Christina’s MSc degree led to meteoric career at ECCO

By Tina Højrup Kjær, tkh@sdu.dk

Back in the day, Christina Volf wanted to become an entrepreneur and found her own business, so she began studying for a BSc in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at SDU Kolding in 2015. As part of her studies, she did an internship at a company, and this helped her discover other opportunities:

- Throughout my BSc studies, I spent every Wednesday for 2½ years doing an internship at TEMP-TEAM, which is a large international company. I really enjoyed that, and I found it immensely interesting to work at such a large and complex organisation, so I also chose to write my bachelor’s thesis for the company, says Christina Volf.

Collaborated with the business community

Christina Volf chose to take advantage of the many opportunities for collaboration with the business community that the BSc programme in Kolding offers, in order to gain some practical experience and create a network. Among other things, she has several times participated in the Business Lunch event, at which companies visit SDU Kolding to offer a collaboration with a student.

- It allowed us to get very close to the companies and chat with them. Having to plunge into it can seem a bit transgressive at first, but once you’ve done it a few times, you quickly get used to it, the former student says, smiling.

During her master’s degree programme, she wrote several assignments on companies along the way, and she did her master’s thesis for Carlsberg.

- It has given me a lot in terms of understanding how a large, complex organisation operates. So the opportunity to have these collaborations with companies along the way has been important to me, and choosing to write my master’s thesis for such a large organisation as Carlsberg was part of my strategy to get to where I wanted to go and where I am today, Christina Volf explains.

And she’s always been good at creating a strategy, setting goals and then putting them into practice. Therefore, she was also ahead of the game when she needed a job upon graduating:

- I had heard many good things about being a Graduate in a large company. I knew that the positions were in high demand and that Carlsberg starts hiring early. So when I started working on my master’s thesis in January, I also started applying for these Graduate positions. I applied at several different places, and I’m thrilled I ended up at ECCO, because I believe it’s important you think the end product is interesting. In addition, ECCO is extremely interesting, as we own the value chain ourselves and operate in so many regions, which makes the company an extremely multicultural place to work in, says Christina Volf.

Fulfils a variety of functions

Most large companies have Graduate positions, which are a talent programme and a stepping stone to a managerial position. During the Graduate programme, you get to know a lot of functions really quickly, and you often also go abroad during the course. Christina Volf initially worked in Category Management at ECCO’s headquarters in Southern Jutland. After a year she relocated to Amsterdam, where she worked until the end of March 2022.

- Right now I’m working in Global Sales/Global Business Development. I have a hybrid position in which I do a lot of different things. I’m currently working on a strategy for our ‘Fast-to-Market-Drops’, which deals with products that have a short lead time. In addition, I work on Sales Strategy, Code of Sales and other exciting projects where I have daily contact with our regions, including China, USA, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, etc., Christina Volf explains.

Headhunted six months ahead of schedule

The ambitious Graduate was supposed to move on to New York and spend the last six months of her Graduate programme there, but now she will soon be heading home to Denmark:

- I was offered a position starting on 1 April. I’ll be EA (Executive Assistant) to our Managing Director in ECCO Holding, so now I will be working at parent company, which will be very exciting and different. Being offered the position as EA to our Managing Director at ECCO Holding is not an option you get twice – or that everyone gets, for that matter – so I decided to accept. I will be working closely with him on all the projects we want to bring to life, and which involve both ECCO Sko, but also all the other business areas that ECCO Holding has at its disposal. I’m really looking forward to it, Christina Volf says.

Christina Volf’s tips for future and current students:

• Choose the education programme you find interesting. Even though your programme may not lead to a specific position that makes you think ‘This is what I will become with this education’, a BSc and an MSc in Economics provide you with so many skills that there are several career options available to you. You can choose to work with marketing, business development, strategy, management, etc. It’s extremely multi-faceted.
  
  
• During your studies, make sure to land student jobs and internships, and find some companies to write assignments for. Send an application for a student job, contact them, network, etc. Even if it may seem a little daunting. The worst thing that can happen is that you get a ‘no’, but still you have come just as far. So, it’s just a matter of plunging into it. You will learn heaps from it along the way and acquire social skills that you can use for the rest of your life.
  
  
• Be ambitious and set some goals. Yes, your goals may change down the road, but you will end up having acquired so many skills that you can always apply them in a different context.