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TUM AS A SAFE PLACE TO EXPERIMENT

Over 30 years ago, a group of students from the Mechanical Engineering student council founded IKOM. In addition to the main event at the TUM campus in Garching, there are now also IKOMs in the fields of construction, life sciences and start-ups. The four career forums are organized annually by around 100 TUM students working on a voluntary basis. Julia Pelka was once one of them.

IKOM was not actually part of Julia Pelka’s plan at first, because the path was pretty clear: study at TUM, “because in principle it is simply very well known that it is one of the best universities in Germany”, Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering, Master in Aerospace Engineering, find a job, be happy. But studying at TUM suddenly opened up a space that was big and safe enough for her to stray from the path a little and experiment. At every turn, Julia Pelka met another group of students. “That not only helps you from a technical point of view, but it also helps you to find your place,” says the TUM Alumna today. Building satellites and rockets at the “Wissenschaftliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Raketentechnik und Raumfahrt” (WARR)? Or would you prefer to bring airplanes to life at the “Akaflieg” aeronautical research group? It would probably have been one of these groups, as Julia Pelka was very interested. But then she experienced her first IKOM in 2015.

She can still remember all the advertising posters and calendar towers that were everywhere on campus, but above all the student group that organized it all. How professionally they presented themselves, how confidently they communicated. So she decided to take part in the organization of IKOM, got involved in company support, realized that she liked communication, project management and coordination, that it was fun, that it could be a direction for her.

Three years later, Julia Pelka took over the overall management of the student career forum: “That was a year in which I really outgrew myself,” she says. Suddenly she was responsible for a 130-strong team, headed up the project and department heads, represented IKOM to the outside world, organized areas for the 15,000 or so visitors and also took care of last-minute extra requests from companies.

And then came the opening speech. Julia Pelka still remembers sitting in the IKOM office. “I was incredibly excited, perhaps because I knew subconsciously that this would have far-reaching consequences,” she says. She talked for ten minutes, mainly about IKOM, and then it was all over again – or so she thought. At dinner in the evening, she was standing in line at the ice cream van when a voice called out from behind: “Are you Julia?”. The voice belonged to Andreas Scherer, a former IKOM member and founder of Guldberg. Scherer liked Pelka’s speech and invited her to join his team at the table. However, the TUM Alumna decided to have her ice cream first. “I’ll join you afterwards,” she said. ‘Are you sure you want to miss the opportunity of a lifetime?’ replied Scherer. Julia Pelka wasn’t so sure and went along.

Julia Pelka can still remember the motto of IKOM 2019, the poster from back then still hangs in her office today: “Take control of your career”. “Julia Pelka can still remember the motto of IKOM 2019, the poster from back then still hangs in her office today: “Take control of your career”. “I set off with that in my head and never lost sight of my goals,” says Julia Pelka today.

This year in June, Julia Pelka once again took to the stage at IKOM. She was asked if she would like to give an opening speech, as she did five years ago – only this time not as the overall chair, but as an experienced alumna. Julia Pelka spoke about the path she has taken in recent years. She talked about the fact that in every life and in every degree course there are many forks in the road alongside the classic paths, and that it is worth looking left and right from time to time. And she talked about the day five years ago when she actually just wanted to get an ice cream and got a job. She ended her speech with the words: “I can say about that day at IKOM that it changed my life.” The TUM Alumna hopes that many more students will feel the same way. However, she doesn’t want to put any pressure on anyone with her story. “I think it’s important to approach the subject with ease and use your studies to try out what’s fun and open your eyes along the way,” she says. ”You don’t necessarily have to go into development or design if you’ve studied mechanical engineering. There are lots of doors open to you.” 

A career at Guldberg was the right choice for Julia Pelka. “I could really make a difference here,” she says. When she joined the company, Guldberg had only been around for two years. The TUM Alumna started in sales, got to know many companies and realized that she could talk directly to customers at eye level thanks to her studies. She witnessed how Guldberg continued to grow – also thanks to her commitment and dedication.

At some point, Julia Pelka looked around the room at a Christmas party and realized that over 100 people were celebrating together and thought to herself, how nice, three or four years ago there was no one here. Employees now send their brother or sister to her, and sometimes even friends and acquaintances come up to her, tell her that they are not so happy in their job at the moment and ask if she can help in any way. In most cases, she can. After all, Julia Pelka is an expert at finding the right table.