The packaging manager as a career booster

For around 15 years, Dominik Mory worked in various roles in pre-press at Zurich advertising agencies, ensuring the color and graphic quality of print products such as fashion catalogs and brochures. "Working in an advertising agency is an affair of the heart, but also a very fast-paced business: I was told for the first time in my mid-30s that I was getting too old for the advertising industry," says Mory. He began to think about career alternatives. Another job brought Mory into close contact with packaging for the first time. He found this exciting and saw a field of activity here that could offer him good career prospects in the longer term.

Degree as the start of a second career

However, Mory wanted a qualification that would certify his knowledge and enable him to be interviewed for a job. "If you don't have the relevant qualification, you don't even get the chance to present your experience and knowledge in a personal interview," says Mory, who came across the Packaging Manager course with a federal diploma from the Swiss Packaging Institute while looking for suitable further training. The theoretical training lasts three semesters and is followed by the diploma thesis and an examination workshop, and the course covers a lot of packaging theory - all packaging materials are dealt with comprehensively. A broad knowledge of management is also taught. In the first semester, he felt a little lost because the theoretical content was very specific, reports Mory. However, the longer the course lasted, the more the individual subject areas came together to form a whole. The diploma thesis deals with a specific practical problem. Dominik Mory dealt with a problem posed by his current employer.

Further training enables holistic problem solving

"I only have specialist knowledge in one area, but my generalist training as a Packaging Manager has equipped me with the tools for problem-oriented, holistic thinking," says Mory, who benefits from this in his current work at Coca-Cola because he has to deal with the entire range of packaging materials: from glass to PET, pallets, films, labels and closures made from different materials. Sustainability and recycling are other important topics in his day-to-day work.Mory: "In the beginning, my job was to find out where I could best work as a packaging specialist in the Coca-Cola system. " As a packaging specialist, he now works with colleagues from all departments. He is the point of contact for marketing, production, the laboratory and logistics. "What exactly you do and how important you are in a company depends very much on your own initiative," Mory believes.

Contacts and broad network remain in place

Looking back, Mory sees his training as a Packaging Manager as a valuable time. He made many contacts and built up a broad network that he can still draw on today, two years after graduating. Part-time further training is generally demanding and tough, says Mory. Many people have to juggle work, further training and family, while others lack the support of their employers, either financially or in the form of a reduction in workload by allowing some of the further training to count towards their working hours.Dominik Mory feels well equipped for the future. Nevertheless, he is prepared for the fact that the demands on him could change again. With the federal diploma, he can prove his knowledge and the corresponding training. One conclusion he has drawn after all these years: "In the course of your professional life, you have to keep reinventing yourself."