Everyone can show themselves at their best here

Young Talent Day is, of course, a selection process too. But the focus is less on competition among the applicants and more on team spirit, appreciation and … fun.

They are interested in training to be a real estate agent with Deutsche Wohnen, they applied via the applicant management system, performed well in the online test and made an impression with their application documents, and here they now are – the twelve applicants attending the first of this year’s two Young Talent Days.

The nervousness among the young people, most of whom are school pupils who will soon take their secondary school diploma, is initially palpable – but has then vanished by the end of the first module. They now know what to expect in the course of the day, they have all introduced themselves and the ice has been broken. “A relaxed atmosphere develops straight away,” says Katrin Birnbaum, Head of Training at Deutsche Wohnen, who has observed this time and again. “And the applicants are already benefiting from one another from the very first stage as the various presentation forms give them a lot of ideas for how they could improve their own presentation.”

“The task diversity gives everyone the opportunity to show themselves off.”

Katrin Birnbaum, Head of Training, Deutsche Wohnen

By the end of the second task of the day, which is conducted as a team activity, the initial tension has vanished and has been replaced by an open and creative atmosphere. The Deutsche Wohnen employees and trainees who are there to observe are then able to easily assess the applicants. Who has which role within the team here? Who is the ideas person? Who is the decision maker? And who is holding back, perhaps a little too much? This is all interesting information for a company where a lot of the work involves agile project correlations.

The timetable for the rest of the day includes more group activities involving real estate-specific topics as well as the solving of various individual and team tasks. “This makes the process a lot fairer than, for example, conventional job interviews,” emphasises Katrin Birnbaum. “The day is so multifaceted that everyone is able to demonstrate what they are capable of.” And this makes it fun for the HR managers too. They are able to really get to know the applicants and therefore weigh them up a lot more realistically. Meanwhile, the budding real estate agents learn a lot about Deutsche Wohnen as a company and are given a concrete insight into their future profession.

And what do the participants think of this format? “You don’t feel like you’re in competition with one another.” “You learn how to deal with situations like these.” “Young Talent Day highlighted my strengths to me once again and showed me the areas in which I want to further improve.” “The best thing of all was that the tests and team tasks were actually even fun!” “I think all the participants went away from the event with a good feeling.” These are just some of the comments made, showing that the process is very valuable and the work involved is worth it.