(Interview from 2004)

Astrid Renger

© personal

"It was a time of euphoria. New chairs and new research fields were being established, and new professors were arriving," says Jan Münchhoff, describing the period after the fall of the Berlin Wall – the period when he was studying automobile engineering at TU Dresden's Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering.

"The professors were very open to interaction with industry, and we got a lot of support for the career fair." The career fair was and is organized by the student initiative "bonding," which brings together engineers, industrial engineers, and electrical engineers. It seeks to link up students and businesses. Jan Münchhoff helped organize the career fair in 1994 when he was just 23 years old. "In the process, I learned about project work, which was not as common at university back then as it is today." He believes that, alongside his professional qualifications, this experience and the ability to engage with people and work in a team was behind the success of his speculative application to AUDI AG in Ingolstadt. The 33-year-old is now head the development department for brake systems there. He calls the transition into professional life an interesting experience. "All of a sudden, you could and indeed had to freely structure your time between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. That in itself required a great deal of self-discipline and organizational skills."

Here, too, his experience with "bonding" was helpful, as that role had often involved working towards fairly long-term goals. Nowadays, he is responsible for ten employees and a development budget of over one million euros – and for development pipelines of several years. "We network closely with other companies and business units, and this is quite a varied and demanding task," he says, describing his job. In the future, he could imagine a prolonged period abroad to familiarize himself with the company's sales and marketing departments. At his own request, he has already completed a six-month stay in the USA to help launch a new AUDI. "I was seeking greater proximity to customers and wanted to learn about the different requirements that apply to vehicles in different countries," he says, explaining his motivation. He was also interested in the living and working culture in the US, one of the company's major markets. Jan Münchhoff still maintains ties with TU Dresden. He continues to attend career fairs – now as a representative of AUDI AG in search of good engineers. TU Dresden is one of the main universities in Germany from which the company seeks to recruit. "The strong reputation for automobile engineering that once brought me to Dresden is still fully justified today."

He advises today's students to start honing the skills that are important for their "dream job" while they are at university.

Contact details:

Jan Münchhoff
AUDI AG, I/EF-55
85045 Ingolstadt
Tel.: +49 841 89-43161

Email: Jan Münchhoff

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