“It’s really great to be able to be myself and feel appreciated”

A wild audience and a great hard rock gig, but also impeccably organized spreadsheets and carefully analyzed figures – those are the kind of things that make Martina Biznar intensely happy. In one of her previous jobs, only her professional skills were appreciated and she had to keep quiet about the rest. But it’s a whole different ball game at GEA! In fact, her coworkers – and not just those in the Finance department in Vienna (Austria), where she works as a Junior Controller – are now her biggest fans.

In love with Excel sheets

“I’ve always loved working with schedules and numbers,” the Austrian with Slovakian roots explains. “I made my first to-do list when I was nine years old and haven’t stopped since – I just love Excel! (laughs) In my early twenties, after graduating from commercial school, I started out in banking, where I worked as a Junior Customer Manager for three years. I learned a lot, but after three years I knew I couldn’t carry on doing that job. The targets were near-impossible and I found working in customer relations very stressful. So I started looking for something else and came across GEA on a job portal. They were looking for an assistant to the Managing Director to fill in for someone on maternity leave. I didn’t know the company, but I did some research and decided to try my luck. At first I wasn’t sure where I’d end up or what to expect – GEA has so many different activities that I found it hard to grasp exactly what it did (laughs) – but everything just fell into place right away. The atmosphere couldn’t have been more different. At the end of the two-year replacement period, I grabbed the bull by the horns and asked if there were any opportunities for me in the Finance department. And I’ve been working there as a Junior Controller since October 2020, doing mostly liquidity management within the Austria and Eastern Europe cluster.”

Keep improving

In her free time, Martina likes nothing better than rocking on stage. “Yes, I’ve been singing since I was a little girl and I took classical piano lessons for six years. It wasn’t until I was about 20 that I discovered in karaoke bars that people thought that I had talent (laughs). So I started having singing lessons, and my teachers advised me to look for a band. I’m a real extrovert and love entertaining people.”

I’m a real extrovert and love entertaining people.

Would she want to have a full-time music career if she got the chance? “No, if I was doing nothing but singing, it would add pressure, and I just want to enjoy it without any hang-ups. And to be honest, I really love my day job and couldn’t live without numbers (laughs). I’m also very outgoing at the office and love mixing with people. That’s just who I am. And here at GEA, everyone seems to appreciate those qualities. A while back some of my coworkers came along to one of my gigs and when my line manager paid me a surprise visit backstage after the concert and I saw that he was smiling and told me that it was great, I felt very happy, especially because I didn’t expect anybody from work to come to my concert. And when I took part in a challenge by Queen guitarist Brian May on YouTube during the first lockdown in 2020, I was amazed at the massively positive response. I posted it on Yammer (a GEA internal communication platform) and it got 1,700 clicks, more than 300 likes, and 115 comments from colleagues. That really means a lot to me.” What are Martina’s goals? “To keep learning and improving. I’m still taking singing lessons and also recently started studying financial management at a university in Germany. If you want to be really good at something, you have to keep working on your skills.”

If you want to be really good at something, you have to keep working on your skills.

Part of something big

“Do you know, this is the first job I’ve had where I haven’t even thought about looking for something else?” Martina adds. “Working at GEA is like being part of a family and I feel comfortable in that kind of atmosphere. It’s also a healthy and financially stable company, which is very reassuring. The global pandemic has once again demonstrated the value of that. GEA’s commitment to ‘engineering for a better world’ is also increasingly relevant these days. It feels good to be part of something big. And if I should ever start thinking of changing my job, I know that there are plenty of opportunities within GEA. It’s such a huge, worldwide organization. And I also know that they realize here that what’s good for me is also good for GEA (laughs).”

If I should ever start thinking of changing my job, I know that there are plenty of opportunities within GEA.