BSc Management Part 5: Erasmus: A Must-Have Experience

Hello everyone! ☺

I am writing to you from sunny, a bit windy, but beautiful Trieste! The University of Trieste in Italy is one of the many options that KLU students can choose from when deciding on their semester abroad. It was my first choice because … well, it’s Italy! I never visited the country before, but I have always been interested in its culture and history. I have been living here for two months, and I have gathered a large list of impressions that I can’t wait to share.

Me taking a sightseeing trip in the city of Florence

The University of Trieste

Let me start with some general information.
The University of Trieste (UNITS) is a medium-sized university with 10 departments and around 20,000 students. It is ranked among the top universities in Italy for quality of teaching and excellence of research. There are two programs in the Economics department that are entirely taught in English – one is more finance related, and the other is mainly concerned with management. I am a student on the intensive track of the bachelor’s program, so according to the curriculum I have to take four courses. The ones I chose here are Financial Mathematics, Theory and Techniques for Quality Control, Organizational Behavior and Design, and Management of Innovation.

The Main building

 

Time for impressions:

First of all, when you are a student at a university with around 150 people on campus, any other bigger university seems huge and overcrowded. I was lucky that there were three students from UNITS in Erasmus at KLU, so I knew someone here. If it wasn’t for them, I would constantly have gotten lost the first weeks.

Finding the building was relatively easy – it is not far from the city center and it is easily accessible by bus. I would only recommend walking for the real hiking enthusiasts, since the campus is situated on a hill. The classes are mostly held in the Economics department building, which is not that big. The real challenge is to find your class somewhere else. For me, that was a completely new experience because I am used to having everything in one building – library, study rooms, lectures, cafeteria, etc. Here, they are all located in different places, so it can be a bit hectic at first.

Of course UNITS organized a welcome day for all the new exchange students – but for the business admin students, this day was one week after our lectures started. That wasn’t really convenient regarding enrollment, access to the university network or WiFi, and all the formalities related to joining a new university. It was quite a challenge to get any information on how and where to enroll but eventually, I managed to do it! During our welcome session we were introduced to ESN Trieste (the Erasmus network here) and all their activities. Every Erasmus student gets the ESN card for a small fee and can benefit from many discounts. And the ESN people are the ones who organize events like trips and parties.

Regarding the lectures – I expected to have the classical type of lectures where students just listen and take notes. Of course, some of the classes are exactly like this, but I was pleasantly surprised that some of the courses rely on teamwork and case studies. Another concern, which I realized came from a stereotype of mine, was how the lecturers’ English would be. Well, you can definitely tell that they are from Italy, but I had no problem following them. And I have already taken two exams and I cannot say that the experience was much different than at KLU. Perhaps the only difference is that you have to enroll online and that the exams are not anonymous.

I decided that it would make more sense to write this blog in two parts, so here I am mainly telling you about the academic experience, and next I will talk about life as an Erasmus student in Trieste.
See you soon with more information on what it is like to have your exchange semester in Italy! ☺

A campus view

The economic faculty

BSc Management Part 4: The Further I Go, The Better It Gets

Hello everyone :)

I want to start by saying that my third semester at KLU was awesome and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

The best word to describe the time between September and December is “intense.” There was basically no time to sit around and be bored since in addition to studying, I had a student job. But let me first tell you about the studying part.

My third semester and coming to terms with “dry subjects” with the help of Julia Roberts

My third semester at KLU involved the following courses: Corporate Finance, Human Resource Management, Macroeconomics and International Business Law. Sounds a bit tough, right? Well, it definitely wasn't the easiest combination of courses. Not only because the content and the workload were difficult, but our lecturers also had very different approaches. It was a challenge, but I believe that we all managed to get through it successfully. My personal favorites from this semester were the courses in corporate finance and macroeconomics, two subjects which are usually referred to as “dry.” But thanks to our professors, I managed to get a broader insight into the material than I would have gotten just from the textbooks. The last thing I would have expected from a macroeconomics class is to listen to “educational rap,” or to learn new corporate finance terms with the help of movie references such as “Pretty Woman,” but this is what we did. Sounds ridiculous – but it really helped to make the subjects interesting and a bit easier to understand.

Exams period - From lone learner to group lover

Right now I can’t help but think of the exams results, which we’re all still waiting for. This takes me to another subject I want to tell you about – exams period.

Since I took on a student job – which I will tell you about below – this semester was tough for me. I had plans to study regularly as we got further into the material, but for some reason they remained just plans. Do you know the feeling when you realize there is less than a month left until exams and you haven’t even started studying seriously? Even though you feel stressed and pressured, you don’t start studying anyway. And finally, there are only two weeks left and you have nowhere to run anymore. This is what happened to me.

 But I wanted to tell you about the good side of exams period at KLU! Back home, we didn’t have much group work in school and we don’t have the culture of studying together in a group. I was used to do everything on my own and thought that studying by myself is the best for me. This semester I decided to try something new – since I realized that studying on my own actually means even more procrastination and unsatisfying results. So I found myself a study group. Despite the stress and the fact that we would spend more than 12 hours daily studying in a small breakout room, there were still moments that made everything seem not so bad after all. We shared brunches, dinners, even small naps – and lots of knowledge! It is just cool to be able to ask someone for help when you don’t understand something. It might not sound too exciting, but for me it was a brand new experience and I would advise future or current KLU students who are “lone learners” to try out a study group because it is definitely part of KLU’s magic.

