Bachelor of International Business Administration from HWR Berlin (focus on Supply Chain Management) and EDHEC Lille (focus on Finance) and later Master of International Affairs (focus on International Security)

As many of us, I have been fascinated by space ever since my childhood, especially by stories of our potential future among the stars. Unfortunately, I lack the natural aptitude for maths and so chose to study social sciences.

When applying for internships and student jobs during my years of study I would always try to apply to the limited number of space jobs available to me. While for years these direct applications for space sector jobs only resulted in rejections, I tried to make sure that the jobs I ended up working would help me gain experience and skills that I might someday transfer to similar jobs in the space sector. For example, I remember vividly how, during my internship in a logistics team at a truck manufacturer, I would tell myself and close friends that the manufacturing side of space obviously requires logistics and operations experts, either for traditional terrestrial manufacturing or end-to-end orbital logistics and manufacturing. This would prove true, although not as I had originally expected.

I eventually entered the sector not in the field of business administration but strategic foresight, interning at ESA's respective office that I have recently returned to as a contractor. While my multidisciplinary social science background is very useful for conducting strategic foresight methodology, it was through a lucky coincidence that I had gained initial experience with strategic foresight at my prior job. This was what made my application stand out and what finally allowed me to get into the space sector.

Similarly, my experience working at an agency representing large tech companies and at an industry association for SMEs, together with my newly gained experience at ESA, landed me a student job supporting the political representation of German NewSpace interests.

My personal lesson from all this is: Have patience and think ahead. In the end, things work out differently than you expect anyways but it sure doesn't hurt to build your CV with a certain goal in mind.

Strategic foresight is no astronomy (or rocket science for that matter) but it does require you to be able to look across the horizon, in terms of day-to-day developments but also in terms of subjects. While many jobs require highly specialised subject matter experts, strategic foresight benefits greatly from jacks-of-all-trades, i.e. people with multidisciplinary backgrounds, a wide range of interests and a systemic but adaptable view of the world. Such a profile should allow you to identify potentially impactful developments and place them in the broader global and societal context.

Strategic foresight deals with plausible futures, not probable futures. It is thus critical that you do not think too highly of your own perspective and are able and willing to look beyond what you deem likely. While highly specialised experts can certainly be able to do so, research has shown that people tend to overestimate trends in their own field of expertise.

Lastly, strategic foresight should not be practiced in an ivory tower. You need to create and facilitate diverse groups of subject matter experts to help them use their knowledge and expertise in an engaging and productive way. In my experience, people with multidisciplinary backgrounds tend to have an edge when it comes to tying diverse opinions together and finding a productive consensus.