With night shifts to the best of the year

Katja Sigrist was expecting a few things, but not this: when she sat down at the KKL Lucerne on June 23, 2018, all she really wanted to do was receive her diploma for her further training as a marketing specialist. She had previously been told that an award for a particularly good performance in a particular subject was also possible. But suddenly she is called to the stage and her name appears on the video wall. "Best of the year" is written there, and while several hundred people applaud, Katja Sigrist walks up in disbelief. "At first I thought it was going to be a bit boring today," she blurts out. There is hearty laughter in the hall.

Most successful marketing specialist of her year

Even today, the woman in her mid-forties has to smile when she thinks back to that day at the KKL. She embodies what one would call a "power woman" using an (admittedly somewhat hackneyed) term: mother of a preschool-age daughter, married and working at the same time. And now she is also the most successful marketing specialist in her entire year, although she didn't set out to win prizes with her training: "I wanted to build on what I already know from practice," explains Sigrist. Her path into marketing was initially a practical one, not a theoretical one: after completing a commercial apprenticeship, she was bitten by the travel bug and worked for several winters at a ski school in Engelberg, earning money for summer exploration tours around the world.

From tourism to marketing

After a few years, Katja Sigrist joined the Engelberg Tourism Association, from where she moved on to ski manufacturer Salomon. "And then I was suddenly in charge of marketing for everything to do with winter sports," she recalls. Sigrist did not regret "jumping in at the deep end": over the next ten years, she organized live events, coordinated print campaigns and online advertising and met with international cooperation partners. "A very demanding but incredibly enjoyable time," she says today, but then it was time for family planning, combined with a less intensive part-time job. "But once my daughter Lou was out of the woods, I was hooked again," says the newly qualified marketing specialist. She wanted to do further training alongside her job and family. It started in 2017.

Solving complicated cases in night shifts

If you want to obtain a federal certificate as a marketing specialist, you have to go to school in the evenings and at weekends, but above all, you have a lot of homework to do. As an organizational talent, Katja Sigrist mainly used the early hours of the morning for the latter, as she reveals: "Getting up at four o'clock, solving a marketing case, waking my daughter up at seven o'clock" - these were typical days for her.with her title, she is now predestined to talk about the pros and cons of her further training. "The most important thing for me was that I got to know myself and my strengths better," says Katja Sigrist. Although some tasks seemed almost impossible at the beginning of her academic year, she gradually realized: "There's always a solution - and anything is possible if you really want it!" Her efforts have already paid off, as Sigrist received an exciting job offer just a few days after the MK interview. She will take on a responsible position in the tourism sector - as Head of Market Segments at the SBB subsidiary RailAway. This is another reason why she is convinced: "I wouldn't be where I am today without my further training." Name: Katja SigristVintage: 1972Company: RailAway (SBB)Function: Responsible market segments (as of 01.11.18)Family: married, one childHobbies: Skiing, hiking, jogging, traveling