Your Role

Tax consulting is experiencing a wave of consolidation: thousands of firms are seeking succession in the coming years, and only a few buyers examine them with the same diligence as a professional transaction team. Here, you will learn M&A from the buyer's perspective, on real transactions, and from the initial contact to after closing.

Vogel advises several thousand medium-sized companies on tax, commercial, and strategic matters and acquires independent consulting firms to further develop them. We continuously examine new targets, evaluate, negotiate, and close deals. Unlike a financial investor, our work doesn't end at closing; it begins there.

You are studying economics, industrial engineering, or a related field at an advanced Bachelor's or Master's level and want to fully understand the transaction process, not just a part of it. The internship lasts three to six months, full-time. You will work in the Finance team and directly with management on ongoing transactions.

Your Responsibility

Target Search and Market Analysis

• You will build longlists and shortlists of potential targets, research markets, competitors, and succession situations, and prepare initial contacts.

• You will evaluate teasers and initial documents and briefly assess whether a deeper examination is worthwhile.

Valuation and Due Diligence

• You will perform valuations based on multiples, transaction comparables, and earnings value, normalize financial statements, and calculate purchase price mechanics and sensitivities.

• You will structure data rooms, coordinate question lists with the seller and our advisors, and identify any anomalies for negotiation.

• You will also calculate the financing side: debt service, earn-outs, and payment structure over time.

Negotiation and Closing

• You will prepare presentations and decision memos for management: a recommendation with justification, not just a collection of KPIs.

• You will work on letters of intent, term sheets, and negotiation documents and accompany discussions with owners.

• After closing, you will help integrate the acquired firm into our reporting system and make visible whether the valuation assumptions are being met.

Your Perspectives

What you will have delivered after 3 months:

• You will have participated continuously in at least one transaction, from analysis to negotiation.

• A valuation model you created will have been incorporated into a decision memo, and a third party can continue working with it.

What you will have delivered after 6 months:

• You will independently conduct the initial review of a target, from the teaser to the recommendation.

• You will know the process so well that you could structure the next review.

Where the position can lead:

Those who impress during their internship have an open door to entering Finance & M&A. Both specialized expert careers and management careers are open afterward, decided by contribution, not by years of service.

What You Bring

Experience & Track Record

• Advanced Bachelor's or Master's degree in Economics, Industrial Engineering, or a related field with a specialization in Finance, Corporate Finance, or Accounting.

• Initial practical experience in M&A, Transaction Services, Corporate Finance, Private Equity, or management consulting is a plus, but not a requirement.

• Profiles that don't fit this mold are explicitly invited. Specifically: Tax assistants with ongoing studies who know financial statements from the inside, mathematics or physics students with an interest in valuation, founders of their own small companies. We evaluate based on contribution, not labels.

Skills & Work Style

• You are proficient in Excel and PowerPoint and can build models that a third party can understand and continue working with.

• You read a financial statement in such a way that you identify what needs explanation, rather than just copying KPIs.

• You use AI as a standard tool for research, preparing data rooms, and drafting.

• You speak and write German at a level sufficient for negotiation documents.

Mindset & Personality

• You naturally treat confidential information as confidential and are interested in the company behind the numbers.

• 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 Second Fiddle. Your work goes into a negotiation happening this month.

• No Deal Romance. We buy to keep. Those who lose interest after closing miss the best part.

• No Practice Cases. You work on real targets with real owners.

FAQ

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

Vogel is one of Germany's leading consultancies for medium-sized businesses – since 1959, owner-managed in the second generation, with its own capital – and is building the leading consulting platform for medium-sized businesses from this foundation. We work 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 building the foundation underneath.

2. How are the salary bands to be understood?

Intentionally broad – and indicated at each position before you apply. We differentiate based on track record and market value, not on graduation: scarce, highly sought-after profiles at the upper end, less scarce at the lower end. The indicated range is not room for negotiation 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.

3. How much – and how – do you work at Vogel?

Measurement is based on what you achieve, not on hours. However, it's also true: those looking for 9-to-5 are not our primary focus. We are looking for people who work intensively out of their own drive because the tasks are worth it. How you manage your time is largely up to you. What we share: we work together in person and usually 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.

4. What is the application process like?

Lean, fast, transparent – and tiered by profile. Typically, there are four steps: a written assignment where you take a position on eight questions – AI is explicitly allowed, we only ask for a brief self-disclosure about its use; a 30-minute interview; a joint working session on a real problem from our daily work; and an on-site meeting with the team and a shared meal. How many steps there actually are depends on the role: for internships and working student positions, the on-site meeting is omitted; for student jobs, an interview is sufficient; for senior roles, a joint work afternoon is added. Beforehand, you can book a ten-minute call where only you ask questions. Typically, you will hear from us within 48 hours after each step.

5. How does variable compensation work?

Tied to performance quarterly, assessed 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 for 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 evaluation by your manager based on six criteria: Impact, Judgement, Communication, Execution, Growth, and Values.

6. How do I develop – what are the career paths?

Two active paths: the IC career (technical depth, expert career) through the stages Expert, Senior, Lead, and Principal – and the management career (leadership, personnel responsibility) through Manager, Senior Manager, Director, and VP. Both are compensated equally, and both do not necessarily lead upwards: those who stay at one level and continue to deepen their expertise are just as welcome with us. You choose your direction after onboarding, usually in years 1-3. Starting your career is not a separate path but an early part of the same journey – from working student or intern to Associate, for the best without a new application process.

7. Team, Culture, Vacation?

Joint lunch is the daily anchor point – those in the office eat together; expected, not controlled. Dinner is the same offer without any expectation. Both without personal cost. 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 of leave, 100% coverage of childcare costs, EGYM Wellpass, company pension plan, a job ticket with a 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: €4K per month

• Internship / Intern • €4K per month

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