Dominik Noack

Name: Dominik Noack
Birthday: 17/07/1985
 Nationality: German
Languages: German, English, French, Spanish
Years working in the field: 6
Companies worked in: 5
Current company or institution: KPMG AG
Interests & Hobbies: Downhill mountain biking, soccer, parties, music, friends
Dream Job: Self employed working in the Caribbean Sea


Q: What is your highest academic degree and where did you earn it?

A: I am an IT professional with specialization in system integration at the Berufskolleg Technik Düren/IHK Köln in Germany. I am currently studying the 5th semester of Business Information Systems studies and I expect to graduate in September next year.

Q: What where the main reasons for you to decide studying Business Information Systems?

A: After 5 years of work experience in a medium-sized system house for small and medium-sized businesses in fields of Client/Server Administration, Unified Messaging, Networks, Business Information Systems, etc. I decided to take a more business-like approach in the IT sector. My reasons to do this were that I think you can earn more money with your knowledge in value-centered enterprise IT-Fields. (i.e. optimizing processes, increasing information for the management).  It was something I didn´t expect I could do and therefore I found it challenging. I believe that managers are interested in the value and gain they can get from IT, not the "nerd knowledge" of state-of-the art IT inventions…

Q: What are the main duties you perform in your current role?

A: I am currently working as an intern in IT Advisory for KPMG AG, a professional services company (auditing, tax and management consultancy). The company is active in the fields of Assurance, Tax and Financial Advisory, Consulting, Actuarial and Legal. My current role at KPMG AG is to stay in touch with the daily business and projects of the whole department. My specialization is in authorization management for SAP ERP Software, the global player in enterprise resource software. I also work as audit of SAP Systems, regarding the validity of the data which is audited by Assurance people of KPMG.

Q: What are some of the specific skills someone in your role needs to have?

A: Communication Skills (!!!), TEAMPLAYER, authenticity, engagement, the ability to reason, self-improvement and kindness. It way more important to be a nice guy than to success in everything you do.

Q: What is your favorite job duty and why?

A: Customer contact in projects, because employees from customers of i.e. KPMG are in most cases very interesting. It is also very rewarding to notice if you are being successful in customer contact.

Q: What is your least favorite job duty and why?

A: In IT business you have the obligation of preventing loss of data or loss of business hours and to try to reach a very high level of requirements of service agreements with the customers. Nevertheless, it can happen that you get very stressed and you need to solve problems very quick and professionally. IT is not 100% reliable, that is why this can happen, you get in difficulties and you need to remain calm and not turn down any help.

Q: Have you encountered any differences in the way of working in Canada, compared to Germany?

A: I have never worked in Canada but I had a job offer to work in Toronto for another big four company. Probably, I will come back here sometime and catch up on it. Generally I would guess that people in Germany work more efficient and targeted, but therefore they often lack work-life balance because they work too much.

Q: What do you believe are common misconceptions about the work you do?

A: That you don´t need personality. That IT is something that must work, but has no value for the company. That you have no contact to customer.

Q: Technology keeps changing, how important is it to be updated about the newest know-hows in your branch?

A: Very important because it can lead to huge competitive advantages. The long-term strategic planning of IT is very important but also a very tough call because so many technological changes happen all the time.

Q: What do you think is the future of IT?

A: Cloud Computing, Augmented Reality, IT-Security, Web X.0 - Socialization with IT,  Web-Based computing (with Service oriented Architecture).

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?

A: It is a tough plan but I want to get promoted as a manager and then try to build up my own business consultancy company.