Studying and working at Yourfone

Outside of the university, life was just as full of events: I decided to take on the challenge of having a student job. I was lucky enough to be offered one at the company where I had done my summer internship: Yourfone. Whenever I had no classes in the morning, I was in the office working. My job was similar to my internship but this time I focused more on dealing with the online campaigns for Yourfone customers. I was responsible for communication with the advertising agency, which helped me to improve my German a lot, since I had to write all the e-mails in German. I really enjoyed working there; the only problem was the distance from my home and the university. A typical day of mine would be leaving my dorm at 7:20 a.m. and after work, university and doing sports – and with the travel time – I would be home at around 10 p.m. This might sound tiring, but I absolutely love this way of living.

New Erasmus exchange students

During the third semester, our class had a few new members who added even more international feeling. We were very happy to welcome eight new classmates from four different countries, thanks to the Erasmus program. In less than a month, it is my turn to have an exchange semester. This is one of the reasons I chose KLU in the first place – the exchange semester is part of the program and is mandatory for each student. When it was my turn to apply for this semester, KLU had partner universities for the bachelor’s program on three continents. Now the university is working hard to get more partners so that students can have a wide variety of institutions to choose from. I wanted to stay in Europe, although Latin America was also quite attractive. My first choice was the University of Trieste in Italy. I am really excited to be going there since I have been interested in the history and culture of this country for a long time. I hope the experience is as amazing as everyone says the Erasmus program is!

Next time I write, I will be away from KLU and Hamburg, but I am sure that I will still have a lot of interesting things to say about my exchange semester! Thanks for reading and see you soon.

Yana

BSc Management Part 3: First year at KLU a success

It has been six whole months since I last posted a blog entry (excuse me for that) and there have definitely been a lot of things going on – mainly revolving around two major events. First of all, I’ve finished my second semester and with it, my first year at KLU. Second, I had my first-ever experience in the job world – I completed a three-month internship! So now I’ll tell you a bit about those six months.

Second semester

The second semester of the KLU bachelor’s program consisted of 5 courses, just like the first one. But as expected, it was a bit more intense than the first one. The KLU professors and guest lecturers gave us a load of information about marketing, logistics, math statistics, and microeconomics. It was great for me to learn about a wide range of topics – from launching new products and the price bubble to green logistics and solving complex transportation models.

There are a few moments I will definitely remember. Our small adventures in the world of logistics, for example. During the semester, we visited the Tchibo warehouse in Bremen, accompanied by our professor, Alan McKinnon. They showed us the inside of the warehouse and how it works. Another exciting trip was to Luerssen, the company that produces the most popular and expensive luxurious mega yachts. We were really lucky to have the opportunity to actually step onboard one yacht that was being built and sneak a peek inside
.

Another exciting trip was to Luerssen

The last highlight of our second semester was definitely the marketing game that we played in professor Jan Becker’s class. He divided us randomly into several groups and we had to compete against each other as actual firms on the market. Although it was fictional, this game taught me a lot about basic principles in marketing and sales, as well as working with people. Teamwork can always be frustrating and finding the balance is a key factor. That’s why I was really lucky with my team – we managed to land prestigious 2nd place!

First internship

The university semester was over in May, so I had to fill the summer with something – either a nice 3-month break, or a 3-month internship. In my case, as a student on the intensive track, the 3-month internship was my only choice. Finding an internship is a frustrating experience. For me, it was important to stay in Hamburg so I started looking in January. My biggest worries were of course the language barrier and the fact that I am a first-year student with no experience whatsoever. Luckily, the career center at KLU is there to help us with everything possible.

The benefits of having this kind of service are not only the regular updates on open positions and the connections with various companies, but also preparation in class and the personal contact. We had training courses on interviewing techniques, networking, and writing CVs and resumes. What helped me improve my personal presentation, however, and what turned out to be very special and important about our university, was the personal contact we have to the staff and faculty. A professor of mine recommended me for an internship position that I eventually managed to land! ?

I did my internship at Yourfone GmbH. This is a Hamburg-based telecommunication provider – a young company where I found my place in the small customer relationship management and customer support team… I loved it! I can hardly imagine a better internship for me. Working in a small team meant having more, varied tasks. I learned so much! They also gave me important projects that challenged both my creativity and my knowledge of math and data analysis. The only downside of this internship is that it was far away from the city. But the nice, warm atmosphere in the office compensated for that! ?

That was my last six months in a nutshell. Hopefully I will gather a lot of exciting impressions in my third semester, so I can tell you all about it soon!

BSc Management Part 2: One Semester Down, Five to Go!

It is unbelievable how time is flying by. I feel like I started this journey just a week ago, but one-sixth of it is already over… Well okay, it doesn’t sound that much when I say it; my point is that semester I is over now and I want tell you all about it!

