Hi, I’m Iska Schoenfeld. I was born in the south of Germany but I lived during the last 40 years in more than 14 different cities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Most of these movements were related to jobs. I worked as project manager, marketing manager, sales director, professor and entrepreneur. I joined small hidden champions, medium size global players and large scale world market business groups. I still work for a global player and I’m happy with it every morning I wake up. Beside this I’m co-founder of a communication agency, where management coaching is part of our portfolio.
As I live my professional career mainly in an electrical engineering environment, more than 85% of my colleagues are male. Cultivating a certain way of “male” mindset helped me to play the game in a proper way. But much more important for me was to understand, that neither my university degree nor my perfect working results nor extra-long working hours in the office predefined me for a successful career. It’s more about how well you are aware of your strengths and personal needs, and how clever you deal with colleagues and your managers. And of course how honestly you define “success” in your personal career – so that it can be every day’s fun to go to work and be part of the business game.
As an introvert (INTJ), I used to be a very discreet person. During the last 20 years I learned how to act more extroverted without losing my personal characteristic strengths. It is one of my personal passions to develop new skills and so I completed a Business Coach and Change Manager education. It turned out, that my personal characteristics, my professional experience and my coaching capabilities are the ideal combination to help others to find their individual way to a happy and successful career.
I truly believe, that women still have a long way to go before we are can live the career we want to have and which we deserve. It is not only about getting treated on an equal footing. It’s about a natural way of developing and exploring chances – without imaginary boundaries, social conventions or any other restrictions.