illu_neu-1

From Temp to Account Manager

People

Mateus Zelasny has been working at tesa since 2011, always open-minded, purposeful, and with dedication – even if he cannot get on the road as quickly as desired after his last career step.

Text Jan Schütte

Mateus Zelasny literally feels slowed down – particularly while looking at the Autobahn 9 from his home in Beilngries north of Ingolstadt. He would like to finally venture out into his new working world at tesa via the large highway between Munich and Nuremberg. Due to the Corona crisis, however, his company car has mostly been parked in the garage for weeks. Now that many of his customers in industry and trade work from their home offices, the 50,000-kilometer field worker is forced to do short-time office work. This is certainly not how the 30-year-old had imagined his start as an account manager at the adhesive specialist tesa in Bavaria.

 

 

Mateus-Zelasny-2-e1589901199611

Mateus Zelasny is a trained construction mechanic for shipbuilding technology. The 30-year-old has been working at tesa since 2011 – first as a temporary worker in the Hamburg plant, then as a machine operator and later as a process engineer in adhesive tape production. At the same time, he attended the night school of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce and further qualified as an Industry Master Metal. In 2018, Zelasny switched to Sales at tesa and now works as an account manager in the Industry segment. In this role, he advises customers, creates offers and implements projects – initially in northern and western Germany, and since April 1, 2020, in the Bavaria region. Looking at his career at tesa, Mateus Zelasny, who speaks fluent Polish, says: “After I started working as a temporary worker, I somehow got stuck and I still feel quite comfortable here. The company supported me with great commitment in all my career steps.”

I’m a kind of link between production, marketing, and development on the one hand and the customer on the other.
Mateus Zelasny

Account Manager General Industrial Markets tesa

800px-Beilngries_vom_Hirschberg_aus-1-e1589967704800
Beilngries im Altmühltal is the home of Mateus Zelasny. The idyllically situated town looks back on a long tradition: the place was first mentioned in a document as “Bilingriez” in 1007.

50,000

kilometers

Mateus Zelasny travels on average by car for tesa’s field sales force every year.

The ‘customer whisperer’

Nevertheless, he is all the more eager to bring his experience and knowledge to the streets, once Corona is over. After all, he had been traveling between Flensburg and Dortmund in the same function for two years already, selling adhesive tapes and solutions for the division General Industrial Markets. “I’m a kind of link between production, marketing, and development on the one hand and the customer on the other,” explains Zelasny and illustrates his job with an example: “A tractor manufacturer wants a special tape dispenser for fixing cables in the roof linings. This request will then be implemented quickly together with my colleagues at tesa.”

illu_klein2-3-e1589902508559

Like father, like son

Mateus Zelasny benefits from the fact that he is not only a born salesperson, but also has technical expertise. In 2011, the trained construction mechanic for shipbuilding technology (“a tough job”) came to the company as a temporary worker through his father, who had been working at the tesa plant in Hamburg for 25 years – at the time, the shipyard had not taken on any trainees. After a short time at tesa, the junior with Polish roots made the leap to become a machine operator. Then he decided to attend part-time night school: three years, twice a week, plus two Saturdays a month. “That was also a tough job, but rather mentally,” jokes Zelasny, who can now call himself Industry Master Metal. Even before his final exam, in 2013, tesa offered him the career step to become a process engineer, with responsibility for a product line from 2016. He accepted the challenges. 

Always looking for something new – but at tesa

After two more years at the factory, Zelasny decided to change sides: “I wanted to reinvent myself, broaden my horizons, and learn something completely different, yet, stay with tesa.” The internal job advertisement for Account Manager Industrial came just in time: He was interested, submitted his application, got the job. “The switch was not easy. Before that, I worked together with colleagues all the time, while now I was alone in my car or at the home office,” says Zelasny. However, he immediately underlines how openly he had been accepted as a career changer among the other salespeople. “This is truly typical for tesa!” Now Mateus Zelasny hopes to be able to get started professionally in the greater Bavaria area as soon as possible. Until then, the 30-year-old will be exploring the beautiful Altmühl Valley on his doorstep by mountain bike – his second hobby besides driving the car.

Faces and Stories

tesa offers not only vertical but also horizontal career paths. Who are the employees that have successfully moved forward on alternative paths? What motivated them? What tips do they have for others? These and other questions will be answered in an article series on tesa.insights. In loose sequence, we’ll portray protagonists from the diverse job world at tesa. General information about tesa as an employer: