At CHG-MERIDIAN, everything begins in a team

On completing my degree in commercial law, specializing in financial and bank management, banking and capital market law, and marketing, I gained my first practical experience in a medium-sized business. My objective at the start of my career was to establish a strong foundation for a successful future.

My future employer had to fulfil the following criteria:

• Offer the best opportunities for me to develop personally and professionally
• Have an innovative and future-proof business model
• Enable me to take on responsibility early on
• Provide opportunities for me to make good use of my specialisms
• Offer challenging and varied work
• Provide an international working environment
• Have a positive and attractive corporate culture

While looking for such an employer, I came across CHG-MERIDIAN. As a student, I had completed internships and worked as a temporary student employee so that I could gain my first practical experience in sales-related fields. But I had my doubts as to whether a traineeship in sales would be able to cover all the items on my list, right up to the point where I started preparing for the first selection phase.

The online test was followed by a telephone interview, where it soon became clear that a sales job at CHG-MERIDIAN involved more than just selling products. The final stage of the selection process was a two-day assessment center. At first glance, the periods between the three assessment stages may appear rather long, but I think this offers both sides time to get a clearer picture of one another. For me, this attention to detail is what sets CHG-MERIDIAN, and particularly their traineeships, apart.

At the end of my first day at work, I had dinner with the Chairman of the Board of Management and the Board of Management member with responsibility for sales, and I was able to experience at first hand how much new colleagues are valued. Secondments in Düsseldorf, Weingarten, and Los Angeles further underlined that the company’s roots as an owner-managed, Swabian family business still provide the cornerstone for its corporate identity. This identity is not exclusive to the headquarters; it has also been successfully transported to the eight sales offices in Germany and the global subsidiaries. This traditional foundation is mixed with more modern elements such as flexible working hours, modern premises, an open-door policy, and flat hierarchies, offering an attractive overall package.

As an account manager at CHG-MERIDIAN, you are the main contact for medium-sized companies and large corporates across all sectors. This means you have to deal with a wide range of customer expectations. The structure of the management trainee program, which includes spending time in a variety of 

departments, provides the background knowledge required to fulfil the role of an account manager and to handle the new challenges that every day brings. Internal and external events and training organized by CHG-MERIDIAN’s HR academy provide the opportunity to develop personal and business skills. Throughout my traineeship, I am supported by my coach and a mentor in management. By working alongside an experienced account manager and switching between contacts, I am provided with a steep learning curve and an insight into a wide range of individual working methods. Teamwork is not the exception, it is the key to success for every customer project. Whether it is working with other account managers or with colleagues from Internal Sales, Legal, Tax, Treasury, Service Design, or Service Delivery – everything begins with the team at CHG-MERIDIAN.

Since 1979, the business model has been continually refined for our customers’ benefit, independently of the interests of banks, manufacturers, or service providers. It is thanks to this and the pioneering spirit and vision of our senior management that revenue and the number of employees at the company have been on a steady upward trajectory. All businesses are experiencing a growing need for investment to keep up with digitalization. It is this general trend in the sector and the internal efforts in response to it that make the management trainee program at CHG-MERIDIAN so interesting.

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Meanwhile Julian works as Key Account Manager at our Dusseldorf office.