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Following my university degree, I joined Allianz Ireland in November 1993. My career commenced as a commercial property underwriter, later I worked in an internal consulting role within the Organization Development team. Having completed an MBA in 2000, I moved to the distribution side of the business as a Sales Manager. It was through this role that I commenced working on global projects within the Allianz Group. This ultimatejob_state_shly led to I moving to Allianz SE in 2004 for what I initially thought would be for 1 year, as a career development step, but over 5 years later, I am still here!!!
My first two years in Munich were in the Groups strategy division – Group Development. Then in 2006, I joined Allianz Re at the beginning of the reinsurance optimization initiative and in the restructure , I assumed the role of Head of Operations ultimately leading to COO this year.
In terms of my experiences with Germany? To be honest, I had no real expectations arriving in the country. It is just a 2 hour flight from home and as I thought I would only be here for twelve months, I did not think too much about expectations before arriving. I find both the pace of life and the quality of life much better in Munich than in Dublin, Ireland. The crime rate in Munich is lower, the city cleaner and more organized and the public transport system "world class" from my perspective. In terms of people interaction, I would say that the Irish culture (particularly the pub culture!) and openness lends itself to meeting more people, but the German approach leads to perhaps fewer close friendships but ones that are very genuine and very loyal. I would also say that the German culture is underpinned by a strong set of social values and moderate materialism, both of which have weakened in Ireland, in my view, during the course of the economic boom.
The core challenge for me in a German working environment can be summed up by comparing it to an Anglo Saxon environment. There, many decisions happen quicker, one can adjust more flexibly to outside requirements. I do not see the same level of flexibility in Germany. Somewhere in the middle between these positions is probably appropriate.
In terms of challenges in Allianz Re, as a multi lingual company? I am incredibly impressed with the level of English language capability people have here! As for my German, what can I say? I can certainly get by, but I am lazy and I must admit that I am not a fan of German grammar!!
To conclude,
I like my job, because it is varied, challenging and there is scope to assist in the continued evolution of Allianz Re, because no organization can survive by remaining static and ignoring the need to continually change.
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