Your Role

Every acquisition changes the buyer's financial structure. Those who buy law firms to keep them must first know what they are buying – and afterwards, whether the calculations actually materialize. This role sits precisely between these two points.

Vogel is one of the most successful medium-sized consulting firms in Germany – several thousand medium-sized companies entrust us with their tax, commercial, and strategic issues. Established clients, long experience, strong growth base. On this foundation, we are building the leading consulting platform for the German SME sector, and part of this growth comes from acquiring law firms: valuation, negotiation, closing, integration into a joint setup. Unlike with a financial investor, our work doesn't end at closing – it begins there.

You have completed a degree in business administration or are in advanced studies, with a specialization in Finance, Accounting, or Corporate Finance. You don't want to maintain comparables for three months or build models whose assumptions are set by someone else. You want to accompany a transaction from the initial valuation to the period after closing and see if your calculations have paid off.

The role has two entry points. As an internship for three to six months during advanced studies – or directly as a full-time entry-level position. The scope is the same, the difference lies in the horizon: in the internship, you work continuously on a transaction; in the entry-level position, you are fully responsible for it.

You will work directly with the management. The natural progression leads to a leadership role in Financial Performance & Value Creation or Corporate Development within 24 to 36 months.

Your Responsibility

Valuation and Modeling

• Build and defend the valuation model for a target – normalized earnings, adjustments, purchase price mechanics, sensitivities. Your standard: every assumption is documented and individually challengeable.

• Normalize annual financial statements and interim figures of a law firm so that the actual earning power becomes visible – including positions hidden in the owner's model.

• Account for the financing side: debt service, profit participation, payment structure over time.

Due Diligence and Decision Proposals

• Prepare the financial and commercial due diligence – structure the data room, identify anomalies, formulate open questions for negotiation.

• Write the decision proposal for management: a recommendation with justification, not a collection of key figures.

• Contribute to letters of intent, negotiation documents, and shareholder materials.

Post-Closing: Reporting and Value Creation

• Integrate the acquired entity into our reporting system and make visible from then on whether the valuation assumptions are materializing.

• Build the analyses that allow us to compare earning power, utilization, and client development across all locations.

• Use the comparison of entities to inform future valuations, identifying what we need to adjust for the next target. What you build once will run in every location thereafter.

Your Perspectives

What you will have delivered after 3 months:

• You have worked continuously on at least one transaction and independently managed the valuation.

• You have expanded the target company's data base and kept the pipeline clean.

• You have written a decision proposal that had a real impact.

What you will have delivered after 6 months:

• You are fully responsible for managing transaction workstreams, from normalization to purchase price mechanics.

• You have accompanied initial discussions with owners, representing the financial side yourself.

• You have integrated an acquired entity into our reporting system.

What you will have delivered after 12 months:

• You manage transactions largely independently and know when to escalate.

• You have co-managed an integration operationally and can demonstrate where the valuation has been supported and where not.

Where the role develops:

The next step is a Manager role in Financial Performance & Value Creation or Corporate Development. This requires independently managed transactions or integrations, not additional years of experience. Both a specialist career path and a leadership career path are open.

What You Bring

Experience & Track Record

• You have completed a degree in business administration or are in advanced Bachelor's or Master's studies – Business Administration, Finance, Industrial Engineering, Business Law, or equivalent.

• You have seriously engaged with valuation, accounting, or corporate finance – through your studies, an internship, or on your own initiative.

• You have gained initial practical experience in M&A, Transaction Services, Corporate Finance, Private Equity, or tax consulting.

• Candidates who do not fit the above profile but possess valuation and analytical depth are explicitly encouraged to apply – we evaluate based on contribution, not label. Specifically: tax assistants with ongoing studies who know annual financial statements from the inside; mathematics or physics students with an interest in company valuation; people who have built or sold a company themselves. The stated range is not a negotiation leeway but a profile scale: the lower end is for entry directly after graduation; those who can independently handle the standard tasks of this area start in the upper third. Those with a different background start at a different market price and converge after twelve months of proven performance to the role level – the logic behind this is outlined in our compensation principles.

Skills & Work Approach

• You build models that a third party can understand and work with. A model that only its author can operate is not a result.

• You read an annual financial statement and identify what needs explanation, instead of copying figures.

• You write analyses with a clear recommendation. Those who leave the decision to the reader have not completed the work.

• You use AI as a standard tool – for research, data room preparation, drafting, pattern recognition in operational data. Repetitive tasks are a spur for automation to you, not a destiny.

• When faced with an open-ended task, you make your assumptions explicit, set a direction, and adjust along the way.

