Burda's historical treasure trove is hidden in the basement of the building in the Arabellastreet. Sabrina Maier and Martin Amling are the guardians of the company's archives. Their most important tool? A scanner.
If you are invited to an interview, you have already passed the first hurdle in the recruitment process. So, how can you best prepare? And what makes your future boss tick? The #Ask The Boss series answers these questions and gives an insight into the work of different departments. Today, Markus Höllmüler, Executive Director of Efahrer.com, answers our questions.
There are three main aspects - firstly, the opportunity to be entrepreneurial. At Efahrer.com we make all the entrepreneurial decisions as a team. For example, which products to offer, which markets to address, or which partners to work with. The second aspect covers our goals. This means working together on the "electrification of mobility" and thinking together about how we can help the user here. Thirdly, the collaboration with all colleagues - be it at BurdaForward, BurdaVerlag or other Hubert Burda Media business units. It's incredibly inspiring and I learn new things every day. For example, how to build the best search function for e-drivers or which social media channels to use to reach even more users.
Based on the last 25 feedback interviews in my team, it was clear that all employees appreciate our team spirit - everyone helps everyone and working with colleagues is a lot of fun. In addition, the "purpose" inspires the team - we help our users to make mobility CO₂-neutral through e-cars, solar and e-bikes. The user is at the center of our thinking - we want to help them with their purchase decision and answer all the important questions. The last point mentioned was work content: Depending on the job (product management, content management, software development and business development), there are of course differences. At Efahrer.com, the mix of strategic work (e.g. how do I build an exciting user journey) and operational implementation (e.g. which KPIs go bad or good every day) is very challenging and exciting.
The first thing I look for in an applicant is the team fit - does the candidate fit into our team, does he/she work well with others, is he/she willing to help when there are challenges. Team fit is an absolute knock-out criterion for us. I also look for openness and a willingness to learn. Our work is constantly changing. That's why it's important that applicants are open to acquiring new skills. Whether it's dealing with video or social media in the content area, new tools such as ChatGPT or Co-Pilot in software development or understanding new industries such as heat pumps or balcony power plants in business development.
The application process reflects this: we conduct at least four interviews with each applicant plus we work on an exciting case study (learning ability and motivation). It is particularly important to me that the applicants see how our day-to-day work is structured so they can decide for themselves whether they would enjoy working for us.
For our growth, we are mainly looking for people in the areas of software development, data management and product management. We are looking for "real comrades-in-arms" who want to develop Efahrer.com as a platform for e-mobility and support the energy transition with exciting products. From my point of view, the most important thing is to be curious and to break new ground in shaping the user journey. We are looking for colleagues who are open to this challenge and who want make a difference.
I think we have very good conditions at BurdaForward: Reliable working hours - we can organise our working hours freely and are not tied to fixed office hours. We have a fixed office day on Wednesdays, but otherwise we are flexible as to where we want to work, whether from home or in one of the BurdaForward offices. These general conditions, combined with a strong user orientation and a strong team orientation, provide in my opinion, an ideal environment for an exciting and productive career development.
