In our new section we introduce students who do voluntary work in their free time. This time we spoke to Christoph Zorn, chairman of the student initiative for marketing MTP.
Christoph Zorn is in his 5th semester studying business communication at the HTW Berlin
Active at MTP eV since April 2014, 1st chairman of the Berlin office
What are you committed to? What are your tasks?
I am involved in Germany's largest student marketing initiative - Marketing Between Theory and Practice, or MTP for short. With a network of 3,400 members, both alumni and students, in a total of 17 cities, we have set ourselves the goal of supplementing the theoretical marketing knowledge from the lectures with practical experience. To this end, we work with sponsoring professors, our alumni (former MTP members) and, above all, companies from the private sector in a wide variety of projects, such as workshops or consulting projects.
I am currently the first chairman of the Berlin office and lead the board.
As chairman, you have a lot of different to-do's on your list. In addition to leading the seven-person board team together with the second chairman, my core tasks include, above all, the strategic and operational management of the office, representation at regional and national levels, support of the companies and professors that support us and, last but not least, administration and planning regional finances.
How did you come up with this idea? Why is it important to become active in this area?
Even when I started studying, I knew that a degree without practical experience was not enough to position myself well on the market later. Since I was uninterested in a company as a first-timer, I was looking for something else to expand my network and at the same time gain my first practical experience. After seeing MTP in my reading, I was immediately convinced!
And I still am today! I think everyone who is interested in marketing, sales and project and event management has come to the right place at MTP. And especially nowadays, we are looking for marketing specialists who have mastered their craft and been able to try it out early on. Through MTP, marketing is brought to life and a passion is created that previously could not be felt in mere lectures.
How do you reconcile that with your studies?
Through my work in the club, I developed good priority management and at some point decided for myself what was more important to me for my future goals. Ultimately, thanks to the response from companies, I now know that a certain amount of work experience as a young student is more important and opens more doors for me than having completed every exam with an A. In concrete terms, this means that I was working in a financial consultancy alongside my job at the time and was still studying. This is possible if you really want it and know what you want to achieve later.
What are you taking with you? What does the job give you?
As chairman, I went through incredible personal development and really learned a lot about myself, leadership skills and soft skills. I don't think you can experience that so early with any working student position. Learning how to moderate a voluntary team, become more stress-resistant when faced with challenges and acquire companies, negotiate with them and maintain existing contacts is my personal added value from this time. At the same time, at MTP you are building a national network of future colleagues and friends and getting to know many companies. Through “Vitamin B” I also found my mandatory internship. I'm really grateful for that!
All in all, I really enjoyed my work and every challenge seems tiny in retrospect. This strengthens us for the future.
What has been the most exciting so far?
It will be difficult to limit yourself to one moment! The association lives through its many events and projects. Last October we had a two-day specialist congress in Frankfurt, the Marketing Horizonte, with many interesting presentations from large companies such as Unilever and BBDO on the topic of “Marketing – Lead or Die!” Will marketing lead in the future?”, which also includes renowned names such as Prof. Dr. Heribert Meffert was not missing. For us in Berlin, the project for a start-up on the topic of “urban gardening” was particularly exciting last semester, for which a team developed an entire communication and pricing strategy. And of course the national meetings every semester throughout Germany are great. I've gotten around a lot through MTP!
Why should students get involved?
Honesty always hurts, but students need to realize that simply graduating with good grades is no longer enough for many companies!
It's more about standing out from the crowd through commitment and being able to prove that you are still active outside of university and are consciously expanding your education. From my current experience, companies are becoming less and less convinced of the concept of a bachelor's degree and are less interested in our part-time knowledge as cashiers and waiters, but more in specialist skills and relevant practical experience from job-related tasks during your studies.
Do you want to join MTP? Just walk by and take a look. The meetings are weekly in each office. Depending on your area of interest, choose your favorite project. All you need to bring is interest, commitment and a little time - you decide how much you do.
In our new section we introduce students who do voluntary work in their free time.
