Anna
The career path from the German Armed Forces to MBA and Master's thesis at ESG through to leadership responsibility and programme management.
My heart was set on aircraft from an early age, so I joined the Bundeswehr in 2004 and studied aerospace engineering at the Bundeswehr university in Munich as part of my career as an officer. In the course of my career, I ended up testing software for the Tornado fighter aircraft and later for the NH90 helicopter at the system support centre in Donauwörth. This is a co-operation between the Bundeswehr, ESG and Airbus Helicopters. There I got to know ESG better and learnt to appreciate it as a potential employer. I actually joined ESG in November 2017 as a Master's student on my MBA programme, which I took up as further training to leave the German Armed Forces. At the university fair in Kempten, I spoke to an ESG employee and we arranged an introductory meeting in which we talked about the various opportunities and tasks at ESG as well as topics for the Master's thesis.
At the end of my Master's thesis, I was offered a permanent position in the "Combat Air Systems" division, which I was very happy to accept. Initially, I supported various projects as a software tester and also took on additional tasks as a project manager in small projects. In order to be prepared for these activities, I took part in an internal development programme for project management. In addition, my line manager was on hand to advise me and provided me with great support.
As ESG has many exciting departments with different specialist areas, I was later given the opportunity to change departments, take responsibility for a larger project in the helicopter sector and thus develop into a project manager. To support this step, ESG offers a development programme that accompanies and supports a group of employees who are given a higher level of responsibility for a year.
The programme benefited me personally and methodically and ultimately opened the door to other positions of responsibility: From 2021 to 2023, I managed a business unit and was therefore responsible for a great team, particularly involved in system integration and software development. Since the end of 2023, I have been back to my great passion, naval aviation, where I work as a programme manager for naval helicopters.
During the lunch break, I play sports with a few colleagues. Conveniently, the ESG headquarters in Fürstenfeldbruck is located directly in the countryside, not far from a forest. Thanks to the very flexible working hours and the good work-from-home arrangement, I can easily reconcile work and family life. All in all, ESG offers a great overall package of very exciting and varied tasks, good development programmes and fair social benefits.
