Careers Service

Katie graduated from the University of Manchester in 2022 with a BA Modern Language and Business & Management (German) degree. Knowing she wanted to use her language skills after university, she moved to Germany and started a graduate scheme with Mainfreight, a global logistics company. Having completed the programme, she is now the UK Trainer at Mainfreight.

My name is Katie and I graduated with a degree in German and Business and Management in July 2022.

2 days after graduation I moved to Hamburg in Germany. I found an opportunity with Mainfreight, a global logistics company. I had never heard of Mainfreight, but the opportunity to grow and develop in the industry is something I am grateful for. The Mainfreight Development Programme (their graduate scheme) enabled me to travel within Europe to meet others on the programme, as well as leaders in the company. In my third year at university I did a year abroad in Hamburg which was great however it was during COVID, so I was eager to go back to experience life as it should be!

I am the UK Trainer for Mainfreight. This is supporting our 6 branches, running trainings, building up relationships with Colleges and Universities, supporting the recruitment side of things for our graduate programme and anything else that comes up in between.

Prior to this role, I spent 2 years and 8 months in the Hamburg branch. I was in operations in Hamburg, shipping containers worldwide. As I was approaching the end of my second year on the programme, I opened up the conversation of what is to come next in my career. Unfortunately, there was not something that was what I was looking for in Hamburg, but another role came up in the UK, the role I am in now. This was a great step and more towards what I enjoy, which is the people side of things.

I found the opportunity on LinkedIn. The process was very simple, which is how we like it at Mainfreight – there is no point in overcomplicating!

Mainfreight contacted me about having an initial phone call, this was after they checked my CV and cover letter. After that, an online interview with one of the training team. Lastly, I had an interview with the Branch Manager of Hamburg.

My first role was the most challenging thing I have ever done. It was the peak after COVID for the logistics industry. I learned so much about resilience, stress management and organisation. If you are in the supply chain industry and you are not organised, then that leads someone down a stressful pathway. Something I liked was making changes to improve the branch, my personal aim was to make new starters feel supported right from the start. You don't have to be a leader in Mainfreight to make the difference and that is something you can't find everywhere.

I would not be so hard on myself, especially in an industry where I had no experience and I was speaking another language. Sometimes we are too hard on ourselves.

I would recommend being open to other industries. Personally, I did not know what I wanted to do, but I did know I wanted to use my German language skills. This meant when I saw the advert for Mainfreight, I did not skip it simply because it was not the industry I had in my mind.

Great question - I would like to grow within the business as the UK side of Mainfreight is still relatively fresh. Only time will tell!