Essen, 6 September 2021 – Ever wondered what working at TA Europe is really like? Gemin Spettmann shares her experience. Born in Catania, Sicily, she grew up in Germany, is now based in our Essen office and works in the finance department, where she carries out accounting and controlling tasks. Mother to a 2,5 years old daughter, Gemin came back after maternity leave and increased her working hours step by step to 24 hours per week.
At a glance
Name: Gemin Spettmann
Age: 29 Years
Function at TA Europe: Accounting & Controlling
Originally from: Italy
1. What does your typical working day look like?
I work in two areas – accounting and controlling. My accounting tasks are to write bills for our clients – and to check whether incoming bills from our freelancers are correct and can be processed. The controlling part consists of analysing projects and evaluating their profitability. Since our consultants record the times in ‘Mite’, an electronic database, this can be done quite well.
2. What do you like most about your job?
In general, I truly enjoy working with numbers and with Excel. In particular, I like providing clear and correct bills even for complex projects: It is sometimes tricky to account for projects because TA Europe is active all over Europe. Or there is a portfolio with properties in different European countries.
Depending on the location, different tax frameworks have to be taken into account as well as different billing addresses. Also, sometimes we charge lump sums depending on the size of the buildings. This means I really have to be familiar with the nature of our projects.
Luckily, the project leaders always provide me with the information I need. They also use our ‘Easy Bill’ software, where they can leave me comments electronically. This helps me to understand the specifics of each project.
3. What do you consider unique about TA Europe and its culture?
The unique thing at TA Europe, from my point of view, is the fact that there is a lot of support for career progression.
At TA Europe, a lot of emphasis is placed on making each individual feel comfortable. The management team regularly talks to each employee individually and is genuinely interested in how they are doing. As a mother of a 2,5-year-old girl, I profit a lot from the flexible working conditions the firm is providing.
With such a small child, you can still make plans, but you can certainly not guarantee that everything goes according to plan. TA Europe enables me to work from home spontaneously, if the need arises, and makes it easy to shift working hours – e.g. if my daughter gets ill.
When I was on maternity leave, I always kept in touch with the team. What I liked a lot was that I was asked about my plans and intentions when and under which circumstances to return to the office. So I could create an environment that enabled me to care for my daughter and start again back at the office, working fewer hours than before. Now that my little one will be going to daycare, I have increased my working hours to 24 per week, which is ideal for me. The management team was very accommodating.
4. What does it take to thrive at TA Europe?
You are given a lot of freedom here at TA Europe. This means that new ideas are generally welcomed. As we are growing, we continuously need to adapt processes and optimise the way we work together. So if you are a pro-active person with some fresh ideas and a creative mindset, this is the perfect place!
5. Could you imagine working at another office location or is Essen the perfect place for you?
Right now, I couldn’t imagine to live somewhere else. So our Essen office suits me perfectly. Our beautiful office in Essen-Kettwig is a great place as it is located very close to Düsseldorf. From Essen-Kettwig, it is also easy to get to the airport quickly, and there are many cities within a short distance which are nice to live in. Another plus is that the living costs are still reasonable here.
6. What insider advice can you give to a someone who would like to work at TA Europe?
I would recommend being open, making suggestions if there is a need to improve anything and show a willingness to learn working with new tools, e.g. IT tools.
