Working at COMPRION gives me the chance to put my international business studies into practice.

Working at COMPRION gives me the chance to put my international business studies into practice.

Volker Behnke, Junior Controller at COMPRION

Interview with Volker Behnke

Career Start – the Easy Way

Volker (30) worked as a working student at COMPRION for 5 years. After finishing his International Business studies, he was offered a job as a project assistant. Now he is building up a whole new work area. In the interview, he is talking about his exciting career path at COMPRION.

What brought you to COMPRION?

Before I started working at COMPRION, I completed my apprenticeship as industrial management assistant in February 2010, and I was looking for a summer job until university started in the fall. It was by chance that I heard about a vacancy at the COMPRION reception desk. At the time, the job was closely linked to the marketing department.


What were your tasks as a working student in the marketing department?

At the beginning, I did some research on our competitors, press portals, and other topics. I also worked on the glossary of our website. After having been working with the company for some months, I participated in planning and preparing trade shows, for example, creating crew maps and booking hotels and flights. After the trade shows, I processed the results: The acquired leads had to be entered into the database and the lead sheets had to be evaluated, etc.

What was it like to be a working student at COMPRION?

Due to the familiar atmosphere at COMPRION, you do not feel like a mere working student as you would in other companies. I felt like a fully integrated member of the team from the start. Everybody was nice and friendly. I was a part of the company, with my own tasks and responsibilities. When I work on something, that is important for the company and I can advance the company's targets, that means responsibility to me. My motivation is much better, when I am responsible for something, because I want to justify this responsibility.

How did your job develop after your time as a working student?

After having completed my degree, I was thinking about my future career and potential employers. As I felt very comfortable at COMPRION, they were, of course, my first contact. The only problem was, that COMPRION is not a typical commercial company. Most of the employees are engineers, who work in IT or electrical engineering. Just a small part of the staff are in the commercial area. But then a sales assistant position was vacant and I submitted my application. One product unit manager offered me a job. We discussed the details and he introduced me to his concept: He explained, that he wanted to introduce cost controlling in his business unit. This sounded very interesting to me, and, after negotiating the details, I accepted the job offer.

That felt good, didn't it?

Yeah, it felt great indeed! Before his job offer, I had only brief contact with the head of the product unit. I was very surprised, especially as the position had not been advertised at that time. That was, of course, an honor for me, because someone must have said: "Go ahead and ask Volker about it! He's good (laughs)." It felt good to know that I was perceived by others. I also like that COMPRION always tries to staff new positions internally.

What is your vision and perspective about yourself in this company? Where are you going with COMPRION?

That's a good question. I hope, that we can expand the field of controlling further and introduce it to the other departments as well. In this context, I would like to support the other units and help them to implement and push this area.

One final question: What is COMPRION to you?

For me, COMPRION is a place where I like to work. I often hear people complaining about how reluctantly they go to work. Of course, I like staying at home or going on vacation, too. But I also like going to work. Getting up early is more of a problem, however, due to flextime, I can adjust my working hours to my personal needs, so that I can also sleep in sometimes. That is COMPRION for me.

© 2021 COMPRION GmbH

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