Rico Dittrich

What do your days look like currently?

I work in a client-facing position with responsibility for internal and external education as well as pitches, implementation support, strategizing and troubleshooting measurement and attribution solutions. In this sense, I split my time between preparing and following up on client meetings, designing training and pitch material and the like.

About once or twice a quarter, I travel to clients in my market (Germany) and internal conferences and summits (Berlin, London, Hamburg, etc.). At Google, we have a flexible work culture, i.e. some days I can work from home, a café, other offices, a different time zone or work a little less than on others as long as my performance does not suffer. I define my objectives and key results (OKRs) together with my manager but execute independently.

What attracted you to the University out of all the other possibilities you were considering?

The two things that mattered most to me were the major I chose, International Politics and History [now International Relations: Politics and History], which no other university in Germany offered at the undergraduate level and with English as the language of instruction. The unique curriculum of IPH enabled me to learn and grow more than I anticipated and I particularly appreciated the University's holistic application process compared to strictly considering GPA (a traditionally German process).

What did the University do for you that you were not expecting?

I learned a lot from the people I now call friends, not only in class where different points of view were highly appreciated, and enriched conversations, but also in the day-to-day campus life. Of course, diversity brings challenges but together we were able to create an inclusive and pleasant environment where everyone had a place and could express themselves.