A day in the life of… Verena, Junior Digital Consultant

“A Day In The Life Of…” is the series where you get to meet the Riverflex core team. From our background and interests to our day to day activities, get a glimpse into the life of a young consultancy!

Verena is our Junior Digital Consultant, as well as responsible for recruitment. Based in Germany, she is currently completing the CEMS Master of International Management at the University of Cologne. Interested in entering the world of consulting and working in a start-up environment, Verena found the best of both worlds at Riverflex!

So, Verena – when did you join Riverflex?

One of the requirements of my study program was to complete an internship abroad – so in January 2019, I moved to Amsterdam and joined Riverflex as a Digital Consulting Intern. Over the course of three months, I had the opportunity to test myself and be challenged, both by supporting client projects and taking over operational activities and recruitment. And I fell in love with Amsterdam!

At the end of March, I went back to Cologne to finish my Master’s. However, that wasn’t the end of my journey with Riverflex. In the past months, I have been working remotely, next to my studies.

Working for a startup like Riverflex has been a fantastic learning experience. I never thought that I would receive this amount of trust and responsibility so early on!  Not only was I directly given the responsibility of all recruitment processes, but I am proud to have also helped define new processes from scratch.

Riverflex’s motto is “consulting done differently”. How do you try to do things differently in your line of work?

For me, doing things “differently” means being flexible and getting out of my comfort zone. I have a wide range of very diverse responsibilities. I am mainly in charge of recruitment and operations but I am not afraid to branch out taking on other challenges outside my ordinary scope of work, for example supporting my team or helping on client projects. Not being stuck in one role allows me to learn from different experiences and become a more well-rounded professional.

And for the key question – how’s a typical day in your life like?

Now that I am responsible for recruitment, my “typical” day includes tracking website applications, taking care of interns, onboarding people to our talent community and being the contact person for any kind of consultant inquiry. It’s a nice balance between taking care of internal matters, and also reaching out to the consultant community and to new members.

In the past months, I have worked from Cologne. The flexibility of working remotely has allowed me to continue my studies, while also learning the ins and outs of a different working style. I keep in touch with the rest of the team on virtual platforms and, working part time, I am perfecting my time management skills to ensure no process is left behind during my absent times. I definitely miss working in the Amsterdam office next to the rest of the team, but I have been able to travel back to join meaningful sessions and fantastic after work drinks!

Working in a start-up and building up a company that wants to offer a unique service means constantly reviewing and improving processes and coming up with new ideas to make sure our independent community is constantly growing. For me, this means always trying to carve some time out of my day to invest in creative thinking, coming up with fresh, out-of-the-box ideas to help Riverflex grow.