Niklas’s career plans changed when he decided to celebrate his new job with a beer.
Niklas had been studying and working in Singapore for 18 months, but decided he needed to return home to Germany to make a more conventional start to his career. While at a graduate fair, he was delighted to receive a good job offer so he stopped off at the Carlsberg stand for a drink.
"All I knew about Carlsberg and the beer industry then was that I liked the beer," he says, "but when they started talking to me, I realised they were the only company to offer a graduate programme with a full year abroad. It was a perfect fit."
Great experiences
Niklas was thrown in at the deep end, filling Carlsberg Germany’s vacant premium brand manager’s position until a new one was appointed. "I’d never worked in marketing before, but I had studied it and my colleagues were very supportive. It was a lot of hard work and responsibility, but great experiences with a steep learning curve," he says.
He moved to Switzerland for his international year – and decided to stay. While perhaps geographically closer than he’d hoped, he found the working environments were miles apart. "I was in the power brands team where we had a much bigger budget and could do many more things," he explains. "And it was a very exciting place to be during the UEFA Euro 2008 football championships."
Never stop
Niklas says: "The programme gives you great insights into different working environments, styles, culture and personalities, and that is what I aimed for when joining Carlsberg."
To future graduates, he advises always ask for more and never stop. "Don’t stand still, go for it! Ask for projects, ask questions and never take anything for granted.
"But," he adds, "enjoy it. Yes it’s about the job, but it’s also about the experience, the culture and the people, and getting all the value out of it you can both personally and professionally. "