Tamara, Chief Processing Officer

I’m Tamara, 39 years old and have been a Chief Processing Officer at CHECK24 since summer 2021. After my degree in mathematics, I worked at McKinsey&Company for 13 years on lots of exciting, global projects where I advised financial institutes among other things. However, the day came to take action myself and I found myself at CHECK24.

After several frustrating experiences as a project advisor, where digitalisation was downgraded to a non-prioritised, multi-year initiative, it was time to make a decision.

Customer focus is often a fashionable term that companies use but don’t actually enforce. To see how CHECK24 has internalised this guideline throughout the entire organisation appealed to me a lot and ultimately led me to sign the contract. CHECK24 also gave me the option to work in a part-time management role. I have two children of nursery school age and also want to be able to see them grow and be there for them. As an advisor, I was already working part-time but often found myself in situations where I’d have to explain myself. That’s different now.

CPO and mother of 2 children is like juggling 10 balls at once. You’re always working to make sure you don’t drop a ball. Coping is only possible with lots of composure and a partner who is just as heavily invested in raising our children. If both then put their calendars on top of each other, a solution always arises. You can also make use of all the support available to you. Nursery, relatives, part-time work or working from home so that you can manage if your child is sick at home.

“Be here now!”: When I’m at work, I’m working and I don’t ask myself what my kids are currently up to. When I’m at home, then I’m playing, preparing food or doing laundry and don’t think about the to-do list on my desk.

CHECK24 offers all employees a steep learning curve by letting them take on responsibility early on and giving them the opportunity to bring their own ideas to the table. For example, I’m responsible for the CHECK24 Chatbot and have already been able to run a workshop with a group of young Product Managers (PMs) on this topic. Each of these PMs is responsible for the Chat for a certain product area and is therefore responsible for the content and technology, which is also really important for us as a brand as they have direct communication with the customer. Every person understands their responsibility and does a fantastic job. I found that really inspiring.

I’ve got two tips: on the one hand, I’ve seen lots of women asking themselves about compatibility with family life far too early on, sometimes even before choosing their programme of study. I think that every woman should follow her passion, take each step as it comes and don’t be dissuaded by potential obstacles before she even started. By allowing yourself to go on an adventure, you’ll be sure to find a route that feels right. Once you’ve found that, it’s really fun to combine the best of both worlds.

On the second hand: having the right partner by your side. My husband is also in a management role, took paternity leave while I was working full-time and we split things equally in terms of who stays at home if one of the kids falls ill. Unfortunately, this approach hasn’t really been accepted in society yet and so I can only appeal to every woman to have an open conversation with her partner and prevent herselves from falling into a traditional role. After all, a career and family shouldn’t exclude men either and everyone should have a right to part-time working and parental leave. That way, women can achieve far more than trying to do it all alone.