Field Report with Mentor Wolfgang Eichert
The joy of working with young people and the contact to Styria are the main contact in Styria are the main motivators for Wolfgang Eichert to get involved to work as a mentor from Brussels. As his recently completed mentorship on the topic of international internships went, he told us in an interview. revealed to us in an interview.
Mr. MMag. Dr. Eichert, you are the head of the liaison office of the German public insurers in Brussels. What exactly are your tasks?
I am responsible for representing the political interests of the German public public insurers. This means that I present our positions in the political process and then communicate what happens in Brussels to the members of the members of the German insurance group. In other words, classic lobbying the political arena on the one hand and towards my member companies on the other. My main focus is on financial market issues, such as insurance regulation or sustainable finance.
Since 2022, mentees can contact you via the Career Mentoring Platform. Birgit Kienzl was the last to do this. What was it like when you were contacted?
I was very curious straight away because we both studied environmental systems science with a focus on economics. She wrote to me because she wanted to do an international internship but didn't know exactly how to go about it. Exactly how to go about it. As I always offer internships in the liaison office myself and therefore know the process quite well from the other side, we had a good match right away.
How did you organize your mentorship?
In our first conversation, in addition to introducing ourselfs we clarified our mutual expectations. We agreed on the initial content, the schedule and the agenda and agreed the next date straight away. So we went straight into the content and organization. This laid the foundation for the subsequent meetings, for which Birgit always prepared very well.
In our first meeting, we clarified our mutual expectations in addition to the Introduction. We set out the initial content, the schedule and the agenda and agreed the next meeting straight away.
Was there a central message that you wanted to pass on to your mentee?
The mentorship focussed on the question of finding a suitable international internship. It was important to me to tell Birgit that she should simply try things out and apply for lots of jobs in order to gain experience in various interviews. In other words, to simply take part in this process in order to open doors for herself.
Were you also able to learn something from your mentee?
We talked about current course content and I was able to gain insights into university life. And, like my interns, Birgit also showed me that it's a pure cliché when people talk about Generation Z being work-shy.
Is there anything else you want to add?
Offering a mentoring program is really a great idea. idea. It is a great added value for students from the very theoretical world of university into the practical world. I think that is really very helpful and I hope that many more mentees and mentors will be found for this.
Dear Mr. Eichert, thank you very much for the interesting interview!