CareersMeet our peopleJens Schnabel, Product Manager for Autotalli.com online service

Jens Schnabel, Product Manager for Autotalli.com online service

Alma Mediapartners, Autotalli.com

From asphalt worker to product manager

Jens Schnabel’s work experience is a potpourri of summer and part-time jobs, from asphalt worker to supermarket checkout till. Jens’s attitude to every job has been diligence, willingness to learn and to do the job as well as possible. An open mind wherever he may have been working has taken the now 25-year-old Jens all the way to the position of Product Manager at the Autotalli.com online service.

Jens originally came to Alma for job training for his IT MBA studies.
—I’m lucky in that I can work in a job I have been training for. Today it is not at all self-evident, says Jens.

Jens did his job training in Autotalli.com’s customer service team and stayed there as a part-time employee after his training period. Besides customer service, Jens gradually got other responsibilities. Success in these new assignments paved the way to the position of Product Assistant and later Product Planner.
—I was promoted to my present post when the previous product manager moved on to new challenges. I’m grateful that I’ve been trusted with this big a responsibility even though I’m so young.

The young product manager’s tasks include the maintenance and planning of Autotalli.com’s present and future products and functions. According to Jens, the work is full of variety, but at the same time demands a lot.
—Although I notice at times that I’m complaining about being in a rush, I enjoy the fast pace of the work. I also like challenges and creating something new. They increase motivation and make my work meaningful.

In Jens’s opinion, variety is the best aspect of his job, in particular meeting a wide range of people and tasks. That is why the most important properties of a product manager are good social skills and an encouraging attitude. Jens says his job entails a lot of social contacts, and a product manager is nothing without his team. Jens knows how to turn the unpredictability of future into opportunity, which may eventually lead to results that are even better than planned.
—Because of my customer service background, I get the best feeling of success from good customer feedback. Still, breakthroughs in projects and small daily successes also make my day.