Our life as working students at Gini

”Freedom comes with responsibility. And if we take responsibility for our role in the story, we might just have to change.” — Lori Gottlieb.

Gini wasn’t our first employer but we’ve learned that gaining experience in different areas is very valuable for your personal growth. With Gini, we’ve found an employer who really cares not only for our professional growth but also for our personal one, no matter what kind of position you have. That helped us to shape our path and gave us the opportunity to actively contribute to a better world.

We are both studying economic psychology. Tanja is in the final year of her Bachelor’s program and Isabel in the final year of her Master’s program. We are both working students in the “People Experience Team” and support with hiring new Ginis, Employer Branding, Employee Experience, and many more topics. Because we are having a really special and amazing time at Gini, we’d like to tell you about our experiences and our “gini-ous” journey here. So ladies and gentlemen, let’s get it started :).

As we started on the same day, we had the same Onboarding Buddy. If you’re curious about what it means to be an Onboarding Buddy at Gini, have a look in our handbook or our blog post on Onboarding at Gini. She guided us through our first day, helped us to understand the Gini culture, and made us feel fully integrated and comfortable. The best thing about our first day was that we jumped right in and started to work on our own tasks from the very beginning. In the first weeks, we got to know all the different teams, took part in an “Interview Training” workshop, and participated in our first interviews with candidates who were interested to join Gini themselves. Stand-ups, team events, and super funny lunch breaks made us feel like we had been there for much longer than just two weeks.

Now, 10 months later, we feel 100% integrated into the Gini Family with its members of so many different nationalities. This work environment makes every office day very exciting due to lots of thrilling conversations about everyday life topics or the customs in various cultures.

At Gini, we get the opportunity to really contribute with our ideas, not just saying them out loud, but also discussing them and making them come alive together in the organization. To give you a short example: Tanja had the idea for a volunteering project at Gini. Julia (former working student, now permanent employee) and Isabel liked the idea so much that our “Social Day” was born. This “Social Day” would have taken place the first time in April 2020 where we wanted to support the “Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald” for one day by planting trees, but due to the Coronavirus the date had to be postponed.

It has never felt like we were “just” working students. From the first day, we were seen as fully-fledged team members. Each of us has a personal mentor who supports us with our daily tasks but is particularly interested in our professional and personal growth. This creates a casual atmosphere where we can share our passion and also our doubts and fears while challenging and improving our skills. To sum it up: It’s an amazing team full of passionate, talented, and unique individuals. We had super fun team events like our offsite, going to the “Wiesn” together, or spontaneously sharing a drink at the end of a working day. Ginis are passionate about what they do and every opinion is heard and counts.

The company values of excellence, commitment and responsibility, opportunities rather than risks, and love are truly put into practice every single day. They are not just a piece of decoration on a wall, they constitute the foundation of how we work. Gini is a really special, unique, and amazing employer. We both are very proud and grateful that we’ve learned what it means to work in #theginiway. A big thank you to all Ginis and especially the “People Experience Team” for the absolutely amazing time, all the experiences, learnings, and your patience with all our questions.

As time passes fast and our university programs soon come to an end, we have to move on and leave Gini as an employer behind. But this doesn’t mean we won’t stay in touch. Many Gini events are open for alumni and Gini friends, therefore, it will be easy to stay in touch.

Thank you all and hope to see you again soon!

Tanja & Isabel

P.S.: It’s your turn now! If you have any questions, just shoot us a message. You want to make your own experience at Gini? Just check out our open positions an.