Bosch to hire 280 junior managers globally in 2016

Bosch is investing in future executives this year as the company plans to fill some 280 positions in its program for junior managers. A global search is underway for graduates with above-average college grades. Bosch wants them to join its Junior Managers Program (JMP), which will prepare them for executive positions.

Christoph Kübel, member of the board of management and director of industrial relations at Robert Bosch GmbH said, “Tomorrow’s business leaders need to be navigators and beacons. That is why we qualify our trainees to lead associates in a connected working world, to provide them with orientation, and to work with them to create excellence.”

Most of Bosch’s trainee positions are in Germany (65) and China (41). With roughly 34 positions, the company is expanding its program in the southeast Asia region. For the first time, four candidates are also to be recruited in Africa.

Kübel added, “We are looking for well-rounded individuals with IT and software skills, as well as engineering and business graduates.”

The JMP is considered to be a career springboard. Four members of the current Bosch board of management are former trainees. The company plans to announce soon how many trained graduates it plans to recruit in total.

Leadership responsibility

The Junior Managers Program JMP, in practice for 30 years now, is characterized by individual program modules that are developed jointly by the participant and a mentor from senior management.

“From the bottom up, they get to know a corporate culture that orients to values and sustainability rather than short-term profit maximization,” explained Kübel.

During the program, participants alternate between plants, divisions, and corporate departments, acting on their own initiative they take on tasks associated with day-to-day work and projects and have access to their own training budget. According to Kübel, the goal is for the junior executives to assume leadership responsibility for a department eight years after joining the program. The participants therefore have a permanent employment contract from the very beginning. Because of the program’s popularity, they first have to prove themselves in an intensive selection process: in Germany alone, there are some 100 applicants for each single trainee position each year. The JMP is offered with various focal points, from research and development or information technology to management accounting, logistics, technical sales, and purchasing. The JMP lasts 18 to 24 months and includes a post outside the participant’s home country.

Encouraging women applicants

Qualified women candidates have especially good chances of being accepted to the JMP. By 2020, Bosch wants to increase the share of women in leadership positions to 20 percent, and it is counting on its own junior executives to help it achieve this target.

International experience

Former JMP trainee Lisa Maria John is now an executive in software development for driver assistance systems at the Bosch location in Bangalore, India. The 31-year-old software specialist sees the support concept as the strength of the trainee program. “The support I received from my HR manager, plus the personal exchange with my mentor and the people who looked after me on my various trainee stages, gave my development a boost. The advice I received from our experienced senior managers prepared me well for my leadership career. We still keep in touch to this day.”

Also read: 3,500 engineering graduates set to join Bosch in India this year