Go work for Airbus

Next week, I will leave a company I love, a team that has treated me like family and a job I still can’t believe anyone would have every given me. It’s easy to look back on your old role and reminisce about the good times while forgetting the bad. I promise that’s not what this is. Airbus is enormous. 130k+ employees, offices everywhere around the world and probably THE leading global aerospace company. In that kind of set-up, it would be impossible for everything to run smoothly all time. It doesn’t.

But for all the small and large problems anyone working at Airbus will encounter, the fundamental truth remains: This is a company that is producing magic on a nine-to-five basis. For as long as there have been human beings, they have looked up to the sky - wondering what it would be like if they could fly. People at Airbus don't wonder about it - they make it happen. Every day. Multiple times over. No big deal. 'You want fries with that burger? In fact, we have become so used to putting people in a metal box flying 10 kilometers above ground at 100s of kilometers per hour, that the only time it’s still a story is if there are any delays.

The company brings together some of the very best and brightest humanity has to offer. It is the most international place I have ever worked in. The sheer amount of skills, intellect and enthusiasm you encounter is mind-bending. Airbus is the living proof of what Europe can achieve when it combines long-term vision, industrial expertise and a spirit of collaboration. It was founded over 50 years ago to establish a counterpart to the US dominance in commercial aviation. Few believed it would succeed. Today, Airbus has grown into one of the leading aerospace companies in the world and the only truly European player in defence and space.

That part of the business – Airbus Defence and Space – is where I started three and a half years ago. To this day, I don’t understand what Martin Agüera and Florian Taitsch saw in me. I was an early-balding political scientist, I had worked in re-insurance and I am slightly scared of heights.?I had absolutely zero idea about Aviation, Defence or Space. None. Zip. Couldn’t tell a fuselage from a fuel line. Some would argue that the only thing that has changed about me since then is that I dropped the early part of my balding (that's why I'm begrudgingly wearing a hat in the picture at the end of this text). Still they trusted in me and introduced me to their incredible team. To make it even better, a few years down the line, Jennifer Newlands and Johannes Müller tried to one-up Martin and Flo by offering me the chance to become the speechwriter to Michael Schoellhorn , the absolutely incredible CEO of Airbus Defence and Space – in a time when the war in Ukraine, the German Zeitenwende and now the convergence on FCAS fundamentally changed the environment our company operates in - hopefully for good. To say I was overwhelmed would be like saying that Donald Trump rubs some people the wrong way: Technically true but missing the sheer size and rightful depth of the emotion.

Now I am moving on from Airbus not because I want to leave, but because sometimes you get offered a chance that is so unique you simply cannot turn it down. Michael Manske and the insane people at CARIAD obviously must have never met my former bosses – because they are about to make the same mistake once again: Offering me to lead a team in the communications department of Cariad when I have zero ideas about cars, the only Java I know how to produce fits into a mug and I am just now over losing my hair for good. I think this is the opportunity of a lifetime and I am almost bursting with excitement about it. But before I dive head-first into this new adventure, I want to truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank everybody I had to pleasure to work with at Airbus. Your patience, your inspiration, your kindness, your professionalism, your willingness to take a drink with me after work and indulge ALL of my insane questions, your warmth, your efforts to make me feel welcome, appreciated and a part of the team have meant the world to me.

The long and short of it is this: If you ever get the chance to work at Airbus, grab it tight and don't ever let it pass you by. It changed my life. It even made wear a hat. And I will be grateful about it until the day I die!

Jan Mertens Norbert Selle Ralph Heinrich Julia Knittlmeier Rebecca Spath Lisa Zant René W. Alexandra LAZAR Robert Holder Julia Angerer Florian Sodtke Jose Gascó Angela Cabanillas Erwan Hébré Pablo Correa Bianca Heydenreich Mattias Koch, MScEng, MBA Andreas Hauck Isis FRANCESCHETTI Harald Mannheim Francisco Javier Salido No?l Christ Kieran Daly Ada Magdalena Drazek Amir Davazdah Imami Emma von Westphalen Mathias Schneidereit Johannes Schmid Beatriz Lozano Méndez Rod Stone Oliver Pradelles Dr. Herbert Maier Mary Walmsley Justin Dubon Alexander Reinhardt Daniel Werdung Stefan Schaffrath Carl Laws Guillaume Steuer Juliette Heinzel Enno Schumacher Schuler-Semmler Katharina Marcella Cortellazzi Sally-Anne Sperl Fabienne Grazzini Sara Lozano Pérez Sara Ricci Lois Derrick [Benquet] Dirk Z. Gerhard Riehl Guilhem Boltz David Aguiar Stefan T. Schnaak Dr. Tanja Oberinger Holger Schubert Anne Raynaud Ildikó Ferencsik Laura Carlesso Georg Schneider Alexander Lepa Carolin Schwab Laura Nguyen-Duc Elisabeth Gautier Emanuela Della Bosca Fran?ois M. James Eady Oliver Fokken Laurence Petiard J?rg Michel Inka Beil