Career-Check | Strategy in an international environment

On May 23, 2024, the Department of Economics held the Career-Check for the summer term 2024. At this event, former graduates talk about their career paths and provide exclusive insights into their everyday working lives. Our Guests: Alexander Frenzel, Alumnus MSc Political Economy 2021, today Executive Assistant - Intern. Corporates at Commerzbank AG, and Jens Schellinger (MSc Management and Economics, University of Tübingen) Alumnus BSc Economics, today Strategy Associate at ZF Group.

On May 23, 2024, the Department of Economics held the Career-Check for the summer term 2024. At this event, former graduates talk about their career paths and provide exclusive insights into their everyday working lives.

In line with today's zeitgeist, which is characterized by fast-moving economic changes in a highly connected and global setting, this semester's Career Check focused on the topic of “Strategy in an international environment”. The guests were the former students Alexander Frenzel and Jens Schellinger, who now both work in the field of strategy, but in completely different industries and companies. Both alumni were committed members of the Student Council for the Department of Economics and have fond memories of their time at the University of Konstanz.

Prof. Dr. Axel Kind opened the event with a brief welcome and introduced the speakers with a few words about their careers and handed over the floor to the former student representatives.

Jens Schellinger, who completed is Bachelor of Science in Economics at the University of Konstanz, opened the event. Afterwards, he decided to complete his Master's degree in “Management and Economics” at the University of Tübingen and for a short time, worked as an independent entrepreneur with the “Stamm Wurzel Blatt e.K.” project. Jens Schellinger began his career as a young professional with the “Global Graduate Trainee Program” at ZF, on which he placed a special focus in his presentation. Today, he is a Strategy Associate at the ZF Group. In addition to a detailed examination of the topic of strategy in a complex industry such as ZF, the alumni emphasized the importance of social engagement and stays abroad during his studies, as well as the opportunity to get to know and define one´s own professional interests better through internships.

Alexander Frenzel also graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and completed his Master's degree in Political Economy at the University of Konstanz. As well as Jens, he began his climb up the career ladder in a traineeship program as a “General Management Trainee” at Commerzbank AG. As a top employee of a global company that has undergone significant changes in recent decades and had to overcome major obstacles, Alexander Frenzel used concrete examples and humor to provide exciting insights into how important strategy is, especially for international companies. Today he works as an Executive Assistant at Commerzbank AG, but already hinted on the next career step within the Commerzbank AG, on which we congratulate him warmly!

After the event, Mr. Kind presented the speakers with a small gift and thanked them on behalf of the department for their presentations. Afterwards, the students were invited to stay for a personal exchange with the alumni. The students had some interesting questions and showed great interest in the subject, but also in the personal careers of the two alumni. The alumni shared personal tips and tricks and exchanged ideas with the students in a relaxed atmosphere.

The Department of Economics would like to thank Jens Schellinger and Alexander Frenzel for their active involvement and the great presentations!