‚Zwei Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust‘ (Goethe, Faust I)
German Studies or Mathematics? From an early age, I was torn between my fascination for language and stories and mathematics – since both offered so many profound truths, beauties and opened doors to new perspectives on the world. My scientific nature rejoiced when I found a faculty in communications science where I could learn how to combine both my passions, what a blessing! To get to know and apply empirical instruments, to explore contexts and to gain a deeper understanding of human behaviour and thinking by putting all insights into one big story was a great revelation to me. And it became a passion I am grateful to be able to indulge in my professional career ever since.
Also, I have been torn between the urge to fully understand and engage with questions and problems, and to pragmatically tackle things and create tangible solutions. It was probably the former that initially drew me into academia. I contributed to the scientific discourse on international communication topics with papers and presentations at international conferences e.g. in Amsterdam, Beijing, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco and Zurich. And it is probably also the reason why I stepped on a plane heading to Macquarie University (ranked among the top 1% of world universities) in Sydney, Australia. An intense phase of writing began – only interrupted by many wonderful encounters with other PhD candidates from all over the world – and resulted in my PhD thesis in the field of International Communication.
The opposite of working on models and theories, namely doing research in real life – talking to people, immersing myself in new environments, and stepping into different shoes has always intrigued me. I have been working for several market research and brand agencies – from big, settled ones to smaller, fast moving start-ups – for over ten years now. Dealing with a high variety of clients and projects, I have become familiar with a broad spectrum of business areas, their trends and issues (see references below). What I learnt above all: To adopt to a new field quickly, to listen closely and to pick up the client’s language in order to give the best insights to work with right away.
Since 2016 I am now self-employed as research and insights consultant based in Berlin and couldn’t be any happier :o) Being able to contribute to the improvement of products, content, apps, websites etc. with my stories and findings, seeing insights brought into action is what drives me most up until today.