My HM story: Carmen Maye, IT and Media Education Specialist

An IT department that simply makes sure all the computers work? That was a thing of the past. HM’s Information Technology Services department deals with a wide range of hardware and software that advances teaching and learning, collaboration and the overall community spirit at the university, making them simpler and more efficient, more interesting and more successful.

How can we present new web applications to staff and students in a clear and engaging way? Which tools support which work or learning objectives? To provide practical answers to these and countless other questions, HM created a brand-new role. That’s right – the one held by Carmen Maye!

Carmen Maye wrote her master's degree thesis on onboarding measures for newly appointed professors at Universities of Applied Sciences in Bavaria. By then, she had already been working as a digital teaching officer at a Munich-based university for some time. In mid-2024, she finally joined the HM.

“They needed exactly my qualifications,” says Carmen Maye. The HM had a clear idea of what the media education specialist should bring to the role, as well as the objective: to engage HM staff members with current IT topics. How she achieves this objective, however, is something Carmen Maye can develop herself. She finds partners within the organisation itself, for example in the HR department. “I want to strengthen these links and create synergies.” Carmen Maye values the considerable freedom she has at the HM – just as do many of her colleagues in teaching, research, administration or technical roles.

(Find out more: Working at HM – this is what it’s like )

Carmen Maye found her start at HM to be both friendly and well-organised. “In the HR department, all new staff members were given a really warm welcome and were able to network straight away. My desk was fully set up, I was given access to the onboarding website and my key fob. I particularly enjoyed the campus tour: a bus trip to HM’s various sites. The president was there in person and welcomed everyone … My experience of onboarding at HM was the best I’ve ever had,” she confirms.

Carmen Maye’s day-to-day work lives up to the promise made during onboarding. She appreciates the variety, the cross-team collaboration (“Because my teaching ideas eventually find their way into all the teams!”), and the mix of conceptual work and practical application in training sessions for staff and students. Carmen Maye is particularly fond of her department, Information Technology Services. “But it’s also easy to get in touch with other departments and get a feel for their very different atmospheres.”

The Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (SCE) supports students, lecturers and staff members at HM in setting up businesses. “There’s a competition that staff members are also allowed to enter.” Carmen Maye is enthusiastic, even though she herself feels she lacks the ‘accounting gene’ for entrepreneurship. But who knows – perhaps, as a born networker, she’ll one day meet like-minded people to set up a start-up in the field of teaching methodology …

Constantly discovering and making the most of new opportunities: this also applies to working conditions. “I’ve never been able to work as flexibly as I do at HM,” says Carmen Maye. The media education specialist has two young children – and an hour’s commute. Thanks to working from home, her work-life balance works well. “At HM, I can work from home for up to 60 percent of my time. And nobody here really bats an eyelid when you actually do it.” Carmen Maye is also excited by a brand-new initiative at HM: “We can now do a ‘workation’ too: in other words, working whilst on holiday!”

Carmen Maye is sporty. She values the ‘healthy hour’ at HM – a weekly online exercise programme, the Health Day and the HM sports team. She was involved in two ways at the Bavarian University Ski Championships: on a snowboard and as part of the organising team. Naturally, she also uses her sporting connections to expand and maintain her network. So it’s no surprise that her advice for job seekers is: “Try to make personal connections!”