Drei Ratschläge an Dein 14jähriges Ich!

Change your makeup, definitely. Don’t worry so much about what other think of you and value your friendships.

Was steht auf Deiner Visitenkarte?

It says, Mirjam Klepper, Social Entrepreneur.

Was ist das coolste an Deinem Job?

Most, I think a lot of people around me work in jobs that actually not offering them the ability to live up to their potential. And I think even though I hardly make any money, I do have the chance to just try out everything to see what can I do, what I’m I good at, what I’ not good at, where do I need to improve, especially because I work with people that are also open to let me try out new things and they also support me as I do it and give me positive or constructive feedback and I think that’s the coolest part.

Welche Einschränkungen bringt Dein Job mit sich?

I mean it’s cool to have that freedom but sometimes I wish also the opposite that somebody would just tell me what to do and I can do that and then when it’s done at 5:00 in the afternoon I can go. And now there is always work to be done and there is always more you could do and I guess that's the tough thing to say, “Okay, now I’m really going to stop for a bit and that's okay” even if other people in your team are still working, because they might have a different rhythm or because they have different tasks and you see what they are doing and you are not doing anything, I think that's the hardest part.

Worum geht es in Deinem Job?

Vienna Skills Smiths offers, short affordable and single session cool classes where everybody can teach and everything is there to be learnt. So basically offer stage for all kinds of skills and knowledge that people feel confident enough about that they want to share it and they passionate about as well. And Vienna Shares is an organization and association foundation that focuses on sharing economy and urban well being in Vienna. In one company, Vienna Skills Smiths, we are only two people. So it means that we do everything ourselves from meeting partners, teachers, finding location, and uploading staff on the website, social media, we do everything and also finances partially. And with Vienna Shares we have a larger team and my job there is mainly the general coordination and figuring out what we want to do in the next few months as well as actually organizing events and keeping an eye on the website, and the Facebook page etcetera. I would go to a co-working space in pay tab there I meet up with Stefan, my business partner. We talk through what we want to do in the next month, or in the next week. We meet different teacher, and see if there course offers makes sense to us, I upload them to the website, we design the page, I write the blog post and newsletters. I write new venues and partners and see who want to corporate with us, answer a bunch of emails. And then with Vienna Shares I do that more or less in between. There also a lot about reaching out to people and setting up events, contacting different partners, city organizations, meeting up with the team, talking through designs and what we want to do.

Wie sieht Dein Werdegang aus?

I was born in the Netherlands, I grew up there. I studied Culture, Anthropology and Development Studies as well as, actually that was my undergrad. And then I did masters program called Erastus Mundus Global Studies which is an international masters program that takes places in different cities all over Europe and I was invited in Vienna for that. My year in Vienna recently ended and now I’m still here because in the last couple of months I have set up all these other projects here and they brought me to Vienna, I’m quite happy about that.

Ginge es auch ohne Deinem Werdegang?

It’s tough to say, I don’t think having university education is necessarily necessary, but I do think that due to the topics that I studied, mainly because of all the people that I met, it definitely helped in shaping my world view of being in different countries even if most were in Europe, I think I definitely added to my perspective of the world and it made me want to do the things that I do right now.