Katharina Familia Almonte

My projects in the marketing@media programme

Building up an online platform at France Loisirs in Paris, France

My first day on the job

I had my first day at the new job in Berlin on a freezing cold day in February 2010. I was still suffering from a bad jet lag as I had just got back from an internship in the US a few days ago. I was supposed to be at the Spreepalais at 9:30 am but actually arrived there one and a half hours before, standing outside in the cold with chattering teeth. But then I was welcomed warmly by Thomas P.J. Feinen, Head of Business Development and former participant of the marketing@media program himself. He presented to me the probably most exciting schedule I've ever seen so far: Berlin, Hamburg, Barcelona, Paris, I had the chance to get a taste of everything in my first two weeks, shook hands with all DirectGroup board members and got a picture of the most important markets on site. I could not have thought of a better start.

Tell us an off-the-wall idea that you sometimes think about: what if…

...there was no internet? Probably I would be a compulsive hoarder because my favorite pastime is digging in the media, exploring, collecting, consuming, anatomizing, analysing and exploiting any kind of information, news and entertainment. So if there was no internet I would probably not find the way out of my own apartment with all the newspapers, magazines and books lying upon another.

How I made my way to the media world of DirectGroup

Ever since I can remember I've been interested in media. During my time at high school I visited South America and started dreaming of having the chance to work internationally one day. After my "Abitur" I made an internship as a journalist and then worked in the communications department of the automaker Daimler. Thereafter I went to Hamburg, started studying Media Management in a dual study course at the Hamburg School of Business Administration (HSBA) while working for a subsidiary of the German press agency dpa and as a freelance journalist. In the summer of 2009, shortly before graduating, I applied for "Talent meets Bertelsmann", just out of curiosity and without really expecting to be invited. But much to my surprise the invitation to go to Berlin dropped in. I had an exciting day having really interesting conversations with quite a few HR managers of Bertelsmann. The last one I shook hands with that day was Gerd Bührig of DirectGroup. And then things started happening really fast: I got the invitation to attend an interview in Gütersloh, gave a presentation to the senior management in Berlin and in the end was invited to participate in the marketing@media program - a ticket to a fascinating career!