What about Communication and Digitization?

Have you ever wondered how all the blog articles and all the LinkedIn posts find their way to you, to the GDF audience? All the stories about designing and developing customer centric digital solutions for Allianz Entities all over the world, all the insights, all the looks behind the scenes? 

No worries, we reveal the mystery. Responsible for this in the last 9 months was our communications working student Darleen. Together with Florian they keep you up to date on what's going on at the GDF. Maybe you already know Florian from One day in the life of a Digital Marketing Manager at the GDF.

That’s how I would describe my job. Basically, it is about managing GDF's internal and external communication channels. LinkedIn and the GDF blog on the one hand side, the Allianz Intranet blog and the internal GDF newsletter on the other. On both we keep you informed about GDF projects, methods, insights and looks behind the scenes with regards to technologies, processes, our teams, employees and everything else that might be interesting for you. 

To fill every channel with thrilling content is a very creative task. It is not only about rendition of existing information, it also means creating new formats and bringing the content to life. So, let’s make a test to make it clear. Which post would you prefer to read?

I would assume, you went for number one, right? 😉 

Usually I create written content, that is enriched with images or video material. So, in my daily business I have to write a lot, what I love to do. Sometimes topics are very heavy IT and therefore very complex. In this case for example I have to first understand a topic by my own and then try to illustrate it with reduced complexity. It is like an author having a confuse fantasy story idea in his head and tries to bring it to paper in a way that everybody who will read can take part on the crazy journey in his head. 

As part of the Product Design and Optimization team I am surrounded by UX/UI Design and UX Research Experts most of the time. But to also get information from other fields of competencies within the GDF I often have to reach out to the other teams inside GDF like Development and Digital Asset Rollout but also to other OEs and for example their comms departments. This is what makes the job so interdisciplinary. 

Get an overview of the GDF Teams here 

Fun fact: At the beginning of my GDF time I had almost no background knowledge in this field and it was always confusing listen to my colleagues in team syncs. And now? What I would never have thought, now I am a pro explaining the difference between frontend and backend design. 😉 

“My first day of work in a new company, I’m super excited! Surely, I will get an office tour, I will meet the colleagues, maybe I have the chance to introduce myself a bit and get to know the others better when we go for lunch.” – Exactly this kind of thought I didn’t have at my first day at GDF. When I start working with the GDF, Germany was in the middle of the first #Lockdown, therefore it was impossible to start my new job physically at the GDF office in Munich.

Rather I have thought: “How will that work technically? How do I even get to know my colleagues? And what, if I have to go to the office one day, but have never been there before, where will I sit?” All these worries were unjustified. I had a very smooth onboarding and could meet everybody digitally. Even when I visited the office one day, I had a very warm welcome and the opportunity to meet some of my colleagues in person. Nevertheless, I am a bit sad that I couldn’t meet all of them personally.

The last months I worked three days a week. Usually I started the day with checking emails and the social media plan, to see what today’s posting topic is. After that I worked on creating new content as well as draft and finalize articles. Sometimes it was about to interview colleagues about their current projects and achievements, but also creative work and research on my own. In the course of the day, I had various calls to discuss and approve the different types of content. One time per week we had our comms meeting, when Florian and I coordinate the communications and social media plan for the upcoming weeks.

As I was allowed to work very autonomously I could develop personally as well as sharpen my skills. And thanks to my highly expertised colleagues I could also gain a variety of professional experience and knowledge in a for me very new field of expertise.

As marketing and management student the field of communications is the perfect environment to promote my knowledge and bring it to practice. No matter if it is about project management, social media knowledge or article writing, the subjects of my studies can be found in every days working topics. 

I will give you an example:

Together with the GDF I wrote a thesis about the challenges of digital collaboration. On the one side I could use my daily work experiences to strengthen my theoretical hypothesis as well as talk to team members and ask about their experiences. The other way round I could use the results of my theoretical research to enrich the GDF content. 

Although I have an enthusiasm for marketing and management and therefore decided to study it, I have always had an affinity for digital topics and innovation. In times of #digitization, it is of course great, if you can combine both.

During my time at the GDF I had the opportunity to meet different experts, to support planning a developer conference and to deal with topics like Frontend, Backend and DevOps. Everyone was always happy to help, also explaining more complex IT related issues. And that is exactly what makes work at the GDF so special. I am very happy that I could be part of this highly expertised, open minded and always good mooded team!

So, what about you? Check out our current job vacancies and join our team! Jobs