Students for a holistic training process.

Our MBA students got to practice not only how to write an actual application to a German company, but also what a job interview with a German HR specialist looks like. The written application was then assessed by the HR specialist as well as by one HR Master Student in order for both to give constructive criticism. After the actual interview, each of our third-semester student received feedback from both for the entire process; the CV, cover letter and qualifications delivered; and the final job interview.

Thanks to Mrs. Thumm from Bosch, Mrs. Ullrich from Daimler, Mrs. Ferber from E.G.O., Mrs. Durian from Festo, Mr. Fischer from Ikea, Mr. Krüger from Porsche and Mrs. Oser from Ratiopharm and all the involved HR Master Students, our MBA students are now especially well prepared to start their job search. As Sandra Eckstein, one of our third semester MBA students said: “This application and interview training really helped me to gain confidence in myself, my experiences and my skills for the job search and I really appreciated all the open comments and feedback from the HR specialist.”