Lectures, assignments and exams

First, let me tell you about the courses I had in my first semester at KLU:

• Management Fundamentals
• Managerial and Financial Accounting
• Descriptive Statistics & Calculus and Analytical Geometry
• Communication and Academic Fundamentals

The program gave us a solid basis of knowledge for a good start with our studies. In addition to all the reading material, we had research assignments to conduct on our own or in groups. This is a better way to get insight into a subject than just studying a book! We also had our first guest lecturer in Managerial and Financial Accounting – a partner at KPMG, Hamburg. He briefly introduced the company and his job, and then showed us the practical side of what we were learning.

At one point, it was time for exams. As a freshman with no experience in university exams, I was honestly not looking forward to them. I guess nobody really enjoys exams, right? Anyway, they all went even better than expected, at least for me. University was over by December 17, so I was off to a nice Christmas holiday in my country.

Events at KLU

Apart from the monthly lecture series at our university, in which professionals make presentations on various topics, KLU hosted a couple of outstanding events during my first semester.

One of them was the “Night of Science”, or in German  “Nacht des Wissens”. For one evening, the university turned to a venue for workshops, games, and lectures. Since I was volunteering as barista along with other students, I had no opportunity to participate in any of the activities that night.  But I learned from the experience! After that evening, I knew more German names for beverages and I learned that nearly ALL Germans love Apfelschorle (sparkling water mixed with apple juice), since I mixed quite a lot of them. The event turned out to be more successful than anyone had expected. As a brand new venue on the map, KLU was ready to welcome around 200 guests. Actually, over 600 people visited our university. I am sure that the next “Night of Science” will be even more successful.

The other event took place right after exams. I think it was the first party ever to be held in the new KLU building – or at least the first Christmas party! Our cozy student lounge turned into a festively decorated room, full of Christmas spirit, Christmas sweets, and of course… mulled wine (Glühwein). After a speech given by two of our master’s students, we were all invited to a nice dinner, served in the conservatory. And Santa Claus himself was with us! He gave away some presents and took a looooot of photos with everyone. I guess there could have not been a better way to end the first semester.

A Few Words on Semester II

After a relaxing vacation at home, we all returned to KLU. That’s great – the second semester seems even more promising than the first. Interesting courses, lectures and events will be taking place soon and we need to make important decisions regarding our internship and semester abroad. I will definitely have a lot to write about next time

BSc Management Part 1: Welcome to KLU!

Hello everybody!

My name is Yana. I was born and raised in Bulgaria, in a rather small city (compared to Hamburg) called Ruse. I graduated from Baba Tonka High School of Mathematics last summer. You are probably wondering why a Bulgarian mathematics student would choose to study management in Germany. It’s quite simple actually – I visited Germany in 2010, and fell in love with it. I knew that I want to study here and I made it happen!

I wanted to study something that would bring me excellent career prospects, and management seemed like a suitable choice! KLU was a lucky coincidence. Somewhere around the beginning of May, I saw an ad about Kühne Logistics University. I had finally found a university in Germany that is perfect for me – a program taught entirely in English, an extensive, interesting curriculum, and an opportunity for a scholarship. So I handed in my application. After a month, I got the good news that I was accepted, and couldn't wait for September 2 to come.
Hamburg and The KLU: First impressions

My very first impression: Hamburg is quite far from where I live. I had to travel here by bus instead plane, so I wasn’t feeling exactly fresh for my first day at KLU. Nevertheless, I was excited to experience KLU for the first time. And then I had my second impression of Hamburg – the weather isn't the best! In Bulgaria, we say that when it rains on an important day, it means that everything will flow smoothly like water. If this saying is true, I will have lots and lots of luck with my studies at KLU.

My first impression of KLU was different than I had imagined. From outside, I saw this beautiful glass building, which made me think that the inside would be just as nice. Unfortunately, I could not see the university in its full splendor the first day; but it was really interesting to be there while was under construction. Every day a new part was finished, and after just one week we were able to walk around the brand new KLU!

The most impressive part of the building is the “Golden Egg.” This is the biggest lecture hall in the university and it goes from the ground up to the first floor. To me, it looks the best when it is dark outside, because then the Golden Egg is reflected in all the windows that surround it. The KLU also has a wonderful view. It is difficult to concentrate when your lecture hall has a panorama view of HafenCity. The location is really nice – when the weather outside is good, it is perfect for taking walks.

Getting started

I was very curious to meet my new classmates, so my first days at university were very nice. I managed to meet most of them: the first week was all about getting to know each other. The thing that helped this the most was the team building session. After playing different games, I could tell that I would like working with the people from my class, so I started with a positive feeling.

Of course lectures had to start at some point. I did not want to have expectations that were too high, but the first classes we had at KLU were exactly what I was secretly hoping for. The fact that we – the students – are developing the program along with the professors is quite appealing. It is very important that we are able to state our own opinions – whether they are related to what we are studying or to the program itself.

I have been going to KLU for more than two months, and this is just a brief introduction to our university. There is so much to tell that I'm looking forward to writing my next blog! I feel very happy about my decision to come to the KLU and I can’t wait to see what this experience has to offer next.