Drei Ratschläge an Dein 14jähriges Ich!

Discover the world! Possibilities and flexibility are never better than when you're young. Make an effort with the things that you do and stand up for them. Don’t do things half-heartedly, rather do them with enthusiasm and put in all your energy. Take chances! They are everywhere. So move out of your comfort zone and dare to do something.

Was steht auf Deiner Visitenkarte?

Christoph Ziltener, Senior Project Manager R&D, at Bühler.

Was ist das coolste an Deinem Job?

The best part of the job, for sure, is that together with your team you can develop and create something new. For months and years, you are working on something and at the beginning, it only exists on a computer screen in theory, or in your mind. And afterward, you have the physical product. And that is awesome for the entire project team and for me. That truly gives me a wholesome feeling. Something else that is great is f you can work together with a diverse group of people who have very contrasting abilities and you can bring together the individuals’ talents. From that, a real team spirit can emerge and you can even spend time together outside of work.

Welche Einschränkungen bringt Dein Job mit sich?

I could not say that these are restrictions but one has to be aware of the fact that this job is not one where you can lose yourself in small details and restrict your work to these. It is full frontal and you are amongst people constantly where you have to show presence. That is something you have to like and flourish in. It seems important to me that you have to take into account that travel You will be on the road. There are different phases to the travel. This can range from periodic not all too frequent trips all the way to very intense travel periods. For instance, when a prototype is physically deployed.

Worum geht es in Deinem Job?

Bühler is an innovative and global company that provides machinery and services for food and material production. My position is project manager in the area of R&D in die casting. A project managers responsibility consists mainly of coordinating the project, from start to finish making sure deadlines, costs, quality, and innovation are met according to the requirements. My activities are very dependent on the project phases. We are currently in the construction of a first prototype. So, of course, the first daily act is that you visit the assembly hall and have a look at the status of the project. We also have many regular meetings. We start the week with a status update meeting where we really talk about the current state of affairs within the project and share new developments. Each subdivision manager, as well as anyone who is involved in the project get a chance to introduce their topics. So, the R&D team at Bühler AG die casting is that part of the company where innovation and development are explored and carried out. These are technological and technical projects. I am associated with the technical projects. Currently, I am only working on large international projects where we are developing a new machine platform. There are two more main company settlements besides Uzwil, in China, and in the US.

Wie sieht Dein Werdegang aus?

I grew up here locally in Sirnach. There, I attended elementary school. Then I moved to Winterthur and started my training as an engineer. Afterward, I went traveling, but then decided to start work as an engineer. This work I carried out for several years, with a couple of interruptions due to traveling. Later on, I switched to the private industry. There I had the opportunity to occupy the role of development and technical lead. Soon after I started my family and now I have three terrific kids from very small to very tall. I’ve been working at Bühler for two and a half years and am the project manager on a tremendous project on a large scale.

Ginge es auch ohne Deinem Werdegang?

It really depends on your education. Project management is a loosely defined term. Depending on your expertise it surely won’t hurt if you have a solid basis within the subject matter. There are different degree programs that cover project management on another level a lot of that can be substituted by work experience. It is really down to your professional maturity. You will not be employed as the project manager, for a very large project straight away. You will start small with a small team and so you will advance with ever larger and more complex projects.