People behind REHAU: Thea Petschek

23.11.2021

"My tip to my younger self: Keep at it and don't let yourself be disturbed.”

Thea Petschek is 25 years old who completed a master's degree in logistics after her dual training at REHAU. With a dream grade of 1.0, she can now take off in logistics purchasing. In the interview, she tells us about her career, the challenges of writing a master's thesis during a pandemic, and why it is so important not to lose sight of your own goal.

Hi Thea, nice of you to take the time for this interview. You graduated last year with a fantastic grade of 1.0 in your master's thesis in logistics. Congratulations!

Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Gladly. I'm Thea and I'm 25 years old. I was born near Bayreuth (Germany). Normally I live in Hof, but due to Corona restrictions, I partly live at my parent’s home. Alone in the apartment, it was too quiet for me. In my spare time, I like to do sports. I have been riding horses for a while and a few months ago I also started kickboxing.

How did you come to REHAU and why did you choose the company?

I've known for a while that I wanted to start studying business administration, but I was looking for something where I could combine theory and practice directly. I then came across REHAU via the information office at the employment agency and the offer of a dual-study program for business administration and an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk. REHAU already had a great deal of expertise at that time as far as dual studies were concerned, and so I decided to go for it.

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What happened after the start?

In September 2014, I started my training as an industrial clerk and got to know a wide variety of departments including transportation purchasing. Even at that time, I enjoyed this area the most. In my studies, I therefore also chose the focus on logistics and wrote my bachelor's thesis there. After completing the dual-study program, I wanted to deepen my knowledge even more and applied for the master's program at REHAU, majoring in logistics. After two semesters at Hof University of Applied Sciences, I wrote my master's thesis. Back in transportation purchasing at the end of September, I handed in the thesis and was able to start my job directly on October 1. That made me very happy.

It sounds like you've found the perfect job for you.

Absolutely! The team is great and we all have a very good relationship with each other. That alone is worth a lot. But I'm also excited about my area of responsibility. For me, it's the perfect combination of purchasing and logistics – both areas that already appealed to me during my studies.

Now to your master's thesis. What was the topic?

The title of my thesis was “Development of recommendations for action on the handling of non-system-compliant shipments in forwarding networks exemplified by the purchasing transportation department of the REHAU Industries SE & Co. KG”. That sounds very complicated. Simply spoken, it was about examining the shipment structures of logistically challenging goods – which products are shipped from which locations and where do they go – in order to create the framework conditions for handling them as cost-effectively and reliably as possible via logistics networks. But writing my master's thesis during a pandemic was definitely challenging.

In what way?

Particularly in the case of a thesis, it is very important to exchange ideas with topic experts in the company and with the supervisors. Unfortunately, most of these meetings could not take place on site and had to be conducted by telephone or video instead. However, all colleagues were very accommodating.

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Your commitment was rewarded: In October, you were awarded the Bayernwerk Culture Prize – in recognition of your outstanding work.

Yes, a ceremony was held in Munich in front of 150 guests at the Eisbach Studios. Several Bavarian regional TV stations even broadcast it live from here. That was a great experience. I am proud and very grateful to my team at REHAU for their support. The award was a grand finale for my studies.

Last question: What tip would you give your younger self?

Keep at it and don't let yourself be disturbed. In retrospect, the decision to focus on transportation purchasing during my training proved to be absolutely right for me. But I can also recommend the dual-study program to everyone. At the beginning, we were told that it would help us build up an internal network very quickly. At the time, I couldn't have imagined how important that would be one day. I still have a lot of contact with departments that I got to know during my training and internships, and that still helps me a lot today.

Thank you very much for the interview, Thea!