Alumni Networks: When Student and Professor become colleagues and graduates find jobs
Alumni networks - that doesn't just mean meeting together in the evening over a beer, talking about old times and awakening memories - it's also about keeping the establishment and maintenance of personal and professional contacts alive, cultivating them and expanding them. For example, in the Faculty of Business and Engineering.
"Back then, in 2003," reports Marcus Schulz, he left the FHWS for Italy, "as a student and to complete a practical semester in Italian industry". The current professor from Schweinfurt left his apartment to an "old" friend, Thomas Büchs, who had just started his studies at the FHWS in Schweinfurt at that time. None of those involved would have guessed at the time that this connection has lasted to this day and can reliably provide current students with jobs and internships.
Marcus Schulz continues: "Thomas Büchs, born in Lower Franconia, is more like me a citizen of the world, who has his roots in his native Burglauer. Even as a student, he was studying abroad on the island of Mauritius and then completed an internship at Daimler in Singapore. After his studies and his first work assignment at Bosch Rexroth in Lohr, Thomas has now stayed with a large company in Solothurn, Switzerland, that produces at production sites around the world. Here Thomas heads an international group that ensures purchasing quality in collaboration with suppliers."When Marcus Schulz accepted his professorship at the FHWS in 2012, the two alumni successfully intensified their contact: Thomas Büchs sends current job advertisements, internships, and topics for bachelor theses to Marcus Schulz, who forwards them to interested students according to their profiles. According to Schulz, this led to former industrial engineer student Sebastian Weber successfully starting his career at the Solothurn-based company in 2014 and Heiko Horn, a current mechanical engineering student, joining him there for a possible internship.
The contact shows the advantages of a good alumni network, which the university would like to expand. The example shows that contacts based on solid trust can work quickly and easily. Marcus Schulz wrote his diploma thesis in 2004 with Professor Dr. Rudolf Dögl - both are now university colleagues who greatly appreciated each other and worked on various projects together.
Weitere Informationen: Publikation 20 years of the faculty of Business and Engineering with alumni portraits and the Faculty's alumni database.