Mindset & Personality

• You treat confidential information as confidential. In an ongoing transaction, you will learn things that no one else should know – not even internally.

• You are interested in the company behind the numbers. A law firm is the life's work of its owner, not a valuation object.

• You have the humility to learn from practitioners. A tax advisor with 20 years of experience knows things about her clients that are not in any model.

• You strive to set the highest standard in everything you deliver – not because someone is checking, but because mediocrity personally bothers you.

What You Won't Find With Us

• No deal romance without integration. We buy to keep. Those who lose interest after closing have missed the more interesting part.

• No financial investor model with a five-year holding period. What you calculate must hold true even in ten years.

• No modeling internship in the background. Your valuation goes into a negotiation that takes place this month.

• No pure accounting back office. You work visibly with management and corporate development – Finance is a shaping function here.

• No corporate straitjacket where you wait for promotions. Growth here is driven by contribution, not by years of service.

FAQ

1. What is Vogel – and where do you operate?

Vogel is one of Germany's leading medium-sized consultancies – since 1959, owner-managed in the second generation, with its own capital – and is building the leading consulting platform for the SME sector from this. We operate at three locations: Aalen as the established headquarters, Bopfingen in the core business, and Munich as a new hub. At all three, we are looking for people across all functions – from tax consulting and advisory to the teams that build the foundation underneath.

Deliberately broad – and stated at each position before you apply. We differentiate based on track record and market value, not degree: scarce, highly sought-after profiles at the upper end, less scarce at the lower end. The stated range is not a negotiation leeway but a profile scale – two people with similar experience can earn differently with us. What determines the upper end is the level of maturity, not the number of years of experience, nor negotiation skills.

We measure by what you achieve, not by hours. However, it's also true: if you're looking for 9-to-5, you're not in the right place with us. We are looking for people who work intensively on their own initiative because the tasks are worthwhile. How you allocate your time is largely up to you. What we share: we work together in person and typically see each other in the office daily – culture, sparring, and the best ideas emerge from daily proximity. We are not a remote company and do not have extensive home office policies; individual remote days are not a problem.

Lean, fast, transparent – and tiered by profile. Typically, there are four steps: a written assignment where you state your position on eight questions – AI is explicitly allowed, we only ask for a brief self-disclosure about it; a half-hour conversation; a joint work session on a real problem from our daily work; and an on-site meeting with the team and a joint meal. The exact number of steps depends on the role: for internships and working student positions, the on-site meeting is omitted; for student jobs, one interview is sufficient; for senior roles, an afternoon of joint work is added. In advance, you can book a ten-minute call where you only ask questions. You will typically hear from us within 48 hours after each step.

Tied to performance quarterly, evaluated qualitatively. The scale increases with the level: up to 20% Associate, 27.5% Manager, 35% Senior Manager, 42.5% Director, 50% VP. The expected value with good performance – you meet the requirements, set your own priorities, pass the keeper test – is around 50% of the maximum; the maximum bonus is not the norm. The focus is on a holistic assessment by your manager based on six criteria: Impact, Judgement, Communication, Execution, Growth, and Values.

Two active paths: the IC career (technical depth, expert career) through the levels Expert, Senior, Lead, and Principal – and the Management career (leadership, personnel responsibility) through Manager, Senior Manager, Director, and VP. Both are compensated equally, and neither must lead upwards: those who stay at a level and continue to deepen their expertise are just as welcome with us. You choose your direction after onboarding, usually in years 1-3. Entry-level positions are not a special path but the early part of the same journey – from working student or intern to Associate, for the best without a new application process.

The joint lunch is the daily anchor point – whoever is in the office eats together; it's expected, not controlled. Dinner is the same offer without any expectation. Both without personal contribution. In addition, social events and offsites at regular intervals – not as a mandatory program, but because a good team also shares time outside of work.

Benefits with us are not the icing on the cake but what makes intensity sustainable over years: exam support with a €25,000 qualification budget and three months' leave, 100% coverage of childcare costs, EGYM Wellpass, company pension plan, job ticket with 90% subsidy, home office equipment and a device of your choice from our catalog, one book per month from the Vogel canon – and AI tools without token limits and without budget caps. Vacation: 28 days.

Compensation: €55K – €66K • €11K – €13.2K Bonus • Multiple Ranges

• Entry-Level • Base Salary €55K – €66K • €11K – €13.2K Bonus
• Internship • OTE €2K – €4K per month • Internship duration: at least 3 months, optimally 6 months. During Bachelor's studies: monthly compensation, gross: €2,000 / month. After Bachelor's studies / During Master's studies: monthly compensation, gross: €3,000 / month. After Master's studies: monthly compensation, gross: €4,000 / month.