EF High School Exchange Year’s Post

Meet Daniel: Regional Manager For EF High School Exchange Year based in our Düsseldorf office. Learn more about his professional journey and experience working at EF ⬇️ Tell us a bit about your professional journey.   After getting my degree in Tourism, Event Management and Hospitality, I had to face the challenge of finding a job in the tourism sector in the middle of the pandemic. I knew I had to be open to positions I hadn’t previously considered. I applied for the position as a Sales Trainee at EF without ever planning to work in Sales. As a Sales Trainee, I learned a lot about all aspects of the EF High School Exchange Year program. Eight months later, I was offered the position as a Regional Manager where I was managing my own sales pipeline. It wasn’t easy at first, but after putting in lots of hard work I became successful. Not even a year after taking over the new position as Regional Manager, I even became a worldwide bestseller! What's the most fulfilling part of your job?   The most fulfilling part of my job would be having so much personal contact not just with customers, but also with colleagues all over the world. As I love different cultures, values, and mindsets, it is great getting in touch with all those people. It’s also so great to be able to help young students realize their dreams and hear all the great stories after their exchange year. What should everyone know about EF?   At EF you are surrounded by diverse teams with people from all over the world. You will get the option to travel for work and experience other countries and cultures. EF also has a flat hierarchy so there is a lot of open communication between the different management levels and teams. Every employee gets the chance to get to know everyone in the company and this is something I love about working at EF! #WeAreEF #EFEducationFirst #EFDusseldorfOffice

Our team (along with every other European team) recently had the chance to spend some days in San Diego with our colleagues from the United States. The beauty in this job is that we not only get to change young people's lives... but we also change ours by learning about other cultures and sharing our own. I always return home amazed by how so many lovely people are helping to shape the minds of the future at EF High School Exchange Year. And I am definitely happy to be a part of it!

This past weekend, at EF High School Exchange Year's National Conference, I was asked to tell a story that could capture the massive impact one individual can have by getting involved in cultural exchange. Even as someone who loves data, I was quick to realize that I couldn’t nail this down as a number. Every story begins with an international exchange student coming to their own host family, with some combination of parents, siblings, cousins and neighbors. Attending schools with hundreds or thousands of classmates, teammates, lab partners, friends and teachers. Returning home to younger siblings, future partners, and new opportunities. The beauty of creating global families through our student exchange program is not in what we can see and know and measure. It’s in understanding that the impact will outrun us all, an indelible mark being left in the most unforeseen places, the effects playing out over generations. It’s in the planting of trees for someone else’s shade. That is what our exchange coordinators do every day, and why I am so proud to work with them.