I have been working at HUGO BOSS AG in Germany as a designer for almost 2 months and I have to say I've learned a lot from working with Germans every day. It is definitely one of the greatest and the craziest experiences for a new grad student like me. Every day is a different day as we are dealing with so many different things at the same time, working together with many different people from different departments back and forth, and every day is a new challenge that helps me grow. So in this blog, I will be talking about some of the great things I've learned from working at HUGO BOSS AG with Germans.
TIME MANAGEMENT.
People are quite familiar with what time management is, but what I want to say about this will probably bring you a new definition on what it is all about.
Just my first two weeks working at HUGO BOSS AG, I already felt that the German style of time management was something that I've never experienced before. The first impression I had on my German workmates was....they actually worked like a machine. Germans in general are very well-organized people when it comes to time management. I've witnessed such German style of time management back when I was interviewing with them. For example, the Skype interview was scheduled at 9:00 A.M. (West Canada time) sharp, so they would not start the interview anytime earlier, not even a minute earlier. They actually started the interview at 9:00 o'clock sharp, not 8:59, not 9:01, either.
Working at HUGO BOSS AG, such style of time management was really a hard thing for me adapt at the very beginning. Back in school, I was mostly known as the person who was fast in doing everything as well as the person who was good at multitasking. However, I still felt the German style of time management was quite overwhelming at the beginning of working at HUGO BOSS AG. Personally I think such style of time management comes from great time measurement because Germans are very good at measuring their time in order to fit in different daily tasks and deadlines. Germans always carefully consider their time capacity in handling multiple projects at the same time, which I think is also one of the reasons that they are very good at multitasking. However, their way of measuring time is very simple: just carefully take notes of every time slot they could meet on a day, and the best part is that Germans completely respect what has been planned and scheduled ahead.
Honestly, I really like how Germans respect time as their very first priority in working, and the precision of their time management is something that no one could keep up with, at least back in Canada. Another example is that if the meeting was scheduled at 11:30, they would probably not start it at 11:25.
Actually Time management is not just what I've experience at HUGO BOSS, but also at most government departments such like Rathaus (City Hall) and Auslanderbehorde (Foreigner Authority) when dealing with some government paperworks (Keep in mind, I just speak from my own personal case). Before I came to Germany, I did quite a lot of research on how to deal with those German paperworks which we never have back in Canada, and I found most people were talking about how German bureaucracy gave them headache and pains in going through all those paperworks in Germany, which somehow scared me a lot at that time. But the reality to me was really easy-going as I was in Germany, at least in Metzingen. For example, by the time I got my Anmeldung (residence certificate), I was informed by the agent that I was going to receive my German Tax ID in a week. Then I did receive my German Tax ID in the mail a week after, which was exactly the time they told me. Another example was when I was getting my visa extended, the lady at the Auslanderberhorde told me I was going to receive my visa confirmation letter in the mail 2 weeks after, then I did receive the letter in the mail exactly in 2 weeks.
EFFICIENCY.
Germans are widely known as their great efficiency in dealing with everything. However, most people in school only heard of German efficiency, but never witnessed it. Well I am very lucky to actually experience the great German efficiency by myself every day at HUGO BOSS.
The secret to German efficiency comes greatly from their time management. You can't do anything fast if you not respect the time enough, while as it turns to Germans, efficiency is something they are all capable of. Till now, I still think Germans in general are really fast in doing things. Not only at HUGO BOSS, but also some other places like supermarkets or government offices, Germans just do their jobs really really fast.
Working at HUGO BOSS, efficiency is another big thing to adapt as we are handling many different projects and deadlines from different departments and even some other HUGO BOSS offices from all around the world. To handle all of that, I have to force myself to learn to measure and organize my time in a very precise way, because to Germans, even 5 minutes mean a lot. In addition, at HUGO BOSS, the speed of efficiency is changing all the time depending on the deadlines and requests. Sometimes, there are urgent requests breaking in during the middle of the day, and you have to deal with it by adjusting your time to make a room for that. Sometimes, there are several approvals to go through so you need to carefully arrange your time for many different departments. Timing at HUGO BOSS is really more complicated than in a design agency as we are dealing back and forth with different global departments, but one good thing about this is that we only work for one big brand which is HUGO BOSS instead of many different brands in a local design agency.
Keeping up with German efficiency, I have to have a really good understanding on my time so that I could deal with some unexpected urgent requests, and follow the project briefs and instructions carefully received from the managers by taking a lot of notes. Normally Germans don't really like to repeat what they said once again because they think you are supposed to take down everything they told you in the first place.
QUALITY.
Germany is famously known for its high quality standard. It does not only apply to the final, but also the process of how you make things, aka, the quality of the style of working. For example, you need to stay clear about your ideas and get them together in a very organized way so that your team can have a good understanding on what your concept is in the first place before moving forward. Once the concept direction has been approved, Germans don't expect you to change it or alter it easily, unless there is a good reason to. From idea exploration to final design, quality always comes first even you are just making mockups or roughs. In my opinion, quality also means clarity at HUGO BOSS, since you are not just presenting your concept to one person or to one department.
Generally, quality comes from detailing. Every day, I have to remind myself that I am not just making designs for a local area, I am making designs for the entire international market, and each project, either big or small, it all represents the brand as a whole, so even a tiny detail matters a lot. For example, my first week at HUGO BOSS, I was asked to crop some images for some layout works, and at the beginning I thought it was quite easy to do, but I was totally wrong because my manager literally asked me to adjust a single image pixel by pixel after hundred times of zooming in and zooming out. Even a tiny move on the position makes a lot differences to them.
As the word which I always mentioned: precision, which is important for both prints and digitals. Digging down into tiny details is what people normally do here at HUGO BOSS. I remember there was one time I was talking about my feelings and thoughts about this with two managers, and they thought it as a normal thing because working in such international environment, you can't make any mistakes that screw everything up. Therefore, when there is a final which needs to be sent out for approval, Germans always gather around to double-check over and over again, making sure everything is correct before sending out.
So far, that is what I have learned from working at HUGO BOSS with Germans. Definitely it is something that you can never experience in a design agency back in Calgary, Canada, and the differences between the two are huge. For example, back when I was in college, every time a grad student who worked in a local design agency came down for a visit to give us tips on how to be a professional designer, all he/she could tell us was to be yourself, work hard and never stop grinding, etc.. I didn't take their words seriously at all because everyone could tell you the same thing even they are not from a design background. Personally, I think creativity does not come from education. In other words, there aint no school that can educate you on how to be creative. Creativity is something that you are born with, which has nothing to do with anyone or anything.
For me, the only thing I could tell those students in ACAD who are graduating soon is: give a 100% respect to each time, not just the deadline.