Why should you join the Ergonomen?
Dr. Christopher H. Müller, Ergonomen Founder and Chairman of the Board,
shares his view.
What do you tell applicants when they ask you, why they should join us?
Christopher: I rarely explain why they should join us, but rather ask them why they want to join us. Mostly our diverse and exciting projects. We simplify and optimize impact of websites, railway locomotives, software, products of all kinds, processes, marketing campaigns and so on. Our clients are also very heterogeneous, from hip startups to government institutions and heavy industry... Where else do you get this variety? Our projects also demand flexibility, creative problem solving and personal responsibility from our consultants. This and of course the project work in a team and the constructive cooperation with our customers is great fun.
Can you describe the firm's culture? What is the team spirit like?
Christopher: Projects and variety are important, but the most important thing is the team. It is very rare that someone works on a project alone. We support each other wherever we can. We help each other to master difficult tasks, and for certain questions we tap into our network of external advisors. Our team eats lunch together most days, and we also have a good time together outside of the projects. One of our values is "we enjoy our work".
Many applicants will ask about professional development opportunities. What do you tell them?
Christopher: New employees complete ten learning modules, which make it much easier for them to start working with us. But once they're done with that, the learning really begins: many of our new employees are already experts in a particular field or want to develop in a very specific area. In addition to specialisations, want all of our employees to become capable consultants in all of our service areas. And that area is really broad: Graphic and interaction design skills, qualitative and quantitative methodological knowledge, project experience, dealing with clients, networking and public speaking, preparing and moderating workshops, behavioural economics, business models, concept work, prototyping, user testing and research, context analysis and business requirements engineering and much more. Basically, we operate at the intersection of design, psychology, technology and economics. But how can a designer learn how to evaluate large data sets? How can a psychologist train to develop pixel accurate prototypes? How can a behavioural economist be taught how to build a design system? We have internal specialists for all areas who manage and coach projects, so we don't need everyone to be perfect at everything. Especially new, inexperienced employees learn a lot in the first years with us. For example, we actually have a psychologist who became our prototyping specialist. Or a behavioural economist who scribbles wireframes and designs interaction concepts. More experienced consultants are given the chance to work on more complex projects and take on leadership functions.
Final question then, who should apply?
Christopher: What really counts is motivation, the urge to achieve something, the energy that you want to invest in the team and in the customer relationship. In short, we are looking for motivated, competent and intelligent people, no matter what their background is. We want to get to know them and then see what our common opportunities are.
