Experience report Jana van Ratingen

My job: "Put our steel giants in the spotlight"

Frau mit mittellang blonden Haaren, mit hellem Blazer, arme überkreuzt — Head of Marketing & Communications

I did not have any serious career aspirations in my childhood. At that point in time, the prospect of becoming a vet, a pilot or a judge were one of the big dreams of mine. It did not end up being one of that but it has remained something great indeed. After graduating from high school, I decided to study economics. During my studies, it became quite fast clear to me that I wanted to work in the marketing area. I gained some experience in a start-up and afterwards added skills in online marketing, while working for a well-known perfumery chain.

When I found out about the advertised position at thyssenkrupp rothe erde, I did not hesitate for a second to apply for it. At thyssenkrupp rothe erde I got the chance to develop myself further as a direct entrant in marketing. I was supported to develop leadership skills and after a quite short period, there was a chance to take over the responsibility for the marketing and communication department – and I seized that opportunity.

My personal number one priority is to develop my department and my team further and to continuously improve and challenge ourselves. We intend to think new, sometimes we have to tear down old “historically grown” mindsets, structures and work processes. Therefore, it is necessary to implement new marketing and sales channels for our products in a fast changing market environment. bParticularly the personal support of my employees is important to me. I challenge them regularly in order to increase their effectiveness and to drive them forward in their development. It means a lot to me to see how my employees grow with their tasks and I am happy to support and actively motivate them in this process.

Only people who think outside the box can communicate straightforwardly.

My main challenges

To be honest - as a young woman, you do not necessarily think about the attractiveness of steel and large-diameter bearings at first. In fact, I never heard of slewing bearings before working at thyssenkrupp rothe erde. I had to prove myself in a male domain and had to fully engage with new, highly technical products.

To me it is important to know our products and to understand the technology and processes behind them. My team and I need to know about the requirements of our customers in order to offer them the best possible solutions. The cooperation with our global sales team and other departments from our complete Business, as well as the wide range of topics, is extremely exciting to me.

To improve our corporate communications and marketing measures, I try to implement the latest trends and developments together with my team.

My typical working day

My daily tasks touch all areas of internal and external communication and marketing. There is no day like the one before. I personally find it very exciting and diverse that every day is different, since every project is different.

Together with my team, I dedicate myself to various tasks, such as organizing trade fairs and events, developing and maintaining our product brands, maintaining our online presence (website & social media), planning and implementing a content strategy, creating print media as well as advertising material and outdoor advertising and establish public relations. The improvement of our internal communication processes also plays a major role - transparency is very important and promotes a feeling among the employees of belonging together.

"engineering. tomorrow. together." Together means for me …

… to jointly develop our products, our department and ultimately thyssenkrupp rothe erde. We do all benefit from a mutual exchange of knowledge.

Working independently, developing oneself, having fun

I think it is great that I have the opportunity to work to a high degree independently at thyssenkrupp rothe erde and thus develop myself further in many areas.

Together with my team, I grow with every single project and with every challenge. The fun is by no means secondary, it’s a constant companion.